Software
The Executive Series – Understanding the Road Ahead
As a practitioner running a busy firm each day, just like you, I want to know what’s on the horizon in relation to technology. Technology and workflow are at the heart of a well-run firm, so it’s important to know where vendors plan to take us over the next few years.
Aug. 29, 2012
From the Sept. 2012 issue.
I recently flew into San Jose, California and made the short drive up to Mountain View to Intuit’s headquarters. While there, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, and asking him a series of questions that I believe are on the minds of many practitioners. My interview with Smith was the second in a series spotlighting executives from several major software vendors. Be sure to read the full feature article in this issue.
As a practitioner running a busy firm each day, just like you, I want to know what’s on the horizon in relation to technology. Technology and workflow are at the heart of a well-run firm, so it’s important to know where vendors plan to take us over the next few years. If you are like me, questions like “Am I using the right combination of solutions to run at peak efficiency?” and “Is my primary software vendor taking me in the right direction?” are always at front of mind. My hope is that this series will offer insight into where today’s vendors are going and what firm leaders can expect.
In the July issue, we featured Teresa Mackintosh, CPA.CITP and newly appointed vice president at CCH. Teresa clearly stated that CCH’s vision for their software suite is all about the web. For the past few years, CCH has been heads down developing its “Next Gen” product line—an advanced platform built on a single contact database and residing in the Cloud. Teresa also provided insight into CCH’s open integration strategy and the company’s newly launched Open Integration Platform (OIP). OIP is designed to support integration with CCH’s complete suite and other mission-critical third-party applications.
Over the next few months, I will be sitting down with other top executives including Bill.com founder, René Lacerte. I’ll talk to René about how bill.com is revolutionizing the process for accounts payable and receivable. Also on the roster is an interview with former Executive Editor of our publication, Greg Lafollette, CPA. As a long-time friend, peer and mentor, I find Greg’s perspective on the future of the profession meaningful. After years of working in public practice, Greg served as vice president at Thomson Reuters, Executive Editor of CPA Practice Advisor (formerly The CPA Technology Advisor), and today currently serves as vice president of product strategy at CPA2Biz.
My goal is to continue our Executive series and talk to many more vendor thought leaders that are helping to shape today’s firms. With so many solutions to choose from and the ever-expanding needs of practitioners, we could all use a little help and extra insight as we work to build highly efficient systems and operate at peak efficiency.
I hope that you will remain engaged with this series, as I believe we can all learn a great deal from our experienced line-up of interviewees. Please take a moment to read my interview with Intuit CEO, Brad Smith. You may be surprised at what you learn.