Mobile software developer MyFirmsApp is evolving in a new direction under the influence of chairman Gavin Disney May.
“What I’m trying to do oversee the transition from a marketing company to a mobile software business,” he told AccountingWEB.
Back in 1998 his old company was acquired by Sage. Disney May spent 16 years with the accounting software giant before leaving to join the private equity circuit in 2014. While visiting Accountex that year, he was frustrated at the lack of innovation in the accounting software market until he encountered MyFirmsApp and their mobile offerings.
Disney May continued his conversations with the company after he left Sage and decided to invest himself towards the end of that year.
By grasping the opportunity presented by mobile and cloud technologies, MyFirmsApp had the right idea, he thought, and he could help it expand beyond its origins as a marketing services provider.
“It’s a mobile world - and relying on locale and loyalty is a dangerous game in this market. MyFirmsApp is creating an accounting front-end where if a client has a financial or tax question, they go to their app rather than Google. It also pushes out targeted messages that encourage businesses to interact more regularly with their accountant,” he said.
The current focus is on R&D to beef up the underlying platform. In addition to the automated marketing tools, content and tax calculators, the MyFirmsApp portfolio includes mileage, receipt and income data collection tools can feed back-end accounting systems. It also acts as a platform that can integrate other add-on applications.
The next step, announced this week, is a tie up with Amazon in which MyFirmsApp will adapt its Lex’s speech recognition and machine learning capabilities to build a voice/text chat that will let on mobile bots handle basic client queries and tasks.
“This will create a world of 24/7 virtual assistants for accountants that start ‘How can I help you?’ conversations with clients, said Disney May.
On a more immediate level, MyFirmsApp also sees Making Tax Digital as a big opportunity. “It’s a very serious change,” said Disney May. “We believe we can become an enabler for small businesses to capture data. We can also streamline the process for accountants to help them be more cost-effective.”