HP/CPA
Tech Advisor
News and Trends Exclusively for CPAs from Hewlett-Packard
Read
this article at HP.com
By Rick Telberg - Special for Hewlett-Packard
(March 01, 2004) - You may be able to squeeze a few months more
of life out of your molasses-slow Windows 95 or 98 system or your sputtering
single-use printer. But technological change is coming fast and hard,
and it's unstoppable. Are you ready?
To help sort it all out, the 330,000-member American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants is listing the most important technologies that accountants
and financial managers should be confronting today. Generated by input
from hundreds of tech-savvy members, the "top ten" list is designed
to pinpoint the items wielding a "powerful influence" over business
today. It's a big year: Seven of the top ten items are brand new to the
list, which has been compiled annually for the last 14 years.
"Technology is changing so rapidly we can get lost in all the new
developments. The AICPA developed this list of at least 10 of the most
important to help accountants know at least what to focus on," said
Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA/CITP, and chair of the AICPA Information Technology
Executive Committee.
Accountants today are using every last electron in pursuit of productivity,
client contact, and, of course, profits.
In the AICPA ranking, information security took the top spot and for
good reason according to Kepczyk. Recently, for instance, under a new
California law requiring disclosure of any security breach, all 191 clients
of one unlucky California CPA firm received notifications that their personal
data may have been compromised when one of the firm's notebooks had gone
missing. Do you know where all your firm's notebooks are tonight?
The seemingly unstoppable wave of spam came in at number two on the list.
It's estimated that the typical office worker may spend up to 20 or 30
minutes a day just cleaning out his or her inbox.
In third place, the dream of "the paperless office" lives on.
In Columbus, Ohio, Joe Rotella at Delphia Consulting, is making headway
with implentations in several companies to cut down on the costs and headaches
of human-resources administration. Rotella figures some companies can
save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first 12 months.
Marc Mandelbaum at Docutrend
in New York took on a similar challenge for a distributor of multimedia
products to schools. The company's paper-heavy system was so cumbersome
they were losing sales orders. Today, customers are happy, and bills are
being paid on time. Now, that's music to any accountant's ears.
In fourth place this year, companies are seeking to merge a plethora
of legacy databases and ad hoc applications into coherent tools for management
and growth. At Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain CPAs, in Brentwood, Tenn.,
for example, marketing director Leisa Gill reports that the implementation
of a new customer-relationship management system is having a huge impact
on efficiency.
And that's just a sampling of the top four tech issues this year. Here
are the rest:
* Wireless Technologies
* Disaster Recovery
* Data Mining
* Virtual Office
* Business Exchange Technology (i.e.: EDI, XBRL, and the internet)
* Messaging Applications (Instant messaging isn't just for kids anymore.)
But What Do You Think?
That's 10 new technologies to keep track of. But in the real world --
your world -- what are hard-working accountants really concerned about
on an everyday basis? Tell
us in this survey, and watch for the results in the next edition of
the HP/CPA Tech Advisor by Rick Telberg.
Or email me directly
with your story from the frontlines and maybe we'll be able to share another
nifty solution with the rest of our readers.
For more information
» HP security services
» HP wireless and mobility solutions
» HP storage services
Rick Telberg is a noted analyst and commentator for the accounting
profession. He is a regular contributor to the Journal of Accountancy
and the author of the At Large column in the accounting professional Insider
e-newsletter. He is also former publisher and editor-in-chief of Accounting
Today magazine and group publisher of Accounting Technology and Practical
Accountant magazines.
Copyright 2004 Rick Telberg. All rights reserved.
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