Here's a quick review of the articles and questions that have appeared on the IT Counts Blog and Forum over the past few weeks:
Be prepared
A key aim of IT Counts is to inform users of important IT developments that could have an important part to play in the future. The site featured some of the
latest research on trends for IT planning and development as well as consideration of
how IT will change the way we work over the next 10 years. Looking more specifically at the Internet, the
Race Online 2010 website, the
demise of the world wide web, the
Ofcom report on the communications market and
how small organisations are losing business through inadequate use of email have all been covered. On the subject of email we also
waved goodbye to its supposed replacement. The latest IT Counts poll looked at which mobile devices are being used to access the Internet –
vote now!
Moving systems from the office to the Internet is currently a key area for consideration and the Faculty are running a
‘Cloud Computing for Accountants’ event to be held in
London on September 24th.
Safety in numbers
Whatever wonderful things IT can do may be completely undermined by lack of confidence in the security and safety of your IT systems. Security threats come in many forms: from
photocopiers to
Blackberrys in the UAE and the frightening thought of
your own laptop spying on you. Trying to counter some of the threats are
Microsoft and
Intel’s latest acquistion, MacAfee while your graphics card
sits on both sides of the fence.
Office
Articles on office software continue to attract many readers.With its majority share of the market, Microsoft Office features strongly, but in one of the most popular recent articles Leo Waldock bid a not so fond
farewell to Microsoft Office and switched to OpenOffice and Thunderbird. For those of us still battling on with Microsoft, topics covered recently include:
Grouping in Excel PivotTables;
how to tell when your obsession with Excel is threatening your health and well-being;
creating a PDF from part of an Excel worksheet and
adding up in Excel. Moving from Excel, we also looked at using
keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Outlook.
On more general ‘office’ issues, Faculty head Richard Anning tried to elicit your
best tips for the use of technology in practice.
XBRL and iXBRL
There’s little doubt that the rapidly approaching mandatory use of iXBRL for online filing is a key topic – particularly for those in accountancy practices. IT Counts covered the wider issues around XBRL in
before and
after reports from the ICAEW panel session on XBRL at the American Accounting Association conference and also looked at some of the recent help and guidance issued by the software suppliers including predictions of costs in excess of
£10,000 to implement iXBRL.
Following the record attendances at the Faculty’s spring iXBRL events, the Faculty have organised an
autumn event that concentrates on the implementation of iXBRL and takes place around the country.
Forum
Over at
the forum recent questions include:
The search for a time recording package for a professional services firm and a
plea for training and experience on the consolidation aspects of Hyperion and SAP.