The Tech Gap

Finally, a SMART Trade Show Handout!

You're probably aware that I travel quite a bit, and I attend a LOT of CPE conferences,  society meetings, trade shows, etc. If there are a lot of practitioners gathered and a lot of vendors there to sell them something --- I'm probably there, too. As such I see a LOT of free "handouts" and attendees carrying bags (usually a handout) full of "stuff".

The "stuff" ranges from chocolate (a personal favorite) to yo-yo's, to pens, mints, software, cards for iPod music downloads (clever), etc. You get the picture -- it's all junk. Well intentioned, but junk never the less.

Thomson Creative Solutions broke with that model this year and has been  distributing, in my opinion, a resource valuable to almost every practitioner. Free. Their "State Electronic Filing - Desk Reference" contains well-organized state specific information on all things related to e-filing. There's no magic here, and I'm quite sure the information is readily available elsewhere. But CSI has packaged and organized it nicely. And it's free.

Oh, by the way. It's free.

They're at a lot of conferences and shows so you might want to stop by and pick one up. (They're free.)

gll

Nice People, Decent Software

  Last week at the New Jersey CPA Society Technology Show I made a new friend. Our booth was located adjacent to the Tax$imple booth. Since I rarely spend much at the booth, but rather attend CPE sessions, do interviews, visit with practitioners and move around the show floor checking out new products and services ---- our tabletop magazine supply was soon depleted. A kind soul (there's a point here, trust me) took it upon herself to open more boxes from under the table and keep the display fully stocked. Attendees were pleased to be able to pick up a copy of The CPA Technology Advisor and I was pleased, albiet perplexed, at how this had happened. After a few questions around my "booth neighborhood" I discovered it was "that lady in the Tax$imple booth". Well, after an introduction and a sincere thank you, I began a truely interesting conversation with a truely interesting woman.

Vicki Vora, wife of Tax$Simple president John Vora, has been in that tax compliance  business a very long time. Their software hasn't been reviewed by our magazine for a very long time. That will now change. A quick look and some conversations with a few evangelistic users tells me the forms-based system is actually pretty solid. It's a full-suite offering covering 1040, 1041, 1120, 1065, 706/709, and 990.

Decent software --- from decent people.

Thanks, Vicki.

gll

Maxtor, continued

Well, it's apology time --- again. Those with calendars handy can plainly see that it's been over two weeks since my last post. This time of year I would normally post about 3 times a week, but I haven't. And I have an absolutely AWESOME excuse. A few weeks ago while consulting with a group of CPA firms in the Caribbean, I was robbed, at gunpoint, and I lost every bit of my traveling electronics. There's a long story, and a short one. Trust me when I tell you you don't want the long one.

THE SHORT VERSION: At about 3:00am, while sleeping in my room at a Conference Center hotel, I was awakened when the lights came on and a masked man pointed a gun in my face and demanded my wallet and my electronics. He and his "gang" actually robbed 8 rooms in about an hour. Each occupant was tied up (these boy geniuses used the power cord for my Toshiba Tablet PC to tie my feet --- DUH) and our rooms ransacked. I lost my cash, watch, wedding ring, PC, camera, Treo, Shure earphones, jump drives, wireless access point, etc., but NOT my credit cards. I was threatened and knocked around a bit, but certainly not hurt. I was left tied-up and stayed that way for an hour or so. Good news, no one was hurt and everything was insured.

BETTER NEWS: I called Toshiba and ordered a replacement for my Portege 200 TabletPC. When it arrived this week I opened it, turned it on, loaded the Maxtor and Retrospect software, plugged in the Maxtor OneTouch II and hit the button. Joy in heaven!! A couple of hours later I had 50GB of data and programs on my new PC. And EVERYTHING works perfectly. I had "tested" the Maxtor and was impressed. But now I have REALLY tested it and now shout it from the website heights --- this works flawlessly!!

Thanks Maxtor -- you saved me dozens and dozens of hours of recovery, installation, configuration, etc. I'm now a "true believer".

gll

Maxtor One Touch II

I love toast. And, I love making toast. Mostly that's because I love peanut butter, but partially because it's just so darn simple. You plug in a toaster, put the bread in, press a button, and, a few minutes later --- out comes your toast. Wow, what a deal. What a country!

I also like technologies that work LIKE toasters. You know, you open the box, plug it in, press the button, and it works! Unfortunately there are very few of these technologies around --- and when I find one, I get excited. You've previously read here about some of them -- Tivo, Mirra, LucidLink --- and now I'm ready to add another.

The Maxtor One Touch II 300Gb external hard drive is among the slickest devices I've ever installed. From box to operational button in less than 3 minutes. And my first backup was completed when I returned from lunch. From that point on it's completely auto-magic.

Maxtor pioneered the  "pushbutton" concept relative to data backup, and pushes the envelope with the new Maxtor OneTouch II external hard drive, by offering the Maxtor DriveLock feature and enhanced backup capabilities and a simplified user interface. The Maxtor OneTouch II drive provides up to 300GB of add-on storage. Connectivity is easy using USB or FireWire ports, and the included Dantz Retrospect Express HD backup software provides the ability to roll back a system, retrieve deleted files, and recover individual files or an entire hard drive. I was originally disappointed not find Ghost included, but the Restrospect software is quite impressive. Seeing the EMC name on it doesn't hurt ones confidence either!

At the street price of $250 - $300 a smart practitioner might consider having one at home and another at the office. With solid backup you'll never have to worry about your files being "toast" again! [sorry]

gll

Productivity Survey Updated

Last fall we quietly rolled out The CPA Technology Advisor Productivity Survey. The web-based questionnaire requires firms to invest time (about 30 minutes) to answer a series of questions relative to their technology and business practices. The questions and their scoring weights were derived in cooperation with some of the professions’ most respected thought leaders. The survey’s outcome is the Productivity Score(TM), sponsored by Selden Integrated Systems.. Hundreds of firms have completed the survey and have received their detailed narrative report suggesting possible areas of improvement. Later this year we will begin reporting comparative data based on location and also on firm size. The possible scores range from -400 to +600, although no scores under 150 are reported. Since the scores are based on a “best practices” standard, scores over 450 are unlikely while scores from 150 to 300 are common-place. To date the firms that have completed the Productivity Survey have a normalized average of 169. Considering the 1,000 point possible spread that 169 score places the average firm at about the 57th percentile – or, not surprisingly, slightly above the mid-point. The important thing is that you finally have a benchmarking device that can be utilized on your schedule (you’re eligible three times each year). In addition to an ongoing internal score you’ll also have ready comparisons to your colleagues and competitors. In other words ---- we’ve provided you both a compass AND a road map!

Enjoy!

gll