By Damian Wild, Editor, Accountancy Age

The new millennium has seen all that the UK accountancy profession holds dear turned on its head.

At the top, the Big Five are having to answer tough regulatory questions and deal with new competitive pressures that extend way beyond the profession itself and into the previously uncharted waters of corporate finance and financial PR. Among mid-tier firms, there is the endless talk of mergers while at the lower end of the Accountancy Age Top 50 league table of firms, a new breed of US style consolidators are looking to buy up smaller practices.

And that's just for accountants working in practice.

For those in business there is the euro, IT, communications and globalisation. Training, competition and regulation are at least as important.

Then there is the small matter of e-business, an issue accountants in practice will have to wrestle with as every bit as much as their colleagues in the commercial world. Here the issue is stark. It is simply a matter of engage or die.

For an increasingly fragmented profession, these are truly interesting times.

Covering all this change is Accountancy Age and AccountancyAge.com.

Accountancy Age has provided unrivalled coverage of the industry for more than 30 years. It is the only independent weekly title for qualified accountants and has earned a reputation for being first with the news, analysis and profiles that really matter to accountants, week after week, whatever sector they work in.

AccountancyAge.com is upholding that strong tradition. The new web site may only have been launched last year but it has already built up a reputation for fast and effective news delivery.

As well as an up to the minute news service, AccountancyAge.com already offers access to a range of services including a software buyers guide, credit information and Jobworld, one of the web's most popular job sites, carrying thousands of finance vacancies.

But like in so many other sectors, e-business poses both the greatest opportunity and the greatest threat to the profession right now.

The rise and fall of the dot.coms - some more spectacular than others - should serve as a cautionary tale, not a reason to avoid engaging altogether. And any accountant who thinks that e-business is just a transactional issue should think again. It goes to the very heart of the business in which any business is involved.

Already, accountants are emerging as a key group that will determine the future e-business success of UK plc, according to a survey by Accountancy Age earlier this year. And, with a series of profiles, analyses and supplements - as well, of course, as continuing to break the news stories that matter - Accountancy Age and AccountancyAge.com will continue to lead the e-business debate as it affects the profession.

Accountants working in business can feel justly proud of their achievements. For years they have been acting as business advisers - now their colleagues in practice are leaving behind assurance work to become business advisers themselves.

In truth a business adviser is what all accountants are or should be. And it is the extent to which you can keep up to date with - and stay on top of - change that will determine who is the most successful business adviser in whatever field you work.

To keep up to date with financial news as it affects accountants visit www.accountancyage.com.

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