Sure, Kennedy & Coe has a document management system. Over the last three years, the firm has expanded the use of CCH's ProSystem fx Engagement from one office to all 17 offices. But use of the workpaper product really is less about saving paper than it is about improving the way members of the firm work together, says Greg Davis, principal and IT director.
"We want to be able to share documents," says Davis. "Saving paper, because the paper storage costs are low here, is a small piece. We really want to be able to share work."
Much of the market is following in the Salina, Kan.-based CPA firm's footsteps. Interest in document management is exploding across the accounting profession. And while the American Institute of CPAs lists document management as only the second most important of its Top Ten Technologies for 2005, it's probably the one that's most on the mind of accounting professionals who are not technologists. (See related story, page 23.)
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Cook: Make Technology Easier Advertisement The point that technology is too complicated has been made by users and technology leaders alike. Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates has often talked about reducing complexity. And that is very much on the mind of Intuit founder Scott Cook, who says technology is getting harder to use, not easier. "The whole industry seems to be collaborating in this," says Cook, who serves as one third of Intuit's office of the CEO. "I think we were part of that. I think we were as guilty as anyone." Intuit, says Cook, is doing something about it, and simplifying products has been a major push over the last few months that will continue through the current year. Cook, of course, is comparing the complexity he sees in competing products with what he says is the effort to make things simpler with Intuit's product line. For example, the mid-market accounting vendors are "poster children for making technology complicated. The traditional mid-market solutions are getting more and more complex." While products like Great Plains can take months to set up, Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise Suite can be up and running in a day or so, he claims. And while QES often doesn't get a lot of respect, it is changing from a product that is used by companies that have outgrown QuickBooks to one appealing to all users. "Originally, QuickBooks Enterprise Suite attracted customers from the QuickBooks space," says Cook. "Now, over a quarter of new customers using QES come from other products." That's despite the fact that there is neither a sales team nor a marketing effort to push the product outside of the QuickBooks installed base. Cook also pictures the new low-end QuickBooks Simple Start as promoting simplicity among small businesses, while the ProSeries Basic Edition is designed to reach the same goal in the professional preparer community. |
