New Tech

I don't very often need to be reminded how tech is changing the world but sometimes I get a reminder when I wasn't even looking for one.

Here's the reminder I was thoughtfully provided with by the Universe the other day...

A mate of mine had been sent by his wife to buy new shoes for his two year old daughter.

Now I will admit it's been a while since I had to buy shoes for my daughter - she's 21 - but I can just about remember doing it.  Here's the process:

Get a good description of what you are to buy, take some money with you and buy the shoes.  And woebetide if they were wrong.  Daughter would be upset and wife would be cross... and you would be back at the shop tout suite to return the offending items.

So, I met my mate ahead of having a swift half on a Saturday lunchtime and this is what happened.  In the bar he took the shoes out that he'd bought.  He took a photo of them which he sent to his wife using WhatsApp to gain pre-approval before he went home.

thirty seconds later he got a response and thirty seconds after that we were back in the shoe shop asking for a refund.

It was almost deja vu on Monday when I checked what our Support Centre was suggesting in terms of what they are calling our 'Software Estate' and I have to say even I am impressed with what we can now do.

When a new customer comes on board we have to provide something called a Letter of Engagement - this has all been streamlined.  Going forwards we will only have to set up a new client in one place and that will populate everything else.  Currently we have to type the same details into at least three, sometimes six different places.

Our bookkeeping system can suck through bank transactions automatically, reconciles bank accounts and provides us with client portals.in preparation for GDPR... (more about GDPR in future posts).

For customers who can't access Internet Banking we can now take paper bank statements and scan them directly into spreadsheets or - even better - directly into Quickbooks.

Another app allows us to take photographs of expense claims and our accounts production software will be fully Making Tax Digital ready.

We can provide management accounts and dashboards to our clients providing them with up to the minute information about how their business is performing.

I love all this stuff and can't wait for the chance to implement it all even though I was a bit nervous about online only accountants that are springing up.

But then I was reassured when I read the following piece in a magazine:

'You are at the centre of a raging tornado of innovation.  We must embrace technology but not become it.  Clients will engage, relate and buy services based on the experiences they are provided.  Customer Experience is rated as the single most exciting opportunity in client growth and retention.

Remember, people buy from people first.'

And suddenly I wasn't nervous anymore - and neither should you be even if your industry is going through as much change as ours...