Fusion Productions - Integrating Meetings, Learning & Technology

Organization

The 50 State CPA Societies throughout the country provide a statewide, professional membership organization to thousands representing the majority of CPAs in practice, industry, government and education.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national, professional organization for all Certified Public Accountants. Its mission is to provide members with the resources, information, and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public as well as employers and clients.

Challenge

As the Internet became a greater channel for the delivery of member products and services, the 50 State CPA Societies and AICPA found that they were competing too often with each other and confusing the member. This became even more critical as other viable sources for CPAs began to proliferate on the Internet thereby making it even less clear what members receive for their dues.

The purpose of this project was to begin the journey toward the creation of a virtual CPA community that would:

• Serve as a global portal for the profession
• Act as the primary web interface using an integrated membership database
• Position the state society to deliver best practice new value-added services
• Facilitate strategic alliances in support of the CPA community
• Generate a foundation for long-term knowledge management
• Provide a value much greater than could be achieved by any individual state CPA society

Through the development of a business plan, competitive analysis, and the development and management of an RFP process to secure a portal vendor, Fusion worked with representatives of the 50 State CPA Societies and AICPA to clarify the business drivers for this vision.

Solution

A comprehensive business plan was developed as a roadmap for a journey to the next level of cooperative association, organization and online member service. This business plan outlined the Internet platform and applications that would enable the 50 State CPA Societies to deliver customized Internet experiences and value-added services. This functionality would empower the CPA of the 21st Century to be networked and educationally enriched and have access to practical tools for business and professional success.

Additionally, an RFP outlined the specific requirements that were needed to support and manage this endeavor.

This opportunity for delivering best practice member services and products was significantly improved when an alliance was established between the 50 State CPA Societies and AICPA. In addition to the increased potential, individual risk was minimized by spreading exposure across a greater number of concerned parties.

Results

State CPA Societies received a detailed technology and business plan which was later adopted by initially 5 states, then 13, then 30, then 44, then 50 plus 2 in Puerto Rico. This plan formed the basis for the State CPA Societies to form SSLLC (Shared Services, LLC) that became the entity to pay and implement the recommendations. The business plan helped to raise over $90 million from various investors and partners such as Microsoft, Thompson, etc.

The benchmark report identified best practices–based on research with 6 state CPA societies.

An RFP (including detailed AMS/ERP requirements and use cases) for procuring an AMS and CMS was developed and Fusion assisted in the actual selection of the vendors as chief technology advisor during implementation.