The Evolving Profession: Teresa Mackintosh has a Front Row Seat

As Mackintosh is among the new generation of leaders emerging within technology vendors that serve the profession, she is also keenly aware of the challenges faced by firms undergoing their own changes.

“The ‘graying’ of the profession and changes in leadership roles and styles is taking place in firms of all sizes. At the same time, many firms are also are trying to manage changing expectations from their clients, a ‘graying’ of their client base, who in many cases are also being led by a new group of younger and more tech-inclined entrepreneurs,” Mackintosh noted.

“There is a direct parallel between the two sides. Just as CCH understands the need to continually innovate around the application of new technology and changing expecations from professionals, firm partners and management need to adapt to ensure that they are engaging these younger business leaders.”

One of the key desires of younger professionals is mobility and remote access options that allow them to have a work-life balance that, while attaining the same level of productivity for the firm, doesn’t require being in a physical office for 40 to 60 or more hours per week.

“The newer generations of professionals don’t expect to work less, they simply want to be able to do some of their work from places that may be more convenient to other aspects of their lives.” Mackintosh shares this desire for work-life balance, and the technologies used by CCH allow her to work remotely or from the CCH’s Irving, Texas office, while managing workflow among staff located in Wichita, Kansas, Torrance, California, and Riverwoods, Illinois. This flexibility gives her more time with her family, including husband Craig and children Avery and Brooks, to maintain a more positive work-life balance.

Among the factors that led her to taking the new position, Mackintosh noted CCH’s significant investment in new platforms and products. “CCH is really committed to innovative thinking that helps serve the profession, such as the Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite, which includes the core areas of tax, portals, document management, workflow and practice management. These systems show a significant investment into the U.S. market by Wolters Kluwer,” the parent company of CCH.

As for what CCH is working on next, Mackintosh is excited about the Open Integration Platform (OIP), which will give customers and third party developers the ability to integrate other applications with CCH’s cloud-based solutions.

“We’re thinking about how we can serve professional firms better in terms of a larger ecosystem of technology. While large firms may have the tech resources to build apps on top of a platform that is specific to their needs, OIP will bring this capability to smaller sized firms, enabling them to tailor systems and apps to their workflow and help them be more productive.”

“CCH’s developments with OIP, as well as other cloud and mobile initiatives, show that our number one goal is to help professionals be more effective and responsive to their clients, helping them have the right tools to service their clients’ needs today and tomorrow.”

The position Mackintosh is filling was created last year when CCH reorganized its tax and accounting divisions. “We decided to sharpen our focus on process driven areas such as tax and audit, to better understand and serve our customers in small, mid-sized and large practices,” said CCH President and CEO Mike Sabbatis.

“We wanted leaders for these groups who had broad experience in development and product management, and Teresa was a perfect fit, being a CPA, having worked in all areas of taxation and firm technologies and successfully managing a business group. She is an excellent executive with a proven track record and fits the goals I have for the direction of CCH.”

Mr. O’Bannon is the chief editor and digital content director for CPA Practice Advisor.

Since joining the publication in 2002, Isaac has contributed reviews, columns and features, drawing on two decades of experience in the areas of professional accounting, business productivity and consumer technologies.