2007 Review of Practice Management Systems

Well, two years ago, I would not have given much thought to implementing any
Apple hardware. Tonight, I’m planning on buying two desktops and one laptop.
MPAN agreements from Microsoft, specially designed for accountants and accounting
service providers, are a great way to get software, much of which may supplement
the management tools found in practice management applications at a nearly free
price. Thin clients and terminal services give access to data from home and
branch offices, and alleviate significant administration at the workstation
level for desktop applications. Lastly, the value of time seems to be increasing
more rapidly. For me, it was having the stork deliver twins to my door right
as I began to write these reviews.

This means that new tools must be easy to master, remain engaging, and provide
the information that is necessary for us to do our job, support decision-making
processes, and not require significant daily supervision. Clients have expectations:
Their information needs to be secure, and it should be easily accessible when
they want it. This unfortunate paradox means that accountants must review the
security roles in use, be able to anticipate their clients’ needs, and
have well designed and implemented policies.

While no application would fulfill those demands perfectly, several applications
include new security functions, particularly integration to Active Directory,
roles assignments and multiple administrator levels. Interfaces are seeing marked
improvement, and web-based applications no longer have cumbersome updates and
refresh lags. Features to track proposals and win/loss rates are becoming popular.

Now would be an excellent opportunity to do a corporate scorecard and see
how well you meet your clients’ needs and recognize any shifts that may
have occurred internally. Any application can tell you that a rainy day could
be coming, but it’s more important to understand the cause.

All of these products were reviewed last year, and every application has seen
improvements, from database engines supported and easier installations to new
project management tools, new export capabilities, and new modules or add-ons.
More importantly, the applications now represent a changing focus seen across
the business world. The visible difference between the applications is their
adoption of newer programming and development standards and database vehicles,
which drives the speed and security of the application.

Fundamentally, however, firms should not focus on the question of how fast
or how much data can be shown. Rather, they should focus on how secure the data
is, how much control the system administrator really has, and how well it can
adopt or adapt to the processes of a package. While the reviews did not directly
score against such a rubric, firms should also consider this to be a necessary
part of the analysis to identify the applications that best fit their needs.

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