Articles

Two statements made recently  brought to mind the question of the importance of the role of accountants regarding technology. The first was from the chairman of the AICPA's CITP committee talking about the way technology affects many areas of the accountant's work. The other came from the head of Sage North America's channel efforts that  accountants remain the major influencer involved in the purchase of accounting applications.

Perhaps that's why it was good to hear Jim Bourke, the CPA who heads the committee who promotes the Certified Information Technology Professional credential, talk about the redefinition of the body of knowledge that Bourke credits with boosting the numbers of AICPA members who are becoming CITPs.

Originally, the CITP was just another technology credential, and although it was awarded to CPAs only, there was nothing that marked it as anything but another IT credential that anyone with enough technology experience could qualify for. It had nothing that said only CPAs had the knowledge that would distinguish them enough to make this designation meaningful.

Without getting into detail, the process Bourke described is one in which CPAs need to understand not just technology, but how technology is involved in specific areas of practice, such as audit.

That was followed by yesterday's comment by Tom Miller, the VP who leads Sage's channel program in this continent, that accountants remain major influencers in buying decisions regarding financial software.

I had always wondered to what extent accountants are knowledgeable influencers. At the low end of the software market, the suspicion that many simply recommended QuickBooks has often entered my mind. At the mid-market levels, I am not sure if many accountants have the knowledge to evaluate the packages. But it would be nice to know if they do.

Maybe this is an area that both professional associations and vendors can play a role. The CITP body of knowledge could include the ability to evaluate the software, not as experts in how technology functions but in how it meets a user's accounting needs. And maybe vendors could somehow certify that accountants have at least a minimal ability to understand one package's ability to address a user's needs as opposed to what competing packages do.

I'm not sure how easy this suggestion would be to implement. But if I were buying software, it's something I'd want to know for my business.

• Prev
• Next