IT Alliance Spring 2010 Member Meeting Agenda
Content
Tracks Room Locations
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Ballroom CDE
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Ballroom B
IT Consulting (ITC) Tuxedo
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL - Tactical)) Chastain
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL - Strategic) East & West Paces
Strategic and Full Group
Sunday April 25
9:00 AM 4:00 PM
Optional Golf - Details to Follow Registration & Opening Networking Reception - Ballroom CDE
Consulting Benchmarking Results (for survey participants & new CR members only)
4:30 PM
7:00 PM
(Dinner on Your Own)
5:00 PM
6:15 PM
Monday, April 26
7:00 AM 8:15 AM
Registration, Full Breakfast & Networking - Ballroon A
8:15 AM
9:00 AM
Opening Remarks, Introductions & ITA Business Meeting - Ballroom B-E
9:00 AM
10:15 AM
Keynote Presentation: Take Your Best Shot: Turning Tough Situations Into Opportunities (Ken Futch) - Ballroom B-E
10:45 AM
12:15 PM
Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline
How to Move Upscale What's Happening in My Landing & Implementing Practice Group Discussion Large Clients and Projects
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables
12:15 PM
1:30 PM
Luncheon & Networking - Ballroom A
1:30 PM
2:30 PM
The Legal Aspects of Business Intellligence (BI) Negotiating Tech and SaaS - What you Need to Know Deals - Protecting Your IP
ITC WOWs
Roundtable Session Drill Downs
Roundtable Session Drill Downs
2:45 PM
4:00 PM
Who Is Doing BI, and How Are They Doing It?
Vertical Solutions What Does it Take to Succeed
Concepts for Pricing Managed Services
Personal and Other Sensitive Information – How to Find and Control It
Do You Blog? Twitter? Facebook? Does Your Firm? - Firms Report on Their Social Media Strategies Navigating the Changing Tide of Compliance and Litigation
4:25 PM
5:25 PM
BI - illuminate the Solution
New ITA Member Sessions - Citrix Online, Applianz, and InsynQ
Best Practices for Managed Services Operations
Windows 7 What's Your Story
6:45 PM
10:30 PM
Dinner Party at Maggianos (A short walk)
Tuesday, April 27
7:15 AM 8:15 AM
Full Breakfast & Networking - Ballroom A
8:15 AM
9:15 AM
Communications Writing to Delight
ITA Project Management Initiative: Closing Projects
Where's the Health Care Money, and How Do I Get Some?
Even a Geek Can Speak
9:35 AM
10:50 AM
Communications - How to Fulltime Project Managers Why They Work and Why Look and Sound Like a They Don't Leader
Compensation Best Practices for Recurring Revenue Services
Google Enterprise Update
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
Communications The Web: Bringing It All Together Online
Winning in the Market with Superior Customer Experience
How to Partner and Price a Relationship with a Hosting Solution
Demand Management The Crowe Way
Office 2010 and SharePoint Integrations: What’s New and What’s Important
12:00 PM
1:15 PM
Luncheon & Networking - Ballroom A
1:15 PM
2:15 PM
Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program - Ballroom B-E
Mobility Device Update
Large Firms Update
2:30 PM
3:45 PM
Technology Futures - 2010 (Rick Richardson) - Ballroom B-E
4:10 PM
4:30 PM
Wrap Up & Adjourn - Ballroom B
Wrap Up & Adjourn
Session Content Descriptions
General Sessions
Opening General Session Ken Futch
Take Your Best Shot: Turning Tough Situations Into Opportunities A moment can change a life. Ken has an astonishing true story of how he accidentally shot himself in the head – and how it opened his mind! Hilarious, inspiring, and motivating, it’ll give you a (w)hole new perspective! In this program, attendees will learn how to: Utilize the primary components for capitalizing on opportunities: recognition, preparation, and action Recognize the opportunities in adversity and change Identify methods to add value to routine interactions Acquire techniques for helping others maximize their opportunities Activate the power in feedback Stimulate self‐confidence by showing belief in others Create environments that foster self‐motivation In times of dramatic change, discover how you can position yourself to maximize your opportunities. Find out what critical factors impact your success, and identify the silver bullets that will help you “Take Your Best Shot”!
Closing General Session Rick Richardson
Technology Futures – 2010 Rick Richardson began providing CPAs with his technology futures forecast in 1981 and this year will mark an unbroken string of 30 years of predicting our technology future. Rick will provide attendees with his vision of both the short and longer‐term future for technology, including technologies important to accounting and consulting professionals. Topics will include a review of prior‐year predictions; what the major‐market companies are doing, and how their actions will affect all of us; current trends in hardware, software, and communications, and the emerging technologies that will bring those trends into reality. Rick will conclude with his current personal forecasts on our technology future. Look for Rick to bring some of the latest technologies with him to share with participants.
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Tracks
2009 Consulting Benchmarking Results (session ONLY for those who participate in the survey) This session remains a cornerstone in our annual Spring meetings. Again this year, ITA member Bob Gaby will take the lead in presenting an analysis of the financial and operational data submitted by members, and offer comparisons to prior year results and overall industry trends and data points as compiled by ITA member SPI Research. What key factor metrics and trends will emerge? How will your Firm’s results measure up to your peer’ results? Use this data to find your Firm’s strengthens and weaknesses and the places where we might improve your profitability. Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline Do you know how to effectively handle the toughest prospecting situations such as objections and put‐offs? Can you easily uncover your prospect’s hot buttons and grab their interest even if they initially say they are not interested? If you have been putting off regularly scheduled prospecting because it has been unsuccessful in the past then this session by ITA member Novation Selling will teach you exactly how to accomplish these tasks: Develop trust and credibility in the first few minutes Break through the put‐offs that prospects use on “salespeople” Develop an effective 30‐second commercial that really works Disqualify non‐buyers early in the sales cycle so you do not waste time on people that are not actually prospects Shorten your overall selling cycle
Business Intelligence – A 3 Session Deep Dive
According to many industry researchers, Business Intelligence (BI) is driving much of the systems purchasing decisions today. Business owners and managers want actionable intelligence on their business, their customers, their competitors, and their markets. In the “old days”, BI was an expensive undertaking, with expensive software and heavy doses of consulting time. Today, the tools are better, and the respective price tags have come down. As a result, the opportunity to build a meaningful new service for your clients is greater than ever. We will look at the details of this opportunity in detail in the following 3 part “deep dive”. (Session 1) Business Intelligence – The Opportunity Overview Technology continues to change at an ever‐increasing rate. Users continue to adopt new technologies in the workplace for business advantage. This whirlwind of change is having a major affect on the BI space. This session will focus on usage trends and emerging technologies that will drive adoption and the value of this key business enabler. Our opening speaker will explore the current market dynamics surrounding BI, including a look at the role of social networking, mashups, handheld devices, search, and other leading‐edge technologies have in driving the future of BI and the future of organizational decision making. Just as importantly, we'll look at the consulting environment that needs to be in place to make these projects successful. (Session 2) Who Is Doing BI, and How Are They Doing It? Everywhere you look, businesses are inundated with information. The good news? Leveraged correctly, that information can be used to successfully guide corporate strategy, accelerate decision‐making, and significantly improve performance. The better news? There is huge potential for the consultants that can deliver BI consulting and tools to their customer. Learn how several ITA members have embraced the BI opportunity and developed practices that deliver actionable data that has contributed to the value of their customer’s business. We’ll look at BI from the perspective of what it takes to get started, and how a BI practice differs from the traditional ERP consulting model. (Session 3) BI – illuminate the Solution Business Intelligence continues to elude most organizations as they struggle to get real measurable business value out of their data. This is only the tip of the BI iceberg; the 90% below the waterline is the data, the unseen, often ignored part. This educational presentation from new ITA member illuminate Solutions will focus on the different ways a BI practice and various tool sets can be developed and deployed to meet different client sized opportunities.
The Legal Aspects of Negotiating Tech and SaaS Deals – Protecting your IP Technology‐related deals raise many complex legal and business issues that need to be thoroughly negotiated and documented in your agreements. From complex software licensing to cloud computing deals to outsourcing to the Internet, tech and telecom deals have their own customs, usages, and norms. In this seminar, widely known IP attorney Mark Grossman will give you insight into the real language he’s used in real deals. What are the norms in the industry? What concessions should you expect? How technical must a tech contract be? The discussion will include intellectual property, licensing, warranties, limitations of liability, performance standards, acceptance testing procedures and change orders, to name a few. You will find these issues arising in all types of deals including those that involve managed services, cloud computing, telecommunications, and Software as a Service. In this session, you will learn: Four key provisions you need in every technology contract How a limitation of liability clause can emasculate your agreement How intellectual property provisions in your agreements can be a trap for the unwary Three negotiating techniques guaranteed to work every time Four ways to keep your technology contracts out of court How to negotiate an agreement that simply communicates your deal so that the parties have nothing to fight about
Vertical Solutions – What Does It Take To Succeed?
Join our member speakers Kent Hollrah, President of JMT Consulting, and William Vespe, President of BCS ProSoft, as they discuss how they have gone “vertical” with two very different, yet successful, approaches to the concept (JMT focuses on the consulting services associated with non‐profits, while BCS ProSoft developed a software solution for the equipment rental industry and sells the product through the Sage reseller channel). Each speaker will discuss: Why each company decided to focus on a vertical How they decided on their specific vertical and the scope of their vertical practice How they developed the required expertise What their original plans and ROI objectives were, including start up costs and time investments How they market their offerings How they deliver their offerings What were the keys to success and what were the biggest obstacles What the final results of going vertical have been to date As a result of having attended this session, you will have a better understanding of the value of developing vertical expertise in your business. You will also leave armed with some concrete ideas on how you can develop that expertise.
ITA Project Management Initiative: Closing Projects
ITA remains committed to helping its member firms improve in the Art of Effective Project (and Client) Management. We believe that standard processes exist for delivering successful project work, time after time. This session is dedicated to the idea the there are ways to effectively close IT related projects. Accomplishing this is not as easy as it sounds, as it requires us to take the time to capture the learning that was done on each and every project, and then incorporate that information back into our methodology. We need to think differently about these type situations than we have in the past. You are invited to attend this session which will be facilitated by Kevin Cumley, Chairman of the ITA Project Management Committee, and presented by Ed Kless from Sage North America. Best Practices in Project Management Come and join a panel of ITA members who have employed various methods to deliver effective project management to their clients and projects. They will discuss the utilization of different resources and methodologies to deliver their versions of appropriate project management. This session will enable you to listen to the pluses and minuses of employing alternative project management methodologies, and allow you to evaluate them for possible use in your own firm.
What Does Your Next Customer Know About You? – A 3 Session Deep Dive
This session will help you sharpen the saw of effective communication skills. As your organization moves from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and beyond, communication – written, spoken, and captured online ‐ will help you showcase your expertise for current and future customers. The foundation, energy and personality of a presence attractive to the market is communicated through written and spoken word ‐ so it is even more critical to master basic writing and presentation skills while looking to leverage technology to make you message available to your market on a variety of platforms. (Session 1) Writing to Delight In this session we will look at ways to make the writing process and readers experience a delight. We will examine some tips and tricks to get the creative juices flowing, overcome writer’s block, and develop the habit of daily writing. We will then review a process of leveraging your library of content for your future customers through newsletters, web site content, blogs, and microblogs. You’ll create a list of article topics, receive tools, templates, and inspiration. (Session 2) How to Look and Sound Like a Leader Great presenters move audiences. They focus on a few key points and connect with listener needs. They also have a style that inspires confidence. This program focuses on two things: Organizing a Message: The most persuasive messages gain impact by focusing on only a few ideas. They persuade by bringing those ideas to life with stories and examples. In the first part of the program, participants will learn from communications expert Joey Asher a method for creating a simple, yet persuasive message. The second half of this session will focus on Style and Building Relationships: How you look and sound matters a lot. This part of the program involves a series of fun, interactive exercises designed to help participants understand the importance of presentation style. (Session 3) The Web: Bringing It All Together Online Does it make sense to optimize something that is flat, stale, and unchanging? In this session, we’ll discuss how to use your writing and presentations to super charge your web site, fuel better search results (SEO), and provide an environment for customers (and future customers) to get to know, like, and trust you as a prelude to eventually doing business with you and/or referring you to others. Winning in the Market with Superior Customer Experience Join Doug Meyer, Chief Customer Officer at Sage, for an interactive session that will focus in on the important role that the customer’s experience plays in the success of any business. During this session, participants will collaborate on exploring and defining customer experience, clarifying how people and processes play a role in that experience, identifying key moments of truth with customers/clients, and recognizing the true value of customer loyalty. All participants will leave this session with the information they need to improve the customer experience they provide in their own practice or business. If you want to truly set yourself apart from your competition, and take your business to the next level, this session is a “must attend”. Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google present to us the business case for both end user Google SaaS Office Productivity Apps use, and for becoming part of the Google channel program. Attend this session to learn what solutions Google will be providing the SMB market space, how they are being positioned and delivered vs the existing offerings, why customers will buy them and how, and how you might participate in, and profit from, their channel/reseller program efforts.
IT Consulting (ITC) Track
Concepts for Pricing Managed Services As the Managed Services model continues to mature, the market has become increasingly competitive. Building and properly pricing the services your firm will deliver can be the difference between winning and losing business. After completing this session participants will learn: Contract structures and options from others in the industry The competitive landscape across geographies How to price your offerings and what has been most effective to others in the same industry Offerings and pricing models to avoid and why Best Practices for Managed Services Operations You know there is a better way to provide services, and could figure it out if you had more time. This session will focus on the best practices in managed services for one or two key areas out of the dozens that your practice does daily, and will provide you the road map of a blended best practice. In this session, a couple selected best MSP practices will be reviewed and blended into diagrams for our review and discussion. This is not a presentation, but an interactive group discussion, given with the intent of producing two best practice procedures that you can apply when you return to your office. As a bonus, an exciting new documentation tool will be utilized. How to Partner and Price a Relationship with a Hosting Solution We are all trying to maximize revenue, and the cloud is a reality. Come meet and talk with some hosting providers that will lead you to the right questions to ask, and the right solutions to implement. This will allow you to focus on streamlining your offerings and get the most bang for your buck out of a partnered solution with another vendor. Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google present to us the business case for both end user Google SaaS Office Productivity Apps use, and for becoming part of the Google channel program. Attend this session to learn what solutions Google will be providing the SMB market space, how they are being positioned and delivered vs the existing offerings, why customers will buy them and how, and how you might participate in, and profit from, their channel/reseller program efforts. Where is the Health Care Money, and How Do I Get Some? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act or Stimulus Bill) that provide incentive payments for the meaningful use of certified technology starting in 2011. Incentives for providers and hospitals using the technology will range from $14.1 billion on the low end to $27.3 billion on the high end over the next five years. While many of the details are still being defined by CMS, the goal of this session is to help prepare you for the discussion with your current or future healthcare clients, and how you may play a role in helping them take advantage of these massive, new, government programs. Compensation Best Practices for Recurring Revenue Services Compensation drives behavior, and for many VARs with recurring revenue models finding the right compensation package is a difficult and critical task. Join our panel of members and industry experts as we review some real world compensation models. Participants will learn from their peer’s experiences and get a look at what has worked successfully in their organizations along with pitfalls to avoid. After completing this session you will be armed with: A portfolio of strategies and examples that you might deploy in your firm How to compensate your recurring revenue sales team beyond just the dollars and cents Methods for compensating non‐sales staff to help drive revenue
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL) Tracks
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables 2.0 Members of the ITL group consistently rate the roundtable sessions as one of the highlights of the ITA meetings. We have listened to the feedback provided in the wrap up sessions, and we’re going to try something new. We have added a second roundtable session Monday afternoon where the “hottest” topics from the morning will be discussed among the entire group so we can all benefit from the comments. So, we’re asking members of the Strategic and Tactical tracks to come prepared with firm updates and pressing industry topics for the table conversations Monday morning, knowing that if yours is rated highly, you will be giving it again in the afternoon in a bit more detailed fashion. So come prepared to share what’s happening in your practices and to give us feedback on our new format. These roundtable sessions allow ITL’ers to collaborate on key technology initiatives, challenges, and concerns within their respective organizations. Participants will be divided into three or four groups, and should come prepared to share within their group the top projects and priorities either in process or being planned for implementation in their firms. Personal and Other Sensitive Information – How to Find and Control It Does your firm prepare tax returns? Do you audit pension plans? If so you likely have PI (Personal Information) lurking on your PCs and servers. While most of us will readily acknowledge this is true, finding Personal Information is time consuming, frustrating, and practically impossible – or is it? Come and listen as Brian Prascius shares with you how Plante Moran utilizes Identity Finder to find SSNs, Dates of Birth, Passwords, Credit Card, Bank Account Numbers, and yes ‐ even your mother’s maiden name. Do You Blog? Twitter? Facebook? Does Your Firm? ‐ Firms Report on Their Social Media Strategies What do Lindsay Lohan, Barack Obama, and Jeremy Newman (BDO CEO) all have in common? They blog! Do you? Do you Twitter? Facebook? Does your firm? Is your firm recruiting or marketing using social networking tools? If so, how well do you understand your firm's strategy, and are you involved in the strategy setting, or just asked to deal with it? In this session you will hear from three of your peers on this topic. These firms will share their social networking strategies including their take on the value proposition for practice development, marketing, knowledge management, and recruiting. They will also discuss the implications of these strategies on technology infrastructure and compliance. Session attendees will leave better informed, as they decide to either "get with the program", or continue to passively resist! Which is it? Lead? Follow? Or get out of the way!? Windows 7 – What’s Your Story? Windows 7 is now available! Should you deploy it now, or should you wait? Come join us as we have three firms share where they are at with their Windows 7 rollout plans, and more importantly, what “opportunities” they have discovered in testing and how they are dealing with them. Time will be set aside for an open room discussion, so come prepared to share with the group what you are doing with Windows 7 and the “opportunities” you have uncovered. Navigating the Changing Tide of Compliance and Litigation This panel discussion will cover the hot topics of compliance, litigation, and what keeps you up at night. Are you prepared to handle this changing regulatory landscape? Have you set up a compliance organizational chart, written an information security program, performed a risk assessment, have a plan to educate your employees, monitor compliance, control Personally Identifiable Information (PII), set up a plan for securing paperwork, dealing with the Massachusetts law (Data Transmission), and do you have an E‐discovery plan in place? Gain valuable insights on how your peers are handling these challenges, and be ready to contribute your thoughts and firm’s best practices.
Even a Geek Can Speak Can you? Sure, you get your point across (you think), but do you consider yourself a great communicator? Just because you manage a technical function, in a technical business, that doesn't mean you can afford to be challenged in the area of communication and interaction with others. In fact, since we all have a focus on customer service and business relationship management, quite the opposite is true. Attend this session to learn proven communication tips and techniques from an expert in the field. Joey Asher, author of Even a Geek Can Speak, has made a career out of teaching technical leaders how to be better communicators. Take inventory of your current communication skills, and bring your open mind to this fun and informative session. You will be glad you did. Office 2010 and SharePoint Integrations: What’s New and What’s Important Nearly all ITA member firms have extensive deployments of MS Office and MS Office SharePoint Server. The new Office 2010 application suite will be released soon, and SharePoint 2010 is not far behind. Attend this session to get a closer look at the key features and synergy's MS has built in to these two widely used applications. Our presenter is an MS Business Partner and early adopter of the 2010 applications. He will share insights about transition issues, resource requirements, and how the updated applications can deliver practical value to your Information Workers. Google Enterprise Update We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google update us on the vision and objectives that Google has developed and targeted for Enterprise customers. Learn what is coming (and what’s already available), when it’s coming, and why you should be carefully considering the Google options. Google has big plans, with lots of moving pieces. Attend this session to see what those pieces are, how they are intended to come together, and how they might benefit you and your firm. Demand Management at Crowe Too many systems requests? Not sure which requests should be on the front burner? Demand management is a critical element of IT governance that optimizes the business investment in IT. In an ideal environment, resources are in abundant supply, priorities never change, and all new projects have a solid financial business case. In the real world, IT is constantly juggling demand versus supply, and prioritizing keeping the lights on against transformational business projects. Join this session facilitated by Crowe’s CIO Yvonne Scott to learn how Crowe has developed and implemented a more formal approach to demand management. Come prepared to share how your firm is managing both operational and strategic demand and assess your demand management maturity. Mobility Devices Session Mobile Devices continue to grow in popularity and importance to our practices, and they are truly becoming a handheld business computer. The number of commercial applications being created continues to grow. How do such applications fit into the accounting space? What applications are firms using today that provide a true business value, and not just another silly "IPhone app"? And when you do extend the firm network and apps to these mobile devices, what actions are you taking to protect and secure firm and client data? Encryption products, IT mobile monitoring tools, and IT policies will be covered in this session. Particular policy exceptions will arise and we will discuss the alternatives.
MAKE YOUR ROOM RESERVATIONS NOW!
To Book Online, Click on This Link Or Call For Reservations In House: (404) 365-0065 - Preferred Central Reservations: 1-800-937-8461 (WESTIN1) Mention Information Technology Alliance (ITA) to get our discounted rate. Rate & Other Details $199 Single or Double plus taxes. This rate is good 3 days prior and 3 days following the event, subject to availability of guest rooms at the time of reservation. The Cut-off is April 1. Sleeping rooms have wired and wireless high-speed internet access included in the ITA rate.
To Register
Send an e-mail to ITA: [email protected] Please provide the following information for each planned attendee: Full Name Business Phone Address City, State or Province E-mail Primary Meeting Track Focus – CR, ITC, or ITL Cost There is no advance registration fee to attend this meeting. Each participant that has not already pre-paid will be billed following the meeting on a cost-shared basis for all our meeting’s direct costs. The anticipated per-person amount based upon expected attendance and meeting costs should be between $500 and $600. The Pre-Paid People are: Internal Tech Leaders – 3 per firm Alliance Partners – 2 per company Affinity Partners & Venders & Consultants to the Profession – 1 per company
NASBA Registry Information
Credit Hours: Up to 15 hours of CPE available. Learning Objective: Depending upon the sessions you choose to attend, you will learn best practices and hear what other industry leaders are doing with respect to: current and emerging technologies, practice and project management, staffing, marketing, and customer/client service. Program Content: The program will feature three tracks of educational content: IT Software Consulting (Sales, Support and Implementation), Internal IT for large CPA Firms, and IT Client Infrastructure & Managed Services Consulting. In each track, sessions will be offered about the latest technologies or practice methodologies that will enable member clients or their businesses to be more successful. Fields of Study: Business Management and Organization Finance Management Advisory Services Marketing Communications Personal Development Personnel/HR Computer Science Statistics Level – Update Prerequisites – Minimum 3 Years as an IT Consultant or Technician Advance Preparation – None Instructional Delivery Method – Lecture & Discussion Information Technology Alliance 107740 is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN 37219-2417 or by visiting the web site: www.nasba.org Administration Records are maintained in accordance with CPE requirements. Questions, concerns or for more information regarding administrative policies such as complaint or refund should be made in writing to ITA Headquarters, 23940 N. 73rd Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85255-3425, Telephone (480) 515-2003.
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Ballroom CDE
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Ballroom B
IT Consulting (ITC) Tuxedo
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL - Tactical)) Chastain
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL - Strategic) East & West Paces
Strategic and Full Group
Sunday April 25
9:00 AM 4:00 PM
Optional Golf - Details to Follow Registration & Opening Networking Reception - Ballroom CDE
Consulting Benchmarking Results (for survey participants & new CR members only)
4:30 PM
7:00 PM
(Dinner on Your Own)
5:00 PM
6:15 PM
Monday, April 26
7:00 AM 8:15 AM
Registration, Full Breakfast & Networking - Ballroon A
8:15 AM
9:00 AM
Opening Remarks, Introductions & ITA Business Meeting - Ballroom B-E
9:00 AM
10:15 AM
Keynote Presentation: Take Your Best Shot: Turning Tough Situations Into Opportunities (Ken Futch) - Ballroom B-E
10:45 AM
12:15 PM
Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline
How to Move Upscale What's Happening in My Landing & Implementing Practice Group Discussion Large Clients and Projects
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables
12:15 PM
1:30 PM
Luncheon & Networking - Ballroom A
1:30 PM
2:30 PM
The Legal Aspects of Business Intellligence (BI) Negotiating Tech and SaaS - What you Need to Know Deals - Protecting Your IP
ITC WOWs
Roundtable Session Drill Downs
Roundtable Session Drill Downs
2:45 PM
4:00 PM
Who Is Doing BI, and How Are They Doing It?
Vertical Solutions What Does it Take to Succeed
Concepts for Pricing Managed Services
Personal and Other Sensitive Information – How to Find and Control It
Do You Blog? Twitter? Facebook? Does Your Firm? - Firms Report on Their Social Media Strategies Navigating the Changing Tide of Compliance and Litigation
4:25 PM
5:25 PM
BI - illuminate the Solution
New ITA Member Sessions - Citrix Online, Applianz, and InsynQ
Best Practices for Managed Services Operations
Windows 7 What's Your Story
6:45 PM
10:30 PM
Dinner Party at Maggianos (A short walk)
Tuesday, April 27
7:15 AM 8:15 AM
Full Breakfast & Networking - Ballroom A
8:15 AM
9:15 AM
Communications Writing to Delight
ITA Project Management Initiative: Closing Projects
Where's the Health Care Money, and How Do I Get Some?
Even a Geek Can Speak
9:35 AM
10:50 AM
Communications - How to Fulltime Project Managers Why They Work and Why Look and Sound Like a They Don't Leader
Compensation Best Practices for Recurring Revenue Services
Google Enterprise Update
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
Communications The Web: Bringing It All Together Online
Winning in the Market with Superior Customer Experience
How to Partner and Price a Relationship with a Hosting Solution
Demand Management The Crowe Way
Office 2010 and SharePoint Integrations: What’s New and What’s Important
12:00 PM
1:15 PM
Luncheon & Networking - Ballroom A
1:15 PM
2:15 PM
Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program - Ballroom B-E
Mobility Device Update
Large Firms Update
2:30 PM
3:45 PM
Technology Futures - 2010 (Rick Richardson) - Ballroom B-E
4:10 PM
4:30 PM
Wrap Up & Adjourn - Ballroom B
Wrap Up & Adjourn
Session Content Descriptions
General Sessions
Opening General Session Ken Futch
Take Your Best Shot: Turning Tough Situations Into Opportunities A moment can change a life. Ken has an astonishing true story of how he accidentally shot himself in the head – and how it opened his mind! Hilarious, inspiring, and motivating, it’ll give you a (w)hole new perspective! In this program, attendees will learn how to: Utilize the primary components for capitalizing on opportunities: recognition, preparation, and action Recognize the opportunities in adversity and change Identify methods to add value to routine interactions Acquire techniques for helping others maximize their opportunities Activate the power in feedback Stimulate self‐confidence by showing belief in others Create environments that foster self‐motivation In times of dramatic change, discover how you can position yourself to maximize your opportunities. Find out what critical factors impact your success, and identify the silver bullets that will help you “Take Your Best Shot”!
Closing General Session Rick Richardson
Technology Futures – 2010 Rick Richardson began providing CPAs with his technology futures forecast in 1981 and this year will mark an unbroken string of 30 years of predicting our technology future. Rick will provide attendees with his vision of both the short and longer‐term future for technology, including technologies important to accounting and consulting professionals. Topics will include a review of prior‐year predictions; what the major‐market companies are doing, and how their actions will affect all of us; current trends in hardware, software, and communications, and the emerging technologies that will bring those trends into reality. Rick will conclude with his current personal forecasts on our technology future. Look for Rick to bring some of the latest technologies with him to share with participants.
Consulting & Reselling (CR) Tracks
2009 Consulting Benchmarking Results (session ONLY for those who participate in the survey) This session remains a cornerstone in our annual Spring meetings. Again this year, ITA member Bob Gaby will take the lead in presenting an analysis of the financial and operational data submitted by members, and offer comparisons to prior year results and overall industry trends and data points as compiled by ITA member SPI Research. What key factor metrics and trends will emerge? How will your Firm’s results measure up to your peer’ results? Use this data to find your Firm’s strengthens and weaknesses and the places where we might improve your profitability. Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline Do you know how to effectively handle the toughest prospecting situations such as objections and put‐offs? Can you easily uncover your prospect’s hot buttons and grab their interest even if they initially say they are not interested? If you have been putting off regularly scheduled prospecting because it has been unsuccessful in the past then this session by ITA member Novation Selling will teach you exactly how to accomplish these tasks: Develop trust and credibility in the first few minutes Break through the put‐offs that prospects use on “salespeople” Develop an effective 30‐second commercial that really works Disqualify non‐buyers early in the sales cycle so you do not waste time on people that are not actually prospects Shorten your overall selling cycle
Business Intelligence – A 3 Session Deep Dive
According to many industry researchers, Business Intelligence (BI) is driving much of the systems purchasing decisions today. Business owners and managers want actionable intelligence on their business, their customers, their competitors, and their markets. In the “old days”, BI was an expensive undertaking, with expensive software and heavy doses of consulting time. Today, the tools are better, and the respective price tags have come down. As a result, the opportunity to build a meaningful new service for your clients is greater than ever. We will look at the details of this opportunity in detail in the following 3 part “deep dive”. (Session 1) Business Intelligence – The Opportunity Overview Technology continues to change at an ever‐increasing rate. Users continue to adopt new technologies in the workplace for business advantage. This whirlwind of change is having a major affect on the BI space. This session will focus on usage trends and emerging technologies that will drive adoption and the value of this key business enabler. Our opening speaker will explore the current market dynamics surrounding BI, including a look at the role of social networking, mashups, handheld devices, search, and other leading‐edge technologies have in driving the future of BI and the future of organizational decision making. Just as importantly, we'll look at the consulting environment that needs to be in place to make these projects successful. (Session 2) Who Is Doing BI, and How Are They Doing It? Everywhere you look, businesses are inundated with information. The good news? Leveraged correctly, that information can be used to successfully guide corporate strategy, accelerate decision‐making, and significantly improve performance. The better news? There is huge potential for the consultants that can deliver BI consulting and tools to their customer. Learn how several ITA members have embraced the BI opportunity and developed practices that deliver actionable data that has contributed to the value of their customer’s business. We’ll look at BI from the perspective of what it takes to get started, and how a BI practice differs from the traditional ERP consulting model. (Session 3) BI – illuminate the Solution Business Intelligence continues to elude most organizations as they struggle to get real measurable business value out of their data. This is only the tip of the BI iceberg; the 90% below the waterline is the data, the unseen, often ignored part. This educational presentation from new ITA member illuminate Solutions will focus on the different ways a BI practice and various tool sets can be developed and deployed to meet different client sized opportunities.
The Legal Aspects of Negotiating Tech and SaaS Deals – Protecting your IP Technology‐related deals raise many complex legal and business issues that need to be thoroughly negotiated and documented in your agreements. From complex software licensing to cloud computing deals to outsourcing to the Internet, tech and telecom deals have their own customs, usages, and norms. In this seminar, widely known IP attorney Mark Grossman will give you insight into the real language he’s used in real deals. What are the norms in the industry? What concessions should you expect? How technical must a tech contract be? The discussion will include intellectual property, licensing, warranties, limitations of liability, performance standards, acceptance testing procedures and change orders, to name a few. You will find these issues arising in all types of deals including those that involve managed services, cloud computing, telecommunications, and Software as a Service. In this session, you will learn: Four key provisions you need in every technology contract How a limitation of liability clause can emasculate your agreement How intellectual property provisions in your agreements can be a trap for the unwary Three negotiating techniques guaranteed to work every time Four ways to keep your technology contracts out of court How to negotiate an agreement that simply communicates your deal so that the parties have nothing to fight about
Vertical Solutions – What Does It Take To Succeed?
Join our member speakers Kent Hollrah, President of JMT Consulting, and William Vespe, President of BCS ProSoft, as they discuss how they have gone “vertical” with two very different, yet successful, approaches to the concept (JMT focuses on the consulting services associated with non‐profits, while BCS ProSoft developed a software solution for the equipment rental industry and sells the product through the Sage reseller channel). Each speaker will discuss: Why each company decided to focus on a vertical How they decided on their specific vertical and the scope of their vertical practice How they developed the required expertise What their original plans and ROI objectives were, including start up costs and time investments How they market their offerings How they deliver their offerings What were the keys to success and what were the biggest obstacles What the final results of going vertical have been to date As a result of having attended this session, you will have a better understanding of the value of developing vertical expertise in your business. You will also leave armed with some concrete ideas on how you can develop that expertise.
ITA Project Management Initiative: Closing Projects
ITA remains committed to helping its member firms improve in the Art of Effective Project (and Client) Management. We believe that standard processes exist for delivering successful project work, time after time. This session is dedicated to the idea the there are ways to effectively close IT related projects. Accomplishing this is not as easy as it sounds, as it requires us to take the time to capture the learning that was done on each and every project, and then incorporate that information back into our methodology. We need to think differently about these type situations than we have in the past. You are invited to attend this session which will be facilitated by Kevin Cumley, Chairman of the ITA Project Management Committee, and presented by Ed Kless from Sage North America. Best Practices in Project Management Come and join a panel of ITA members who have employed various methods to deliver effective project management to their clients and projects. They will discuss the utilization of different resources and methodologies to deliver their versions of appropriate project management. This session will enable you to listen to the pluses and minuses of employing alternative project management methodologies, and allow you to evaluate them for possible use in your own firm.
What Does Your Next Customer Know About You? – A 3 Session Deep Dive
This session will help you sharpen the saw of effective communication skills. As your organization moves from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and beyond, communication – written, spoken, and captured online ‐ will help you showcase your expertise for current and future customers. The foundation, energy and personality of a presence attractive to the market is communicated through written and spoken word ‐ so it is even more critical to master basic writing and presentation skills while looking to leverage technology to make you message available to your market on a variety of platforms. (Session 1) Writing to Delight In this session we will look at ways to make the writing process and readers experience a delight. We will examine some tips and tricks to get the creative juices flowing, overcome writer’s block, and develop the habit of daily writing. We will then review a process of leveraging your library of content for your future customers through newsletters, web site content, blogs, and microblogs. You’ll create a list of article topics, receive tools, templates, and inspiration. (Session 2) How to Look and Sound Like a Leader Great presenters move audiences. They focus on a few key points and connect with listener needs. They also have a style that inspires confidence. This program focuses on two things: Organizing a Message: The most persuasive messages gain impact by focusing on only a few ideas. They persuade by bringing those ideas to life with stories and examples. In the first part of the program, participants will learn from communications expert Joey Asher a method for creating a simple, yet persuasive message. The second half of this session will focus on Style and Building Relationships: How you look and sound matters a lot. This part of the program involves a series of fun, interactive exercises designed to help participants understand the importance of presentation style. (Session 3) The Web: Bringing It All Together Online Does it make sense to optimize something that is flat, stale, and unchanging? In this session, we’ll discuss how to use your writing and presentations to super charge your web site, fuel better search results (SEO), and provide an environment for customers (and future customers) to get to know, like, and trust you as a prelude to eventually doing business with you and/or referring you to others. Winning in the Market with Superior Customer Experience Join Doug Meyer, Chief Customer Officer at Sage, for an interactive session that will focus in on the important role that the customer’s experience plays in the success of any business. During this session, participants will collaborate on exploring and defining customer experience, clarifying how people and processes play a role in that experience, identifying key moments of truth with customers/clients, and recognizing the true value of customer loyalty. All participants will leave this session with the information they need to improve the customer experience they provide in their own practice or business. If you want to truly set yourself apart from your competition, and take your business to the next level, this session is a “must attend”. Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google present to us the business case for both end user Google SaaS Office Productivity Apps use, and for becoming part of the Google channel program. Attend this session to learn what solutions Google will be providing the SMB market space, how they are being positioned and delivered vs the existing offerings, why customers will buy them and how, and how you might participate in, and profit from, their channel/reseller program efforts.
IT Consulting (ITC) Track
Concepts for Pricing Managed Services As the Managed Services model continues to mature, the market has become increasingly competitive. Building and properly pricing the services your firm will deliver can be the difference between winning and losing business. After completing this session participants will learn: Contract structures and options from others in the industry The competitive landscape across geographies How to price your offerings and what has been most effective to others in the same industry Offerings and pricing models to avoid and why Best Practices for Managed Services Operations You know there is a better way to provide services, and could figure it out if you had more time. This session will focus on the best practices in managed services for one or two key areas out of the dozens that your practice does daily, and will provide you the road map of a blended best practice. In this session, a couple selected best MSP practices will be reviewed and blended into diagrams for our review and discussion. This is not a presentation, but an interactive group discussion, given with the intent of producing two best practice procedures that you can apply when you return to your office. As a bonus, an exciting new documentation tool will be utilized. How to Partner and Price a Relationship with a Hosting Solution We are all trying to maximize revenue, and the cloud is a reality. Come meet and talk with some hosting providers that will lead you to the right questions to ask, and the right solutions to implement. This will allow you to focus on streamlining your offerings and get the most bang for your buck out of a partnered solution with another vendor. Google Apps and the Google Reseller Program We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google present to us the business case for both end user Google SaaS Office Productivity Apps use, and for becoming part of the Google channel program. Attend this session to learn what solutions Google will be providing the SMB market space, how they are being positioned and delivered vs the existing offerings, why customers will buy them and how, and how you might participate in, and profit from, their channel/reseller program efforts. Where is the Health Care Money, and How Do I Get Some? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act or Stimulus Bill) that provide incentive payments for the meaningful use of certified technology starting in 2011. Incentives for providers and hospitals using the technology will range from $14.1 billion on the low end to $27.3 billion on the high end over the next five years. While many of the details are still being defined by CMS, the goal of this session is to help prepare you for the discussion with your current or future healthcare clients, and how you may play a role in helping them take advantage of these massive, new, government programs. Compensation Best Practices for Recurring Revenue Services Compensation drives behavior, and for many VARs with recurring revenue models finding the right compensation package is a difficult and critical task. Join our panel of members and industry experts as we review some real world compensation models. Participants will learn from their peer’s experiences and get a look at what has worked successfully in their organizations along with pitfalls to avoid. After completing this session you will be armed with: A portfolio of strategies and examples that you might deploy in your firm How to compensate your recurring revenue sales team beyond just the dollars and cents Methods for compensating non‐sales staff to help drive revenue
Internal Tech Leaders (ITL) Tracks
What’s Happening in My Practice Roundtables 2.0 Members of the ITL group consistently rate the roundtable sessions as one of the highlights of the ITA meetings. We have listened to the feedback provided in the wrap up sessions, and we’re going to try something new. We have added a second roundtable session Monday afternoon where the “hottest” topics from the morning will be discussed among the entire group so we can all benefit from the comments. So, we’re asking members of the Strategic and Tactical tracks to come prepared with firm updates and pressing industry topics for the table conversations Monday morning, knowing that if yours is rated highly, you will be giving it again in the afternoon in a bit more detailed fashion. So come prepared to share what’s happening in your practices and to give us feedback on our new format. These roundtable sessions allow ITL’ers to collaborate on key technology initiatives, challenges, and concerns within their respective organizations. Participants will be divided into three or four groups, and should come prepared to share within their group the top projects and priorities either in process or being planned for implementation in their firms. Personal and Other Sensitive Information – How to Find and Control It Does your firm prepare tax returns? Do you audit pension plans? If so you likely have PI (Personal Information) lurking on your PCs and servers. While most of us will readily acknowledge this is true, finding Personal Information is time consuming, frustrating, and practically impossible – or is it? Come and listen as Brian Prascius shares with you how Plante Moran utilizes Identity Finder to find SSNs, Dates of Birth, Passwords, Credit Card, Bank Account Numbers, and yes ‐ even your mother’s maiden name. Do You Blog? Twitter? Facebook? Does Your Firm? ‐ Firms Report on Their Social Media Strategies What do Lindsay Lohan, Barack Obama, and Jeremy Newman (BDO CEO) all have in common? They blog! Do you? Do you Twitter? Facebook? Does your firm? Is your firm recruiting or marketing using social networking tools? If so, how well do you understand your firm's strategy, and are you involved in the strategy setting, or just asked to deal with it? In this session you will hear from three of your peers on this topic. These firms will share their social networking strategies including their take on the value proposition for practice development, marketing, knowledge management, and recruiting. They will also discuss the implications of these strategies on technology infrastructure and compliance. Session attendees will leave better informed, as they decide to either "get with the program", or continue to passively resist! Which is it? Lead? Follow? Or get out of the way!? Windows 7 – What’s Your Story? Windows 7 is now available! Should you deploy it now, or should you wait? Come join us as we have three firms share where they are at with their Windows 7 rollout plans, and more importantly, what “opportunities” they have discovered in testing and how they are dealing with them. Time will be set aside for an open room discussion, so come prepared to share with the group what you are doing with Windows 7 and the “opportunities” you have uncovered. Navigating the Changing Tide of Compliance and Litigation This panel discussion will cover the hot topics of compliance, litigation, and what keeps you up at night. Are you prepared to handle this changing regulatory landscape? Have you set up a compliance organizational chart, written an information security program, performed a risk assessment, have a plan to educate your employees, monitor compliance, control Personally Identifiable Information (PII), set up a plan for securing paperwork, dealing with the Massachusetts law (Data Transmission), and do you have an E‐discovery plan in place? Gain valuable insights on how your peers are handling these challenges, and be ready to contribute your thoughts and firm’s best practices.
Even a Geek Can Speak Can you? Sure, you get your point across (you think), but do you consider yourself a great communicator? Just because you manage a technical function, in a technical business, that doesn't mean you can afford to be challenged in the area of communication and interaction with others. In fact, since we all have a focus on customer service and business relationship management, quite the opposite is true. Attend this session to learn proven communication tips and techniques from an expert in the field. Joey Asher, author of Even a Geek Can Speak, has made a career out of teaching technical leaders how to be better communicators. Take inventory of your current communication skills, and bring your open mind to this fun and informative session. You will be glad you did. Office 2010 and SharePoint Integrations: What’s New and What’s Important Nearly all ITA member firms have extensive deployments of MS Office and MS Office SharePoint Server. The new Office 2010 application suite will be released soon, and SharePoint 2010 is not far behind. Attend this session to get a closer look at the key features and synergy's MS has built in to these two widely used applications. Our presenter is an MS Business Partner and early adopter of the 2010 applications. He will share insights about transition issues, resource requirements, and how the updated applications can deliver practical value to your Information Workers. Google Enterprise Update We have arranged to have Mr. Paul Slakey from Google update us on the vision and objectives that Google has developed and targeted for Enterprise customers. Learn what is coming (and what’s already available), when it’s coming, and why you should be carefully considering the Google options. Google has big plans, with lots of moving pieces. Attend this session to see what those pieces are, how they are intended to come together, and how they might benefit you and your firm. Demand Management at Crowe Too many systems requests? Not sure which requests should be on the front burner? Demand management is a critical element of IT governance that optimizes the business investment in IT. In an ideal environment, resources are in abundant supply, priorities never change, and all new projects have a solid financial business case. In the real world, IT is constantly juggling demand versus supply, and prioritizing keeping the lights on against transformational business projects. Join this session facilitated by Crowe’s CIO Yvonne Scott to learn how Crowe has developed and implemented a more formal approach to demand management. Come prepared to share how your firm is managing both operational and strategic demand and assess your demand management maturity. Mobility Devices Session Mobile Devices continue to grow in popularity and importance to our practices, and they are truly becoming a handheld business computer. The number of commercial applications being created continues to grow. How do such applications fit into the accounting space? What applications are firms using today that provide a true business value, and not just another silly "IPhone app"? And when you do extend the firm network and apps to these mobile devices, what actions are you taking to protect and secure firm and client data? Encryption products, IT mobile monitoring tools, and IT policies will be covered in this session. Particular policy exceptions will arise and we will discuss the alternatives.
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To Book Online, Click on This Link Or Call For Reservations In House: (404) 365-0065 - Preferred Central Reservations: 1-800-937-8461 (WESTIN1) Mention Information Technology Alliance (ITA) to get our discounted rate. Rate & Other Details $199 Single or Double plus taxes. This rate is good 3 days prior and 3 days following the event, subject to availability of guest rooms at the time of reservation. The Cut-off is April 1. Sleeping rooms have wired and wireless high-speed internet access included in the ITA rate.
To Register
Send an e-mail to ITA: [email protected] Please provide the following information for each planned attendee: Full Name Business Phone Address City, State or Province E-mail Primary Meeting Track Focus – CR, ITC, or ITL Cost There is no advance registration fee to attend this meeting. Each participant that has not already pre-paid will be billed following the meeting on a cost-shared basis for all our meeting’s direct costs. The anticipated per-person amount based upon expected attendance and meeting costs should be between $500 and $600. The Pre-Paid People are: Internal Tech Leaders – 3 per firm Alliance Partners – 2 per company Affinity Partners & Venders & Consultants to the Profession – 1 per company
NASBA Registry Information
Credit Hours: Up to 15 hours of CPE available. Learning Objective: Depending upon the sessions you choose to attend, you will learn best practices and hear what other industry leaders are doing with respect to: current and emerging technologies, practice and project management, staffing, marketing, and customer/client service. Program Content: The program will feature three tracks of educational content: IT Software Consulting (Sales, Support and Implementation), Internal IT for large CPA Firms, and IT Client Infrastructure & Managed Services Consulting. In each track, sessions will be offered about the latest technologies or practice methodologies that will enable member clients or their businesses to be more successful. Fields of Study: Business Management and Organization Finance Management Advisory Services Marketing Communications Personal Development Personnel/HR Computer Science Statistics Level – Update Prerequisites – Minimum 3 Years as an IT Consultant or Technician Advance Preparation – None Instructional Delivery Method – Lecture & Discussion Information Technology Alliance 107740 is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN 37219-2417 or by visiting the web site: www.nasba.org Administration Records are maintained in accordance with CPE requirements. Questions, concerns or for more information regarding administrative policies such as complaint or refund should be made in writing to ITA Headquarters, 23940 N. 73rd Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85255-3425, Telephone (480) 515-2003.
