Ep: 42 Top experts answer: "What could the tech/software vendors do better to serve accountants?"

The Accounting Answers 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:

Dwayne Bragonier | Renowned tech leader, author, recognized for practical, cutting-edge process improvement

Stephen Heathcote | Chief Executive Officer at PrimeGlobal - The Association of Advisory and Accounting Firms

Trevor Greenway | CEO of interVal, streamlining firms, finance and wealth with AI

Val Steed | CPA, MA, CITP, accounting, technologist, thought-leader, over 35 year veteran

Vipul Sheth | AdvanceTrack MD, ethically helping firms help clients with global teams

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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The future of accountant, isn't just

about numbers and financial statements.

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It's about empowering businesses to make

informed decisions, navigate complex

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challenges, achieve their financial goals.

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And everyone recognized that Kansans

are at the heart of this and must become

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trusted partners with business acumen

expertise in data analytics, storytelling,

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strategic guidance, taking the clients

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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Today was listed in the views of our

experts, in what the tech software vendors

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could do to better serve accountants.

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What should tech companies do to

develop innovative solutions that can

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help accountants enhance productivity?

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I provide better service to clients

and stay ahead of the curve.

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It's an emotive question with

lots of different angles.

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See if you can spot some clear

messages and crucial themes coming

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out from our accounting influences.

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We have with this now, Trevor Greenway,

CEO of interval, where he focuses

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on streamlined in firms, finance

and wealth with AI leading the way.

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And applying artificial intelligence

to the accounting industry

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for transformative results.

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Trevor Greenway: Talk to them and

don't be fearful of the answer.

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You know, I just, at the end

of the day, people buy products

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for, it's pretty simple.

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You know, people buy products because it

either makes them more money, it solves a

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known pain or it's incredibly convenient

or in a perfect world, it does all three.

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So I think that it's really important

that you don't just develop something

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that you think, Solves a problem.

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You know, solves a problem

because your customers have

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told you that it is a problem.

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And so those conversations are critical

and then iterate and get feedback

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because you have to understand tech

is probably scary to some firms,

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you know, they know it's a part of

their future and they know that some

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have made great investments in it.

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And there are some real leaders in

market, but you have to understand

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that that's not everybody.

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And so I think your empathy towards

their plate and the situation that

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they find themselves in today, that's

a tech vendors job is to help them

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navigate We are not here to kill you.

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We are actually here to can, you

know, play an active role in the

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evolution of the industry that is

gonna be better for everyone long term.

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And you can only do that by having

real open and honest conversations,

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even if you're afraid of the answer.

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I'd say the main problem with

some tech providers and software

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vendors, specifically in accounting.

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There are other places where

this works well, but I think

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specifically in accounting.

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One, you have to be credible

and have domain expertise.

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You have to, they have to believe that

you understand their domain deeply.

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And two, It's not, you're not a commodity.

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This is still relatively the tech

evolution inside of accounting is

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still relatively young relative to

other industries that we've seen.

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It's, you know, there's been a

ton that's been happening, but

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it's now like Moore's law is real.

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The exponential growth

is actually happening.

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And so I think.

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Where I think a lot of companies fail

is they assume, well, if I put in a ton

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of, you know, business development reps

and account executives, and I give them

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their quotas and they cold call, you

know, it's going to be wildly successful

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because the accountants will fall in line.

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And I think the point is

that that doesn't work well.

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And it actually creates a It widens

the gap between the vendors and the

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accountants because they're saying, we're

curious about technology and there are

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things that we want to implement, but you

haven't shown me any real knowledge of how

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my day to day actually works and you've

just treated me like a number and it's a

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volume game and they're, you know, they're

typically dealing in billable time.

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Right.

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And so it's not a great

combination of factors where

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you want a bunch of their time.

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You don't really care.

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You're just throwing numbers and

volume at this, at this sales process.

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And they're sitting there saying,

unless I can really quickly understand

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the solution and understand that it

actually solves the problem for me.

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I'm not ready for this.

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So don't commodity sell me, understand

my business deeply and tell me how

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you're going to solve for the pain

that I also acknowledge that I have.

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And I do truly believe that the

vendors that continue to behave

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that way don't really listen to

the customer, don't acknowledge

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that they're behaving differently.

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I do believe that the extinction is real

and that's, that's actually compounded

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by the fact that, you know, a lot of

those sales engines that are built

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that way are very expensive to run.

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Well, we just came through a little bit

of a tech recession where the market

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kind of reset and probably healthily.

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And so the companies

that were built that way.

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We're head, you know, headcount heavy.

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We're looking to meet quotas and we're

trying to drive, you know, that kind

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of a sales process that's incredibly

expensive, so they'll have to stop.

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Uh, and it, I don't believe

it to be very successful.

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It's an honor to bring to

the microphone to Val Steed.

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A true accounting, legends

CPA, M a C I T P and accounting

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technology thought leader.

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Another 35 year veteran, who's been at

the forefront of technology adoption

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and education in the accounting field.

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Val Steed: accountants Inventory is

their time and so anything we can

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do to actually help them Be more

efficient or understand our solutions.

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We we are guilty of this at zoho.

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We are very guilty of this of not having

Really good training Certification, demo

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data sets, examples, case studies, all

of these things, if you want to talk

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about product related solutions, the

help accountants that are considering

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a solution, grasp it quicker, learn

it quicker, get certified quicker, you

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know, all that's very, very important.

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Also, different, whole different I

really think accounting tech has got to

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start doing what they did years ago and

reach back into the profession to help

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the profession at large with programs

such as programs helping encouraging

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young people to consider accounting as

a profession to encourage and support

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the local chapters, CPA organizations,

accounts organizations, whatever, and

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support those organizations through the

profession, as well as just sell product.

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Hey, well, this now he's fitful chef

managing director at advanced track

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outsourcing, helping accounting

firms build global teams offering

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outsource services that enhance

capacity and client service without

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compromising on quality or ethics.

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Vipul Sheth: I think a lesson for

all of us, and it doesn't matter

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whether you're dealing with family

or you're dealing with customers.

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If you talk to the people, and I refer

to that very generally, so customers.

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In this instance, that is

what we're talking about.

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If you talk to your customers And

identify what's their greatest pain.

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or what is it that their product

aims to solve, but actually doesn't.

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And if you do that, what you do

is you get a much better product.

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One that's actually the customers

have invested their time in.

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And if they've invested time and

they see the results of their

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time in a better product, I think

you've got a stickier customer.

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You have ambassador for that product.

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They'll be happy to tell other

professionals that actually this

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product or this service is great.

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You should go and use it.

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And I think the more that we all do that,

will lead to greater success for everyone.

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And one feeds the other.

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Yeah.

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If we have successful clients.

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Yeah, we inevitably grow and

we're, we're very proud of the fact

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that, our growth is predominantly

driven by our existing customers.

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And it is driven by that

customer service ethos.

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And that's the one thing that every

software or accounting, service

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provider should, should aim to do.

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Microphone (TONOR TC30 Audio Device)-147:

The next voice you hear will be

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Stephen , chief executive officer

of prime global, the association

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of advisory and accounting firms.

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Stephen Heathcote: This is a great

question, because, you know, I could

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say all the things about things like

integration and security, but I would

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say the absolute best thing they

could possibly do to serve us is to

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listen to us and, you know, not just

talk about their kit, but actually

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talk to the people wearing the kit.

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So that, that means really understanding

what, what makes professional practices

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tick, what, when, when firms talk

about utilization, realization,

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their margins, their people, for

their packages and their software.

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How will it make a difference?

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How will it improve profitability?

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How will it make their firm future proof.

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And that really means understanding

the pains and the gains of each

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firm and having conversations.

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So I, I find often it's, um, sometimes

it's startup vendors and entrepreneurs,

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but because they listen and they

won't say, Oh, okay, we'll respond.

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And it may be in the sixth or

seventh release down the line.

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We have developers there now

that will help and support you.

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The next voice is Dwayne .A renowned

tech leader, author, and recognized

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for his practical cutting edge process

improvement in the accounting field.

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Leading firms towards innovation.

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Dwayne Bragonier: make cloud products

work and allow for easy integration

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of other data sets with it.

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So, to speak first, make products work.

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Legacy versions had a framework

that worked for the end user.

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It met their needs.

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When they re write into their cloud

based products, quite often they

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abandon the fundamental framework and

create a new user interface, which

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isn't always necessarily better.

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And in fact, many of them now are starting

to dummy down their application feature

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sets because they're trying to make it

easy for the average person to use and

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sure templating for us so that we can

see things really quickly is wonderful.

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But please continue to allow

customization so that the experienced

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user can do enhanced reporting.

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And with regards to the integration,

please provide user friendly AIPs

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so that you don't have to be a

programming expert in order to allow

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for Dataflow to go into our ERP systems.

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Microphone (TONOR TC30 Audio Device)-2:

So they have five grand

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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,

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The great opportunities to raise your

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peers until next time, this is your host.

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Rob brown, saying stay informed,

stay relevant and stay connected.