This is post #3 of the insights I gained at Joe Woodard’s Scaling New Heights Keynote presentation from Jill Ward, Senior V.P. & General Manager Accounting Professional Division of Intuit. this one covers demographic trends.
#3 Technology at Light Speed – From Data to Decision
The digital generation has grown up with technology and expects it to grow quickly
This generation does not want to come to the office to meet with their accountant – they don’t even want to come in to work. They think about time differently. Work and life are more integrated.This might be because their mobile device has become part of their hand. There is no way to cut-off. Work/life balance is more about work/life flexibility. This means that they want a portal that will allow them to access data anytime and anywhere.
Seniors are not retiring, they are asking for help on whether they should be investing in new business. They view this “un-retirement” lifestyle as a financial planning opportunity.
As we talked about in my previous post, business is becoming more global and multicultural. Multicultural clients demand multi-talented support.
Data is critical for competitive advantage
By 2020 we will have 35 times more data than 2010. Data will continue to be an important value component in many products and services. Business data is invaluable – without it there is no way to see where we’ve been and plan where we will go. It is projected that statisticians and accountants who work with data will be in short supply. Some say that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 200,000 statisticians and 1 million analysts. Click here for Intuit’s report on accounting in the year 2020.
Working in the cloud
This trend will continue at it’s current fast pace. Mobile devices have become the primary computing tool for most of the world
Implications
We have been looking at accounting and bookkeeping differently for a long time. Three years ago, in a strategic planning retreat, we stated that traditional bookkeeping will become obsolete in less than 10 years. Why? Because web 2.0 technology is automating processes that historically had to be done by hand.
Our goal is to lead that transformation. It’s an opportunity, not a threat. We don’t want to just provide “compliance” we want to provide reports and analysis that our client’s CPA’s and CFO can use to more easily interpret thier books. We are constantly seeking better technology and QuickBooks integration. We have a new portal dashboard that is in Beta and we can’t wait to start offering it to our clients.
Read #1 The New Marketplace is Shifting the Playing Field
Read #2 Professionals and Clients Get a New Face
Today I’m going to start a new series on best practices for designing a Financial Reporting System. This is based on methodology I learned as a Manager of Accounting Systems at Ernst & Young, as well as designing accounting systems for hundreds of small businesses using QuickBooks as part of GrowthForce’s outsourced, online bookkeeping and controller service.
