Pre-Budget Report and VAT: the story that won’t die

When I wrote about an admittedly narrow issue on how I see the impact of the reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% I could not have foreseen how that story would take on a life of its own. But elsewhere. Over at IT counts, I riffed the story with the added twist of noting Dave Turner’s comments about the large high street retailers.

That story quickly expanded through comments, was refined and has taken on a different tone, where the related business issues are being enumerated by thoughtful commenters showing a solid understanding of what business will face in the coming weeks. Independently, Michael Izza, ICAEW’s CEO had penned a piece, noting that:

Over the coming weeks, I am meeting a number of ministers and policy makers and would like to be able to feedback on the views of our members. So please do let me know what you think by posting your comments below.

It absolutely makes sense to tie the stories together, which I’ve done in two comments. I also made mention of this story on Twitter. IT counts community manager Stuart Hall came up with the idea of a poll which appears in the IT counts right hand sidebar and is freely available to anyone.

Here’s the point: AccMan and IT counts are low count but targeted reader media properties. IT Counts represents the voice of the senior professional body which has a seat at government tables. The voices that speak in these various media may not be of interest to the vast majority of people but they have the potential to reach into the heart of government. In other words, the professional voice counts.

My call to the vendor community sparked a reaction that will be welcome to those software vendor users. Each has taken a slightly different approach (see the update links to my original post) but I was especially pleased to see the way Pearl Software has sought to interact with its customers. That’s solid goodness. (see the image below for Pearl’s Tweet messages)

Check also the story links in my sponsored feed section: (see image below)

Opportunities of this kind do not come around very often but they don’t need to. They should serve as signposts for the future where putting the customer at the centre of the discussion is a natural part of what you do as a software provider and/or as a professional advisor. It’s very much like putting a pebble in a pond and watching the ripples flow out.

This contrasts sharply with the coverage at AccountingWeb, to which I contributed. It’s great to see them responding to their members needs. My call is different. I see the issue as one that has impact on everyone and therefore it makes sense to me that the issues have a broader appeal. In doing so, I believe the profession and its software colleagues demonstrate what is so often unclear – a genuine understanding of business issues. That is what makes the profession relevant. It is the precursor to true collaboration.

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Tagged as: ICAEW, Twitter, Value added tax