The Tech Gap

Lightening your Carry-On Bag

I asked my good friend Rich Oppenheim to check out a new product I thought I had discovered. Turns out that not only had he already discoved it, but had contacted my Managing Editor about doing a piece about it! Man, is THIS guy ever on the ball!!

Here's Rich's teaser piece until we get more ---- hopefully in an upcoming issue of The CPA Technology Advisor. My thanks, once again, to Rich for sharing with TheTechGap.

gll

There is old song that uses the phrase “…it’s off to work we go….” Today, going off to work means carrying a laptop, cell phone and assorted other electronics. One of the usual reasons for taking the laptop is to specific computer programs that are installed on the laptop. These include, tax planning, financial planning, decision analysis and so on.

The laptop adds 7-10 pounds to your carrying weight depending on how many accessories you are including this trip. The folks from RingCube have come up with a possible solution. Enter MojoPac

MojoPac is a software application that is installed on any USB or Firewire Flash Drive with enough disk space to install your version of a program like QuickBooks or PowerPoint. Your data and program preferences are included. You then transport the Flash Drive to another computer across town, across the country or around the world. You plug the flash drive into someone else’s computer and run your program(s) as if you had lugged your multi-pound laptop with you.

When done, you unplug the flash drive and your temporary host computer is back to the way it was. Your data and program was not saved and there is no issue of security to resolve. Just like a Las Vegas visit, what ever you did stays with you alone, on the flash drive.

There is an install process when you use the flash drive or an Apple iPod. Yes, the iPod is just one big hard drive. Make sure that there is enough room for music, videos and your program and data. The MojoPac program is downloaded form the web site and saved onto the drive or iPod rather than the computer's hard drive. The program estimates the time to load, for example 1.2 gb takes 12 minutes to transfer. Data is transferred faster.

MojoPac is not a perfect, crash free program. While they have tested lots of commercial programs, the company has not tested everything. Certainly, MS Office applications run, so you can take your own version of Outlook with all of your addresses and calendar and emails.

It would be wise to test the program with the applications that you want to use, before the dreaded “assumptions” push you over the edge. It should be easy to test; all you need are two computers and a large flash drive or iPod.

Through 11/16, there is a special introductory price. After that, the single license price is $50. Up to 3 additional licenses are $25 each. There is a 30 day free trial period.

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

The Product Formerly Known as Microsoft Small Business Accounting

Microsoft has announced a back side-step with it's QuickBooks wanna-be product. Small Business Accounting will be renamed Microsoft Office Accounting 2007. As previously reported the newly named product features some pretty spectacular online integration features and deepened integration with Outlook Business Contact Manager. The good news is that the public beta is open --- I downloaded it and invested some week-end time looking. At first blush I will tell you that it has a good, solid feel and I think end users will find some value here. Once Microsoft fires up the "marketing machine" I predict the "accounting product that's included in Office 2007" will gain traction. Fast.

Here's the link for the beta: http://connect.microsoft.com/officeaccountingbeta.

Enjoy.

gll

Finally, Civilization at a Trade Show

You're probably aware that I attend a LOT of conferences, conventions, seminars, and trade shows. The two most common complaints from attendees at these events seem to be "I can't hear" and "it's too loud". It seems that trade show floors have become audio battlegrounds, decibels the ammunition, and attendee ears the casualties of war. At the Illinois CPA Foundation's 2006 Business & Technology Solutions Show last week in Chicago I was [again] asked to lead "Walking Tours" on the show floor. Once each day I led a group of ~50 brave accountants across the trade show in search of new and exciting technologies to add productivity and profitability to their practices. This year I was prepared and had asked the show organizers to equip each stop with a portable public address system to ensure that their presenters would be heard. From my perspective it was a huge improvement --- unfortunately, for those in neighboring booths my "solution" was their "problem". I had simply exacerbated the problem and while my walking tour attendees were happy, others clearly were not. Fortunately for those offended by our volume, we moved quickly, thereby spreading the pain. Others have adopted this electronic solution, too --- I noticed no fewer that a dozen powered microphones on the floor, each trying mightily to drown out the others.

Then, right in the center of the cacophony, I noticed an auditory oasis. The Microsoft booth designers had wisely (and mercifully!) designed their training center to include headphones for each learner! Surrounded by 200 booths and several thousand attendees, all being barked at electronically by vendors trying to get some level of attention, was an open classroom with 20 or so accountants seated classroom style. The instructor stood at a podium and was flanked by twin 42" monitors. Each attendee station included a laptop computer and, much to my ear's delight, a set of headphones. The instructor spoke softly, or at least normally, into a headset and the entire group heard and followed ---- seemingly oblivious to the relentless droning surrounding them. Amazing!

A tip of the hat to Bob Lewis, Microsoft's Senior Marketing Manager for Accounting Professionals, and his people for thinking of their neighbors and implementing some basic technology along with some not-so-common sense. My conversations with those who had participated in these headphone-enabled on-floor CPE sessions revealed that, to a person, they were highly impressed with the variety and quality of Microsoft's offerings.

Reminds me of what Teddy said .... "Walk softly and carry a big stick." ..... er, "Talk softly and carry a supply of headphones!"

gll

OfficePax Delivers Where Outlook Falters, but .....

It seems like every conference and trade show has at least some surprises ... one of mine for the NY Show last month was a Manhattan-based company IT company with a fairly elegant email/CRM/remote access/calendaring/time and billing system called OfficePax. Its claim to fame is that it offers many workgroup features and benefits previously unavailable without an Exchange server. It uses a simple,  albiet very powerful topology to deliver connectivity without the usually accompanying complexity. Since many accounting practices feel they are "too small" to afford, either in dollars or time, to implement Exchange the OfficePax product just may find a friendly niche here.

OfficePax shares email, calendars and contacts --- much like Outlook --- but adds remote access (somewhat like GoToMyPC), file sharing, invoices, time and billing, and contact management. Licensing per user runs from $180 for basic to $240 for the "all features included" Extreme version. Support adds around $50 per user per year. This pricing can look quite attractive when compared to Outlook plus Exchange ---- even without the added hardware component.

While I was pretty high on the features of OfficePax it does have an Achilles heel --- while it does what it does very well, it does so without Outlook compatibility. In other words, while you can plan a meeting for your staff and invite clients --- the Outlook-based clients (IMHO about 98% of the world!) can't "accept" the vCal. So much for a great solution! The OfficePax people are completely unabashed regarding compatibility and are convinced that they'll soon "take over the world" in groupware. I don't share their optimism and am concerned about adopting an incompatible system. They are certainly right in their claim that OfficePax is richer and more full-featured than Outlook. And Italian is certainly a more beautiful language than English ---- but my clients ALL SPEAK ENGLISH so the "beauty" of Italian does me no good. [Thanks to JLR for the metaphor.]

If you can get past the Outlook integration issue OfficePax deserves a look.

gll

A Man with Many Hats

I've been running into my friend and fellow columnist Dave Cieslak a lot lately. He was kind enough to join us in Los Angeles for the Innovation Awards ceremony back on June 5th and then I saw a LOT of him at TECH2006 in Austin.

For those of you who don't know Dave, he's one of The CPA Technology Advisors' Dream Team columnists and is truly a man of many, many hats. He'd immediately tell you that his first hat is as family man and husband to his lovely (really!) bride, Michelle. Probably second, although he runs so fast you can't really tell, is as principal in Information Technology Group, Inc. (ITG), a computer consulting firm with headquarters in Simi Valley, CA where he specializes in micro-computer accounting systems, information security, the Windows operating environment, eCommerce, handheld computing, systems development and project management. He's an avid runner (hat 3?), a drummer (do drummers even WEAR hats?), and frequent speaker.

I see David often as our paths cross regularly on the CPE, trade show, and technology conference speakers' circuit. He's very active in the California CPA Society Technology group and sits on the board of ITA. Oh, and in his spare time he Chairs the AICPA's Information Technology Executive Committee, and has served as Chair of TECH2005 and TECH2006. Oh, darn ---- one more thing --- he handled a couple of sessions as featured speakers there, too.

Finally, just when you thought the man might actually sleep occasionally, like the rest of humanity,  he just accepted the position of chair of the Sage Accpac Business Partner Advisory Council (BPAC). BPAC is a select group of Sage Accpac Business Partners that meets twice a year with Sage Accpac executives to provide important feedback and perspective on product features and development, corporate strategy, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. Chosen for the position by his peers, David will serve a one-year tenure.

There's plenty of time to sleep after that. Right, David?

gll

PS --- Private note to David: Your column deadlines are still the same! No extensions just because you went and got yourself another HAT!!!

Superfetch Promises to Speed Vista

There were two excellent Windows Vista programs at the AICPA TECH2006 --- a  3 hour "deep dive" and a shorter (kinder, gentler) "executive overview". I attended the former and stopped by to introduce the speaker, Keith Combs, for the latter. Wow -- do I have a lot to write about over the next few months!!

I was particularly impressed with a Redmond magic trick referred to a "SuperFetch". This technology  actually "learns" what products you use, when, in what order and combination. Once it's learned your usage patterns it begins to "pre-fetch" the needed DLLs into memory based on those patterns so that when you actually DO call the program it will seem to load and execute much, much faster. In Microsoft-speak I just said "SuperFetch is a memory management strategy that intelligently maintains optimal memory content based on historic usage patterns on the Window-based PC. SuperFetch analyzes several weeks of usage patterns in order to allow Windows Vista to make intelligent decisions about what content should be present in system memory at any given time. Using SuperFetch memory management technology also allows Windows Vista to detect and evade troublesome memory usage patterns that would otherwise push higher priority content out of memory."

SuperFetch will be included in all editions of Windows Vista --- which, because you have a practice a run and clients to service, you won't buy until at least this time next year, right? RIGHT!!!

gll

GLL Interviews Thomson VP about Virtual Office

As a South Dakota native, and now-returned resident, I have to confess that the significance of the  "first day of hurricane season" has previously been pretty much lost on me. Until today, that is. I am attending the Florida Institute of CPAs Accounting & Business Expo in Orlando and somehow (go figure) this day seems to have some special meaning for Florida residents. Maybe it's the pounding they've taken over the past few years or their still-fresh memories of their neighbors a few states west. In either case, the CPAs here at the show are most definitely interested in products and services that might help the weather the next big one. I had a nice conversation with Teresa Mackintosh, VP of Marketing at Thomson Creative Solutions and we discussed what she's been hearing at their booth --- from both existing customers and those looking for new solutions.

[Interview runs ~6 minutes.]

gll




MP3 File

Presentations Grow Up

Thanks to our friend Rich Oppenheim for the following:

In the ever changing world of graphics and digital design, there is still a need for presentations. However those presentations can be laced with video, audio, and all sorts of action oriented graphics. Ulead, who has been around forever, has two products that you should assess and determine how you can make use of them.

The first product is Movie Factory 5 ($50), a complete application that offers the capability to create video projects in a variety of ways. It even supports creation of both HD and Blu-ray Discs.

You can capture video, including HD, from cable, satellite, broadcast TV, and combine it with images from your still and video cameras. All of that content can be cobbled together into one continuous presentation or video brochure. The application provides for simple edits, cropping, adding titles and music and with a feature called VideoJoin, combine two or more video clips.

Other features include: Ad-Zapper that finds and destroys TV ads; AccuCut, a cropping tool that trims any portion of the video; authoring tools such as SmartScene and Motion box for adding effects.

And yes, you can even create a slideshow. The ExpressFix feature is a wizard that enables you to edit common anomalies in digital photographs such as red eye, exposure, and color issues.

The second product is VideoStudio 10, priced at $99.

VideoStudio Editor supports a wide range of features, including 16:9 widescreen format, time stretch and reverse playback, video distortion, chroma key, and overlay of Flash animations. It also has a large number of video and audio effects that enable creativity at both the amateur and semi-pro levels.

To build a movie, video clips are moved from the Library to the Storyboard where editing and sequencing can be applied with appropriate transitions and effects. You create a timeline for the entire movie. Edits include cropping, scene splitting, sideways rotation, reverse playback, and speed changes. There are other features such as animation overlays, movable text, template libraries and more.

For those practicing public accounting, these products represent terrific value. Making a first or second or third impression does require the proper use of tools and applications that can attract and hold the audience’s attention. While these products won't move you into the Lucas or Spielberg category, they combine simple to use with professional of results that will elevate and enhance your message. After all, it should be the goal of any presentation to deliver a message that is viewed, appreciated and leads to valuable business opportunities rather than just visual criticisms.

Richard Oppenheim, CPA.CITP, can be reached at richopp@oppenheimgroup.com.

CCH aquires "the product formerly known as BOCDIP"

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, has aquired the highly innovative automated scanning product BOCDIP and will [mercifully] rename the product ProSystem fx Scan. We covered BOCDIP here last fall and pronounced the technology "quite amazing" and the maketing effort, as evidenced by the dismal name, pathetic. Now this great technology will go to CCH and join a very respectable stable of other "quite amazing" technology and, perhaps even more importantly for the future of "the product formerly known as BOCDIP", be marketed and supported by a world-class sales and consulting organization.

BOCDIP combines a database engine with a proprietary data dictionary to automatically read and recognize client documents (for example, W-2s, K-1s, interest statements, etc.) needed for preparing individual income tax returns. The software then sorts, bookmarks, and outputs these documents to a PDF file.

"CCH is focused on ensuring that our customers have best-of-breed, integrated workflow solutions that ensure their competitive advantage," said Kevin Robert, CCH CEO. "This acquisition and the integration of these tools with the ProSystem fx Office Suite provides CCH customers with a significant advantage in moving to and operating in a paperless office environment where they can realize new efficiencies and opportunities to better serve their clients."

Mark Ryburn, CPA, BOCDIP co-creator and part owner of DocuMatters will transition to CCH and manage the integration effort.

gll

PS -- BOCDIP, while "amazing", is not alone in the marketplace. Canadian software vendor Doc-It includes similar capabilities in their document management of the same name. Doc-It is "sold" only by monthly subscription, a business model that is, while interesting, not unique. Gee, is there NOTHING new under the sun?