Geni Whitehouse, a CPA, well-known consultant and founder of The Impactful Advisor who was recently appointed as the new president of the Information Technology Alliance, said she aims to bring a fresh perspective to the venerable organization, which represents accounting technology professionals, consultants, and product/service providers.
Noting that most of the ITA's member firms are in the mid-market space, Whitehouse — who is also a consultant with California-based wine industry accountants Brotemarkle Davis & Co. and the force behind "Even a Nerd Can be Heard" — said that her own experience working with small businesses can help forge new connections and open up new opportunities for members.
"I just think my perspective is different, having been heavily immersed in the bookkeeping and client accounting services space from a small business perspective … So I think it's a great chance to bring in some different perspectives and supplement both sides. I think the small-business community tends to be siloed and doesn't know what the mid-market community is doing and vice versa," she said.
Creating this bridge between small business and the mid-market over the coming years will be important as both face the growing challenges of a rapidly evolving technological landscape that is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with. The need to stay current with technology, as well as the requirements and regulations surrounding it, remains constant, and the ITA needs to support people through this process.
Whitehouse said that there is much that mid-market businesses can learn from small-business owners and the unique challenges they've been facing lately.
"More recently, I have worked with small businesses — both winery clients and small CPA and bookkeeping organizations. While I have no desire or intention of changing our membership focus, I think we can all learn from the rapid pace of innovation in the small-business space — and some of its new and innovative leaders who reflect different voices in the profession," she said.
At the same time, Whitehouse emphasized the way that small businesses can benefit from connecting with mid-market organizations in the ITA, noting that they have a wealth of knowledge and resources that can help upgrade their organizations. She spoke from her own experience, saying that when she initially joined the ITA in 1999, networking with the group was a huge help when she worked for a relatively unknown IT reseller. Through contacts with the ITA she was able to get company representatives on panels that served to grow their brand, as well as find numerous speaking opportunities.
"There's all sorts of connections that I still have as a result of that initial engagement with the ITA. It was just a very powerful networking community of really bright people and people who are at the forefront of what was happening with technology. To be able to plug into that is a huge benefit," she said.
Expanding the ranks
In the short term, though, she said the biggest priority right now is recruitment. Whitehouse doesn't have plans to overturn everything and make huge changes at the ITA, so her immediate focus is going to be continuing with existing efforts towards growing the membership, which will further contribute to new ideas and perspectives in the organization. "We're focused on recruiting. We're always looking to add new members. We like to have new thoughts and new ideas and new impacts. We are looking at new recruiting and ongoing [efforts]," she said.
She noted that this recruitment effort is part of her long-time goal of helping the accounting profession transition from primarily compliance-based practices and into client advisory services. Within the ITA, she said, there are members who have CAS practices already, there are members who have yet to launch them but want to in the future, and there are technology vendors who provide the tools needed to make this transition. By bringing more of all three into the organization, she can help them help each other.
"So to me, it's just a perfect fit. And I don't think you can advise the client if you don't have a connection to the tools that that client is using to run their business. And that includes operational tools, the HR management tools, the CRM tools and all those things. And this community is in a great position to provide that knowledge and support on what I can do with the client when I'm working with them. As a traditional CPA, you need to know about all the people that are involved in this organization," she said.
This, in turn, plays into the long-term goal of helping members get their arms around new technology so that they can, in turn, help their customers do the same. As one example, she pointed to the rise of generative artificial intelligence, something that few could have anticipated would be affecting the business world to such a degree in such a short time.
"It's amazing to me how we've gone from AI as a concept to everyone now already using it. And the speed with which it has been integrated into our lives! We're talking about transcription tools, translation tools, we're talking integration with Excel, we're talking about using it to create concepts and vet ideas — it's already a systemic part of our lives, so how do we make sure we don't lose sight of what we're trying to accomplish?" she said.
Asked to elaborate on her views toward AI, she said it is a tool like anything else, meaning that its impact is less about its existence unto itself and more about how it is used. She said there are great challenges in terms of privacy, cybersecurity, and ethics that all professionals will need to wrestle with over the coming years. At the same time, she also said the technology holds great potential, provided these challenges can be accounted for.
"I think the benefits are going to be huge. I just don't think we can even imagine what's going to be changing as a result of this," she said.
While considering these kinds of big questions, Whitehouse has meanwhile been busying herself with the ITA's event schedule. There is its summer meeting at the end of the month, its fall conference in November, and another conference in April. Her first official act as president, in fact, was emailing a meeting request to discuss keynote speakers.
"That was a big part of it as well, because the event component of it is by itself is a huge undertaking and we have a lot of member participation in delivering the content, so you've got to organize all of that, you've got to work through the membership. So there's a lot of moving parts, but the end result is always highly valued by those who attend and those who participate," she said.
