SUMMARY OF THE TECHNOLOGY PRACTICE GROUP TELEMEETING
October 1, 2012; 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
I. Convention
Jeremy Jarrell, bkr@bkr.com (Executive Office), convened the telemeeting at 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Time. Also participating were:
Paul Abke, Chairman (Detroit)
Terrence Beyersdorfer (Chicago)
John Jakuszanek (Detroit)
Louis Loparo (Cleveland)
Dan Lyman (Jacksonville)
Jesse Perkins (Rochester)
Jim Stern (Minneapolis)
Seth Turner (Canton)
paul.abke@ghdcpa.com
tbeyersdorfer@orba.com
john.jakuszanek@ghdcpa.com
louisl@hobe.com
dlyman@thelbagroup.com
jperkins@daviekaplan.com
jstern@dsb-cpa.com
seth@hallkistler.com
II. Citrix XenApp 6.5
Paul Abke said he recently installed Citrix XenApp 6.5 and wondered if anyone else had done
the same.
Jesse Perkins said he installed it, but they use it primarily for QuickBooks and little else.
Dan Lyman said they have been running version 6.0 for a little more than a year.
Paul said they had been experiencing printing issues with the new version. Dan said he uses
triCerat, which works very well for them.
Paul also asked about roaming profiles and redirecting to certain folders. Dan said he looked at
that, but it seemed like there was too much overhead, so they decided against it. He said
everybody’s profile just sticks to the Citrix server.
III. Portals
Dan asked if anyone had fully and successfully implemented portals for transferring everything
to/from their clients.
Jesse said they use CCH ProSystem’s SAS portal, which the firm’s clients have used successfully
for the most part. It is based on Silverlight. Sometimes they run into issues with Mac-based
clients, but there is a non-Silverlight version that they can use. Other than that, it is all very
intuitive, and they haven’t had any other major issues.
Paul uses DocIt’s portal. They haven’t transferred everything over to it yet; rather, they send
digital documents on an as-needed-basis.
Dan said some clients tend to send personal data through the portal, which could be intercepted.
He has been trying to strengthen everything from a security standpoint.
IV. Backup and Disaster Recovery
Dan asked what others are using for backup and disaster recovery. He currently uses Zenith
Infotech’s BDR solution.
Jesse uses AppAssure currently, but said that VMware ESX 5.1 is going to have offsite
replication capabilities built into it, so he is eager to check that out.
Paul said he uses an appliance similar to Dan’s, which they send offsite or to USB storage. They
have only a single location, though, so they haven’t set up mirroring or other options.
V. Smart Phone Policies
Dan asked what policies, if any, others have in place for users and their personal smart phones,
and how they enforce it.
Jim Stern said they have struggled with this for a long time. Employees generally use their own
devices, which they buy themselves, but the firm pays for the data plan. The firm also reserves
the right to go in and erase the phone at their discretion, which has caused some problems.
Paul said that iCloud is very impressive in its ability to back up the personal data on iPhones.
So, when a user restores their data, they simply won’t be able to reconnect to the Exchange
server. Jim said that, unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as that with Android devices.
VI. CCH Fixed Assets
Jim said they are migrating from VMA Fixed Assets to CCH Fixed Assets, and asked if anyone
had any advice or suggestions.
Dan said when you do the conversion, open everything up with the old software first so there is a
recent date on the files, because, after two years, you can’t open a fixed assets file. Also, he said
CCH Fixed Assets performs very well, but it is not very user friendly. Dan said they are now
preparing to switch from CCH Fixed Assets to Thomson Reuters Fixed Assets CS.
Paul said he also uses Thomson Reuters Fixed Assets CS and that, from various things he has
read, CCH Fixed Assets isn’t quite “there” yet.
VII. QuickBooks Hosting
Louis Loparo asked if anyone was hosting QuickBooks for their clients or using a third-party
application to do the same.
Jesse said that they use Citrix to host QuickBooks internally and also use Intuit for some clients.
They buy a license for each client that uses it. He said that, when hosting, it is best to keep things
as simple as possible in terms of what you offer to your clients.
Paul asked Jesse how he was structuring their data, assuming that they all were sharing a single
Citrix server. Jesse said they have a separate domain set up for the Citrix environment, where
they have an internal web interface for internal staff and an external web interface for external
staff.
Louis said he has been considering a company called Cloud9 Real Time, which offers
QuickBooks hosting.
VIII. Adjournment
The telemeeting was adjourned at approximately 2:45 p.m. The next Technology Practice Group
Telemeeting is scheduled for Monday, January 14, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.