TAKING YOUR PRACTICE TO THE CLOUD
While cloud accounting and reliable accounting hosting platforms are in hot discussion throughout the industry, some real life examples may be apropos.
Brian Austin and Kim Hogan at CPA Practice Advisor magazine weigh in on the most pertinent areas to examine towards moving an accounting practice to a private accounting cloud. An important and potentially urgent matter of whether you should move your practice to the cloud, now or later, looms.
See also – Key Emerging Strategies for Accounting Firms
Cloud9 Wins CPA Practice Advisor ‘ASP of the Year’
Excerpt: February 2012 digital issue of CPA Practice Advisor —
It seems that everywhere we turn these days we’re inundated with messages of moving to the Cloud. Sometimes it feels as though the Mad Men advertising powerhouse is hard at work in the Sterling-Cooper board room, coming up with new material to keep the accounting world drinking that Cloud Kool-Aid. We are just talking about software though, aren’t we? There can’t really be that big of a difference. In the end, we all get to the same place, right?
We decided rather than just talking about how great life is here in the Cloud, and how Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the only way to go and that all your problems will magically disappear when you take that leap, we should take a different approach. Instead, we’ll give you some real life examples of how smart Cloud and SaaS solutions are changing the way firms do business for the better. Take that, Don Draper!
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Today’s accounting market is more competitive than ever. You can’t sit idle very long before finding yourself on outdated technology, and let’s face it – nobody wants that. As clients grow, their needs are continuously changing. Firms that provide smart, innovative technologies to help clients meet stringent compliance regulations, function at full speed on the go, or process those dreaded expense reports more efficiently are the firms that will retain those clients and share in the success of mutual growth.
Time is Money
As road warriors ourselves, we can relate first-hand to the need for access to mission critical data anytime, from anywhere. The days of the Out of the Office Auto-Reply email are numbered – you don’t want your clients waiting on you to access their information, do you? Why not remove that roadblock and ensure that clients can have accurate, secure access on their time not yours, through the use of client portals.
Work Smart, not Hard
All this might sound fine & dandy, but then there’s reality: do all these smart, mobile apps really do what they say they do? More importantly, even if they do, are they easy enough that you and your clients can use them effectively? It’s not nearly as helpful to have numerous disparate systems working independently as it is when they can integrate and provide a single collaborative platform.
>> Read the full article at CPA Practice Advisor
