This document discusses various technologies including social media, mobile technology, and cloud computing. It provides details on the growth of social media platforms and how professionals like accountants can benefit from using social media to build relationships, generate leads, and monitor reputation. Mobile technology is evolving rapidly with new devices like bendable phones and wearable technology. The document discusses how mobile phones can help professionals and be used by accountants to improve efficiency. It also covers emerging technologies like contactless payments and issues around customer relationship management, version control, and data security when working with cloud computing. The key message is that technology is changing rapidly and accountants need to adapt and leverage new technologies to remain relevant.

1. i For Technology
Social Media, Mobile & Cloud
Technology, Other Issues
Ameet Patel
January 2014
RRC, Mahableshwar

2. Social Media – what do you know
about it?

4. Time to reach 50 mn users
38 years
13 years
4 years
3 years
1 year

5. Can Social Media help
in Selling
???

6. It helped….
$$$$

7. It helped one of these car companies
Car purchase decided, not by the size of Xylo ads,
but by the 22 recommendations here!!

8. It helps sell T-shirts...rather, it
RUNS a large T-shirt business!

9. And it helped this plumber
Same could happen
with a doctor, a
lawyer, a CA ....
There will be positive
recommendations, as
also negative….
“Don’t go to that
guy.. He’s a cheat..”
etc.
“I will tell my Facebook friends about your
brand. Not because I like your brand, but
because I like my friends!”

10. Social Media For Professionals
Social Media is all about building “Relationships”
• Network with existing relationships
• Leverage existing... to build new ones
• Find new relationship opportunities
• Convert “contacts” into “contracts”
For professionals like CAs,
Social Media can be very useful

11. Power of LinkedIn..at a click

12. Create Thought Leadership
•
•
A tool for creating a brand (without advertising)
Platforms
• Blogs
• You Tube
•
Content
• Talk about issues and your opinion on those issues
• Similar to writing articles in the Institute’s or BCA
journals
• Except now you are trying to address your potential
customers and not just fellow CAs

13. Generate Leads
• Build relationships
• Platforms
– LinkedIn
– Yahoo Answers
– Google Groups
• Build your network…bigger the better
• Participate in conversations
– Groups
– Q and A

14. Reputation Monitoring
• For large firms
• For “well known” individuals
• ORM
– Online reputation management
– What are people talking about
– Responding to issues right away

15. General Tips
• Social Media is not about shouting out loud. It is
about quiet conversations
• You have to learn to listen, before you start
talking
• It is about creating “shareable” content. Your
users (consumers) are also your content
distributors
• It is about lighting up a forest with a match stick

16. Using LinkedIn for sourcing staff

17. How to use social media –
see how Big 4 do it

18. How to use social media –
see how Big 4 do it

19. Power of Twitter – No. of followers
(as on 28th December, 2013)
Barack Obama
4,07,20,611
Amitabh Bachchan
75,90,081
Sachin Tendulkar
39,93,031
Narendra Modi
30,59,117
Shashi Tharoor
20,08,516
Kiran Bedi
13,10,299
Barkha Dutt
11,33,199
PMO
9,81,001
Arvind Kejriwal
9,38,376

20. Power of Facebook Pages – No. of
Likes (as on 28th December, 2013)
Name of Page
No. of Likes
Narendra Modi
75,04,848
Madhuri Dixit Nene
49,72,415
ICAI
1,02,683
ICFAI
8,256
ICAEW
21,338
MTV
4,84,25,783
Vodafone Zoozoos
1,65,83,162
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
1,53,914

21. Power of Twitter –
And where are CAs?
Name of Person
No. of followers
Mukesh Butani
1,232
Arun Giri
1,112
Richard Rekhy
862
Chirag Chauhan
402
Ameet Patel
274
Lubna Kably
253
Ketan Dalal
245
Shailesh Haribhakti
103
Nitin Shingala
57

22. Social Media – What’s new?
• Foursquare is becoming popular
• “Listening” is the in thing. Companies are
spending lot of time, money and efforts in
analysing what others are writing, sharing on SM
• CAs will also need to “listen” on SM

23. Mobile Technology
•
•
•
•
•
Exciting
Ever changing
Gives massive power to the user
Can easily replace laptops and computers
Younger generation is always stuck to their
mobile phones

24. Mobile Technology – Growing
importance

25. Future Mobile Technology
• Bendable Technology
– Flexible screens
– Malleable phones
– Bendable phones that can be rolled up the sleeves or
wrapped around our wrists
– Phones that can be moulded into any shape that we
want

26. Future Technology
• Wearable technology
– Google Glass
•
•
•
•
Activated by looking up
Can be controlled through voice and touch
GPS enabled and Wifi enabled
Projects a screen into our filed of vision allowing us to view
information while engaging with apps
– iWatch

27. Wearable Mobile Phones

28. Bendable mobile phones

29. 360◦ Screen

30. Future phones - security
• Facial recognition
• Retina recognition
• DNA identification

31. Smart Phones and Doctors
• Smart phones enable doctors to go mobile
thereby allowing them to diagnose and treat
illnesses from anywhere in the world
• Future phones could:
–
–
–
–
Monitor hearbeat
Check blood sugar levels
Measure blood pressure
Send out auto alerts to doctors in case of problems

32. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
• Fast changing
• Extremely exciting
• Almost every week, we see a new model of a phone
being launched either by Apple or by Samsung or by
Nokia or any of the other manufacturers
• Most people are now buying smart phones and
phablets.
• As people spend more and more time on their
phones and phablets, what is it that we CAs can do
in terms of using this technology?

33. Smart phones & CAs
• Smart phones can easily replace your personal
secretary
– Who will remind you about whom to call and when
– Who will remind you where you are supposed to be at
what time
– Who will learn your routine and suggest ways to
improve your day
• Smart phones will be able to project
interactive touch screens onto any surface

34. Mobile Technology & CAs
• Instead of sending out emails, send out SMS or Whatsapp or BBM
messages to clients / staff by way of reminders for various due dates
• Creating apps for routine matters and encouraging clients to use the
same. For example, bank summary or capital gains details. If a
simple to use app is created and clients are encouraged to put in
their data into the same and submit to the CA's office by way of an
email, it would reduce the burden on the CA, do away with routine
and monotonous work for the CA's staff and improve profitability
• Instead of sending out tax alerts and newsletters, one could update
the firm's app and the app could send out auto alerts to users that
something new has come up on the app.

35. Mobile Technology & CAs
• With wearable and bendable phones and many such
innovative technologies available, we don’t need to tie
ourselves to our offices or desks
• We can work on anything in any place
• We can access anything anywhere
• In ITAT / Court / Arbitration / Meetings / Seminars /
Hearings – everywhere, we can access contents stored
either in the cloud or on the internet or in a server

36. Contactless payments
• Google Wallet allows users to store all their
credit cards in one place and use the phone as
a wireless wallet
• Send money to any one in the US with an email
address. It's easy, fast and free to send from
your bank account or Google Wallet Balance.
• If this facility is available in India too, what does
it mean for CAs?

37. Contactless payments
• Will you accept fees from a client via this facility?
• Will your website / app permit such a payment to
be made by a client?
• If your client accepts payments from its
customers, how would that affect the audit trail
and how will you verify such transactions?

38. Cloud Technology
•
•
•
•
SaaS ≠ Mother in Law
PaaS ≠ Hindi translation of “near”
IaaS ≠ admission of the fact that I am an ass
NaaS ≠ Hindi translation of steam inhalation

39. Imagine all these in the cloud

40. Cloud Technology
• Challenges exist
• Advantages exist
• Choice is yours

41. Other Issues
•
•
•
•
Customer Relations Management
Version Management
DSC Management
XML Management

42. Customer Relations Management
• In a firm, various members have hundreds of
contacts
• In a year, large number of mailers go out to
different sets of people
• Maintaining a single database of clients /
contacts etc is the need of the hour

43. Other Issues
• Version Management
• DSC Management
• XML Management

45. Yes..!! They are
now with me…

46. Convergence of technology
What lessons can we CAs draw from this?
1. More and more people desire to get wide range
of services under one roof
2. Younger generation insists on convergence
3. Are you part of a one stop shop?
4. Are you an old Nokia phone or a smart
Samsung phone?

47. Technology is telling us that its time
for us to pause and think
Ball is in our court

48. I for Technology
information Technology

49. I for Technology
innovative Technology

50. I for Technology
But most important is
I
Am I ready for Technology?
Am I keen on using Technology?
Am I eager to move with the times?
Do I have an eye for technology?

52. i For Technology
THANK YOU
patelameet@hotmail.com