The year 2011 still looks a long way away until you start looking at the work that moving to IFRS involves.
A while back I did a feature story for ComputerWorld Canada that examined the changeover from generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to the international financial reporting standard (IFRS), which goes into effect Jan. 1. It means that for this year, as they get prepared, many companies will effectively have to run two sets of books, and deal with all the transition around technology and process that a new standard introduces. Talk about a pain point (More on IFRS from ComputerWorld Canada's Rafael Ruffolo).
This issue has been the catalyst for a new, vertical market approach to our audience that we haven’t really tried before. We’ve set up a group called Finance.ITWorldCanada.com which will develop research, special reports, live events and online discussions specifically for financial services industry IT professionals or anyone in our community that is dealing with finance-related technology challenges.
Instead of merely reporting about the woes of the IFRS conversion, we’ll be using Finance.ITWorldCanada.com to hopefully help this group ease the pain. I’ve created a short, multiple choice, 10-question survey that looks at the IT requirements around IFRS. Although there have been a number of consulting firms and industry associations that have developed IFRS research, I’m not aware of a project that looks at this from an IT manager’s perspective. Here's a link to the IT World Canada IFRS survey.
In return for filling out the survey and opting into our group, we’ll be making a draw for a $150 gift certificate to Best Buy, along with a link to any other articles we develop from this, invitations to any related event and, of course, the complete report.
As it develops, I’m really hoping that Finance.ITWorldCanada.com becomes more self-organizing, where members identify the most critical issues, and give us an opportunity to either investigate answers or facilitate a conversation among peers to find them in a more collaborative fashion. Please help me make this research project successful. It’s in many companies’ best interest. The GAAP is closing.