Friday, May 19, 2017

Data Integration is Still an Issue

Data is a major force in the new economy. Data is key to strategy formulation and is a competitive necessity.  The advent of mobile technologies in particular makes possible the accumulation of vast amounts of data that can be potentially used for business strategic purposes. BI systems and Data Analytics are often touted as vehicles for using this information.

There is, however a major problem. Businesses are finding it difficult to integrate the data from external sources with their internal data. (See, for example, this article) The main problem is that the external data comes in different formats from the internal data and there is a need for tools that can conform these data types through standardization.

Standardization of data can be achieved with such markup languages as XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which involve adding tags (metadata) to the data that explain its nature. The tags move with the data and therefore perpetuate its understandability to different audiences. They also enable the data to be read by other computer systems without human intervention, thus making the use of the data financially viable.

Such standardized data for financial purposes, and in some cases non-financial data, is already available in much of the world and is being used to analyze and compare financial data from diverse sources. It's called XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), a derivative of XML that it specifically designed to standardize the tags so as to represent financial data in a way that it can be easily understood by diverse systems and users.

XBRL is a requirement in much of the developed world, except for Canada. Why it is not required in Canada is a bit of a mystery, other than to observe that the securities regulators and the government have not taken a leadership role as they have in other countries.

Data is much too important in the modern economy to be ignored. On that there is a consensus. Standardized data is a proven and viable way to enable data to be used in an efficient and useful manner. The movement to standardize data around the world is commendable in this regard and hopefully this will eventually spread to Canada.

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Reminder: XBRL Canada to host Webinar discussing SEC Announcement requiring XBRL for IFRS Reporting Issuers

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 9, 2017) - XBRL Canada will be hosting a webinar on May 24th, 2017 to discuss the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) announcement requiring Foreign Private Issuers (FPIs) that report using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to file their periodic reports using XBRL.

On March 1, 2017 the SEC published a taxonomy on its website to enable FPIs that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS to tag those reports using XBRL.

FPIs that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB may begin immediately to submit their financial statements in XBRL. Otherwise, all such FPIs must submit their financial statements in XBRL for fiscal periods ending on or after December 15, 2017.

XBRL Canada will host an information session providing an introduction to XBRL and provide an overview of the reporting requirements for SEC Reporting Issuers affected by this announcement.

The Webinar will feature Walter Hamscher and Matthew Slavin from the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the SEC, as well as John Turner, CEO of XBRL International.

The Webinar will be held on May 24, 2017 at 2 PM ET. Registration for the event is available at http://www.newsfilecorp.com/XBRL/ifrsXBRLWebinarXBRLCanada.php

About XBRL Canada
XBRL Canada is the Canadian jurisdiction of XBRL International and largely funded and administered by CPA Canada. The purpose of XBRL Canada is to provide support and encouragement for the adoption of eXtensible Business Reporting Language in Canada. XBRL is widely used around the world and recognized as the leader in advanced electronic business and financial reporting.

To strive towards its goals, XBRL Canada holds seminars and webinars and issues various publications, including its bi-monthly Newsletter. It also leads projects to test and explore XBRL usage in various settings.

For further information, please contact: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931, Email: gtrites@cpacanada.ca