Assurance Services.

Assurance services refer to independent professional services offered by CPAs and others to improve information quality or its context for decision makers ("Assurance services, 2006). Traditional auditing services have focused on financial and governance issues and not on broader functional business units within organizations. Assurance services encompass a broad approach to assessing risk associated with and, potentially, touching all functional areas within an organization. Assurance service offerings have grown proportionally with advances in information technology. Assurance services focus on issues related to information security management, privacy and data governance issues, and nearly every other aspect of digital data management. Core competencies required of CPAs will need to change in order for these professionals to meet the growing demand and expertise in assurance services. CPA professionals need to be well versed in how information technology is affecting core business as well as the accounting profession. CPAs will also need to increase their overall customer service skills and business knowledge in order to fully meet their client's needs for assurance. Accounting firms will need to invest in training for their professional services personnel as CPAs will be required to have more in-depth knowledge of specific industries. Assurance services afford ample opportunity for accounting firms to expand into non-financial auditing markets. The competition to provide future assurance services will be fierce and will require a much broader set of competencies than have been traditionally relied upon by CPAs.