Supporting Your Firm's IT Needs
by Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP  (June 20, 2008) 

Accountants rely heavily on information technology to service clients.  It’s simple, the more effectively they utilize today’s tools, the more profitable they will be.  The difficulty within today’s firms is getting the right combination of internal and external resources that can not only support the firm’s existing IT initiatives, but also evaluate and implement leading, but “stable edge” technologies effectively.  This article will discuss the right combination of staffing, as well as considerations for using external resources.

Accounting profession benchmarks point to firms having one IT support person for every twenty-five workstations for the first one hundred employees, and then one per fifty after that.  This is higher than other industry IT staffing averages, but we feel it is warranted due to the more complex IT network infrastructure found within accounting firms, in addition to them running on applications that require constant changes due to new tax and audit regulations.  Firms must recognize that they usually have at least four production departments (tax, audit, client service, and administration) that have their own specific applications that are written and maintained by relatively small design and programming teams when compared to other industry applications.  Accounting application programming teams must respond quickly to changes created by Congress and other legislative bodies and develop updates to applications that not only work well within the Microsoft environment, but also with the other integrated accounting applications the firm uses.  When firms inventory their applications, it is not uncommon to find that they have seventy-five or more different programs, which is much higher than clients in industry.

The key to IT support is the understanding that the firm is the primary client and that the role of the IT support team is to keep firm personnel working effectively to service the firm’s clients.  This usually means there needs to be some onsite knowledge of the firm’s network and workstation applications, as well as the firm’s equipment so that a firm member that is having trouble can get it resolved quickly and get right back to work.  This first IT role is often referred to as a helpdesk or IT support person and can be staffed either by an internal person or an outsourced network integrator which primarily focuses on workstation issues and daily network maintenance.  The second IT role is usually more technical in nature and deals with higher level network administration and system updates.  This role is often outsourced to an external network integrator in small firms, as the external provider can bring personnel with a broader range of experience.  In medium to larger size firms there is more of a need for a full-time internal person to manage the firm’s network so this person can handle the day to day management of the network. The third role needed by firms is that of the specialist that can assist with all “one shot” installations that must be optimized the first time, such as MS Server/Exchange, Citrix/WTS, Security, Virtual Private Networking and other highly specialized applications.  This can sometimes be provided by the firm’s network integrator if they have the right resources, or through partnering with some of the CPA firm specialists such as the Xcentric Group, McMillen Consulting, Arxis, NMGI, or the actual accounting application vendors themselves.  The final IT role is that of standardization and education of best practices, which falls into the “learning organization” category.  Firms should begin by allocating approximately one fourth of their resources to each of these roles and then adjusting them based on the firm’s existing personnel and requirements.  For instance, a fifty member firm would allocate approximately one half full time equivalent (1,040 hours annually) to each of these roles.  If they already have their entire network installed and stable, some of the hours for specialized consulting services could be reallocated to the maintenance or training role.  If the firm were planning on implementing a major initiative such as a new network with Citrix and Exchange 2007, the hours would be pushed higher into the external consulting role.  For small to medium firms, the learning hours would most likely be allocated to the firm’s best tax and production staff, rather than a dedicated training coordinator.

By default, the role of most IT personnel is to keep the network as stable and “bulletproof” as possible, which usually means the only change that occurs is in response to a failure or to the implementation of a required service such as remote access or a new document management system.  For firms to strategically identify and implement new leading initiatives, it is important that the firm include external resources to educate the firm’s IT personnel.  Going to conferences such as the AAA’s Accounting Technology Administrator’s Fly-In exposes IT personnel to what other firms are doing and the results they can expect.  The Association for Accounting Administration is also an excellent first place to network and get references for local network integrators that have experience with accounting applications and to narrow down the choices of vendors the firm would want to interview. 

Once the firm has identified external integrators that could assist the firm, it is important to not only check their references and experience with accounting firm applications, but also to meet with the actual person that will be servicing the firm (and not just the salesman for the integrator).  It is important that this external person have good communication skills so that they can explain options in an understandable manner so the firm knows what is going on and can make an educated decision.  In larger external organization, there may be a person that is assigned the role as the primary liaison to the firm, whom would be responsible for all communications between the firm’s personnel and the technical personnel employed by the integrator.   By focusing on a balanced IT Team approach to servicing and supporting the firm’s personnel, the firm can look forward to both a stable and leading edge network environment.

This article was originally printed in the AAA Report.  Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP is an advisory board member to the Association for Accounting Administration and works exclusively with accounting firms to implement today’s digital best practices.

InfoTech Partners North America, Inc. , 13656 S. 37th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85044 Email: ITPartner@itpna.com Phone: (480) 706-1728 Fax: (480) 718-8880