Welcome to the new world of mobile tax research. Or not. Because whether tax practitioners are avidly utilizing mobile devices to conduct full-fledged research is something that the profession's two major vendors don't completely agree on. As usual, the market is Of course, it all depends on what is meant by "use". No one would disagree that mobile devices are being used to access the research platforms. It is how they utilize these tools that produces a difference in interpretation.
Until the last year or so, "Users saw mobile device as something they might get news on, but not do research," says Tina Rajski, a CCH product manager. But that has been changing rapidly as mobile users find the ability to do research from wherever they are, an important business tool.
From the Thomson viewpoint, mobile research is still larger about those quick hits for information. "Our observation is people aren't using a mobile version of Checkpoint if they are planning a complex transaction," says Ron Burkert, senior director of Thomson's Checkpoint Technology Platform Management. "They are looking for quick answer. People are fact checking or reading news."
CCH has made some significant changes in mobile access to its IntelliConnect research platform. It recently replaced the first version of CCH Mobile with a new application with the same name. "When we released our first version of the app, it was citation look up," says Rajski. The new product is designed to provide "the ability to research just as you would on a desktop computer." The company added key word search and significantly increased available content - the first version, Rajski said, offered access only to the Master Tax Guide and some core reporters. Now, much of CCH's content, including niche reporters and more SmartCharts, are accessible.
The new CCH Mobile also provides access to research folders and enable users to save documents. And the company has provided support for the Android platform, which Rajski says offers a borad base of users since that platform has been expanding. She noted that when users with the older version of CCH Mobile log on, they will be prompted to download the new applicatin.
For Thomson, its most recent major change, a new user interface, was introduced last year. This year has been devoted more to expanding content. And a lot of technology work has been in areas that aren't obvious to users, such as improving speed by fractions of a second for each transaction, says Burkert.
Last fall, it introduced Interactive Decision Tools that are designed to guide users through the decision-making process regarding selected issues. In June, Thomson optimized the Checkpoint platform for mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone and Android platform. Optimization included minimizing the number of clicks needed for navigation as well as constructing screens that are designed to be easy to read.
Burkert also notes that the lack of standards in mobile platforms is a problem. "It's a little bit of a challenge for us to find that common denominator to develop consistently across all those different platforms," he says. That problem will remain "until there is a shakeout in the industry.
Bloomberg BNA has been more active in the traditional web-based research arena. Last year, it introduced Fast Answers, via which answers to 3,000 questions are provided in the Tax Center - a bit like a section on frequently asked questions. Senior product manager Holly Flater said the company's attorneys and accountants "determined what would be a typical question that would lend itself to a Fast Answer." BNA also launched a number of calculators that are provided to federal tax subscribers.
The past year was also spent enhancing state tax offerings. That includes Tax Chart Builders for 1040 tax and corporate tax, a product that is similar to CCH's SmartCharts. User answers a series of questions about a topic, for example about licensing intangibles, and the system builds a chart and can give comparisons between state treatments of that topic from which a Word report can be generated.
The company plans to continue expansion of the state tax line with more state-by-state analysis, chart builders and tax source documentsNext month, BNA is launching an Accounting Research Center, Flater says. That service is already being used by some firms, but September will see a broad marketing push.
"We have more than 80 portfolios in the accounting and auditing area," Flater notes. The new resource will provide information on all standards areas, such as FASS, the AICIPA and GAAP. The center will feature a new SEC filing lookup that will give users access to documents they could retrieve via the SEC's Edgar Online.
Not everyone needs the full-fledged research tools from the major vendors. And Jim Levey, the founder of Parker Tax Publishing, is out to fill that need with the Parker Tax Pro Library, which hit the market just over a year ago. Levey has done this before - he founded the former Kleinrock, which was sold to CCH which later discontinued the research line.
"The goal is to meet the needs of the small firm and small practitioner," says Levey. "Those needs have been unmet."
While big firms has specialists that conduct research each day, small operations can often have large gaps between research sessions. Levey says they need products that they do not have to learn after day or weeks of no performing research.
"We put a lot more emphasis on real world examples: client letters, election statements and client communications," he says. "We have about 340 combination client letters, election statements and other communications." There is also heavy emphasis on individual income taxes and state and trust taxation and much less on areas such as C corps taxation of financial institutions and ERISA compliance.
There is one other difference between Bethesda, Md.-based Parker - there are no print products. Everything is electronic. And for $267 a single user can get an annual subscription. For five concurrent users, the charge is another $100 annually.
