Advances in information technology have empowered CPAs to access and manage information just about anywhere, anytime. While CPAs value the benefits that technology has made possible -- such as greater flexibility, efficiency and productivity in the use of information -- they also are concerned with the increase in risks to information security.
This was evident from the 2012 Top Technology Initiatives Survey of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The survey found that securing the IT environment is this year’s top business technology priority for AICPA members.
Confidence Levels
This year’s survey also measured the confidence level of CPAs in achieving their technology priorities. For example, a large number of the survey respondents said they were confident that their organizations (or their clients’ organizations) have taken the actions necessary to secure the IT environment. However, respondents were the least confident with the following two aspects of IT Security:
- Protecting all mobile devices (laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) to prevent a data breach.
- Ensuring that data will be safe in event of a cyber-attack or mobile device loss.
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2012 Top Technology Priorities
- Securing the IT environment
- Managing and retaining data
- Managing risk and compliance
- Ensuring privacy
- Leveraging emerging technologies
- Managing system implementation
- Enabling decision support and managing performance
- Governing and managing IT investment/spending
- Preventing and responding to fraud
- Managing vendors and service providers
Public Accounting versus Business & Industry
Also available are separate results by Public Accounting (PA) and Business & Industry (B&I).
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2012 Master Toolkit
The 2012 Top Technology Initiative Master Toolkit is developed to provide IT Section members the tools and resources necessary to understand what are the top technology priorities and concerns for accounting and finance professionals and how to manage or mitigate risks associated with those concerns.
With the 2012 Master Toolkit, IT Section members will have exclusive access to comprehensive Data Results, the 2012 Top Technology Initiatives Video webcast, and further analysis from industry perspectives (coming soon). Also stay tuned for an eLearning Course providing best practices for the top priorities (in July).
To introduce the results, we are providing (available to the public) :
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Impact of Technology Initiatives
In addition to this year’s top technology priorities, the survey asked respondents to identify which technology initiatives will most impact them and their constituents (or their clients’ organizations) in 2012. Information security is the biggest concern. “Securing data is most important whether it is in-house or out-sourced,” one respondent commented.
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Technology Initiatives considered having the most impact
- Information security
- Remote access
- Control and use of mobile devices
- Business process improvement with technology
- Data retention policies and structure
- Privacy policies and compliance
- Staff and management training
- Spreadsheet management
- Overall data proliferation and control
- Portals (vendor and client/customer)
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The survey, conducted from 1/17/2012 to 2/15/2012, was based on responses from 2,259 AICPA members nationwide who are interested in information technology. This year, the survey is structured to dive further into the core concerns and priorities that AICPA members may have regarding information management and technology.