Disruption hurts those who aren’t prepared for it. Fairfax didn’t understand the potentially disruptive effects of the internet when they were approached by the people behind SEEK to buy into their online jobs website. Their classified revenues were decimated. In the newspaper world all the power has shifted to the audience and media businesses who can’t get their heads around that simply won’t survive.
Indeed the entire media model is an absolute state of flux – primarily from the all persuasive power of digital – and, in the process, the audience is now the boss and that’s left traditional media outlets battered, bruised and wondering where to go next.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Similar scenarios are taking place in desktop accounting and the essential compliance work of accountants and bookkeepers. What we’re seeing now is a massive power transfer from producers to consumers; that is, away from the manual entry and spreadsheet based data analysis, to cloud-based accounting software platforms.
The ‘audience’ here are not just the professional services firms but the end users – the business owners and business decision-makers. Old-school practitioners would struggle and quite possibly fail in this disruptive age; it will be the ones who are completely in denial about the nature of digital disruption and digital change; who are not investing in things that are really compelling and not magnetic for an ‘audience’.
Today’s ‘audience’ wants its information now, the audience wants to capture the material in a variety of different technology formats. The audience now has no difficulty moving seamlessly between mobile, desktop, laptop – and device so long that it is digital and connected to the internet. Just as people under the age of 30 are utterly indifferent to print, so too are they indifferent to the tedious tasks associated with desktop accounting.
If you’re looking for a takeaway then look at what the firm of tomorrow is doing: they are using technology to seamlessly collect data in real time (including bank feeds); provide an ecosystem of add-ons to enable the bookkeeper and business decision-maker attend to date entry, reporting and, for the more progressive bookkeeper, tools for enhancing not just productivity, but to be proactive and offer value added services to the business owner.
Read more www.bookkeepershub.com.au/small-business-guides