Intuit soon will have its ProLine Tax Research available for the Apple iPhone and iPad. Thomson has been testing an application called Mobile CS that enables users to access the company's practice management software, with plans to put other applications in the queue. It will also have courses in its CheckPoint Learning line. Meanwhile, CCH is readying mobile access for its Intelliconnect research platform via the Blackberry with support for the iPhone following early next year
"We will be the first one to have a fully functional application on the iPad and iPhone. They [device users] will be able to do all the research you can do on your desk top," says Intuit product manager Ryan Farley, who says there will be no additional charge for accessing the research product that way.
Intuit is already in the mobile market with Quicken Online Mobile and QuickBooks Online Mobile, and also with GoPayments, which enables the user to accept credit card payments. All three are designed for the iPhone.
And the next year is likely to witness and explosion of mobile applications inside and beyond the tax and accounting world. When SAP and Sybase executives last week explained SAP's reasons for buying the latter company was creation of an open mobile platform. They pointed out that countries like India and China have largely by-passed desktop computing in favor of mobile. "Mobile is the new desktop," said SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott, while another executive declared the mobile explosion a one-in-a-generation event.
It's early in the game in tax and accounting. But applications are likely to start rolling in in numbers from vendors in this market, who are making their initial steps.
In the case of Thomson's CheckPoint Learning, "we are going to allow users to take courses on mobile devices," says Ken Koskay, the SVP who runs the company's CPE and training business. Users will be able to download courses onto the iPad or iPhone. If a person outside the office hasn't been able to complete a course, once inside the office that worker can log back in. "And the course will be right where they left off," Koskay says. The company plans a fall release.
The system will also be Bluetooth enabled so that someone who completes a course while travelling on an airplane will be transmit to a printer and print the certificate of completion. There will also be a portal that can save all the certificates and which can be monitored against CPE requirement.
Thomson's CS Professional operations already has Mobile CS available on the company app store as a free product that can let visitors examine demo data. The fully functional product will provide the ability for a firm to access a Practice CS database.
"They will be able to check on client and staff data, look at things such as WIP and AR balances, review client interactions and review everything in the Practice CS product," says Scott Fleszar, VP of strategic marketing in the company's tax and accounting business. "It's optimized for mobile."
"Once we finish the back-end processes we are working on, firms can plug their practice database in that," Fleszar continues. He notes there will be a monthly fee per device but pricing has not yet been determined. Besides developing a connection to other applications in professional suites, Thomson will enable users of ARNE service to monitor forums and make post.
CCH is also working on mobile access to news for its Intelliconnect research platform, having completed a test with 30 customers. "It's a version that works well with the Blackberry," says product manager Tanya Rose, who adds that a version for the iPhone will be available by early next year.
Users will be able to access the IRS code and regulations and there will also be Blackberry access to some Smart Charts.
One indication of other possible developments is shown on the CCH Australia Web site. That unit has launched an individual tax rate calculator at the iTunes store and is also exploring a newsreader for the CCH Tracker products. The site Australian group hopes to incorporate text-to-speech in certain apps as well, allowing users to mark stories to be read out loud.
