Michael Johnson

Changes in technology come with a variety of challenges. First, there is the need to change and adapt to the new advancements. There are always financial costs associated with this process. The effects of technology are often widespread. Some people are concerned that new products and programs will put them out of work. The new developments in robotics are a good example. Many workers are concerned that their jobs will be taken over by robots in the future.

If the past is any indication, this will not happen. What usually occurs is that the human workers do see a shift in the type of work they do, but they rarely are put out of work completely. Often, technological changes are a good thing. They make everyone’s job easier and remove all those boring, redundant tasks that no one wanted to do in the first place.

Technology in the accounting sector

The world of accounting has attracted numerous technological discoveries. These new programs reduce the error margin which leads to a more reliable outcome. Accounting programs can perform most tasks much easier than human beings and with more accuracy. This saves time and money for both the accountant and their customer. In the past, errors in financial reports or tax returns could cause quite a bit of trouble for everyone involved. With a good accounting program and someone to input the correct data, these errors are greatly reduced.

Stiff competition

Technology has increased the competition for accounting firms. Before the adoption of technology, accounting firms depended mostly on the skills of the employees of the firms. This meant, therefore, that competition was shaped by the accuracy and expertise of the workers in a firm. The credentials of an accounting firm’s employees went a long way in attracting a clientele.

In the world today, however, competition among accounting firms is shaped by technology. The first question that today’s client wants to know is which accounting software do you use. Everyone has a favorite accounting software and some people have a distinct dislike of certain programs. The one thing that software developers have learned over the years is to make all software as user friendly as possible. Accounting programs that require a genius to figure out don’t last very long. Everyone is searching for something they can learn quickly.

Increases in accounting fees

Modern accounting firms have raised their fees over the years, but so have all the other professions. Just try finding a lawyer who will work for $100 per hour. This was once a huge amount of money but today’s attorney’s charge an average of $300 per hour. Technology hasn’t made their fees any cheaper but it does make the job of billing clients much simpler.

The increase in accounting fees is attributable to a wide range of factors. The software purchase, maintenance, and renewal of licenses can be a big initial expense. Of course, with each new program that is released, that expensive software you just purchased may become obsolete overnight. For this reason, many accounting professionals choose monthly subscriptions. This concept allows an accounting firm to get the most advanced software on the market. The monthly subscription fee includes regular updates. This means that your software will never be obsolete. Usually, regular maintenance and support is included in your monthly charge as well. Many websites include training for your employees.

Most accountants will say that they enjoy and appreciate this type of convenience. They can focus on working with their customers. They don’t even have to think about whether their software is working okay and contains the latest changes in tax law. Everything works like it’s supposed to and if you have a problem, simply call the vendor and they will fix things straightaway.

Accounting programs do everything from reconciling bank statements to sending invoices to customers. Though these programs will never replace humans, they make their work much easier. They give the accountant time to find ways to help their clients save money.

Filing taxes

This task has always been stressful for individuals and business owners alike. There’s just no getting around paying your taxes though. Benjamin Franklin said that nothing in this life is certain except for death and taxes. Whether you own a small business or work for an employer, doing your taxes on time and correctly each year is imperative. If accounting software didn’t do anything except our taxes, it would be well worth it.

A good accounting program can help you keep track of your expenses throughout the year. You no longer need a shoebox for all those receipts. When it’s time to file your taxes, you can import all that data into the tax filing software and save yourself lots of time. Many people are still not comfortable doing their own taxes and since IRS penalties are often severe, it may be best to hire a good accountant to do them for you. Tax time is the busiest time of year for accountants.

Final thoughts

For accountants, technology has overall been very positive. The role of accountants has changed because of reliable software programs like Xero. Your accountant has the time to talk to you about saving money on your tax return, investing in new property, and ways to save on supplies. The role of the accountant has changed some due to technological advancements, but the changes have all been good.

Compliance Manager

Introduced by Microsoft, Compliance Manager is a data tracking system designed to ensure companies adhere to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Organizations can sign up for paid Compliance Manager or subscribe to a free Compliance Manager via Microsoft tools such as Microsoft Azure, Dynamic 365 or Microsoft Cloud Services. Microsoft recently released the long-awaited office 365 GDPR Compliance Manager with a few upgrades. Professionals are eagerly trying it out and giving their opinions about this exciting new product. The compliance management tool is expected to attain general availability on different platforms in the course of 2018. Here’s a sneak peek at the basic attributes of this highly anticipated GDPR data protection compliance tool.

Relevance of the new Office 365 GDPR Compliance Manager

Microsoft finally unveiled their much-awaited General Data Protection Regulation program that experts have been so excited about. Shortly after, they announced its features in a blog post and details of the new features to help users get started. Most users do look forward to new office products, but this one has been designed to make compliance to the new GDPR regulations much easier. That makes it a valuable tool that every business needs. Most business owners confess that they don’t know enough about the new GDPR rules and they are not ready for the May 25 deadline.

One key attribute of the new Office 365 is that it will include the compliance manager which was first previewed in November 2017. To date, the compliance manager is available on Azure, Dynamics 365, and Office 365 Business. Plans are also underway to have it available for Enterprise Customers via public clouds in the near future.

So what’s all the fuss about the new Office 365 GDPR Compliance Manager?

Customers have complained about difficult-to-understand compliance challenges and the GDPR is admittedly a complex document. Microsoft has attempted to take some of the complexity and mystery out of these regulations so that business owners can comply without having to hire outside help.

The most common challenge has been the lack of in-house employees who understand how to prepare and fulfill these new regulations. Office 365 GDPR Compliance Manager is tailored to ensure end-to-end regulation compliance. It also effectively empowers your business to manage the three key components of compliance. As your business uses this product, it will continuously provide you with a risk assessment and score that can alert you if you aren’t in full compliance in some areas.

Advanced GDPR Compliance

Microsoft’s Compliance Manager was developed to track an organization’s IT systems in specific regard to the requirements of international standards for data protection. One major issue has been that many company owners have simply not taken steps to be ready for the May 25 deadline, when all web sites who do business with European companies must adhere to EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

To help with this problem, Microsoft has unveiled a special GDPR template which will effectively detect and categorize personal information in your data base relevant to GDPR. This is important because many companies are still somewhat careless with their customer’s personal data. According to GDPR, companies failing to provide adequate protection for customer data could face penalties of up to €20 million.

The Compliance Manager has two features that customers will use to scan and assess data risk:

1. Compliance Score- Users are now able to assess data risk on an interactive dashboard on the new Microsoft 365 GDPR.
2. Azure Information Protection Scanner- This feature identifies, classifies, labels and effectively protects both on-premises and hybrid user data. It periodically scans sensitive data on emails and attachments based on the organization’s policies.

New Admin Role of Compliance Manager

Along with these two outstanding updates to Microsoft Compliance Manager is a unified labelling tweak on the admin dashboard. Microsoft cited protection of documents as the main reason for unified labeling, which it denotes as information protection administration. In the past, security admins and global admins could access the systems as separate entities to the Azure data protection service. With the new Compliance Manager, the option of additional management access permission is missing on the Azure portal and PowerShell unifying security and global admin roles.

With this new set up, the compliance manager ensures consistency in the labeling of information for easy protection of data records. However, the unified admin labeling role is still on a preview phase. At the moment, it allows the admin to apply a data protection setting which differentiates security functions from general global admin functions on a single interface in line with GDPR. Microsoft’s compliance manager is now available for customers on a paid program and or a trial option for users of Microsoft cloud services.

The Future of Data Compliance

The number of customers and companies worried about cyber theft is growing. Consequently, there’s a rising need for tools that can help protect customer data. The GDPR attempts to do this. As long as data stays scattered across an organization’s systems, there’s a greater risk that it will be stolen or compromised in some way. Compliance with GDPR guidelines seeks to eliminate many of these risks. Though it will constitute a huge challenge for most website owners, the alternative is unacceptable. Hopefully, the new Office 365 GDPR Compliance Manager can take some of the confusion and apprehension out of the equation.

With the increase and diversification of consumer goods in the world today, there is a constant need for more manufacturing firms. Most manufacturing firms work around the clock and still can’t meet the needs of their customers. These companies play a big role in ensuring that the desires of consumers are met. Because of the urgent nature of manufacturing products, many manufacturers face numerous challenges.

These include:

Evolving consumer needs

Consumer’s tastes and needs are constantly evolving. Consumer needs are affected by factors such as the entertainment industry, the latest fashion trends, the weather, and even the environment in which the consumer lives. Manufacturing firms must constantly be scrambling to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers. This can be a daunting task. For most companies, it’s time-consuming and expensive to change the manufacturing process. Changes in consumer needs can either be systemic or abrupt. While systemic changes are predictable and somewhat easier to deal with, changes which occur abruptly pose the greatest challenge to manufacturing firms. Firms are forced to make unexpected modifications to their products and the process of production.

Technological changes

Like consumer needs, technology is constantly changing. Changes in technology are viewed positively in most circumstances. New technology can make doing certain jobs simpler while improving accuracy. Machines can now do the work of dozens of humans, reducing the number of people employed.

Technology, however, may have adverse effects on businesses in various ways. First of all, with technology comes the risk of cybercrime. Cyber-attacks are a constant threat that manufacturing firms have to be aware of. These attacks can have negative effects on the firm, including revealing their trade secrets or exposing their client list. This, in turn, can result in a loss of revenue and the company may be at a disadvantage in the marketplace.

Another problem associated with technology is the rate at which technology changes. Today, you may have the most modern equipment available, but all that could change with some new invention. Keeping up with changing technology in the world of manufacturing can be an expensive affair. Sometimes equipment can be modified and sometimes it must be replaced. This means that a manufacturing company must constantly be on the outlook for new and advanced technology and must have both the willingness and the money to purchase or upgrade their machinery. This can be costly.

Compliance with rules and regulations

Without a doubt, the manufacturing industry is one of the most regulated industries in any given country. Most governments exercise a lot of power in this area because of the effects that these firms’ products can have on consumers. Some rules and regulations affecting manufacturing firms include taxation, standardization rules, and consumer protection regulations. Manufacturing firms are also required to ensure that their premises are safe for workers. Accidents in large, busy manufacturing plants are common, but they do slow down the workflow. In some cases, the plant can be fined for not following the set human safety standards. Most of the time, compliance with these regulations is costly.

Competition

This has been a common problem for firms since time immemorial. Growth in the number of manufacturing firms is bound to increase competition. Competition in the world today, however, is not the same as in days past. With the fast adoption of the World Wide Web, it has become increasingly easier for competitors to market their products in a global marketplace. Manufacturing firms in China, for example, are extremely hard to beat on their prices and turnaround times. The Chinese do not have wage or safety laws. They can work their people around the clock and many do. Competitors in the United States will have a hard time matching the low prices of Chinese manufacturers. In the US, companies must observe OHSA safety laws and they must pay workers a minimum wage. This has led to most companies going overseas for their products and manufacturing needs.

Lack of adequately skilled personnel

One of the biggest problems faced by employers in the world today is the number of baby boomers attaining retirement age. Upon retiring, baby boomers leave a vacuum in the field, having taken their numerous years of experience with them. People taking over from the baby boomers, on the other hand, are not adequately prepared or skilled enough to fill in the gap left. Firms are thus spending a lot of money training the new workforce.

Inflation

Money is generally hard to come by for most people in the world today. Poor economic policies and poor implementation of sound economic rules has caused a rise in inflation rates over the years. When there is an improvement, it is usually by a rather small margin, which does not make much of an impact in the lives of most people. Manufacturing firms are hard hit by inflation. Firstly, the cost of raw materials that they depend on is likely to rise as a result of inflation. The cost of production, generally, also rises. This means a rise in the cost of the finished product. But because inflation affects everyone, consumers may not have enough money to purchase these higher priced items. Consumers can now surf the web and find cheaper products from all over the world.

Final thoughts

Manufacturing firms play a big role in every country’s economy. They ensure that there is always a supply to meet the growing demand. However, the problems they face each year make their work much more challenging. Juggling all the various components required for success can leave some manufacturers out in the cold.

A critical skill that an aspiring lawyer must possess is commercial awareness. One particularly important aspect is to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the market in which these law firms work. At the end of the day, any firm is just a business like all the others and therefore, it should react similarly to the changes made in the industry.

A law firm should capitalize on new opportunities that pop up while also working on overcoming the obstacles so that it can stay ahead of other law firms. The year 2018 brings about a new set of challenges that law firms should work on if they wish to thrive in this globally competitive sector. Below, we cover three of the major issues that law firms will be facing this year:

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is becoming a big issue, and hackers have started to target an increasing number of institutions. For instance, there was a ransomware hack back in 2017 that threatened numerous organizations in more than 150 countries across the globe.

Hackers target law firms since they possess exceptionally confidential and valuable information that hackers can use for monetary purposes. Sensitive information that law firms possess include patents, bank information, trade secrets, and in some cases, government secrets as well. One key task for law firms is to make sure that the client’s data is protected at all times. However, with the increasing number of threats, as well as the complexity of the attacks, security has become a great challenge.

Failure to protect the data adequately can cause two major problems. Firstly, law firms can face claims of negligence and claimants can argue that law firms are negligent about taking care of data. They can also argue that law firms have breached the contract that stated they would carry out services with reasonable care and skillfulness.

Secondly, when looking from an economic and business perspective, it can undermine the reputation of the firm.

The solution to this challenge is to choose only top-of-the-line security. This year, firms should make security their top priority. An attorney must make sure that the firm itself, as well as third-party vendors, adhere to advanced industry standards to guarantee that a secure environment is maintained. They should follow practices such as conducting training with users regarding best security practices, never storing data on personal devices, and multi-factor authentication.

Incorporating technology

Technology also plays a big factor in determining how employees work in law firms. Due to technological advancements, efficiency has increased such that the time lawyers spend on a task is reduced.

While technology that enables lawyers to become more productive has been evolving for a number of years, the underlying problem is that firms usually have many people working for them that may not be well-trained. This failure has led to data breaches and ransomware attacks when employees take certain actions that allow cyber thieves inside. Training for all employees must be ongoing. People get busy and forget, then make careless mistakes. Monthly training sessions can raise awareness.

Though some security solutions promote unrealistic and lofty expectations, simple monthly training has proven to be very effective.  Human error is most often the reason why a law firm’s network is infected with a virus or worm.

The easy solution for this problem is mandatory monthly security training. People can be readily taught exactly what to look for in emails. A security professional can explain how phishing scams work. Better informed employees are far less likely to click on a suspicious link that downloads a deadly ransomware attack.

Helping users accept change

Implementing change is difficult because humans are just naturally resistant to change. Research suggests that 70% of initiatives taken for organizational change do not achieve their target. While there are numerous factors that can be blamed for this failure, employee resistance is the biggest one, contributing to 39%. While change is often not welcome, it is definitely possible. Employees must understand the reason for these changes. They must fully grasp the cost of one single breach.

Employees once resisted new technology as well, but today, people seem to enjoy learning about all the new robotic gadgets being invented. Users of new technology or changes to security should be fully involved from the beginning. The key is to keep it simple. The management is responsible for communicating their expectations and explaining to the staff why the change is critical.

Once employees understand why new security measures have been put in place, they should be fully on-board. After all, if a law firm experiences a huge breach that costs millions, it will affect everyone that works at the firm. Jobs could be lost, along with damage to the firm’s reputation.

Each year brings new challenges with it. Though new technology is often viewed with some trepidation, the end result is that law firms will be able to get more done with fewer resources. This can improve the bottom line and help a firm move ahead of the competition. Whether you’re dealing with new security challenges or a new content management system, face the challenge head-on.

What Is It?  What Do We Need To Know?  What Should We Do?

First step:  Watch our training session on GDPR – Click Here

If you don’t know what the GDPR is, and if you’re not ready for it, you’re going to get caught short because this is a legal deadline and it’s coming up fast. The General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect May 25, 2018.  It’s a privacy law that the European Union is enforcing to protect the personal data businesses collect. Even if your business is outside of the EU, you must comply.

What is the GDPR?

The GDPR affects all internet business worldwide. It’s a very complex law, so we can’t explain everything here. We’ve provided some resources below that you should check out.  Keep in mind that there are many gray areas where this law is concerned. So, you should do some research to determine how the law affects your organization’s unique situation.

The GDPR is an internet privacy law. All businesses, small or large, and even entrepreneurs who do business on the Internet with consumers located in the European Union need to be aware of how the law affects them.

It doesn’t matter if your company is inside the EU, or anywhere else in the world– If you do business with anyone in the following countries, you must comply with this new law by May 25th:

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Bulgaria
4. Croatia
5. Cyprus
6. Czech Republic
7. Denmark
8. Estonia
9. Finland
10. France
11. Germany
12. Greece
13. Hungary
14. Ireland
15. Italy
16. Latvia
17. Lithuania
18. Luxembourg
19. Malta
20. Netherlands
21. Poland
22. Portugal
23. Romania
24. Slovakia
25. Slovenia
26. Spain
27. Sweden
28. United Kingdom

The GDPR is a consumer data protection law. It ensures that individuals can:

• Access their personal data.
• Export their personal data.
• Correct errors in their personal data.
• Object to the processing of their personal data.
• Erase their personal data.

The GDPR applies to the acquisition, processing, and storage of personal data – from initial gathering to final deletion of this data and every point in between. It applies specifically to personal data and anything that pertains to identifiable data such as:

• Names
• Email Addresses
• Physical Addresses
• Phone Numbers
• Birthdate
• Age
• Sex
• Race
• ID Numbers
• Nationality
• Citizenship
• Marital Status
• Family Data
• Health Data
• Physical Characteristics
• Profile Pictures
• Occupation
• Employment History
• Income
• IP Addresses
• Cookies
• (and more)

This could be information you collect automatically from Google, an opt-in, or other collection methods online – anything that would identify an individual.

How Will The GDPR Affect My Business?

If your business has a website or an email list, you may be affected.

The GDPR affects any business relationship or transaction whether commercial or free where one or more of the entities are in the European Union. It’s not based on citizenship, rather location.  Any business within the EU must comply with the GDPR across its entire audience. If your business is in any of the 28 European Union Member States, you must comply with the law if you conduct a transaction with anyone located anywhere. If your business is located in the U.S. and you collect data about any business or person in the EU, you must comply with the GDPR.

How Should We Prepare For The GDPR?

There are three requirements you must meet before May 25th.

Controls and Notifications

• Protect personal data using appropriate security.
• Notify authorities of personal data breaches.
• Obtain appropriate consents for processing data.
• Keep records detailing data processing.

Transparent Policies

• Provide clear notice of data collection.
• Outline processing purposes and use cases.
• Define data retention and deletion policies.

IT and Training

• Train privacy personnel and employees.
• Audit and update data policies.
• Employ a Data Protection Officer (if required).
• Create and manage compliant vendor contracts.

Some Examples

Before the GDPR:

Let’s say you offer a whitepaper or free video to people online. Before the GDPR, your prospect provided their information, you gave them the freebie, and the consent was assumed because they accepted your gift.  Pretty easy, right?

After the GDPR:

You can no longer assume that their consent is given if they accept your gift. Now you must specifically obtain their consent. It must be given freely, specifically, and be unambiguous. Nor can you require them to give their consent to receive the gift.

Note: This new standard applies to all of your existing lists. Beginning May 25th, you can no longer send marketing emails to anyone who hasn’t given their precise consent for you to keep their personal information.  Plus, you cannot go back and ask them for their consent. You’ll need a stand-alone system to do this.

What Can We Do To Comply With These Strict Rules?

This is important. You must do this BEFORE May 25, 2018.

Compliance/Preservation

Step 1. Segment your email mailing lists into two parts.

• Non-EU subscribers
• EU-based subscribers and any unknowns

You want to continue to build goodwill with your Non-EU contacts so reach out to them as you would have before.  The EU-based and unknowns you’ll need to re-engage with. Here’s what we mean:

Step 2. Re-engage EU-based and Unknowns.

• Before emailing them, add additional value and content to your website.
• Then send them a link to your website and request their specific consent to keep their personal information.
• Set up a system to migrate those who give consent over to it.
• On May 24, 2018, you must delete anyone in this group who hasn’t consented. 

Remember, storing and deleting their information is considered processing. That’s why you must do this BEFORE May 25th.

Breach Notification Requirements

The 2018 GDPR replaces the old Data Protection Directive of 1995. The most recent GDPR breach notification requirement was enacted in April 2016.  It set a higher compliance standard for data inventory, and a defined risk management process and mandatory notification to data protection authorities.

Breach notification is a huge endeavor and requires involvement from everyone inside an organization. In-house tech support and outsourced Technology Service Providers should have acquired a good understanding of the consequences a data breach causes and the data breach notification requirements for their organization.  They must be prepared in advance to respond to security incidents.

The Following Are Additional Steps You Should Take To Prepare Your Technology Before May 25th  

Your Technology Solutions Provider Can Help

• Perform a thorough inventory of your personally identifiable information, where it’s stored–in onsite storage or in the Cloud. And determine what geographical locations it’s housed. Don’t forget about your databases. PII is often stored in databases.
• Perform a Gap Analysis. This is a process where you compare your organization’s IT performance to the expected requirements. It helps you understand if your technology and other resources are operating effectively. By doing this, your Technology Solution Provider (TSP) can then create an action plan to fill in the gaps. The right TSP will understand the GDPR regulations and how your IT must support your compliance efforts.
• Develop an Action Plan. Your TSP should document a detailed action plan for how to use technology to meet the GDPR if you experience a data breach. This should include individuals’ roles and responsibilities. Conduct tabletop exercises to practice how the plan will work with specific timelines and milestones.
• Ensure data privacy. If you don’t have a Technology Solution Provider, then you need one for this. Data protection is key for any-sized organization. Consumers have the right to have their data erased if they want. This is called “the right to be forgotten.”  This is a concept that was put into practice in the European Union in 2006, and it’s a part of the GDPR. You won’t be able to do this if their data is stolen.
• Be sure to document and monitor everything that you do that’s related to GDPR Compliance. This includes any changes or upgrades that your Tech Company makes to your IT environment. You may need to demonstrate that you’ve done your due diligence when it comes to protecting citizens’ private information and that you practice “defense-in-depth” strategies where you use multiple layers of security controls when it comes to your technology.

Resources To Check Out For More Information

The European Commission’s website regarding the GDPR:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection

Wikipedia

General Data Protection Regulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation

Information from the service vendors you use:

• Mail Chimp
• Salesforce
• Google
• Microsoft

These and other services have GDPR-centric web pages with helpful information that impacts your relationship with them, how they handle processing, and how they can help you comply with the new regulations.

Get going now. There’s a lot to do before May 25th!