Steve Pipe’s take on the best and worst
April 30, 2008
When I saw Steve Pipe’s analysis of practice performance my initial reaction was ‘thank goodness, someone gets it.’ Now I’m not quite so sure. Here’s what he said about the worst and best performing practices and action for the future:
On the supply side, many firms don’t make full use of leading edge systems and technology for managing and running their businesses. So their productivity is too low, their costs are too high, and their turnaround times are too slow.
And on the demand side of the equation, many firms simply aren’t giving their clients enough of what they really want – ie proactive input that makes a real difference to clients businesses and bank accounts - and low fees, low growth and low profits are the market’s way of punishing them for it.
Research shows that, more than anything else, business owners want their accountant to be more proactive. And because it is what clients want most, being more proactive is also the most fundamental and essential key to sustainable profit improvement…Rather than leaving proactivity to chance, the real breakthrough comes when you develop systems for identifying and sharing proactive ideas, suggestions, advice and input so that every single client benefits fully from them.
All of this should be fairly obvious stuff - except perhaps for the last part. However, he misses one thing - the manner of billing. Nowhere is there mention of pricing models that dispense with timesheets. A closer look at the numbers might indicate why. In all cases, whether good, bad or indifferent, the reported margins are in the range 31-34%. That hasn’t changed in years. However, I know of practices making margins closer to 40% and in one case, a margin of 48%. They don’t use timesheets.
Steve also doesn’t give any clues about the best practices used to generate quality income. That’s easy. Start with communications. Get conversations going with clients to figure what it is they need. We have the tools and technology, it’s just a matter of putting it into practice.
Online marketing = advertising?
April 9, 2008
Regular readers who also visit AccountingWEB should know that Darren Falkingham, head of marketing at Sift Media has made the classic mistake of saying that online marketing is about advertising. In the process, he muddles up advertising, blogs and forums. It represents a confusing set of arguments.
He does however make an excellent point:
Participate in discussions, offer your expertise and you’ll quickly become recognised for what you do and how you do it. Recommendations can come very quickly if you get this right.
Darren doesn’t talk about discovery, one of the key marketing issues for professionals. How about this from Seth Godin (sorry, no direct link. It’s part of the SAP Marketing Community blog fodder):
Not only are there literally a million ways to discover you and your offerings, but people hear your story the way you want it to be heard. The idea of a home page and a site map and a considered, well-lit entryway to your brand is quaint but unrealistic.
Then on the question of marketing itself:
We’re spending a ton of time arguing about tactics, social networks and adwords. Behind the scenes, an even bigger revolution is brewing. It’s the one where entire organizations change in response to the lever of the change in marketing. Henry Ford could have said, "we’re all manufacturers" and been right. Today, we can say, "we’re all marketers," and we will be just as right.
And we’re all online and the early shakers are doing very well. Check out Meatball Sundae.
Marketing innovation
April 9, 2008
This week I’ve been involved in SAP’s Marketing Community meeting. It is a three day virtual conference designed to introduce SAP marketers to new technologies and techniques. I’m part of the blogger contingent which includes some of the finest minds in technology marketing. I would say that but seriously, these folk are making me think hard about what it means to be part of and operate in the context of a large dynamic corporate community. Four of the seven bloggers are part of the Irregulars which also includes a clutch of ex-CEOs from tech companies.
Some critics say that enterprise software has become dull and uninteresting because it is a mature market. I thoroughly disagree with that assessment. Innovation comes in a variety of ways.
As of now, 2,079 people have registered and as the site points out: that has saved 12,308 hours of people’s time and 724,000 km in travel. That’s the equivalent of 72 tons of CO2. To me, that’s innovative as both a contribution towards saving energy and in the use of modern technologies. From what I see, the feedback is amazing.
As another example, I’ll point readers to Zoli’s take on PowerPoint usage. Jeff Nolan’s quote at the end is priceless.
My hope is that at some point, SAP will open up the content so that everyone can see it. In the meantime, I can say that I have shared experiences around the sponsored feeds widget that’s top right on this site, what types of case study material work, discussed the issue of market influence and the value of being part of SAP’s blogger programme.
In the two days the event has been running, collectively, we’ve generated 69 blog posts. One more day to go.
10 signs you need a new accounting system
March 31, 2008
I’ve shamelessly ripped this title off from a great blog post by Bill Kennedy along with his top 10 signs:
10. The service technician keeps threatening to retire
9. “Reconciliation” is your middle name
8. You ask for “proficiency in DOS” when hiring staff
7. When calling Support you hear laughter in the background
6. Salesmen no longer call you about upgrades
5. You have to go for coffee whenever you click on “Post”
4. Your system came on diskettes
3. The last person to know the setup password retired to Florida
2. Nobody understands the reportsand the top sign you need a new accounting system is . . .
1. Your subledgers need counseling for “irreconcilable differences”
Given that we only change accounting systems once every 5-7-10 years then he’s pretty much bang on the money. But what I really like is the way he cleverly parses this into a discussion about switching from Quickbooks to Microsoft Dynamics. None of the usual ‘product X is crap, ours is gorgeous stuff’ at all. Far from it. I’d love to see more vendor representatives take this approach in marketing their wares.
Tags: microsoft dynamics, quickbooks
