Tech vendors need to know what closes the sale and creates a lifelong customer
by Rick Telberg/for CPA Channel Marketer
Looking for every advantage available in a tough economy, vast numbers of tax and accounting professionals are aggressively investing in technology to improve productivity, client service and marketing practices.
Paperless processes, dual monitors and application integration top the list of hot buttons for these CPA decision-makers, according to a CPA Trendlines survey by Bay Street Group LLC.
And many CPAs are not stopping there. “We have two monitors for everyone now. Let’s make it three a piece,” said the managing partner of a local CPA firm. “We have mastered the paperless office and web-based suite of programs and have created the infrastructure to manage our firm efficiently.”
The findings could be important and useful to software and technology vendors to the tax, accounting and finance professions.
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STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLANNING: CPAs rate their long-term investment plans Percentage of CPAs responding, total n=418
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| Going Paperless (Scanning, storage, etc.) | 62% |
| Improved Efficiency (Dual monitors, software upgrades, faster broadband) | 61% |
| Application Integration (Getting my programs to cooperate with each other) | 59% |
| Disaster Backup, Recovery | 45% |
| Improved Client Service and Communications (online service and delivery) | 45% |
| Getting Mobile (Laptop, PDA, etc.) | 38% |
| Security and Authentication (Fighting identity theft, securing client files) | 36% |
| Controlling Spam, Viruses, Spyware | 34% |
| More Power and Speed (Bigger, faster chips) | 33% |
| Stronger Marketing (Website, search, email newsletters, blogs) | 33% |
| Adding Collaboration Tools (Web conferencing, IM’s, etc.) | 30% |
| Online Training and CPE | 30% |
| Expanding Storage (Bigger hard drives, better backup, going offsite) | 24% |
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Source: CPA Trendlines research by Bay Street Group LLC
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In some ways, bigger companies are having more difficulty funding new tech spending than smaller outfits, possibly because they have been harder hit by the economic slowdown and more deeply entrenched legacy systems. This is creating new opportunities for small, newer firms and companies to leap ahead.
“We are attempting to run too many separate systems that largely do the same thing,” said a senior finance executive at a large manufacturing company. “We need better integration across our entire system landscape, and are working aggressively on attaining that already.” So it’s no wonder he’s looking for more desktop power, mobile connectivity solutions and application integration.
CPAs are looking to software and technology vendors for help. “We are faced with doing with fewer experienced staff, said a partner at a local accounting firm. He wants more help with implementation and support.
And he wants the support to be savvy to the ways a CPA firm works. In this, technology vendors could do a better job of leveraging their base of users to help train new users, he says. “We had better experience when we used another CPA firm for training with implementation of an engagement based product,” he said. “Their experience with successes and failures with the product helped greatly.”
Clearly, CPAs are looking for more than just software and technology from their software and technology vendors. They’re looking for real business partners who can take their businesses to the next level.
How many vendors are ready for that?
MORE, FOR CPA CHANNEL MARKETERS BY RICK TELBERG:
—      How to Market to CPAs in ‘Busy Season’
— Â Â Â Â Â Why CPAs Love Recessions
— Â Â Â Â Â The Billion-Dollar Secret CPA Market
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Market Crisis Creates New Opportunities in Financial Services
–Â Â Â Â Â What CPAs Don’t Want You to Know
Copyright 2009 AICPA. Reprinted by permission.