On the first morning of its annual User Conference, being held now in San Diego, tax and accounting solution and research provider CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, emphasized the importance of mobility to modern accountants.
In a press briefing, CCH president Karen Abramson noted, "We believe that the profession is at a tipping point" where mobile technology is becoming so much a part of people's everyday lives "that it will change how people will want to interact in the accounting profession."
This ongoing change will require new and different solutions to give accountants and their clients immediate access to data and tools.
"Efficiency and productivity have always been a major concern," Abramson continued. "Now with more people leaving the profession than coming in [due to the retirement of the Baby Boom generation], and more work and higher demand, we need workflow products delivering more efficiency."
While highlighting CCH's commitment to mobility, she noted that she herself operates in a highly mobile environment: "I live in New York and operate a business in Chicago and Los Angeles -- I have to operate virtually. We have to support accountants who want to work this way. How we need to connect to workers virtually is very important. If a client does everything else on their phone or their tablet, they're going to want to interact with their clients that way."
In an earlier keynote address, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting chief executive Kevin Robert discussed the results of the
Referring to the survey, Abramson noted that the results showed that accountants are growing more and more mobile, using both smart phones and tablets for work. "We're getting to the point where half of our clients are using these devices for everyday work," Abramson noted. "At some point in the future, every part of their workflow will be mobile."
With that in mind, CCH is researching how its customers are actually using mobile devices like iPads and Android phones, to help the company tailors its offerings to the way they want mobile access.
The briefing included demonstrations CCH's latest efforts in the area, such as new enhancements to the CCH Mobile and IntelliConnect solutions to give iPhone, iPad and Android users more mobility, with more fluid navigation, a new "Forms" link to take users directly to the IntelliForms online forms library, new Smart Charts, and more. The company also debuted
