September 2005 Circle Update
August was a very busy month for the Boomer Technology Circles. Circle #3 led off the month, and we closed with Circle #8. In between, Circles #1, #2, #5, and #7 had their meetings. Circle #4 will hold their next meeting in mid September.
We tried some innovative scheduling options this time, on a trial basis. Circles #1 and #2 met in a format we call the 1-2-1 meeting plan. Each Circle met for two full days (instead of the usual one and one-half days) and the middle day of the three was an overlap day when both Circles met together as one.
BTC #1 met on Monday August 15 th and Tuesday August 16 th. They were joined on the 16 th by BTC #2, who then had their second day on August 17 th. On the middle day, when both Circles were meeting together, we brought in several outside speakers to maximize the opportunity of the larger audience. BTC #7 and #5 replicated this same format on August 22-24.
The visiting speakers that addressed the two double meetings included representatives from some of the major accounting software vendors, specifically CaseWare, CCH, and Thomson Tax and Accounting. These speakers gave their insight into the future of their product lines, focusing on integration, new capabilities, and increased use of the Internet as a platform. This gave user members an opportunity to hear first hand what their vendor-partners had in mind, and to ask questions.
We also used the double-sized Technical Breakout session to bring in a data storage expert (Stephen Ayoub of Optimus Solutions) to talk about information life cycle management, large scale storage solutions, and server virtualization. This generated a lot of interesting discussion which carried on into other portions of the meeting.
Feedback from members about this format was mostly positive, and we will give strong consideration to repeating it again next year. While we have never envisioned this format becoming a new "standard" we believe it has merit on an occasional basis. We certainly appreciate the thoughtful comments we received from many Circle members.
Aside from the combined day meetings, there were a variety of interesting and informative sessions among the various Circle meetings. Topics such as firmwide PDA management policies, HR personnel evaluation software tools, scheduling and project tracking, IT preparations for mergers and acquisitions, reviews of firm data centers, an update on Voice Over IP implementation, implementation of SurePrep Express tax preparation, and the use of client portals filled our agendas.
In addition there were several roundtable discussion sessions or comparative group presentations. For example we heard a panel of implementation strategies for content management systems, a review of email management policies, two reviews of employee Internet usage policies, and a "peer review" and discussion of IT infrastructure.
All in all it was an exciting and very rewarding month for the Boomer Technology Circles. If your firm is not yet reaping the benefits of membership in this dynamic organization of good firms getting better, contact Eric Hunt (erich@boomer.com) at 888-266-6375 to find out how to take the first steps toward membership.