Ep: 20 Top experts answer: "What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?"

The Accounting Influencers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:

What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?

You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:

Roger Knecht | President, Universal Accounting Center. Author, Host, Father and Husband

Russell Frayne | Director of Transformation at Gravita, Tech enabling colleagues and clients

Seth Fineberg | Business journalist turned accounting profession consultant and content strategest

Siddharth Kothari | Owner of Digital Outsourcing Services. Strategic partner to accountants

Steve Cox | Accountant, thought-leader, technologist, strategist & 20-year software vendor veteran

Tune into more on this daily show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.

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If you'd like to sponsor the show and elevate your brand with our audience, reach out to show host Rob Brown on LinkedIn and his team will reach out to fix up a chat to explore.

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The future of accountant, isn't just about

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numbers and financial statements.

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It's about empowering businesses to make

informed decisions, navigate complex

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And everyone recognized that Kansans

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towards success and whatever your role

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is in this ecosystem, you need to stay

ahead of the curve to stay relevant.

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And that's why this accounting

answers podcast was conceived to

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keep you informed and competitive.

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I'm your host, Rob brown, and

I've interviewed 111 accounting

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experts, leaders, advisors, vendors,

and influencers in the last few

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months and collected for you the

very best and latest thinking on

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what works and what is coming up.

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And this week, they show 10 to 15

minutes gets you the low down on

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what matters today in the rapidly

evolving accounting landscape.

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And the professional is shed

in its traditional image of

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number crunching, embracing a

bold new future data technology,

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strategic guidance, reign Supreme.

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I've asked the same five questions

throughout covering the next

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generation of accountants.

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The proactive advice they need to be

given the drivers have changed the

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role of tech and software vendors

post the best predictions for the

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next few years, let's get started and

hear what our experts have to say.

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We've been focusing all

this week on the question.

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What could the tech software vendors

do better to serve accountants?

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The answers you hear covered?

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The vendor accountant relationship and the

needs of accountants that are not being

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addressed by current accounting software.

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How could this software be more

user-friendly and intuitive for

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accountants and their clients?

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How is AI playing its part in the

evolution of the accounting role,

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all these aspects and more come out.

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As we check out the answers

of our resident experts.

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Um, next is the wonderful Roger connect

president of universal accounting

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center off the host father, husband,

who brings a holistic approach.

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To accounting education focusing on

both personal and professional growth.

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Roger Knecht: Beautiful question.

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My thinking is, is that the accounting

software, the programs, the vendors that

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are out there servicing the accounting

community need to actually help us not

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just do tactile work, the commoditization

of the work of the accounting that we

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do, what they need to do is therefore,

basically help us answer the question

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of how does this apply or what's next?

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And I'm going to suggest that what.

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Every accounting vendor, every

software company that services

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the accounting community needs to

answer is therefore what here we

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are, we're doing this automation,

we're systematizing this process.

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We're automating this.

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We're bringing in the AI.

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Once we have all this systematized,

therefore, how do we actually

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take this to the clients we

service and help them take this?

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Systemization that we've done the

automation that we've done and now answer

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the question, therefore, what, and that's

something that I would like to see every

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company be able to explain and answer.

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They've systematized something.

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they've accelerated the process

of doing something, simplified it.

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Therefore, what?

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Rob Brown: John.

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And the debate now is Russell Frain

director transformation at gravity

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way's expertise with technology is

redefining how accounting firms leverage

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technology for better service delivery.

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Russell Frayne: Absolutely.

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And two things always stick out

for me, and I've spoken to many

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vendors about this as well.

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So, one is optimizing their platform,

as I think too often vendors can, leave

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accounting firms to figure it out on their

own, which can result in suboptimal use.

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reduces the return on investment from

the firm, which means that sometimes

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they give up on software adoption at

all because they don't see the benefit.

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plus there's a lot of wastage in the

cloud accounting space with undeployed

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subscriptions, floating all over the

place that the firms are paying for,

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which are sort of being returned as.

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adoption metrics for software

vendors, which is skewing

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the actual adoption rates.

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I think, practices have a scattered

approach to technology adoption as they

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move from platform to platform, looking

for some magic secret bullet to success.

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So I think getting the best out

of the platforms absolutely from

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a vendor perspective is a focus.

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And then secondly, is the soft

skill and change management

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support because these are skills

that accountants don't inherently

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have and they're not trained on.

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So when you do your training, you

don't get trained on change management,

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transformation, soft skills.

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So any support bringing

people along on the journey.

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is value add from a

software vendor perspective.

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And we've seen this with some vendors

historically who have paired a partner

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consultant with an account manager to

help deliver and deploy to get the most

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from a solution, which then leverages the

best return on investment for the business

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and the business owner or the practice.

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But from a vendor perspective, you've

got the optimal long term value in

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terms of the client's stickiness.

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So when you kind of pair, you know, best

in breed technology with an accountant

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optimized, you end up with, the best

overall result from my experience anyway.

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Rob Brown: And now insights from

Seth Feinberg business journalist

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turned accounting, professional

consultant and content strategist who

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uses his media expertise to elevate

the conversations around accounting

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practices and industry trends.

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Seth Fineberg: Talk to each other more.

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Be present.

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Be, like, you listen on both sides.

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They both need to, be on

the same page a lot more.

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I understand that, developers on the

software side, you know, they, tend to

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do things in a bit of their own, bubble.

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Just as accountants do.

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Accountants, do things in their own way.

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One of the reasons why, particularly

with practice management systems.

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there's always something that,

frustrates, the accountant because

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it's not that necessarily something

wasn't built right for them.

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It's just, they just have

their own way of doing things.

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So there are certain things that exist

in a bubble on the developer side, on

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the accountant side, but by and large,

they're only going to, you really,

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you know, move everything forward,

move the entire profession forward

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if they're on the same page, more.

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So that's, that's something I

think that, They should be doing

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better, to, you know, to serve

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Rob Brown: accounts.

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We now tend to sit down with Qatari owner

digital outsourcing services, a strategic

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partner to accountants, where he provides

innovative outsourcing solutions that

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enhance efficiency and capacity for

accounting firms all over the world.

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Siddarth Kothari: so right now there are

very, tight competition in the technology

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industry to provide more and more

solutions to the accountancy industry,

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and there are very good companies who have

come to a very breakthrough technology

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to do much and much of an impact on

how accountancy firms are working.

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Let's just think of bookkeeping, right?

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It has changed significantly

on how everyone is working

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right now all over the world.

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But the thing is, now the accountancy

firms would also be looking on how they're

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leveraging technology because if they are

subscribing to, let's say, 10 different

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technologies, one would be for bookkeeping

or tech, accounting or practice

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management, or taxes, filings, everything.

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the most important thing

they would be looking for.

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They should be looking for.

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Is that the technology should

not be overlapping different

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subscriptions, different technologies

that they're already using.

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So the tech industry would be now also

focusing on those areas that how they

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are being niche in their services, their

products, their, their service developers.

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And the second thing is, that would

be a game changing is the, strong

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customer back office support.

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Because if they are having an issues on

a real time basis for their accounts,

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for their audits, for any other, uh,

requirements, they should have a team

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in the software companies in the tech

companies will be, uh, you know, available

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to speak to them, provide a support.

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solution at that moment, and then

the accountancy don't, uh, miss

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out any deadlines or they don't

feel any backlogs because of that.

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So, yeah, that would be much, much impact.

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Rob Brown: Next step

is a favorite of mine.

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One of the most respected accounting

influences in the United Kingdom

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and certainly a big figure in

the round table that we run here.

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It's Steve Cox.

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Accountant thought leader,

technology, strategist.

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20-year software vendor veteran.

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Who brings a wealth of experience

in leveraging technology to solve

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complex accounting challenges.

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Here he comes.

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Steve Cox: Being a software vendor, I'm

working for one for many, many years.

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We've worked hand in glove with

accountants globally for, well, certainly

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for my reign of 21 years, but from

an Irish perspective for 45 years.

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However, is the job done?

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No, we've got to continue to work really

closely with accountants and bookkeepers

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to be able to understand what they need.

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So it's a constant listening

piece, which is something that any

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software vendor should be doing

is listening to the profession.

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To understand the challenges of what's

going on, what could we be doing better?

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Ultimately, showing people how

to use the software better,

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how to get the most out of it.

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It's a worrying statistic that actually

most firms that buy software only use

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about 20 percent of its functionality.

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You're not getting a great return

on your investment for that.

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It's on the software vendors

primary objectives to get them

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to use as much as possible.

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It doesn't drive additional

revenue, but what it does do

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is drive customer satisfaction.

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And ultimately, a happy customer is one

that's going to stay longer and buy more.

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So actually, it's a win win for both.

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So really, it's around how do you

get the most out of the software

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that we're providing to accountants.

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Rob Brown: So they have five

grand answer to the question.

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What could the tech and software vendors

do better to serve accountants each

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work in depth that week, Monday through

Friday, we give you the insights of five

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top influencers in the accounting world.

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On this critical area of the

tech providers, software vendors

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and how they serve accountants.

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That's 25 valuable perspectives,

viewpoints and best thinking every week.

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And with each fresh week comes a

fresh question and more thoughts

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from the best accounting leaders

and influences we can find.

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Thanks for listening to this brand

new accounting answers podcast.

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And sharing the show with your friends.

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If you want to join the conversation,

you can plug into our community of

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implementers@accountinginfluencers.com

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These happen every few months

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The great opportunities to raise your

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share your thoughts with influential

peers until next time, this is your host.

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Rob brown, saying stay informed,

stay relevant and stay connected.