September Critical to Strategic IT Planning
By Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP (August 20, 2005)

The summer vacation season is over and it is time to get firmwide initiatives back on track.  September is a critical planning time for firms to ensure that they have adequate time to implement strategic technology initiatives prior to the start of next busy season.  For most firms the best window of opportunity to have new servers installed, standardize their "paperless" processes, and complete the loading and training of tax and audit applications will be the weeks between October 16 and December 15.  As everyone is trying to make changes during the same time frame, only those firms that have completed their strategic planning and previously contracted with vendors will be able to do so according to their own schedule.  The rest of the firms will find that they have to push off implementations into January or even after April 15, thereby missing out on the opportunities and efficiencies that today's digital best practices can bring.  Below, we outline a five step program to complete your Strategic IT Plan, so that it can be implemented on your schedule prior to year end. Plan to accomplish one step each week to optimize your success!

STEP ONE: Have your IT Team meet to prioritize initiatives for the remainder of the year.  The team must evaluate your status on implementing a document management system, standardizing digital tax process such as tax workflow, dual monitor usage, organizer flow through production, streamlining your audit workpaper programs and templates, and utilizing digital best practices in administration for digital invoices and integrated human resources capabilities.  To help you identify critical digital practices, we suggest you have your IT Team review the listing found within the AAA 2005 Paperless Survey, which can be located on the ITPNA.com Search page.

STEP TWO: To optimize your strategic planning in regards to new initiatives, it is imperative to "not re-invent the wheel" by reviewing the successful experiences of others that have already implemented those initiatives.  For firms that are part of a CPA Firm Association, there are often guides that have already been developed either by the association or a member firm, which can drastically reduce your firm's decision and implementation time.  The Association for Accounting Administration (www.cpaadmin.org) and the AICPA (www.aicpa.org) both have extensive tools, articles, and resources already developed on their websites that are available to members. If the firm does not have a technology partner that is current on today's digital initiatives, it is advisable to bring in such a person from a peer firm or an outside technology person focusing in this area. Firms should also consider including their network integrator in the planning phase to include design requirements for the technical ramifications of the "less paper" office including larger file storage requirements and the more critical than ever disaster recovery planning needs. 

STEP THREE: To get buy-in and financial approval for new initiatives, firms must analyze year to date expenditures and present a budget for all prioritized initiatives.  At a minimum, it is imperative for firm owners to understand what current and committed expenditures are through the end of the year, to establish a baseline understanding of what technology costs.  Any new project expenditures should be presented separately, so a return on the technology investment for these initiatives can be calculated and understood against the expected benefits.  To assist in this, the ITPNA budget template can be downloaded from the ITPNA.com search page. 

STEP FOUR: The IT Team must take the prioritized list of initiatives and assign an individual to be accountable for each project.  These "champions" responsibility is to lay out a week by week program that breaks down the initiative into manageable steps including staff and financial requirements to complete each step.  This should be laid out in a Excel matrix with all other projects so that the firm can strategically prioritize resources of personnel and use this listing to track progress.

STEP FIVE: We all know "what gets measured, gets done." The IT Team must have a champion and members that are held accountable.  It is the responsibility to ensure that each person assigned to a project takes the time to complete their task and provide a weekly status report to the champion, whom in turn reports to the owner group at least on a monthly basis. If a firm is not willing to schedule the weekly time and follow up on the initiatives, it is better to drop the project now, then to deal with the frustration of the staff in starting a project and not completing it. For additional strategic resources, please search the ITPNA website (www.itpna.com/search.htm)

The next month is critical for firms to crystallize their strategic technology initiatives to ensure that they have adequate time to be planned and implemented prior to year-end.  By following the five steps above, your firm will be able to complete your IT projects before the year-end holiday season hits, and so you can be completely prepared for the best busy season ever.

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