Top 5 Accounting Technology Trends for 2010

With December coming up tomorrow I thought it'd be a good time to start the obligatory "what's going to be big next year" blog. Even better I'm doing a Top 5 list. Here are my predictions for the Top 5 Accounting Technology Trends to watch for in 2010.

1. Twitter - It's amazing how quickly Twitter is growing and I think it's going to keep rocketing upward. Particularly with more of the younger generation latching on and making a name for themselves. Look for more accounting firms to establish a presence in Social Media but by starting out on Twitter and Facebook.

2. The Intuit Marketplace - Look for the role of Quickbooks Advisors to start changing with the advent of the Intuit Marketplace. Advisors will have to become experts in applications that make work more efficient for businesses. I'm still amazed that there's been little hoopla over what's going on with this. Something big is brewing here and expect it to break out in early 2010.

3. Going Mobile - More accounting applications and the increase in use of SmartPhones is going to provide us with Quickbooks Mobile and most everything else we want available on our phones. The world is going mobile especially since software is becoming so scalable and portable. Expect to see your ability to access documents and reports on the fly increase greatly.

4. Portals vs. SaaS - Websites are beginning to change and expect to see this next year. In the past the move has been to pretty up a website and put a portal for clients to sign in and access documents. With the move to SaaS and more online options expect to see accounting websites become more dynamic i.e. embedded Twitter and Blog feeds and less of the static "billboard" style that's been so prevalent. There will be less of a reason to go to an accountant's website unless they're keeping it updated with social media feeds.

5. The Cloud - Expect two things with Cloud Computing next year - one of them is for it to grow because of all of the IT cost savings. The second is for the inevitable backlash. There will be more than one case of lost, stolen, or corrupted data and there will be people sitting around saying "I told you so". I would expect to see both of these things in 2010.

Those are my thoughts on what 2010 will hold for technology for accounting firms.

Home from Sleeter

I thought I would give a quick recap on the Sleeter Conference partly to try to rethink everything I heard. By all accounts Sleeter was a great success! We met a lot of amazing people and had a great time showing off our product. It fired us up a lot for next year's Sleeter Conference and made us realize that we were talking to exactly the right people. As a vendor it's interesting to see what other technologies are out there. It's pretty amazing to see how developers, accountants, bookkeepers et cetera have come together to solve problems encountered everyday. There were a couple "surprises" in areas where I expected more advancement. One thing that was odd to me was that there wasn't a lot in the "out of browser experience" category. We were the only out of browser application at the show. Looking at where other industries have gone with this (ebay Desktop) I say it's safe to say next year's Sleeter show will feature a lot more Rich Internet Applications (RIA). The lack of RIA amazed me so much that we're actually going to have a guest blogger later on to talk to us about what's happening in that realm in other industries.

Next year I think will be a much different story as the Intuit Partner Platform continues to develop and offer applications to the business world. I suspect that over the next few years you'll see a big change in vendors at the Sleeter Conference as more products come out of Intuit's Federated App Platform. Expect to see a few more vendors next year offering applications on the Intuit Marketplace.

The second thing was the lack of iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile OS apps. It just doesn't seem like we've fully taken the plunge on going mobile. For vendors it means tons of opportunity but on the other hand it also means there's a lot to learn. I feel that some of the hesitance with going mobile is security fears.

Overall we had a great time. I wanted to say thank you for everyone who stopped by and made our trip down so incredibly worthwhile.

Accounting professionals as tech advisers

I've seen a couple good articles recently on the role of accounting professionals as technology advisers. I thought they made some very good points and wanted to highlight some things here. First off, it's very true that small businesses look to their bookkeeper or CPA for help with technology issues. If you're a certified Quickbooks Advisor you should be able to fix everything else right? By being able to fix those other issues you establish "stickiness" with your client. Your value as a trusted advisor simply goes up. So what do you need to be aware of to help provide the best technological advice to your client? I'm going to highlight a few big trends right now so that you can be an expert for your client.

1. Cloud Computing - Everyone's talking about moving to the Cloud even the Federal Government. Your Mom and Pop business however will have no idea what the Cloud is. So how do you explain it? In one sentence, your information lives on these servers over there and you can access them from everywhere. Simply put, it's not scary and it saves you money.
2. Security - This one goes hand in hand with Cloud Computing. The classic question, how do I know my e-mail, files, information et cetera is safe? You're going to confuse them when you say it's in a SAS 70 Type ii certified server. What's more dangerous to them are the links they click from phishing e-mails. Their data is safe on a SAS 70 particularly because it's not being moved from place to place on a CD or thumb drive. Make sure you warn them of the danger of phishing scams that come in the form of e-mails, text messages et cetera. If there's a link that you don't trust, don't click it.
3. Social Media - Get 'em signed up and get their brand out there. The least that it does it make you think of your business in a new dimension. The worst, you find it boring and don't want to do it anymore. Trying out Social Media won't hurt anyone.
4. Saas, PaaS and are two big acronyms floating around right now. What do they mean? SaaS - Software As A Service. It means software available for use online, that's it. It's used by the end user to access their software/data. PaaS - Platform As A Service - bundle up a bunch of SaaS apps on a platform and you've got you're PaaS. Expect some SaaS questions not so many PaaS questions.
5. Google - Know thy google information. Suggest it as a search engine. Seriously, some people still use what I'll call "unsophisticated" search engines. What's in a search engine? The algorithm.

I do realize that these are the very bare bone basics of what you need to know. Please feel free to comment below and help fill this post in a little more. I'm curious what clients are asking for of accounting professionals.

What does SaaS and the Cloud mean to accounting professionals?

In my last blog I talked about why software companies are moving to the Cloud. In this blog post will talk about what it means to your business. Let's go through the pros and cons of moving to the cloud.

The pros -

1. Lower technology costs - No in house server will save you time and money. Additionally, no tech team to worry about.
2. Updated software - Your software when using SaaS and the Cloud is always up to date. Especially if you're using a hosted application you never have to worry about updating it.
3. Customization - This is coming but the ability to download applications to customize your SaaS software.
4. Safe and Secure Data - The data on the Cloud is much safer than in your office which is at risk for both environmental and break in damage. The servers supporting SaaS and data are also mirrored so that if something were to happen the facility would be back up in seconds.

The cons -

1. Unusable old software - Some of your old software that you enjoyed using is going to be rendered useless by updates. Either that or you'll have to pay to play. Need some tech support for your DOS application, fuggetaboutit.
2. Must have internet - All the cool applications that you download to interact with software? They won't work without a high speed internet connection. Same thing with SaaS and the Cloud in the first place. In other words, if you haven't…switch over from dial-up.
3. You're part of the wave of the future - Not that it's a con, but if you're not into being on the forefront then don't do it. There is something to be said for waiting for technology to be perfected before jumping in.


There you have it! The pros and cons of moving to Cloud Computing. In our next blog post will be discussing the time frame of adaptation of new technologies as it applies to our current conversation. In other words, how long will it be until SaaS technology becomes mainstream.