The life cycle of technology grows shorter each year. New competitors emerge to disrupt industries, fully equipped with innovative digital technologies and processes. Consumer behavior and expectations continue to evolve as well, making the race to come up with the most advanced and seamless experiences never-ending. Your accounting business may be under pressure to support such requirements.
The easiest way to support such requirements is by fully embracing technology. Here are three ways you can transform your business model today:
1. Keep up with technology’s pace
Your time in business school may have taught you to be methodical and logical, but you’re still a human being—and human beings are not as rational as we think. Stakeholders and executives need to make thousands of decisions, making speed important to driving growth. To keep up, you rely on shortcuts rather than pausing for a while to fill in the gaps—this is precisely why you need technological change.
Technology and increasing informational content are the driving force behind the success of products and services. Gone are the days of pushy sales talk and cold calls. Digital marketing is taking the world by storm through SEO, paid search, and even social media. Every day, new trends come up for you to study. Every month, SEO practices change. Every year, another digital tool is born. Technology runs at a rapid, endless pace—you’ll do well to keep up!
2. Keep flexibility and speed in mind
Your accounting firm keeps up with constantly changing needs and environments, and your systems must also have the flexibility to keep up. Old systems mostly run on functionality, designed to do one or two things at a time. When the need for change happens, the system becomes obsolete. Today, such circumstances will only hold your firm back.
The key is to design with both speed and flexibility in mind. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, for instance, allows companies to perform complex functions on-demand without any need for change. Adopting an accounting document management system software will also help, as this allows you to manage a variety of confidential documents at the same time.
3. Encourage your employees to engage with technology
Your firm’s modernization can easily pass off as a mere matter of technological transformation. These changes, however, can only be sustained when your employees learn how to embrace them. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you restructure your business model:  

• What systems need to be automated?

• Are they equipped with operational skills to adapt to these technologies? If not, will training suffice?

• Are there any concerns or qualms that need to be addressed?

Let your employees know how the changes could make their functions easier. A workflow routing software, for instance, will help them stay on top of their workloads and gain better control over their roles. A time tracking software tool, on the other hand, will keep them up to date with schedules. This is particularly useful for accountants, especially since your firm may be dealing with countless paper timesheets and manual data tracking.
Remember: A thorough understanding of the benefits and processes will help your employees quickly and efficiently adapt to the changes you wish to implement.
Conclusion
The future is happening now, and your firm will do well to keep up with the race. It will be difficult to transition, of course, but through proper management, identification of the right tool such as workflow routing software, and a strong culture of change, your business firm’s technological transformation will catapult you to new heights!
Firm360 software was made for accountants, by accountants — we understand your firm’s struggles. We believe that our practices can be done more efficiently, which is why we’ve come up with various tools to help you achieve that.