WHY IS THIS GROUP CONSIDERED?
Most, if not all, of the firms in North America are committed to improving their client experiences and deliverables for tax services. In many cases, members have individuals within the practice areas who are dedicated to technology exploration, determination, implementation, and optimization. The challenges of finding, piloting, and then implementing technology are plentiful, therefore an LEA community dedicated to providing resources and information sharing is valuable.
Although there will be ongoing learning opportunities, the group is not intended to be an educationally focused group. The participants should be well versed and comfortable using technology, including those in emerging areas. While the level does not matter, regular participants should be viewed within their firms as influencers in firm decisions and actively involved in departmental efforts.
At this time, the Tax Steering Committee agrees to support the establishment of this group; however, it is not yet know whether it will be structured as a Collaboration Group or a Discussion Group.
WHO IS PARTICIPATING?
- Preliminary Steering Committee (SC) Members
- Cameron Thomas, Anders
- Kelly Smith, Bennett Thrasher
- Sherry Cracium-Bolin, Brown Plus
- LEA Global Team
- Nikki Dwyer
- Tony Szczepaniak
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE GROUP?
The SC believes that there are several key objectives that should be pursued by the group. These include:
- Create a community to share technology use and implementation experiences
- Establish a platform to share/discuss best practices within specific applications and store them for subsequent access
- Build an inventory of tax tech stacks currently employed by participating members
- Ease the identification, review, and pilot of new technology platforms
- Pursue vendor discounts where feasible
WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THE GROUP?
Although further discussion is required, the group is open to having an ongoing project, that refreshes once completed, that brings value to this group or the broader community.
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF PARTICIPANTS?
The SC agrees that this needs to include interested and committed individuals for this to be effective and valuable. As such, they agree with the following:
- Participating firms should be represented in at least 75% of the annual calls and meetings
- Firms should not have more than 3 people on any given call or meeting (exception could be on a call where there are software demonstrations)
- Individuals are expected to have cameras on during the calls
- Individuals are encouraged to bring others from their firm if they could add to the topical discussion at hand
