Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Ep: 20 Top experts answer: "What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?"
The Accounting Influencers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:
What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?
You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:
Roger Knecht | President, Universal Accounting Center. Author, Host, Father and Husband
Russell Frayne | Director of Transformation at Gravita, Tech enabling colleagues and clients
Seth Fineberg | Business journalist turned accounting profession consultant and content strategest
Siddharth Kothari | Owner of Digital Outsourcing Services. Strategic partner to accountants
Steve Cox | Accountant, thought-leader, technologist, strategist & 20-year software vendor veteran
Tune into more on this daily show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.
To participate in our international virtual speed networking events for the accounting community, book your place at the next gathering. Great for building your personal brand and making valuable industry connections in return for a small donation to charity: https://accountinginfluencers.com/events
If you'd like to sponsor the show and elevate your brand with our audience, reach out to show host Rob Brown on LinkedIn and his team will reach out to fix up a chat to explore.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/therobbrown
You can also check out other Accounting Influencers Shows on YouTube:
Brought to you by Rightworks, the ACCOUNTING ANSWERS PODCAST is hosted by Rob Brown, co-founder of the Accounting Influencers Roundtable (AIR).
On this weekly show with short, sharp episodes, Rob asks 110 experts and influencers the critical questions shaping the accounting profession. It keeps you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.
Go to https://www.rightworks.com for secure, remote access to all your core apps, all in one place. Special deals and discounts for accounting professional and firms, plus a community of high quality content and resources to grow your firm.
________________
Host Rob Brown is a renowned presenter, facilitator and chair of high-level conferences, panels and events globally for the accounting and fintech profession. He is retained by many professional networks, alliances, associations, practices and vendors to chair their events and provide high-level interview content for their communities. He is a dynamic speaker and accomplished expert on trust, reputation, employer brand, talent, career development, succession, gen z/generations, employee advocacy and executive presence. https://www.linkedin.com/in/therobbrown/
Rob is author of the bestselling book Build Your Reputation (Wiley) and his TEDx talk ‘The Personal Brand of You’ has been viewed over 300,000 times on YouTube. He is a stroke survivor, has epilepsy, is a committed Christian and has a black belt in kickboxing. He is based in Nottingham UK, home of Robin Hood, plays chess and backgammon, loves orange chocolate and is allergic to grapefruit.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/accountinginfluencers
https://bit.ly/AI-youtube
Rob Brown: The future of
accountant, isn't just about
numbers and financial statements.
It's about empowering businesses to make
informed decisions, navigate complex
challenges, achieve their financial goals.
And everyone recognized that Kansans
are at the heart of this and must become
trusted partners with business acumen
expertise in data analytics, storytelling,
strategic guidance, taking the clients
towards success and whatever your role
is in this ecosystem, you need to stay
ahead of the curve to stay relevant.
And that's why this accounting
answers podcast was conceived to
keep you informed and competitive.
I'm your host, Rob brown, and
I've interviewed 111 accounting
experts, leaders, advisors, vendors,
and influencers in the last few
months and collected for you the
very best and latest thinking on
what works and what is coming up.
And this week, they show 10 to 15
minutes gets you the low down on
what matters today in the rapidly
evolving accounting landscape.
And the professional is shed
in its traditional image of
number crunching, embracing a
bold new future data technology,
strategic guidance, reign Supreme.
I've asked the same five questions
throughout covering the next
generation of accountants.
The proactive advice they need to be
given the drivers have changed the
role of tech and software vendors
post the best predictions for the
next few years, let's get started and
hear what our experts have to say.
We've been focusing all
this week on the question.
What could the tech software vendors
do better to serve accountants?
The answers you hear covered?
The vendor accountant relationship and the
needs of accountants that are not being
addressed by current accounting software.
How could this software be more
user-friendly and intuitive for
accountants and their clients?
How is AI playing its part in the
evolution of the accounting role,
all these aspects and more come out.
As we check out the answers
of our resident experts.
Um, next is the wonderful Roger connect
president of universal accounting
center off the host father, husband,
who brings a holistic approach.
To accounting education focusing on
both personal and professional growth.
Roger Knecht: Beautiful question.
My thinking is, is that the accounting
software, the programs, the vendors that
are out there servicing the accounting
community need to actually help us not
just do tactile work, the commoditization
of the work of the accounting that we
do, what they need to do is therefore,
basically help us answer the question
of how does this apply or what's next?
And I'm going to suggest that what.
Every accounting vendor, every
software company that services
the accounting community needs to
answer is therefore what here we
are, we're doing this automation,
we're systematizing this process.
We're automating this.
We're bringing in the AI.
Once we have all this systematized,
therefore, how do we actually
take this to the clients we
service and help them take this?
Systemization that we've done the
automation that we've done and now answer
the question, therefore, what, and that's
something that I would like to see every
company be able to explain and answer.
They've systematized something.
they've accelerated the process
of doing something, simplified it.
Therefore, what?
Rob Brown: John.
And the debate now is Russell Frain
director transformation at gravity
way's expertise with technology is
redefining how accounting firms leverage
technology for better service delivery.
Russell Frayne: Absolutely.
And two things always stick out
for me, and I've spoken to many
vendors about this as well.
So, one is optimizing their platform,
as I think too often vendors can, leave
accounting firms to figure it out on their
own, which can result in suboptimal use.
reduces the return on investment from
the firm, which means that sometimes
they give up on software adoption at
all because they don't see the benefit.
plus there's a lot of wastage in the
cloud accounting space with undeployed
subscriptions, floating all over the
place that the firms are paying for,
which are sort of being returned as.
adoption metrics for software
vendors, which is skewing
the actual adoption rates.
I think, practices have a scattered
approach to technology adoption as they
move from platform to platform, looking
for some magic secret bullet to success.
So I think getting the best out
of the platforms absolutely from
a vendor perspective is a focus.
And then secondly, is the soft
skill and change management
support because these are skills
that accountants don't inherently
have and they're not trained on.
So when you do your training, you
don't get trained on change management,
transformation, soft skills.
So any support bringing
people along on the journey.
is value add from a
software vendor perspective.
And we've seen this with some vendors
historically who have paired a partner
consultant with an account manager to
help deliver and deploy to get the most
from a solution, which then leverages the
best return on investment for the business
and the business owner or the practice.
But from a vendor perspective, you've
got the optimal long term value in
terms of the client's stickiness.
So when you kind of pair, you know, best
in breed technology with an accountant
optimized, you end up with, the best
overall result from my experience anyway.
Rob Brown: And now insights from
Seth Feinberg business journalist
turned accounting, professional
consultant and content strategist who
uses his media expertise to elevate
the conversations around accounting
practices and industry trends.
Seth Fineberg: Talk to each other more.
Be present.
Be, like, you listen on both sides.
They both need to, be on
the same page a lot more.
I understand that, developers on the
software side, you know, they, tend to
do things in a bit of their own, bubble.
Just as accountants do.
Accountants, do things in their own way.
One of the reasons why, particularly
with practice management systems.
there's always something that,
frustrates, the accountant because
it's not that necessarily something
wasn't built right for them.
It's just, they just have
their own way of doing things.
So there are certain things that exist
in a bubble on the developer side, on
the accountant side, but by and large,
they're only going to, you really,
you know, move everything forward,
move the entire profession forward
if they're on the same page, more.
So that's, that's something I
think that, They should be doing
better, to, you know, to serve
Rob Brown: accounts.
We now tend to sit down with Qatari owner
digital outsourcing services, a strategic
partner to accountants, where he provides
innovative outsourcing solutions that
enhance efficiency and capacity for
accounting firms all over the world.
Siddarth Kothari: so right now there are
very, tight competition in the technology
industry to provide more and more
solutions to the accountancy industry,
and there are very good companies who have
come to a very breakthrough technology
to do much and much of an impact on
how accountancy firms are working.
Let's just think of bookkeeping, right?
It has changed significantly
on how everyone is working
right now all over the world.
But the thing is, now the accountancy
firms would also be looking on how they're
leveraging technology because if they are
subscribing to, let's say, 10 different
technologies, one would be for bookkeeping
or tech, accounting or practice
management, or taxes, filings, everything.
the most important thing
they would be looking for.
They should be looking for.
Is that the technology should
not be overlapping different
subscriptions, different technologies
that they're already using.
So the tech industry would be now also
focusing on those areas that how they
are being niche in their services, their
products, their, their service developers.
And the second thing is, that would
be a game changing is the, strong
customer back office support.
Because if they are having an issues on
a real time basis for their accounts,
for their audits, for any other, uh,
requirements, they should have a team
in the software companies in the tech
companies will be, uh, you know, available
to speak to them, provide a support.
solution at that moment, and then
the accountancy don't, uh, miss
out any deadlines or they don't
feel any backlogs because of that.
So, yeah, that would be much, much impact.
Rob Brown: Next step
is a favorite of mine.
One of the most respected accounting
influences in the United Kingdom
and certainly a big figure in
the round table that we run here.
It's Steve Cox.
Accountant thought leader,
technology, strategist.
20-year software vendor veteran.
Who brings a wealth of experience
in leveraging technology to solve
complex accounting challenges.
Here he comes.
Steve Cox: Being a software vendor, I'm
working for one for many, many years.
We've worked hand in glove with
accountants globally for, well, certainly
for my reign of 21 years, but from
an Irish perspective for 45 years.
However, is the job done?
No, we've got to continue to work really
closely with accountants and bookkeepers
to be able to understand what they need.
So it's a constant listening
piece, which is something that any
software vendor should be doing
is listening to the profession.
To understand the challenges of what's
going on, what could we be doing better?
Ultimately, showing people how
to use the software better,
how to get the most out of it.
It's a worrying statistic that actually
most firms that buy software only use
about 20 percent of its functionality.
You're not getting a great return
on your investment for that.
It's on the software vendors
primary objectives to get them
to use as much as possible.
It doesn't drive additional
revenue, but what it does do
is drive customer satisfaction.
And ultimately, a happy customer is one
that's going to stay longer and buy more.
So actually, it's a win win for both.
So really, it's around how do you
get the most out of the software
that we're providing to accountants.
Rob Brown: So they have five
grand answer to the question.
What could the tech and software vendors
do better to serve accountants each
work in depth that week, Monday through
Friday, we give you the insights of five
top influencers in the accounting world.
On this critical area of the
tech providers, software vendors
and how they serve accountants.
That's 25 valuable perspectives,
viewpoints and best thinking every week.
And with each fresh week comes a
fresh question and more thoughts
from the best accounting leaders
and influences we can find.
Thanks for listening to this brand
new accounting answers podcast.
And sharing the show with your friends.
If you want to join the conversation,
you can plug into our community of
implementers@accountinginfluencers.com
and check out our virtual
speed networking events.
These happen every few months
for the north American region
and the UK Europe region.
The great opportunities to raise your
profile, build valuable connections and
share your thoughts with influential
peers until next time, this is your host.
Rob brown, saying stay informed,
stay relevant and stay connected.