What a firm knows today may not be relevant in the future, and many risk a significant loss of knowledge when partners retire. Fostering a culture that efficiently transfers knowledge is crucial. Is your firm’s knowledge centered mostly in its partner group? If so, it may be unable to remain competitive in the future.To many partners, knowledge is tantamount to power. But if a firm’s intelligence is locked away within its partner group, it cannot grow much beyond its current profit levels. Systems, processes and culture will inevitably require an overhaul to remain competitive in the future. Why? A firm’s intelligence revolves around information, experience and wisdom. The speed, leverage and scale at which a firm can transfer this block of knowledge are determined by the quality of its training program and willingness to share information.

Accounting software developer Open Systems has released OSAS Banking for companies that need to do electronic banking.

Thomson Reuters' Tax & Accounting business has added OneSource Entity Manager to its line of OneSource Tax software.

No transcript of a speech by Kirill Tatarinov, given at last week’s Worldwide Partner Conference, has been posted on Microsoft’s Web site. One rationale offered was the talks given by executives at Tatarinov’s level—he’s the head of Microsoft Business Solutions—weren’t posted. My memory was that he was one of three keynotes shown on the WPC Web page when I first looked—and, given Microsoft’s lavish use of the word, keynote—it didn’t seem like there would be such a shortage of space for transcripts. Moreover, nobody has been able to come up with a transcript of Tatarinov's speech in the last week.

Microsoft introduced Dynamics CRM Accelerators at its Worldwide Partner Conference to help its customers and partners benefit from new functionality in Dynamics CRM on a more frequent basis.

Personal computers revolutionized a lot of things, including the way that bookkeeping and accounting is performed. Before the Apple //, TRS-80, and IBM PC, bookkeeping was a manual process, and general ledgers were, for the most part, exactly that — large hard-covered binders containing T-Account paper with manual entries. Sure, computers were being used for accounting, but with the buy-in costing tens of thousands of dollars on the low end, the average small business or accounting firm could at best afford an accounting machine such as those sold by NCR and Burroughs.

SEC URGES XBRL ON MUTUAL FUNDSShortly after proposing requirements for public companies to start filing their financial statements with interactive data tags, the Securities and Exchange Commission wants mutual fund companies to begin filing risk and return information using the technology.

Internal and external forces are driving change in the profession, with a host of new options and requirements surfacing almost every day. Uncertainty often lingers even among the most experienced partners and IT leaders. How a firm navigates these changes will predict its success, and there is no better time than now to take a step back and examine how to be most effective at change management.From my perspective, I see multiple definitions of change management:

In announcing a decision to lay off 7 percent of its work force, Intuit couched the decision of terms of realigning its business to support what it called Connected Services.

“How many of your firms have document management systems?”

Intuit has introduced a free service that helps accountants who have excess work on their hands to find other accountants with the time and resources to assist them.

We all want to do more productive, efficient work.

NetSuite introduced a new suite of business management software specifically aimed at manufacturing companies and rival SAP.

Education, collaboration and innovation were the central themes swirling around Insights 2008 — the sixth annual reseller conference of business management software provider Sage Software.More than 3,000 attendees, including 1,800 resellers, flocked to the four-day confab held here last month to learn more about the products, to network, to glean new ideas and strategies, and to meet Sue Swenson, the new president and chief executive of the software conglomerate’s North America unit.

ORRTAX RENAMED INTELLITAXOrrtax Software Solutions has renamed itself IntelliTax to reinforce its current software line. The company said that the new identity would better reflect its future growth and direction, and echoes the company’s IntelliTax line of professional tax preparer software products.

It’s no secret that mergers and acquisitions are an active function of today’s accounting profession. Unfortunately, the M&A process is often conducted in tight secrecy, with only a privileged few aware that an acquisition is being planned. As a result, the transition is much harder and more complicated than it needs to be.It’s not unusual for IT staff to hear, “We’re bringing in 20 new people next week. Get them set up.” A slight exaggeration, perhaps, but closer to the truth than many believe.

The anguish over staffing has been a constant in the last few years. But what happens if the economy gives us a new problem?

The meteoric rise of Software as a Service, or on-demand hosted software, has prompted a paradigm shift that poses challenges not just to a firm's traditional IT infrastructure but also to vendors who must now counter the trend with low-cost, high-performance solutions to retain their user bases.

Microsoft has released Dynamics AX 2009, with upgraded features for compliance and multi-site organizations.

Before write-up became a popular application, trial balance software ruled the market.The popular ATB (Accountant’s Trial Balance) is probably one of the best-known accountant-oriented applications ever created, even years after it ceased to be marketed.