chair's corner.

I have some very exciting news to share with you about the profession's Web-based portal. In mid-January, leading Internet technology and content companies Microsoft and The Thomson Corporation officially signed on as partners. Their $50 million investment will help us build cpa2biz to be the online resource center that we always imagined it to be.

Through this partnership, cpa2biz will be able to provide a wide range of Web-based services and content to meet the daily needs of CPAs and small businesses. I have consistently said that our projects must be Vision aligned -- that the Vision is our blueprint for survival and service for the early part of this century. I believe the development of the portal provides a huge opportunity to help our members achieve the Vision they identified for themselves.

We know that technology is going to define us and how we do business for the foreseeable future. If we can provide our members with the tools to take advantage of all that technology offers them -- to enhance their relationships with their clients and employers -- we will be providing them with the tools to increase and enhance their value. We are committed to not only providing members with these tools, but also to helping them learn how to use them. This is a big commitment but a necessary part of the process if the portal is truly going to help our members to be Vision aligned. You may recall there will be a CPA side and a business-to-business component. The CPA-centric element is where you will find products, services and knowledge sources to help you and your firm or organization. The business-to-business component will be a full-service, multi-function business services hub designed to meet the e-business needs of small-business clients and employers. By accessing e-enablement capabilities available through the portal, CPAs will be providing those clients and employers with an Internet infrastructure that delivers business services, tools, content and purchasing networks, among other things, strengthening their relationships and improving their value (never mind their revenue).

Obviously, Microsoft and Thomson agree with market studies that show CPAs are the most trusted advisers to small businesses. Our relationship with smaller companies puts us in a unique position to offer e-commerce solutions for them to utilize. For example, Microsoft's bCentral Small Business Service, Thomson and other business partners will contribute valuable services and content to make core business processes easier. These include such services as general ledger systems, payroll, 401(k) administration, customer relationship management, human resources management, procurement and online banking.

With these strategic alliances in place, we're on schedule to launch the portal late this spring or early summer. A pilot program of volunteer firms is now under way to test the services being developed and offered to make certain they are market responsive and help position the CPA successfully in the e-commerce phase of business.

While on the subject of the portal, I want to discuss a related issue about which I receive a lot of e-mail and questions: ownership in cpa2biz by certain members of AICPA management. As part of the AICPA Board of Directors' deliberations regarding the portal, then-Chair Bob Elliott appointed an independent committee of the board to review and report on questions of member ownership, limited management ownership of stock, and contracts between the AICPA and the portal. This committee retained its own external advisers, including legal and valuation experts.

To the exact point of ownership by management, the portal was valued in its early stages by independent outside consultants. The few members of management who the board felt should be offered equity in the portal bought their interests at full market value -- there were no gifts of stock in the portal. They now have their own dollars at risk. All matters of ownership in the portal by management were conducted by the AICPA board in executive session without management present.

A major factor influencing our decision to allow certain members of management to purchase limited equity in the portal was that our strategic partners told us it was important for those individuals responsible for the success of the portal to have ownership in it. In fact, this is the way THEY do business.

The AICPA Board of Directors agreed. The feeling of the board is that if the portal is to be successful, it will and should be a win/win for all involved.

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