Experts Explain What Should Be at the Top of Your Tech Wish List for the New Year
2011; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Volume: 212; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0021-8448
Autores Tópico(s)Big Data and Business Intelligence
ResumoWith 2012 just around the comer, the JofA gathered the three technology keynote speakers from the AICP32s 2011 Practitioners Symposium/TECH+ Conference to talk about tech trends heading into the new year. The nearly 90-minute conversation covered a wide range of technical issues critical to all CPAs. Participating in the call were: * David Cieslak, CPA/CITP, aka Inspector Gadget, a principal with Arxis Technology. * Randy Johnston, executive vice president of both Network Management Group Inc. and K2 Enterprises. * Rick Richardson, CPA/CITP, founder and CEO of Richardson Media & Technologies. Moderating the call were: * J. Carlton Collins, CPA, technology and accounting systems consultant and author of the JofA's monthly Technology Q&A column. * Jeff Drew, senior editor coveting technology for the JofA. Following are edited excerpts of the discussion about mobile technology and cloud computing. In the December issue, Part 2 will include excerpts from the discussion on social media, software and hardware, security issues and video. For a longer version of the forum, including an online-only excerpt discussing tech-based revenue streams, and audio clips from the conversation, go to journal of accountancy.com/tech. Collins: What will be the most important technology issue for CPAs in 2012? Cieslak: I really think mobile computing probably has to be one of the most exciting things happening in technology tight now--from devices to connectivity, from tablets to cellphones. It really is just pushing the envelope regarding how all of us are doing computing. And so I think it really is going to turn us all on our ear a bit in terms of how we go about doing our day job. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Johnston: I think the biggest return might be in procedural improvements this coming year. There are a number of us who have purchased technologies, deployed them, and frankly aren't using them very effectively, and over the last three to four years we haven't spent the right type of (money) on the training and on the procedural improvement. Collins: Do you have a rule of thumb we should go by in budgeting training for our staff?. Johnston: I would suggest for CPAs in public practice that it's probably going to be hours beyond the CPE minimum, and most likely you're going to wind up with maybe another 10 to 20 hours. The rule of thumb is you should get almost a two- or three-to-one investment (return) for every hour you put in on the training. If you buy that type of education in bulk, you'll probably have about a $600 expenditure to help your staff along that way. Richardson: I think one of the biggest issues is they're now throwing around a term called the post-PC era. That is an (era) where the desktop and/or laptop computer, at least for some users, is going to have a metamorphosis in terms of who uses it and for what is it used. So I would guess that given particularly the next two years, the amount of effort that firms (put) into planning replacement is going to be terribly crucial. And I would just say, go slow. Make sure you've got pilot programs to try out some of this new mobile technology to see how it might impact what happens with the next generation of desktops and laptops. FAVORITE NEW TECHNOLOGY Collins: What's your favorite technology that's new this year? Richardson: Near-field communication (NFC). It's in Japan in a big way because they have a unified telephone system, and all the carriers use the same protocol. Here in the U.S., we haven't been able to do that yet, but what near-field will do is allow users to swipe their smartphone in front of an NFC terminal and pay for almost anything, from a Big Mac to, say, a new suit of clothes. It's probably going to be at least a year or two before we see near-field communication terminals showing up everywhere, but in the interim, they're going to start showing up. …
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