Firm News and Events

Friday, May 25, 2007

Jim Bourke Presents Top Technologies at Accounting Business Technology Show

James C. Bourke, CPA.CITP, WS+B partner, presented the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) 2007 Top Ten Technology Initiatives at the Accounting Business Technology show on May 23 & 24, held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, Secaucus, NJ.

Having participated in this year’s AICPA 2007 Top Techs Task Force, Bourke reviewed the final ten technologies that made it to the list, as many are considered for this ranking. He also provided a behind-the-scenes look at the process that leads up to the final determination.

The following are the 2007 AICPA Top Ten Technology Initiatives, as listed on the www.aicpa.org website:

1. Information Security Management: A systematic approach to encompassing people, processes and IT systems that safeguards critical systems and information, protecting them from internal and external threats.

2. Identity and Access Management: Identity and access management consists of the hardware, software and processes used to authenticate a user’s identity, i.e. ensure users are who they say they are; then provide users with appropriate access to systems and data based pre-established rights and privileges.

3. Conforming to Assurance and Compliance Standards: Creating formalized strategies and systems to address organizational goals and statutory requirements.

4. Privacy Management: The rights and obligations of individuals and organizations with respect to the collection, use, disclosure and retention of personal information.

5. Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) and Business Continuity Management (BCM): A holistic management process that identifies potential threats to an organization and the impact those threats may have on business operations.

6. IT Governance: A structure of relationships and processes that direct and control an organization and help it achieve its goals by adding value while balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes.

7. Securing and Controlling Information Distribution: Protecting and controlling the distribution of digital data, i.e. enabling secure distribution and/or preventing illegal distribution and access to protected information.

8. Mobile and Remote Computing: Technologies that enable users to securely connect to key resources anywhere, anytime regardless of physical location. Enabling technologies include tablet PCs; PDAs; and wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi and WiMax.

9. Electronic Archiving and Data Retention: Technologies that enable appropriate archiving and retrieval of key information over a given (statutory) period of time with improved efficiency and access to the information. Storage and backup technologies, including Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SANs), and optical devices such as DVDs, CDs, and Blu-Ray help support the archiving and retrieval process.