July 2005 Circle Update
The month of June continued to be busy for the Boomer Technology Circles! Here are a few of the highlights.
On June 6 and 7, the brand new Circle #8 met for the first time. Eight firms attended this first meeting, and we anticipate that it will grow steadily before it meets again at the end of August. Because this was the first meeting for this group, their agenda was customized to bring everyone to a common baseline and get ready to move forward as a Circle. Gary Boomer began with an overview orientation on what it means to belong to a Boomer Technology Circle™, including what members should expect from Boomer Consulting, Inc., and what they should expect from each other. They learned about the Progress Report and the 90 Day Game Plan, and used these tools in their meeting just as in all other Circles.
The group also had their first experiences with Partner and Technical breakout sessions and the Mad Lab. Dave Wyle presented information on SurePrep Express, as he had done at the May Circles, and Sandra Wiley led a discussion on building effective teams within the firm. On the final day, the group had the opportunity to plan and customize their agenda for their next meeting. It was a great first meeting and the members of the Circle quickly bonded together and began to form trusted relationships among themselves which will benefit them in many ways in the future. BTC #8 will meet again on August 29 and 30, 2005.
The current cycle of Circle meetings ended (or the next one began!) on June 21 and 22 when BTC #4 met for their second meeting of the year. This Circle, made up of very large firms, has a solid history of sharing great information among themselves. This meeting was no exception as John Bowles of Dixon Hughes PLLC talked about how Open Source Software is used within his firm. In the process he gave an excellent overview of exactly what Open Source Software is (and is not!) and described the tools and applications used within the firm and how they fit into the overall mix of standard Microsoft and other vendor applications.
David Holyoak from Grant Thornton LLP and Doug Brady from Plante & Moran LLP shared their insights into the role of the CIO in a large accounting firm. They focused their discussions on ways to be effective in carrying the IT message to the leadership of the firm, keeping partners informed, gaining their support, and effectively influencing the resource allocation needed to move the firm’s technology program forward.
The final presentation session of the meeting featured Stephen White from Aronson and Company and Dave Cline from Moss Adams LLP describing how they run their help desk operations. Each uses a different set of tools, and has organized their help desk staff in different ways to deal with the unique requirements of each firm. While different, both are effective in supporting their end-users and the lively discussion that followed showed this was a topic members were keenly interested in.
In addition to these topics presented by Circle members, BTC #4 also heard from Dave Wyle about SurePrep Express, as have all other Circles, and had a presentation on Intuit’s QuickBase web-based database. Jana Eggers from Intuit gave the presentation and showed members just a few of the many ways that this online tool can be integrated into both operations management and reporting within the firm. All in all, it was a very busy and productive meeting. BTC #4 will meet again for the final time this year on September 13 and 14, 2005.
If your firm is not yet a member of this elite group of great firms getting better together, and you would like to share in the advantages of belonging to a Boomer Technology Circle, contact Eric Hunt (erich@boomer.com) at 888-266-6375 and let him help you take the first step toward better performance though better management of your technology program.