Applause Well done AccountingWeb and the National B2B Centre. (Martin I am keen to speak to you at some stage.) We all know the stats and I think any organisation that is going to take some leadership to help the very busy practitioners out there is commendable. When I was in practice I found that technology provided significant benefits in terms of internal efficiency and increased value for money to my clients. The problem is that IT is moving fast and it is hard to keep up with the latest and greatest stuff. If you are going to run a similar event closer to London then I will certainly be attending.
Hamish Edwards xero.com
BTW - Xero was specifically designed to empower the relationship between Accountants and their clients.
Some pros and some cons I have been working in the UK about September last year. In all that time, I have only had my home as an office. Starting from 1 April, I will have an office to go to, but I still intend to spend about 2-3 days a week working from home. At first working from the kitchen bench is rubbish, but once you set yourself up properly, with a desk, good internet, phones and the right software, then working from home is awesome. I am an Accountant, and I am sure that working from home is cheaper than working from an office. I get to spend more time with my 11 month old son and eat lunch with my wife every day. I don't have to get out of bed at 6am either for the mad commute into London. But there does come a time when you need an office. That 11 month old sure can scream some days, so I think have a choice to work from home or the office, is probably best. I agree and think we will see a lot more people choosing to work from home more and hot desk at the office. With my rapidly expanding business we are considering how to grow without offices everywhere. As far as I am concerned, all you need is a Blackberry, Macbook and a Vodafone wireless modem and you can work anywhere.
Disruptive = Change Disruptive means (according to the Cambridge Dictionary online) causing trouble and therefore stopping something from continuing as usual, and that is exactly what Xero (and FreeAgentCentral who you also reference) are doing for small businesses and freelancers respectively. They are saying you don’t have to ‘do’ your accounts like an accountant, but you can instead manage your business finances in a way that suits how you work. That is stopping things ‘continuing as usual’.
So if both solutions are causing trouble (to the existing approach of doing accounts for small businesses – such as using PC-based solutions) then by definition they can both be disruptive.
We’re not ‘sustaining’ anything as users are ditching PC based solutions that are designed for ‘accounting’ and switching to our online system that focuses on ‘business information’.
I like the debate, it is very helpful for all of us.
My answers
Applause
Well done AccountingWeb and the National B2B Centre. (Martin I am keen to speak to you at some stage.) We all know the stats and I think any organisation that is going to take some leadership to help the very busy practitioners out there is commendable. When I was in practice I found that technology provided significant benefits in terms of internal efficiency and increased value for money to my clients. The problem is that IT is moving fast and it is hard to keep up with the latest and greatest stuff. If you are going to run a similar event closer to London then I will certainly be attending.
Hamish Edwards
xero.com
BTW - Xero was specifically designed to empower the relationship between Accountants and their clients.
Some pros and some cons
I have been working in the UK about September last year. In all that time, I have only had my home as an office. Starting from 1 April, I will have an office to go to, but I still intend to spend about 2-3 days a week working from home.
At first working from the kitchen bench is rubbish, but once you set yourself up properly, with a desk, good internet, phones and the right software, then working from home is awesome. I am an Accountant, and I am sure that working from home is cheaper than working from an office. I get to spend more time with my 11 month old son and eat lunch with my wife every day. I don't have to get out of bed at 6am either for the mad commute into London.
But there does come a time when you need an office. That 11 month old sure can scream some days, so I think have a choice to work from home or the office, is probably best. I agree and think we will see a lot more people choosing to work from home more and hot desk at the office.
With my rapidly expanding business we are considering how to grow without offices everywhere. As far as I am concerned, all you need is a Blackberry, Macbook and a Vodafone wireless modem and you can work anywhere.
Cheers
Hamish
Co-founder of Xero.com
Disruptive = Change
Disruptive means (according to the Cambridge Dictionary online) causing trouble and therefore stopping something from continuing as usual, and that is exactly what Xero (and FreeAgentCentral who you also reference) are doing for small businesses and freelancers respectively. They are saying you don’t have to ‘do’ your accounts like an accountant, but you can instead manage your business finances in a way that suits how you work. That is stopping things ‘continuing as usual’.
So if both solutions are causing trouble (to the existing approach of doing accounts for small businesses – such as using PC-based solutions) then by definition they can both be disruptive.
We’re not ‘sustaining’ anything as users are ditching PC based solutions that are designed for ‘accounting’ and switching to our online system that focuses on ‘business information’.
I like the debate, it is very helpful for all of us.
Cheers
Hamish
Co-founder of Xero