DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Fixing the gaps
Accountants undergoing digital transformation should know which gaps they are trying to fix, writes Jules Carman.
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n the previous article in this series, published in the September/October 2019 issue, we discussed the fact that any digital transformation project should begin with a cultural assessment to make sure that the technology serves people’s real needs. Once you’ve spoken to your employees and made sure that you understand their problems and concerns, the next step is to carry out a thorough gap analysis to determine what’s causing those problems – and how they can be fixed. A good guiding sentiment for this step in the process is to ask: what one thing could you fix that would make everyone’s lives easier? Similarly, and crucially for accountants, how are you going to improve the service you offer clients? As we outlined previously, digital transformation initiatives should be led by the goal of discovering and solving inefficiencies and bottlenecks in existing workflows – not just bolting new technology on left, right and centre. With that approach in mind, accounting firms that are looking to move towards a digital way of working need to take the time to review the systems they have in place to identify where
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change is needed most – and what practical steps can be taken towards fixing them. Moreover, remember that new technology isn’t always the answer – training and process redesign can be just as important.
Identifying operational inefficiencies
Author bio
Jules Carman is the Head of Digital Transformation, Accountancy, at Sage.
The first priority should be to review existing systems with the lens of your cultural review and find out where your growth potential is being limited. The problem might be something obvious, like a system that repeatedly crashes or runs slowly. Alternatively, it might be an application that doesn’t integrate with the rest of the workflow, leaving essential information locked in a virtual box and getting in the way of joined-up thinking. Accounting firms’ IT landscapes tend to evolve organically over time, particularly among longstanding companies that have made the full transition from pen and paper to the cloud over many years. This means that often they don’t operate smoothly as one system. Over time, you will add an application here and grow a deployment there, and although each addition ISSUE 109 | AIAWORLDWIDE.COM
