data collection – Page 6 – Cooper Mann Consulting

September 20, 2012September 11, 2013

Be the McDonald’s of Professional Service

The Progressive Accountant

You run a professional services firm, perhaps an accounting firm. You have a wide variety of clients with a wide variety of needs, but the services you offer are relatively standardized. You provide tax return preparation, bookkeeping and financial statements.

What’s not standardized is how you approach each client need, and how you work with each client. You treat each engagement as a one-off, dealing with the client (and the client information) in a manner that suits the client at that time. While this sounds like a great approach, lending itself to a high level of personalization, the underlying result is inefficiency, lack of standards, and a very limited ability to improve your internal profitability.

What you need is a machine – to be the McDonald’s of professional services – delivering consistent and predictable service to your client community. Your service quality doesn’t have to be in the realm of “fast food”, but the point is that you should be using a standards-based approach and applying the same tools and methods to each engagement in a consistent and repeatable manner. You’ll rapidly find that a great many of your clients will eagerly adapt, and begin to embrace and take advantage of the tools you provide to them. For your firm, the result is more predictable performance and increased profitability.

As an example, let’s say that your firm is “tooled up” to provide services using Internet or cloud services. You have a client portal where you can store and share files with clients, and you have mechanisms for securely emailing files and documents to clients as well. Your goal is to get your clients to use the online portal to exchange information with your firm, enabling somewhat of a “self service” model. But many of your clients won’t log in to the portal, and require you to use email to send/receive files and information.

The right approach here is to use the portal no matter what. This is a key element to the success of your overall approach –the strength of your standardized processes. And it’s important to remember that it isn’t a process if you don’t do it the same way every time. Even if your clients don’t use the portal for data exchange, you should still encourage it and put the documents there. Now, you’ll still likely do the email thing – it’s always a good idea to have at least two paths of communication. But if you consistently use the portal as a standard method of making data available for your clients, many of those non-portal users may become users simply because they find that the convenience of any time/anywhere access really works for them. Sometimes it takes letting folks get used to things, but once they do, it becomes second nature and almost an expectation. Once these clients have adopted your standard portal approach, what else can you introduce to them to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the engagement?

You need to help make your firm as efficient and profitable as possible, and to have a quality product (or service) produced every time. Henry Ford’s assembly line is where you start. Create the machine that is the operational level of your business, and establish the tools and standards that will allow for sustainable growth and success.

Make Sense?

Article originally published via The Progressive Accountant

September 19, 2012September 25, 2017

Big Data and Big Decisions

Structure a process to develop the questions and measure outcomes, and then go get the answers

It seems that everyone these days (including me) is standing on the soapbox of “big data”, and the need to go beyond simple dashboards to help executives and owners make the daily decisions which may ultimately result in great business success or total organizational failure. What many of us fail to discuss is how to manage the process of getting and using data, and why it is important to know what decisions the business should focus on making before the data is collected and analysis performed.

The whole point of “big data” is to assist in the development of more informed processes and people, which are elemental to supporting successful operations. Data becomes useful information which helps to bring understanding and insight, and which results with action (information = power). While this type of analysis was once oriented almost exclusively towards financial risk and fraud identification or detection, it is now being turned to the front lines where it is more focused on customers and supply chains, and where decisions made may be more visible (and volatile).

Decisions, questions posed in the business which are answered with action, are best made when based on complete and accurate information. To accomplish this, data must be collected from all available aspects of the business, including trapping detailed operational data not often collected for summary financial reporting. With this level of data, and with a structured and purposeful approach to management of the decision-making process, the business gains agility by being analytical and informed, and is better able to sustain performance by adapting to changing conditions.

The success of any decision-making effort is enabled by management practices which recognize the need to apply structure and standards, and know the value of actionable data over instinct. The application of performance monitoring and similar tools is also essential to measure the effectiveness of not just the decision, but also the processes which supported making it. Like asking a student to produce their work, this approach helps to identify potential flaws in the decision-making process, even as apparently successful conclusions may be reached.

Today’s big data push is fueled by cloud solutions and interconnected systems delivering more, and more detailed, data than ever before. Further, analysis tools have evolved beyond summary reports in graphs and charts and now offer advanced data mining and visualization, and introducing a predictive capability based on trends and condition sets. While the availability and access to business data increases, so does the responsibility of the organization to understand WHAT decisions it is looking to make improvements in, and to create a process to monitor the effectiveness of those decisions made and acted upon.

Make Sense?

Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries
Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

September 17, 2012August 9, 2019

Disruptive Trends = Emerging Opportunity: Adapting to a changing technology and business environment

Every new day brings some new advancement in business technology, and much of this advancement relates to cloud computing, mobility, and new social computing models. Information technology and solutions applied to business use have rapidly evolved away from paper-based or fixed-location tools, and are now oriented towards enabling mobility and anytime, anywhere access to business applications and digital data.

Trends driving change in business technology today may be reflected in two main areas: enabling solutions which are revealing benefit not previously recognized, and disruptive approaches which represent trans-formative changes to how businesses operate. Disruption and transformation often generate new business opportunity, yet many professionals in accounting/finance and information technology fail to see the new potential available and resist anything which represents significant change. These professionals equate change with risk, and are reluctant to entertain either.

An example of a class of solutions which enable the organization to “know more”, providing decision support through deep analysis and reporting of key business data, is the new generation of data visualization tools now available in forms and formats easily accessible by any business professional. Previously, business owners had to rely on system analysts and accounting professionals to compile and report on various aspects of business activity. Using spreadsheets and database driven chart-building systems, manipulation of large volumes of data was unwieldy and limited by available computer resources. Moving beyond previously recognized boundaries in data collection and aggregation, tools now available assist users in combining data from disparate sources, and offer a rich suite of analytics coupled with the simplicity of drag-and-drop selection and exploration.

The opportunity introduced with this new capability does not rest solely in the analysis of the data. Rather, it is in the control and the structure which must be developed to ensure that all relevant data being collected, and in the structure and control placed on those data collection and integration processes which will ensure that the information is properly associated or correlated, and accurately integrated into the model. Completeness and accuracy of data is of critical importance, as is an in-depth understanding of the nuances of structured and unstructured data relationships.

In addition to the enabling solutions emerging on the market which are driving deep changes in how businesses see themselves are the advancements in technology which cause fundamental shifts in how business use technology to support operations. The most evident advancement, often viewed as an approach which is disruptive to more traditional models, is the emergence of “cloud” computing models. Cloud computing, connected services, and fully-managed outsourced IT solutions address a number of issues which have burdened enterprise IT deployments since IT departments were invented.

The difficulty for IT managers is that they are often overworked and underfunded, as information technology is not often viewed as a strategic differentiator but merely as a necessary cost of supporting operations. Users view IT as being unresponsive and ineffective, and have little understanding of the balancing act required to meet user demands and at the same time deliver standardized enterprise computing services in a secure manner.

Mobility and the cloud has changed the landscape of business IT, and the concept of “there’s an app for that” is now fully ingrained in the user mentality. Cloud solutions, sometimes introduced to the business by non-IT personnel and often viewed as “rogue IT” projects, have won adoption by business users due in large part to the simplicity of implementation, and often because they can deploy the solution quickly, outside of the boundaries established by internal IT management. Information management within the organization must necessarily extend now to mobile computing devices, where an entirely new set of issues is revealed in terms of personal device management and distribution of corporate data and intelligence. Professionals assisting the business with information management, access, collection and integration processes must now give greater consideration to incorporation of mobile device and application management, as well as the risks introduced with the broad use of personal computing devices within the organization.

The cloud represents a convergence of social and mobile computing, and introduces an entirely new class of business metrics to measure due to the significant increase in available data captured at various levels and through various types of virtual interactions. With users being able to engage wherever and whenever they choose (“there’s an app for that”, again), businesses must shift IT focus to strategic enablement, creating standards for outsourced deployments, and infusing each effort with the security and control required, which is a mainstay of IT operations.

Big data, visualization and analysis, and mobile and social computing are changing how we do business. As the trusted advisor to the business, the accounting professional should embrace these changes and the opportunities they present to deliver more value and service in each client engagement. Accountants can help their clients understand how to do more with less – leveraging technology to improve operational efficiencies, and to structure, capture, integrate and analyze the relevant data which will reveal the risks and potentials of the operation under a variety of circumstances.

Disruption creates your opportunity to bring order to the chaos, helping clients compete and flourish in a difficult economy, and providing the proactive guidance and analytical support necessary to build and sustain profitability.

Make Sense?

Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

August 23, 2012August 27, 2019

Accounting Online and Outsourced Accounting – Focus on Enabling Your Client

Accounting professionals and those involved in business bookkeeping and accounting service delivery have been literally bombarded with messages about “taking your practice to the cloud” and “working closer with clients using the cloud”, but what does all this really mean for the average professional practitioner? Does it mean that the software and processes already established in the practice need to be replaced? Does it mean that accounting professionals need to get all of their clients into online applications? Are the tools used by the professional practice obsolete? These are all valid questions, and are issues not always addressed in the marketing messages of the various “solution” providers. The complexity exists with the variety of tools and solutions most professionals use in servicing their business clients, and no single-solution cloud service is able to adequately address this variety. As a result, many professionals are either trying to assemble their own toolkits through an expensive and frustrating process of trial-and-error, or are avoiding adoption of new technologies altogether.

There are a lot of ways to “enable” a professional practice, focusing on the technologies and applications supporting efficient and profitable service delivery. The key in selecting the right tools to support the practice is to fairly evaluate the nature of services to be delivered, and understanding how and where in those processes the firm and the client “touch”. It is in the interaction – of people, data and systems – where better technology-supported collaboration with the client should be established. In many cases, this means focusing on improving the client system and the accounting process will benefit as a result.

Processes which are entirely internal to the practice must certainly be evaluated and improved, but the initial problem – the new area of focus – is in how the firm and the client work together. The needs in this area will necessarily drive adjustments to internal processes, which is to be expected. Most practitioners have already established their methods of dealing with clients, workloads, paper and software that have been around for a while. It is the new client demand – to get more benefit from existing providers and solutions – which must be addressed.

For example, there was once a need to obtain bank statements and cancelled checks in order to balance a bank account. This caused many accounting firms to develop a standard process of sending someone to the bank each month to pick up the paper statements and documents for client accounts, so that the bookkeeping could be done and accounts reconciled. With the advent and acceptance of online banking tools, the process for most accountants has been adjusted to where the bank activity data is simply downloaded and integrated into the company accounting information, rather than transported in the form of paper documents which are then keyed in as data. This simple example of “enabling” the client accounting system to interact with the bank resulted in benefits to the accountant processes, and caused beneficial changes to be made in the internal process of the firm (no more driving to the bank, timely access to bank data, more accurate data due to single-entry of information). While the client likely doesn’t care how the books get done, they do care about the information being timely, complete and accurate. Thusly is the accountant value increased through the simple use of a readily available technology.

As accounting and finance professionals look to find ways to deliver greater value to their business clients, they would be wise to explore how and why they interact with those clients and understand what is missing – what more can be done – to support and advise those client business owners. By focusing on helping the client “tool up” their enterprises to support more efficient and profitable operation, professionals will find that the resultant benefit is more consistent and streamlined access to client data. Enabling the client, in many ways, is enabling the firm.

Make Sense?

August 21, 2012

Online Accountants and Their Clients: Working Smarter, or just Closer?

There are a wide variety of ways to work closer with your clients, and the thing that you will always want to remember is that “one size does not fit all”. In other words, not every client will like using your favorite technology or software, and not every business owner will recognize your suggestions as solutions, because perhaps they did not recognize the problem in the first place. But that’s OK, and perhaps how it should be. You see, using the right tool for any given situation is the proper approach, rather than trying to shoehorn everyone into the same solution or method. With a client-centric approach, you can still develop consistent internal processes to keep your service delivery as efficient as possible, because many of the core services you provide are consistent across the client base regardless of the solution in use. The trend is to help your client work smarter, and it will bring you closer to the client than ever before.

Determining what is right for each job or task should be part of your value, whether it’s deciding how to connect remotely with your client, or helping your client find the right software system to support their tasks, with you ensuring that the integration to the accounting system is there and working properly. Where the focus was once placed on accurate data entry, now it’s on placing the proper solution in front of the user, and through the use of the solution to perform their various tasks, the necessary data is collected. Accounting professionals should recognize that the collection of information in real time facilitates better business decision making, and that they can be instrumental in delivering this decision support resource to their client.

As an example, I know the owner of a small construction business. This guy runs around with estimates, invoices, receipts, and other paperwork in his truck, and getting him to stop long enough for his bookkeeper to collect all that paper from the truck cab is one of the hardest and most annoying jobs she has. Her focus is on collecting the paper and then entering the data and getting invoices and reports out. The accountant is frequently requesting more information or clarification of data, as well as the information necessary to meet various reporting deadlines. Even after implementing QuickBooks accounting in the office for this business, the ultimate problem wasn’t solved. Certainly, the information is better-organized and accounted for once collected and entered, but the business owner still lacks timely information about the performance of his business, and sees little additional value in his accountants participation beyond the annual tax return.

On the other hand, I know another guy (landscaping this time) who has an accountant that has him use his phone to record just about everything he does as he does it. He bids a job, and sends it via email. He gets paid for a job, then snapshots a copy of the check and deposits it. Buying equipment or supplies? Sure, but electronic payment and approval tools let him track that as it happens, too (again, snapshot a copy of that receipt, etc.). For this business owner, there is more business going on because less time is being spent doing the paperwork of business. The bookkeeper in the office has the information necessary to keep things up to date, and can focus on how to streamline things even better. The accountant has a much higher quality of information – faster – upon which to advise the client (which he has time to do, because he’s not cleaning up bookkeeping data or collecting information for reports and returns). This business owner sees much more value in the participation by his accountant, because real issues are able to be identified and addressed in time to make a difference.

So, for today’s accounting professional, bookkeeper or consultant: is the idea of “working closer” with your client simply the concept of working remotely on the same systems at any given time, or is it to know more about their business and to help them do business better?

Make Sense?

August 10, 2012

Success in the Finance Department: Better Data and Analysis

CFOs and corporate controllers are beginning to recognize the increased value they can deliver to the organization when they take a more holistic and comprehensive approach to data reporting and analysis. The key is in delegation of duties, and establishing the controls and connections which ensure proper (and complete) flow of information throughout the enterprise. The finance department can easily become overburdened if not structured properly, but can be as easily undervalued if the sole focus is getting the numbers right.

An article on CFO.com discusses some of the elements of structuring the finance department for greater success, and identifies the value of taking a proactive, consultative and analytical approach to business finance.

“For a CFO, “success is not just about getting the numbers right, but also uncovering the story behind the numbers: taking raw accounting information and creating cogent and compelling management discussion and analysis,” says Eileen Kamerick, managing director and CFO at investment bank Houlihan Lokey.

Those who take the big picture into account are more likely to develop an organizational structure that isn’t merely reactive. That will allow staff to come up with more ideas and, ultimately, help drive revenue and run the business. “You have to create an organization so you aren’t in the engine all the time,” Kamerick notes.”

This is a great article… read the entire post on CFO.com here

You’ll find that it makes sense.