Johnston: Top tech picks for small firms

While adopting the right technology is important, it's also important, Johnston said, not to get caught up in the hype. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation will impact the profession first, before other technologies like blockchain; but FOMO (fear of missing out) will be used as a sales tactic to get firms to adopt sooner than is appropriate.

"You need to sandbox and test the technologies, validating vendor's claims and proving your own business cases," Johnston said.

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting experienced a security event in May this year, leaving customers unable to access its CCH suite of products for several days. The company responded in the best possible way, according to Johnston, who also noted that breaches and outages are an inevitability today.

“Under those circumstances, I would have made the same decision [to take systems offline],” Johnston said. “In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I would have still shut that environment down. Forensics reports are reporting no data loss.”

Johnston said that adoption of Wolters Kluwer’s Axcess Tax and Workstream products is up, and for good reason: While customers have reported issues with reporting and performance of Axcess Practice, the product suite is still popular and valuable, he said. CCH Axcess Data provides data visualizations of KPIs focused on firm health, partner performance, staff metrics, AR and profitability, project status and resourcing, and marketing.

Johnston noted that Thomson Reuters had made progress on its Onvio suite, cloud-based tax and accounting software that includes document management, time and billing, online client collaboration and project management.

Also maturing is the UltraTax CS software platform for professional tax preparers and accountants. However, something to watch out for, Johnston said, are some reported performance issues in sections of the CS offering.