Practice Excellence: How tech can help

AccountingWEB editor John Stokdyk reflects on how appropriate tools played their part in the success of the nominees in this year’s Practice Excellence Awards.

As it should be, the focus for the most successful contestants in the Practice Excellence Awards was on understanding who their clients were, what they needed and making sure that they had the means to fulfil clients’ expectations.

But as a technology specialist, it struck me how many of the shortlisted firms had used new technology innovatively to achieve their ends. Small firm winner Bennett Brooks & Co said it put investment into IT “to increase flexibility and improve client experience”, for example with a seamless telephone system.

In its submission to the judging panel, large firm winner Milsted Langdon explained: “Modern technology has enabled us to take a much more proactive approach, improving efficiency and further enhancing our service to clients.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

This article draws on similar insights from the top 20 performing firms to examine how the 10 most commonly cited tools are being used to improve client service within the profession:

• Websites (13 mentions)
• Social media (9 mentions)
• Paperless office (8 mentions)
• Key Performance Indicators ( 7 mentions)
• Customer relationship management (5 mentions)
• Business planning tools (4 mentions)
• Cloud accounting (5 mentions)
• Remote working (3 mentions)
• Mobile computing (3 mentions)
• Collaboration tools (2 mentions)

Continued...