The Tech Gap

@ the CCH User Conference --- a Panelists View

CCH's CEO Kevin Robert was kind enough to invite me to join him and practitioner David Morgan for two panel sessions today at the 2006 CCH User Conference currently underway in Boca Raton, FL. The breakouts were titled "Preparing for the Future: Where is Our Industry Headed?" and each was attended by around 50 conference registrants. CCH billed the sessions as follows: The firm of the future is right around the corner. Join our group of panelists for a frank discussion on where the industry is headed when it comes to issues like technology, going paperless, and staffing challenges.

While the two sessions were quite different in some ways, in others they were quite similar. Common themes were staffing, specifically talent attraction and retention, outsourcing, credentialing, and technology's role as an enabler to solve these and other problems facing the profession. On an interesting side note --- one astute attendee took the Conference planners to task for using the word "industry" instead of the more appropriate "profession". Moderator Bob Dias deftly apologized with his usual engaging smile and a quick "Good point. Duly noted." Extra point to CCH for a speedy, honest answer to an innocent oversight. Dias' charm was helpful and he made his company look good --- perhaps better even than if they had not erred in the first place!

The remainder of the conference seems to be a huge hit, too. Virtually every attendee I've talked to has been happy with the facility, the food, the special events and the particularly with the content. The "mini trade show" of about a dozen hand-selected vendors appears to have added a nice balance and the firm size arrangement of the round table discussions was a big hit.

This conference will most definitely be on my schedule for next year (assuming they invite me back!) -- if you're a ProFx suite user it's one you should probably consider it, too.

Tomorrow it's north to Orlando for the Thomson CSI conference. More on that to come!

Just in Time Loyalty

CCH kicked off it's second annual User Conference this morning at the beautiful Boca Raton Resort and Club. Over 500 attendees are here, joined by 125+ CCH staffers and about a dozen hand-picked vendors offering services and products ancilliary to those provided by CCH. After opening remarks by Executive VP Mike Sabbatis the general session heard CEO Kevin Robert report on his company's continuing committment to the profession, to technology, and specificaly in today's troubling areas of  "knowledge management" and "talent management". Robert skillfully walked the group through the scary statistics --- reminding them us of the looming problem that 75% of the AICPA membership will be eligible to retire in 15 years --- oops, he said, make that 14 years. Last year it was 15! His remarks were particularly well suited to introduce the keynoter --- Bruce Tulgan.

Tulgan is internationally recognized as a leading expert on young people in the workplace. He has  authored or coauthored fifteen different books and numerous management training programs, and those in attendance this morning would tell you he is a world-class keynote speaker. [Complete bio here.] He extoled the attendees (from my vantage point virtually all "baby boomers" and older) about the trials and tribulations of people management in general and management of Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers in specific. Gone are the days of the "pay your dues and eventually you'll make partner", having been replaced by what he termed as "just in time loyalty". Tulgan's emphasis was in solid support of the development plan described earlier by Robert --- knowledge management and talent management.

Attendees were treated to a complimentary copy of Tugan's book entitled "Winning the Talent Wars".

gll

PS: Watch www.TheTechgap.com the next several days for more on this and the upcoming Thomson CSI and Sleeter Conferences.

Cieslak & Gaby grab Xcelerate -- Extend Reach to Midwest

California based partners Dave Cieslak and Bob Gaby, of ITG fame, have acquired Chicago-based Xcelerate and renamed the new company Arxis. [I've repeated the name 50 times to see if I could get it to "roll of the tongue". All I accomplished was a great edge for the next "talk like a pirate day".]

Cieslak, and to somewhat lesser extent, Gaby, are almost omni-present at AICPA and State Society technology conferences. They attend virtually all and speak at most. Cieslak chairs the AICPA's IT Executive Committee and is in his third year of driving the Tech Conference. He's runs the Top Techs Task Force. The guy is everywhere! [See http://www.thetechgap.com/2006/06/a_man_with_many.html]

It's always good to see nice guys doing successful things --- and these ARE nice guys and this IS a [very] successful milestone.

Congratulations, Dave and Bob.

gll

PS: The full press release appears after the jump.

Finally, a REALLY "Smart" Trial balance Retriever

A few weeks ago I spent a full day with the Intuit Professional Tax executive team in Plano. We had great discussions about all sorts of tax and technology practice issues and, late in the afternoon --- with the car service waiting to make sure I didn't miss my flight from DFW --- I got a peek at the soon-to-roll-out "SmartMap" feature. Now I know that the concept of tax line groupings for automatic import from accounting to tax complaince isn't exactly new. But the Intuit engineers have made it seem so. What used to be hard enough that many practitioners [erroneously, I believe] claimed they could actually KEY a full trial balance into their tax product faster than setting up the "automatic" data import has been rendered so easy and so "intuitive" [sorry, but the pun was just SO easy!] that an entry level intern could handle it with aplomb.

Thanks to the miricles of modern programming languages and the familiarity of the Windows "drag and drop" metaphore practitioners can see a trial balance, by account title, on the left and watch (I did so in amazement) as those account NAMES were dragged across to the waiting TAX FORM on the right hand side of the screen. My amazement was complete when the dragged TITLE turned into a NUMBER when dropped. The "trial balance" on the left is so worked until all it's components have been properly "dropped" onto the tax form. Simple. Direct. Foolproof (well, almost ---- but fools are ever so clever!). Ingenious.

Lacertre users are in for a treat this year. Those pesky QuickBooks trial balances will be a joy to import with the SmartMap feature. It works so nice that I was ALMOST disappointed when I learned the "links" are persistent and the "fun" I described would therefore be a single year event.

Oh well, there're always new clients!

gll

Reader's Choice Balloting Opens Today

Have you found the perfect professional tax preparation system? Do you wish you could tell every professional about the write-up program your firm uses? Has your time and billing application made your practice more efficient and productive? Perhaps you've found the absolute best small or midsize accounting application for your clients? Now you have a way to tell the world.

Voting for the inaugural Accountants and Tax Professionals Readers' Choice Awards starts today, allowing any tax or accounting professional to vote for the programs, services, online systems, hardware and gadgets they have come to rely on in their practices. (CLICK HERE to cast your vote.)

Categories include tax compliance, payroll, practice management/time & billing, document management, online applications, small and midsize business accounting programs, construction/contractor accounting systems, write-up and trial balance, estate and financial planning, fixed asset management, tax research, laptops, PDAs, scanners, printers, CPE providers, and even your favorite late night food during tax season.

We promise the process is easier than the November elections — no hanging chads or long lines. Plus, the voting period for the Readers' Choice Awards is open until Friday, November 15, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. There are no major rules about who is eligible to vote — anyone can vote, but only one vote can be cast per computer.

So express your devotion to the various technologies that help you and your clients succeed. Vote today - CLICK HERE to begin. We will share the results with you in our January/March 2007 issue and on our website, www.CPATechAdvisor.com.