Observations from the 2008 TECH+
The AICPA Information Technology Conference
By Steve Ernst
Congratulations and a well done are in order for Peyton Burch and his TECH+ Conference Steering Committee and the AICPA's Todd Helton, Linda Sinnott, Tracey Tarinelli and Stephanie Finn for a well-planned, content-rich, very well - attended, deeply-sponsored event in June at the always gracious Bellagio in Las Vegas.
SAP America, Inc. was proud to again be a Gold Sponsor of the event and we as we introduced SAP Business ByDesign and our SAP Business Objects OnDemand as well as the latest version of SAP Business One.
The enthusiasm and attention this year's TECH+ created and drew were obvious from the outset with the Pre-Conference "deep dives" were very well attended and the presentations and participant comments and questions made for extremely interactive sessions. I attended the session on IT Considerations for the Risk-Based Audit Standards and, as dry and technical as the title may sound, the session was extremely informative, and contained in-depth discussion of the ongoing balance between the controls surrounding data being used and reports being created within a technology-based environment and the ongoing need for an auditor, both internal and external, to be satisfied with the those controls and the resultant, finalized information.
If anything this pre-conference workshop was an indication of the conference's theme and flavor. More and more, the presentations are being given from real life scenarios, from those on the ground as a CPA in public practice talking from the perspective of a client-serving, independent profession service provider or from a private industry CPA who is sitting inside a growing business with daily decisions to make and in constant need for updated, fresh data as well as the confidence to make decision based on that information.
It's this context that gives the AICPA's TECH+ Conference its current impact as well as the huge potential is has in terms of being a centralized compilation of tech trends and practices within and for the CPA profession.
The conference also balanced the ultra-specific with the general overview type of presentation so we had sessions on advanced MS Excel for CPAs presented by Val Steed of K2 Enterprises and "Build Community-Avoid Commoditization" by Gary Boomer of Boomer Consulting. We had Technology Management for the Small Firm by Roman Kepczyk of InfoTech Partners and XBRL – How it Impacts You by Walter Hamscher of Standard Advantage.
Again, the Vendor Showcases were extremely well attended and covered accounting software (as readers of this column know, from SAP's perspective, that should be management software that includes accounting functionality but I digress), document management software and tax document automation software.
The conference kept the tradition of opening with a Tech Update given by Randy Johnston and wrapped up with Rick Richardson's always anticipated "Tomorrow's Technologies."
If I had to point to the two most talked about technology elements that emerged at TECH+ in 2008, it has to be software-as-a service (SaaS) and business intelligence. Both are terms that have been used for years within the tech and business community and both have taken on difference definitions and meanings over the years, some solid and useful and some fatally false. If anything, the 2008 TECH+ conference was a place where the CPA in public practice and the CPA who is a key executive within a company had a chance to hear not only a solid update on both subjects but how fast the world is changing to allow businesses of all sizes to take advantage of technology that was, just a few years ago, beyond the reach of a small company and the CPA who serves them because of a lack of IT infrastructure and the constraint of a small and midsize business budget.
Small businesses are more and more pressed to make quicker and bigger decisions that bet a substantial amount on early warnings or trends that the data within their businesses indicate. With a world economy now impacting the daily cash flow of businesses of all sizes a powerful front end to the technology supporting a business, regardless of size, is a necessity today. And this is the imperative faced by businesses without an IT department, without a long-term IT plan and without a significant IT budget.
For SaaS, the presentations at TECH+ gave a historical perspective and were thought-provoking and fact-filled. Michael Bodner of Quantum Information Technologies, LLC covered the market dynamics of SaaS. Taylor Macdonald of Deltek, Inc. spoke about the opportunities SaaS presented a technology consultant. If you need proof of how important SaaS is becoming to the CPA community you only had to attend SAP's "Early Riser" session on the third day of the conference were, at 7am in Las Vegas, a standing room only crowd heard about separating SaaS fact from fiction as we asked the question "is your company or are your clients ready for SaaS?"
Throughout the conference any observer had to be impressed by three things. First, the upswing in attendance for the second year in a row. The AICPA is heading in the right direction with the conference and it's receiving great advise and counsel from its Conference Steering Committee. Second, the increasing number of sponsors and their diversity of products and solutions. Third, and to me the most important observation, the increasingly active and pointed participation of the attendees. It made for a very impactful and useful conference and it can be built upon to continue to be a must-go, CPE-qualified, technology-centric event for CPAs.
Steve Ernst, CPA, leads the
SAP CPA Advisor and other influencer programs for SAP America, Inc. Prior
to joining SAP, Steve provided consulting services to boards and executive
staff on accounting, auditing, business processes and internal control
systems, as well as sales, marketing and business development initiatives.
He has more than 30 years of experience, including 10 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers
LLP and more than 20 years in international finance and operations in the
consumer product and technology markets. You can contact him at steve.ernst@sap.com.
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