Cetrom's President & CEO, Christopher Stark was featured in AccountingWeb. Full article provided below.
CPA firms may no longer be able to resist investing in a stronger IT infrastructure as it becomes less beneficial to downplay or ignore the need for technological change.
A host of challenges will confront CPA firms heading into the new decade. Some challenges will be familiar and some are unknowns—the rapid pace of technological advancement in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics and IT make it hard to predict what kind of change the next 10 years will bring.
What is abundantly clear, however, is that CPA firms that have resisted investing in stronger IT infrastructure, like the cloud, for example, are behind the proverbial eight ball. Even CPA firms that have been slower to adopt modern IT and security technology and best practices have put themselves at risk of falling too far behind to catch up.
Leveraging the cloud, AI and other modern, sophisticated IT approaches that enable stronger, more secure access, increased data security and scalability—to name just a few advantages over increasingly outdated legacy IT ecosystems—has become the norm for an emerging new class of forward-thinking CPA firms that are set up to thrive and adjust to what is sure to be a rapid and possibly unpredictable decade of change.
So, the first thing CPA firms need to know is this: if you haven’t invested time, treasure and human capital into upgrading your IT ecosystem to the cloud, you’re already in a precarious position heading into 2020. It’s time to take a leap forward so you not only keep up with other CPA firms, but also adapt and scale right alongside technological advancements and your firm’s growth.
In addition to data security concerns, which will continue to be a major focus, there are a host of other items to be cognizant of as a CPA firm heading into the new decade.
Let’s take a look at four key areas to keep an eye on as your CPA firm heads into 2020.