Top Tech Habits of High-Performing Firms

Study by Bay Street Group finds common attitudes and behaviors at high performing firms that serve as benchmarks for success.

Accounting firms that successfully achieve their stated goals share common attitudes and behaviors toward technology adoption, according to a new study by Bay Street Group LLC, publisher of CPA Trendlines.

The study supports a strong relationship between high performance and a firm’s view of technology as a strategic asset, and uncovers significant gaps between high- and low- performing firms in key areas that can serve as a guide for success.

Though the attitudes common among high performers are not surprising, the gap between high and low performers is enlightening.

High performing firms, for example:

1. Regard technology adoption as a competitive advantage over low performing firms – by a margin of 27-to-1
2. Choose the best best-of-breed application available for a particular function – by a margin of 27-to-1
3. Understand that there’s an opportunity cost associated with delaying technologyadoption – by a margin of 7-to-1
4. Allow plenty of time to implement and learn new technologies – by a margin of 9-to-1
5. Encourage employees to explore new technologies and better ways of doing things – by a margin of 11-to-1

One of the key results: high performing firms continue, year after year, to experience measurable increases in productivity, by a margin of 6-to-1 over low-performing firms.

The research was sponsored by XCM Solutions, LLC, a leader in delivering cloud-based workflow solutions for accountants, and findings were released in a new white paper by CEO Mark Albrecht, CPA, MST, entitled, “Seven Habits of Highly Successful Firms.” Click here to download the white paper.

“The results were enlightening, but not for the correlation between high performance and a technology-progressive attitude,” explained Albrecht. “We expected a relationship, based on our own experience with technology progressive firms. What was surprising was the size of the disparity between high and low performers in their attitudes and behaviors in the seven critical areas the study identified.”

Three hundred randomly chosen practitioners from firms of all sizes participated in the online survey, “Top Tech Strategies for 2011.” The study also suggests that the achievement gap will continue to widen between high and low performing firms, particularly as the pace of technology adoption increasingly changes the client service and practice management landscapes.

Albrecht will share pertinent study findings at the AICPA National Tax Conference in Washington D.C. in November in his session, “7 Key Steps to Maximizing Your IT Investments,” and on his blog, “Going with the ‘flow.” The white paper is available for download on the XCM Solutions Web site here.

About XCM Solutions, LLC

Founded by CPAs, XCM Solutions, LLC provides accounting firms with cloud-based workflow management solutions that increase efficiency, productivity and profitability. The company’s management team has drawn on its extensive experience in public accounting and clear understanding of the paper-driven workflow issues facing the profession to develop technology that addresses those challenges.

XCM’s customer-guided development process has helped the company continuously raise the bar for business process automation solutions for the accounting profession. The award-winning XCM™ workflow management software has become a key piece of the technology equation for firms re-engineering paper-based processes as they move toward a paperless environment.

In 2010, CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the AICPA, and XCM Solutions formed a strategic alliance to bring the XCM workflow management software into CPA2Biz’s Trusted Business Advisor Solutions cloud computing platform.

 

Posted on October 24, 2011