And will “the cloud” make them obsolete?
There’s a good conversation underway at a posting by David Bergstein, “Cloud Based Services or Internal Technology Departments… Do we need them?”
Bergstein, CPA.CITP and Director of Strategic Relationships for CCH, poses two good questions:
1. Are CPA firms ready to “relinquish applications to a cloud environment?”
and
2. How can IT partners and directors be taken more seriously as “strategic members of the firm, rather than non-billable maintainers of hardware and software.”
The answer is critical at this moment in the development of CPA firm competitiveness. If only the IT “guys” (and “gals,” of course) understand the transformational potential of cloud computing, then many firms will be left behind.
Bergstein’s post has already attracted some heavy-duty attention from major industry figures.
Randy Johnston dismisses the fears of security, saying, “Cloud providers often have better security than is maintained by accounting firms themselves.”
Dr. Bob Spencer differs a little: “The Cloud cannot be looked at as the right choice for all.”
Val Steed is distinctly worried: “We are headed for a bandwith wakeup call this tax season. Firms that move to the could must be able and willing to deal with the cloud going down… For most firms I still think LANs are the solution until we can solve the bandwidth issues… “
Roman Kepczyk addresses the concerns of IT managers head-on: “With the increased interest in cloud computing and the perception that many applications can run just as well externally, I believe that internal network administrators will find it even more difficult to position themselves as a “strategic asset” without individually identifying, analyzing, and promoting solutions that increase firm productivity. We would encourage them to attend the association meetings, where they have the opportunity to network with peer administrators to identify what is making firms more effective and capturing the information to bring back to their own firms.”
What do you think? Tell us in Comments.
7 Responses to “Can the CPA Techies Get Some Respect?”
Alan Portnoy
I was an early user of PCs, spreadsheets have had a preference for such items as e-filing and can vividly recall the days when free internet was revolutionary. As a sole practitioner, however, my concern with the cloud are the times I am not connected. I visit clients who do not have Web access, or I am in areas where I cannot connect and/or the connection is poor that decreases my efficiency. My preference is to have access to my files at any and at all times.
John Vardavas, CPA / ABV, CFF
We are a smaller firm. We outsource our IT function. Having our applications hosted has cut our outside IT costs down about 80%! I think this is typical, not the exception.
If someone knocks over a telephone pole or digs through a cable, well, that’s something that’s a lot more infrequent than downtime we experienced before.
There are risks with any platform. Cloud computing seems to offer cost-effectiveness and less risk. Try cloud computing, you’ll like it.
Byron Patrick
@Cindy
The issue to date has never been our internet. One of the major advantages of an outsourced service provider is being in a datacenter with 99.9999% (yes 6 nines) up-time. Regardless of internet I don’t think many in-house networks can vouch the same up-time.
However, if you should lose internet you would have to find another internet connection, which in this day and age isn’t too difficult in most places (I don recognize that there are exceptions…)
Keep this in mind as well, installing the applications and most importantly the data locally means you are storing a significant amount of very sensitive information on your local harddrive… unless it is encrypted this is a risk and liability I would not recommend anyone take just to spare a few hours of productivity.
Cindy Ivy
I would like to know what the back up plan would be if your internet server was down, even for a few hours. Could you still prepare tax returns with software on your harddrive? Just pack up for the day? Or does that truly not happen anymore?
Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, MCSE
Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, MCSE on November 8th 2010 at 07:50 pm
This is an interesting debate that I have been on both sides of, as an IT Director jockeying for a seat at the table and as a service provider potentially displacing those that don’t bring value and truly are simply overhead.
In both circumstances my answer is the same, our value is no measured by our ability to replace a mouse that is broken, or to fix a laptop. Our value is measured by our ability to use technology to support the strategic initiatives of our firm/business.
In circumstances where we (as a service provider) may be replacing IT Overhead we find excellence in the IT Admin that step up and steer the organization. They are no longer break and fix geeks but they are leaders and can now focus on expanding the ways that technology helps their organization.
Those that choose to be a commodity are simply that, whether in the cloud or on the LAN.
My position has always been, let the outside experts do the commodity so I can bring the value… Isn’t that our same philosophy as CPA’s??? Outsource to us what you dont bring value to so you can bring value to your clients.
I see no debate at the end of that day… That is, as long as your are bringing value you will not be replaced by the cloud.
Jerry Justice
Cloud computing is an approach/tool, not simply a destination. It is not about reliquishing, it about leveraging services that fit now. Not all services have matured yet. In the end, it is really about proper alignment (performance, costs, features, etc…) of all technology services as we transition to a more cloud-centric delivery model.
At the end of the day, being responsible for understanding the cost/benefits, transitional issues, complexities of delivering these services, how it effects our business and then recommending the optimal solutions with short and long term goals in mind is what we technologists really do. We have been aligning technology strategically for years, it is just becoming more visible (in part because of the growth cloud services).
The one caveat that all firms are/will deal with is the new performance paradymn in the cloud. The cloud has different performance, support and design realities. It is not bad, it is just different. For example, trading some random outages and less product flexibility for broader scalibility and access. One must embrace this paradym shift to succeed.
Bob Torella MBA
OK, I am cloud biased. Accountants were dragged into using DOS PCs for tax return processing, were dragged into Windows GUI where they could see the actual tax forms, dragged into the internet for efiling and now dragging into the clouds! Eventually firms reap many rewards jumping into the latest technology. RUN to get the most benefit!
The cloud is safe (with latest Windows OS and browser – get rid of Win98 please!). The cloud IS more secure than most LAN and paper offices. How fast do you get your practice online in the event of a disaster in a LAN office? How fast do you replace file cabinets of forms? The cloud makes these non events! Plus the cloud handles backups automatically, no software to install, no huge file transfers, work anywhere, add one or 1000 clients with no infrastructure costs, documents ondemand avoiding engagement delays, and a whole lot more. (OK, I give seminars on this stuff!)
There is more risk in staying status quo than moving to the cloud. Accountants should run to the cloud or get out of the way of firms eating your lunch down the road.
Dave, great question. Back to my droid! Look forward to your presentation in LV. Bob