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A year ago, it looked like the American Institute of CPAs' Top Ten technologies was on the endangered list. And last year's effort to keep it alive produced something that wasn't the most useful of lists. But the committee that shepherded this did its job well and this year's Top Technologies list is not only different from the past selection, but better for being different and let's hope that the AICPA keeps doing this on an annual basis.

This year's list is not merely a technology list but a list of technology coupled with business issues in which technological change is important. The prior lists got very data security intensive--no matter what they were called, as many as four or five of the Top Ten issues had something to do with security in many years.

The 2011 iteration is much more focused on business operation. I think it could be a little more specific in some areas - the listing of budget processes comes to mind. But still, this is a more productive direction for the profession in thinking about  technology.

And it may simply reflect the fact that technology is more than ever plumbing and the nitty gritty is for the plumbers. Using technology to run a business is the important thing for most of us.

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