Accountants and finance executives are finding a newly complex and competitive landscape that requires new strategies and determination, according to a sampling of leading experts.
Bourke
James C. Bourke, CPA.CITP, partner at WithumSmith+Brown, tells me that “keeping competitive and profitable at the same time” is one of the three key challenges he sees facing accountants today.
In addition, he says, accounting and finance managers are struggling to keep “staff busy” and stay “on top of client confidentiality rules and regulations.” Some 47 states have now passed privacy security rules that CPAs need to understand, Bourke says.
To be sure, the opportunities for accountants are just as broad as the challenges.
Bourke sees potential leverage at firms that can: READ MORE →
Randy Johnston, executive vice president of the Hutchinson, Kan.-based Network Management Group Inc., places “marketing services” at the top of his list of issues for CPA firms, followed by client retention strategies and refreshing outdated technologies.
Grant Thornton’s departure from the Hawaii market mirrors that of PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Big Four accounting firm that left Hawaii in 2006 after 55 years and sold its local practice to three partners in the firm’s Honolulu office, who formed a new firm called Accuity LLP. Accuity, also locally owned, has been a member since 2007 of the Baker Tilly International network of accounting and consultancy firms. Another local firm, KMH LLP, was formed by former Arthur Andersen employees after the Big Five accounting firm collapsed during the Enron accounting scandal.
As a visit to any electronics or wireless phone store makes clear, you’ve got a large—sometimes overwhelming—range of smart phone choices, priced from around $100 to $600, according to this month’s Illinois CPA Society magazine, Insight.
This includes the highly visible BlackBerries and Apple iPhones, along with a plethora of makes and models from vendors like HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Palm and Samsung. And there’s quite a choice of potential carriers as well, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and sundry smaller players and resellers.
Factors that should drive your smart phone decision include,
Which phones and carriers will support the apps you need?
Which phones include the functional features you’ll need to deal with business outside of the office, for instance camera, video, keyboard, minimum display size, battery run-time?
Which carriers offer coverage where you need it? For instance, do you expect to travel outside the United States, and if so, do you want to use a single phone?
Will you need to “tether”—in other words, let your notebook or netbook (or other smart-phone users) access and use the smart phone’s broadband data connection, via a cable, Bluetooth and/or WiFi? (Not all carriers offer plans that allow this.)
