Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/432767
16 December 2014 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com TECHNOLOGY IN PRACTICE By Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP IN FIRM: 2015 IT Predictions and 2014 Results Looking back at 2014 we again had more W INS than LOSSES, but not enough to warrant a career change towards becoming a day trader or professional gambler. By our count w e s c o r e d s i x W I N S a n d t w o LOSSES, but with two DRWS, you can come to your own conclusions. So before we ju mp i nto 2 015 , here's a look at how we see our 2014 IT Predictions turning out: • WINDOWS 8 STRUGGLES AGAINST WINDOWS 7 (WIN): Easy WIN in frms as they continue to primarily standardize on Windows 7 (including upgrades from the no longer sup- ported XP version). Even though Windows 8 had beter security, the Metro interface and lack of a Start buton drove accountants away. • QUICKBOOKS ONLINE FIGHTS BACK (WIN): We predicted that Intuit would take the Xero threat seriously, and they did by promoting a believable future plan for Quick- Books Online and hiring industry experts to meet directly with CPA frms to promulgate that vision. • HOSTED EXCHANGE USERS LEAP FORWARD (WIN): Our guess was that small and medium frms would begin to have their Outlook hosted externally which we saw happening because the cost was great compared to doing it themselves. • CLOUD HYBRIDIZATION CON- TINUES TO THE MAJORITY OF FIRMS (WIN): Te number of frms adopting some cloud applications continues to increase creating an easy WIN for the hybrid environ- ment we see firms implementing including the adoption of Windows Ter minal Ser ver and Citr i x for remote access. • SECURITY CONCERNS WILL PRO- MOTE CLOUD ADOPTION (DRAW): We felt that security would be one of the drivers to get frms to adopt the cloud but did not see any indica- tions that this was a primary reason to do so or not , so rather than changing the original prediction to make this a WIN or LOSS, we will put it in the DRW column. • BYOD POLICIES WILL ABOUND (L O S E) : W h i l e we saw a go o d number of industr y ar ticles and discussions on BYOD and provided many frms with BYOD training and consulting resources, we can say there was good general adoption, but n o t en o ug h to say t h e p ro cess "abounded" and tagged as a WIN. However, adoption was good enough to say it wasn't a loss (so if you implemented a BYOD policy I WIN, if you didn't have one I LOSE.) • VIDEO CALLING BECOMES STAN- DARDIZED (LOSE): Tis prediction is geting close to having as many LOSE tags atached to it as my bio- metric password adoption predic- tions over the past decade! • SOCIAL MEDIA SUBSYSTEMS (DRAW): We predicted an increase within the accounting profession in utilizing internal social media tools such as SocialCast, Yammer and Yahoo Groups and while we did see CPA frm and industry associations utilize social media to collaborate, it was not as extensive as we thought so we are giving ourselves a DRW on this one. • LITTLE DATA MAKES INROADS IN ACCOUNTING FIRMS (WIN): We predicted at least one vendor would promote the use of internal dash- boards and other data utilities to better access firm data and make decisions, that frms would notice and begin to install, which we feel happened in line with the practice management enhancements and plug-ins we saw utilized in frms. • G A M E B A S E D T R A I N I N G ANNOUNCED (WIN): Thomson Reuters partnered with True Ofce and consultants such as the Growth Partnership and Edie Osborn inte- grated the "gamification" topic as part of learning this year, which we expect to increase in the near future. With 2014 Accounting IT Pre- dictions in the archives, it's time to jump ahead towards 2015 to give you a l l something to "nood le" on during those rare spare moments d u r i n g b u s y s e a s o n a nd m a y b e prov ide some i nsig ht i nto where you should take notice. 1 6 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • w w w . C P A P r a Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, is Di- rector of Consulting for Xcentric, LLC. and works exclusively with accounting frms to implement today's leading best practices and technologies. Roman re- cently updated his "Quantum of Paper- less: A Partner's Guide to Accounting Firm Optimization," which is available at Amazon.com and a Certifed Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. I t's prediction time again, where we dust of the proverbial crystal ball and share our technology thoughts ahead of the curve, as well as fess up on how our pre- vious year's guesses fared. GO ONLINE TO WWW.CPAPRACTICEADVISOR.COM/12022837 FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE, INCLUDING ROMAN'S PREDICTIONS FOR 2015.