Technology Insights from an Expert

Source: Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by Rita Keller.

You have probably heard that Roman Kepczyk of InfoTech Partners North America and Trey James of Xcentric recently merged their practices.

Roman had some great advice in the current issue of Accounting Today on keeping your firm competitive:

Now that firms have moved to digital, it is more important than ever to keep things at your fingertips.

• If it is time to look at replacing your server infrastructure, it is critical to take a holistic approach that promotes stability and disaster recovery – meaning you should look at virtualization.
• With all the difficulties of synching engagement binders in the field and concerns about security of data on laptops, firms should thoroughly explore using remote access through Citrix/Windows Terminal Services, which allow this data to be housed in the firm only.
• Web-based applications reduce the amount of support that both firms and vendors have to provide while allowing full access to any authorized user with Internet access.
• It is important to identify best practices, thoroughly document them and provide training so that production personnel can use them as quickly as possible.
• Owners must realize that learning is a continual process impacting everyone in the firm. This is called “creating a culture of firm optimization.”
• Firms should promote the use of portals and encrypted e-mail to move data between the firm and the client in a secure manner.

I really like that phrase: “creating a culture of firm optimization,” don't you? To me “firm optimization” also simply means getting everyone on the same page. Are you moving down that road in your firm?

For the complete article, read “CPA Technology Advice from Roman Kepczyk.”

From Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders, the blog of Rita Keller, president of Keller Advisors, LLC, [email protected]. Visit http://ritakeller.com/blog/.