In Firm: 2013 IT Predictions

2013 InFirm IT Trends Impacting Accounting Firms:

1. Hybrid Cloud Becomes Commonplace: A hybrid cloud is where firms use the optimal combination of external cloud resources (such as those listed in our 2012 #2 Prediction above) and private/hosted cloud applications that they manage themselves, meaning that the majority of firm employees will be working via Cloud applications or Private Cloud Access in 2013.
2. “Actionable Analytics” is New Buzzword: We will see firms adopt dashboard tools that provide real-time, predictive information instead of traditional backward looking financial results and they will begin to apply these tools to clients, in addition to helping their own firms. Within five years, these analytics will be streamed in real time to the accountant’s smartphone or tablet so they can take proactive action; and interactive devices like the Pebble Watch will be everywhere.
3. Unified Communications Expands: While all firms utilize email/phone for core client communications, the number of firms that integrate voicemail, digital faxes, instant messaging and even video calling into a single unified communications conduit such as Microsoft Lync, will increase significantly to make communication and collaboration easier than ever regardless of what method of communication is preferred. Accountants will see even more functionality outside of work as the personal clouds promote and “consumer-ize” these tools.
4. BYOD Prevails: “Bring Your Own Device” will be not only accepted, but dominant in firms as staff replace their firm provided Blackberry’s with a smart phone or tablet they really want to use for both work and personal needs, instead of carrying two units.   While IT will initially struggle with the transition, the owners will be appeased by the cost savings from reduced equipment maintenance and capital investments.
5. Digital Delivery Surpasses Manual Delivery: Medium and Large firms that deal with more sophisticated clients will see the scales tip this year to where the majority of client tax returns and client financial reports are delivered electronically via portals and encrypted email, rather than traditional manual means as well as the number for firms sending digital tax organizers increasing.
6. Security Emphasis on Privacy not Passwords: With passwords becoming increasingly easier to crack and IT counter measures to change them more frequently with more complex passwords meeting increased resistance, the emphasis of security access will transition to other secure connectivity options and partners will have IT focus on limiting access to files to protect client privacy to only those personnel that are authorized and have a need to access the data.
7. BIG DATA for Accountants hits Radar: The concept of Big Data is that as firms shove more digital files into their network directories or document management application, there comes a point when these current tools are no longer powerful enough to continue to access and utilize the files effectively and solutions for searching and accessing files will change significantly, forcing firms to look at alternate and workflow tools to manage files.
8. Fourth SaaS Player Gets Notice: The gap between the Big Three (CCH, Thomson Reuters, Intuit) and a distant fourth vendor will narrow noticeably as a Cloud-based SaaS Accounting provider swells up from the bottom providing smaller firms with a cost-effective option.
9. Internal IT Staff Disintermediation: High level network personnel within firms will have to transition to a more strategic IT management and adoption role or see their positions increasingly under fire and outsourced to external providers with depth of specialized IT personnel. This will be a major discussion within firms in 2013 as partners evaluate IT Staffing costs and see the Cloud writing in the sky.
10. Partners Recognize IT Risk: IT Governance will jump way up the list of things keeping partners awake at night as security and client privacy breaches in the news point to firm owners being the ones ultimately responsible. This will lead firms to formally discuss IT risk and actually designate a non-IT person to evaluate the firm’s governance… and actually doing something about it!