To Market, to Market We Go

The success of CPAs in offering the new assurance services will depend not only on their own efforts but also on the backing and assistance they receive from the American Institute of CPAs. This article focuses on how the AICPA helps members expand their assurance services. It explains the work of the assurance services executive committee (ASEC), the body charged with identifying and developing new services, its priority on speed to market and the status of the measurement criteria it can develop. "The AICPA will continue to identify and develop new assurance services. We're in the game permanently," says Ronald S. Cohen, the ASEC chairman and former chairman of the AICPA board of directors. The ASEC's immediate task is to follow up on the work begun by the special committee on assurance services (SCAS, also known as the Elliott committee), which had set in motion two interrelated processes: identification of new services by firms and by the AICPA. Earlier articles in this series described techniques that firms can apply to determine customer needs and devise responsive assurance services. The ASEC will use similar techniques in identifying services to share with the profession through its Web site -- www.aicpa.org/assurance/ ongoing/index.htm. A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ASEC Six task forces are at work on the new assurance services the special committee highlighted in its report: electronic commerce, ElderCare-Plus, health care effectiveness, systems reliability, risk assessment and performance measurement. (These services were described in prior articles in this series.) The liaison between the ASEC and the AICPA auditing standards board is long-time ASB member Deborah D. Lambert, who also serves on the ASEC. Also, the AICPA assurance services development group headed by K. Casey Bennett provides AICPA staff support for the ASEC. AICPA General Counsel Richard I. Miller monitors the ASEC's work. Miller was a member of the special committee's assurance liability subcommittee, which analyzed how to minimize liability when developing new assurance services and produced a set of recommendations (see www.aicpa.org/assurance/ scas/comstud/asl/index.htm). The ASEC works with other Institute groups to achieve its goals. For example, ASEC task forces helped in determining course content for training programs for the new assurance services: There are introductory courses (each worth two continuing professional education credits) for risk assessment, business performance measurement and ElderCare-Plus. Two eight-hour courses are planned for electronic commerce and ElderCare-Plus assurance services. ASEC is committed to reach out to CPAS to explain the need for the new assurance services and how to make use of the work that has already been done developing them. ASEC has made over 30 presentations to practitioner audiences so far, and an Assurance Services Symposium is planned for June 1998. Its primary purpose is to have attendees learn from practitioners who have hands-on experience providing assurances services. CPAs who have provided assurance services will report on them and conduct interactive workshops. In addition, practitioners can go to The Forum on AICPA Online at www. aicpa.org/forums/index.htm to discuss their experiences with the new services and to test ideas against their peers' knowledge of the marketplace. "The online forum is about growing the pie," says Bennett. "Sure, a shared idea might lead to head-to-head competition on occasion, but most of the time it win lead to services for new markets, service-delivery refinements, new variations of services and new services themselves. it can help build the profession's service portfolio and market presence. You can't create without input about the marketplace, and knowledge of what clients want is some of the best input available. That's why the forum is a great place for practitioners to get ideas on how to build their practices. …