It's Time To Prevail Over Paper aand Manual Workflows 2015
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For accountants and small businesses, the paper chase must come to an end. In today's world, accounting firms cannot remain profitable, let alone relevant in the competitive marketplace without embracing technology solutions aimed at improved efficiency and simplifying the processes. Join Doug Sleeter, founder of Sleeter Group in his discussion about how to prevail over the paper monster. You will learn how you can truly find a path that will calm your paper chase and give you your days back. Doug will also be joined by Eric Pulaski, founder of Smartvault for a conversation on how you can turn your current document storage and workflows into a cleanly organized, secure cloud-based, searchable vault that will dramatically improve efficiency and workflows for your firm and for your clients.
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It's Time To Prevail Over Paper aand Manual Workflows 2015
- 1. @dougsleeter It’s Time to Prevail over Paper and Manual Workflows
- 2. @dougsleeter Follow on Twitter @ dougsleeter Doug Sleeter 800 Member Accounting Consulting Group Author — Textbooks and Reference Guides Consultant to Software Developers www.sleeter.comCPA Practice Advisor Columnist, Top 25 Thought Leader Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential People Small Business Influencer Champion The Sleeter Group
- 3. @dougsleeter Agenda • Research says… • What is YOUR Goal? • The Five Trends Driving New World Solutions • Only the Paranoid Survive • Getting over the hump – redesigning your business
- 4. @dougsleeter Research Says…. Debt reduction / elimination Secure additional financing Reduce expenses Implement new technology solutions Improve customer satisfaction Add / retain talented employees Improve profitability Improve efficiency / productivity Increase revenue Add new customers TOP BUSINESS PRIORITIES - NEXT 3 YRS
- 5. @dougsleeter Technology Awareness/Usage Virtual server hosting service Expense tracking software Remote meeting service Voice over IP (VoIP) service Mobile payment solution Cloud-based document management Email marketing solution Website design software 20.7% 20.7% 21.4% 22.9% 22.9% 24.3% 30.7% 39.3% SOLUTION USAGE IN SMBS Inventory management software Cloud-based invoicing / bill paying Customer Relationship… Point of Sale (POS) solution E-commerce software Cloud-based accounting Cloud-based document… Mobile payment solution Email marketing solution Website design software 56.6% 56.6% 57.9% 58.6% 58.6% 60.0% 61.4% 62.8% 68.3% 69.7% SOLUTION AWARENESS IN SMBS
- 6. @dougsleeter Innovators 2.5% Early Adopters 13.5% Early Majority 34% Late Majority 34% Laggards 16% Technology Adoption Curve Crossing the Chasm of Adoption Adoption Comes Slowly Based on Geoffrey Moore – Crossing the Chasm
- 7. @dougsleeter Follow on Twitter @ SmartVault Eric Pulaski, CEO & Founder Eric Pulaski, CEO & Founder of SmartVault ● Founded SmartVault in 2007 ● Currently serving as CEO ● Drives product vision and strategy Prior to SmartVault... ● Eric was founder and Chairman of BindView, a leader in internet security management ● Eric led BindView through successful IPO and ultimately sold to Symantec in 2006 www.smartvault.com SmartVault
- 8. @dougsleeter The Five Trends • Cloud and Mobile • “Chunkification” of Business Process • Integration of Point Solutions • Zero Data Entry • Collaborative Accounting Driving New World Solutions
- 9. @dougsleeter Only the Paranoid Survive “Only the Paranoid Survive” Strategic Inflection Points 10x Changes Disrupt Yourself – Lest Ye Be Disrupted 9
- 10. @dougsleeter Eric and Doug on Disruption How the world’s largest: • Taxi company owns NO taxis (Uber) • Media company creates no content (Facebook) • Retailer has no inventory (Alibaba) • Accommodation provider owns no real estate (AirBnB) What will the world’s largest accounting firms do to thrive?
- 11. REIMAGINED BUSINESS MODELS Change Leadership 01 02 03 04 Automate Processes Specialize Embrace Technology
- 12. @dougsleeter EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY • Less Paper • Documents in the Cloud • Client Portals • Web accessible Client-facing Services
- 13. @dougsleeter What About Security – Cloud Documents 1. Paper = Fraud Risk 2. Manual routing of paper - no Control/Security 3. Manual data entry – Errors and Password sharing 1. Instantly grant or deny access 2. Role based security 3. Document attachments - Instant access 4. Anytime/Anywhere access 5. Bank-level security for access Old World Risks New World Benefits
- 14. @dougsleeter Disruption and Agility If you Don’t Disrupt Yourself Agility Trumps AbilitySomeone Else Will
- 15. @dougsleeter Eliminating Paper – The How Demonstrate how SmartVault can: • Help you digitize, store, and attach all your documents to your critical business applications. • Embed workflow inside of your document storage vault • Enhance security for you and your clients • Automate your processes from initial capture throughout the entire business cycle.
- 16. @dougsleeter Client Portal Securely share files Embedded Workflow Right from your apps SmartVault is a cloud service that provides… Document Management Store documents online … built for accounting professionals
- 17. Growing Ecosystem of Integrated Apps… where documents can be stored centrally & accessed from a variety of productivity applications & devices used by accountants & their clients SmartVault “Inside” Next up: Integration with
- 18. @dougsleeter What’s Next? 1. Start your free trial at: 2. Access free training resources at: 3. If you have any other questions, we’re here to help! www.smartvault.com/accountants www.smartvault.com/smartvault-university Toll-Free 866.674.6785 Email sales@smartvault.com Tweet @SmartVault
Editor's Notes
- Description: For accountants and small businesses, the paper chase must come to an end. In today's world, accounting firms cannot remain profitable, let alone relevant in the competitive marketplace without embracing technology solutions aimed at improved efficiency and simplifying the processes. Join Doug Sleeter, founder of Sleeter Group in his discussion about how to prevail over the paper monster. You will learn how you can truly find a path that will calm your paper chase and give you your days back. Doug will also be joined by Eric Pulaski, founder of Smartvault for a conversation on how you can turn your current document storage and workflows into a cleanly organized, secure cloud-based, searchable vault that will dramatically improve efficiency and workflows for your firm and for your clients.
- Throughout history, new technology has always been adopted according to a pattern, similar to this one, developed by Geoffrey Moore in his book Crossing the Chasm. When applying this chart to the adoption of cloud technologies in accounting, you can think of us as being either just before, or in the middle of, the “chasm”. This Chasm is where the early adopters have all begun using the technology, and many have found the “issues” with it and are working on rethinking their processes to embrace the technology more fully. At the same time, the early majority, those who represent the real explosion of the market, are listening intently to the early adopters and trying to learn about their experiences before they jump in. So those of us who have embraced these technologies are now experiencing significant competitive advantages such as Anytime, anywhere access to information Collaborative accounting services that allow us to spread tax season out over the whole 12 months of the year Mobile device integration into business processes … And we are providing superior VALUE, where we move from compliance-focused activities to value-added activities such as cash flow management and higher satisfaction levels for our internal and external customers and vendors.
- Discuss: Broad market adoption of cloud technology Eric’s role in founding companies that were ahead of the curve What are some of the reasons that clients resist new tech Retirement within 5 yrs? Resistant to any change
- The current, state-of-the-art trends in accounting that are driving innovation among the solutions developers and among the inspired practitioners are: Cloud and Mobile Chunkification of the business process Integration of Point Solutions Zero Data Entry And Collaborative Accounting Each of these trends are discussed in the following slides
- I highly recommend “Only the Paranoid Survive,” by Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, published in 1999. Note: That was before GOOGLE, but the lessons are timeless, and extremely relevant to what’s happening today in the accounting profession. In this book Andy discusses: How business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. How a “Strategic Inflection Point” is a point in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. But… He says that you can be the SUBJECT of a strategic inflection point or the CAUSE of one. How Career Inflection Points caused by a change in the environment do not distinguish between the qualities (or ABILITY) of the people they dislodge. And how “10X changes” cause tremendous force for change in markets. Such as when sound came to movies, or when the semiconductor revolutionized the computer industry. These concepts apply today more than ever. And the key takeaway here is that if you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will.
- To thrive in the coming years, accountants must completely rethink the business model The Overall Goals of your new world firm should include: Embracing technology should go without saying. But I’m saying to really opt in, and design your firm to leverage technology at every point in the practice. Specialize to focus your efforts where your skills and interests lie. Remembering that a jack of all trades is a master of none. Clients hire us to PROACTIVELY LEAD them to better solutions. If you think of yourself as a servant to whatever clients ask for, you need to change that thinking and become the leader for your clients. Deepen your client Engagements – For the past 20-30 years, accountants built business models focused on compliance (Tax and Audit). But in the new world, as we just discussed, clients really WANT us to help them with their business processes and strategic management. Use Professional-Centric Tools
- If you’re to redesign your firm to build its value in the marketplace, one of the first areas of focus should be on embracing technology, and designing business models that leverage technology. Start with: Less Paper – commit to the direction of reducing your reliance on paper throughout all processes. For every 12 filing cabinets in your office, you need an additional full-time employee to “deal” with that paper Documents in Web Vaults: The firm requires all clients to have their accounting records in the cloud. All accounting data, documents relating to transactions such as receipts, statements, invoices, contracts, and employee records. Client Portals: The firm will provide a web site portal where all clients can interact with the firm electronically. The portal will allow them to access all of their financial information, interact with the firm staff, monitor the status of any work the firm is doing, access historical data, view their financial and tax records in real time via a "dashboard" that shows the full financial picture and allows the client to self-serve to drill deeper into the information for detailed reports. Just like doctors are beginning to prescribe apps to their patients, Rick Richardson, who you’ll hear from tomorrow suggests that Accountants will prescribe apps to clients to capture, categorize, and record data into the accounting systems. But in order for that to happen, all of the core accounting systems will need to be in the cloud where apps can connect to them.
- Security is without a doubt one of the most important concerns for corporate finance. Here are several concepts to consider when thinking about security with this new way of working. In order to evaluate security, you must compare what we do today (old world) with this new future way of working. In the “old world” we do the following: Send paper invoices and checks in the mail – High incidence of fraud with paper checks Route paper invoices and checks throughout the organization with no way to provide security Manually enter data into accounting systems (error prone and expensive), with some security, but it’s very breakable Many organizations use online banking, but share passwords for access with multiple people in the org. No role-based security in most online banking. Audits cannot guarantee who did what when, and how transactions may have been modified In the “new world” with this redesigned process, we achieve the following: Epayments virtually eliminate risk of fraud from payments to vendors No paper checks, and even if a check must be sent, the network vendor sends the check on their bank account. Role-based security allows for instant denial of access to any individual to some or all of the online network system. Document attachments allow easy/instant access to invoices/contracts etc. that relate to transactions No need for check stock in the office. No risk of “check washing” and other fraud exposures Allows for clear separation of duties, the first rule of fraud reduction Automated business rules allows strict enforcement and accountability Bank-level security for access to network website
- No Matter How Skilled Stable Comfortable … New World Solutions are Disrupting Everything And it’s your AGILITY that will trump your ABILITY