As accountants move once more towards the advisory job, we can use innovation to take care of issues more than ever and improve the areas which have never been better. Customers are beginning to request better, quicker, increasingly inventive, incorporated frameworks, and they anticipate that you should have counsel on them. We should investigate how to engage in this entirely different assistance line to grasp an all encompassing way to deal with warning administrations.
Step 1: Love and Adopt Technological Changes
We have been prepared to do things in a similar way they have consistently been finished. It is the ideal opportunity for a mentality change. In the event that you start with the suspicion that innovation can and will make your life simpler, you will be in front of the pack. Start discovering instruments that reduce the weight of the manual procedures and computerized however much as could reasonably be expected.
Continuously start at home, give more towards tech startups which are bringing positive change to the society and how are they even doing it. In the event that you are going to probe somebody, investigate yourself. Grasp new innovation at your firm first.
Step 2: Invest more in technologist resources
Practice makes the man perfect is the righteous approach towards it and making automated solutions which can reduce labor is something companies are doing atm. A traditional background would be an Information Systems or a Computer Science degree. However, do not limit yourself. You are looking for someone that believes technology will solve problems, can identify and research solutions, refine processes and implement those systems for your clients. If you cannot support someone as an internal role, hire a specialist externally.
Step 3: Start selling the service
Do not give this service away for free. Identifying and setting up new systems is a VALUABLE service and should be paid for, even if you are just learning.
The easiest way to start selling app advisory services is to reach out to your own client base. Contact clients who have inefficient systems or operations, and see what you can do to help. Start asking questions like, “What takes a lot of time and annoys you?” or call the owner’s admin and ask, “What are you manually doing on a daily or weekly basis?” I promise you will find areas for improvement where technology might be the answer.
Step 4: Always deliver on time
Do not over-promise or over-sell. Even if a technology salesperson tells you the software is capable of something, do not believe them until you try it and see it for yourself. Build in the exploratory phase of the engagement. In this phase, for a low dollar amount, your technologist will research and demo applications to solve specifically identified issues. If there is no solution, the client is only out a small fixed dollar amount. I set that dollar amount at a break-even level to be fair, because if I find something, I stand to make a good margin, but if I do not, my client is not upset.
Start with easy processes, like accounts payable. There are simple solutions to accounts payable workflow issues, and it builds the client’s confidence to have something work really well first.
Step 5: Go back to step 1 and continue the chain
App advisory is not a “set it and forget it” service. You have to continuously review the solutions and technology you have in place. As many of the applications we use on a daily basis to improve their features, we are able to eliminate previously needed apps. Additionally, there are always new players in the marketplace. Your app advisory service line technologist should be on top of the changing ecosystem and applying that knowledge to your client base.