With the baby boomer workforce starting to exit our profession, the Generation Xers starting to take control and the Generation Ys and the millennials just starting to get their feet wet, today’s firms and companies are faced with examining the ways in which their staff work and respond to the needs of their clients.

Unlike previous generations, today’s workforce is significantly more mobile. Gone are the days of being glued to the desk or bound by the confines of the office. Over the past few years, firms and companies have been forced to create ways for their staffs to get the job done, but today it’s all about getting it done on the worker’s timetable, anywhere, anytime.

As CPAs increasingly try to serve their clients remotely,vendors have been paying attention and have introduced a number of enabling devices and solutions to make the process easier.

Thinking back, the cell phone was one of those first enabling devices that allowed our partners and staff to communicate with our clients remotely, while away from the office.

Today, cell phones are a very small piece of that puzzle. Technologies and tools that support our mobile and remote computing needs include such things as:

• Laptops
• PDAs
• Smartphones
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
• Voice Over IP (VoIP)
• Wireless Technologies (WiFi, Wimax, EVDO, EDGE, etc.)

The tremendous power of the Internet and the backbone infrastructure that it provides, has allowed for these technologies and tools to rapidly develop and migrate throughout our firms and companies.

Remote connectivity technologies that allow remote users to connect to applications that are stored on remote computers and Virtual Private Networks, have revolutionized the way in which we go about accessing data that’s needed to properly and timely service our clients.

Hosted services (SaaS), application service providers (ASPs), teleconferencing solutions, new and unique VoIP solutions and Web-enabled meeting applications have all rapidly sprung up, introducing new ways to communicate with our clients and staff.

As mobile and remote computing technologies and platforms continue to expand, firms are finding even more ways to continue to delver applications and data anywhere anytime.

Some of the first hosted solutions to hit our profession appeared in the area of tax. These solutions allowed firms to provide not only access to client returns via the Web, but also provided the ability to process and print the returns as well.

The remote solutions for preparing financial statements and workpapers associated with audits, reviews and compilations were not far behind. Some of the best firms today are utilizing electronic engagement management applications that allow users to put together remotely all of the workpapers and other supporting documentation associated with these engagements. A simple synchronization before going into the field or a connection to the Internet, allows many of the best-of-breed products to effectively transfer data to and from the office.

With staff being more mobile, the need to access the office file room became a dilemma. As a result, vendors introduced applications allowing firms to store electronic versions of files traditionally stored in paper format. Many of the better solutions created a central repository for files and data that could be accessed via a Web-browser with a simple connection to the Internet.

Mobile Computing Today

A firm jumping into the mobile and remote computing arena today is at a clear advantage over firms that entered this marketplace a few years ago. A significant number of solutions are available to the firm in this now, very competitive environment.

As beneficial as mobile and remote computing is to firms today, all of these benefits can be stripped away if those technologies allow confidential and private client data to fall into the wrong hands or become compromised in any way.

As firms roll out these solutions and continue to find new and interesting ways to make data available and accessible to remote users, firms will need to ensure that they educate their staff on the issues surrounding security and client privacy on whatever platform they choose.

If your firm is interested in taking its mobile and remote computing efforts to the next level, visit the AICPA’s top technologies initiatives site.

James C. Bourke, is a Partner at WithumSmith+Brown where he is Director of Firm Technology. He is a past president of the New Jersey Society of CPAs and currently serves on AICPA Council and the AICPA CITP Credential Committee.