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As a pretty lousy old year draws to a close - who needs to be reminded about the unemployment rate, the housing market and the drop in stocks - signs are for a better New Year, not a great one, but a better one. The fact that retail sales were better at Christmas than expected, coupled with gains over the year in stocks were good signs. And for accounting professionals, changes in tax laws are always helpful as they drive clients to seek advice before and during tax season. In September, Tom Glocer, CEO of Thomson Reuters, was reporting the possibility of regulatory changes was producing new business for his company and that trend should hold.

For those who made smart decisions about technology, it should also be a decently profitable year - That's what investing technology is about. And if Nancy McKinstry, chief executive of Wolters Kluwer, was correct in her statements in November, then tax and accounting professionals have done a good job in adopting technology.

McKinstry, whose company is the parent of CCH, said the company's tax and accounting customers are early adopters of technology. That runs contrary to the almost masochistic view that some in the market have about accounting professionals as laggards.

But I agree with McKinstry. I think the professionals in this business leap to new technology if they see an immediate return. That happened with tax research and multi-monitor systems and while they haven't necessarily leaped on to document management platforms, accounting professionals have adopted it more quickly than counterparts in other professional markets.

So the goal for 2010 ought to be what the goal should always be with technology: Go out there and use it effectively to make money.

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