I like to call Harish an Accountant 2.0, simply because he performs his functions in a highly collaborative environment, using Web 2.0 tools. Harish and his team are quite comfortable doing accounting for clients in the USA and Australia. 

TA: Harish, tell us about your experience withWeb 2.0 tools and how a thoroughbred accountant such as yourself got involved? 

Harish: Well, I must give a lot of credit to my clients. I was used to remote accessing desktops and performing various bookkeeping and accounting functions on the client’s Finance and Accounts applications. Web 2.0 happened because some of our customers at ThomasandAlex started using on-demand applications such as Netsuite and SpringCM (www.stylusap.com). 

TA: Where do you see significant benefits being added to your own productivity and thereby in you ability to add value to your customers? 

Harish: Process,Project and task management have all moved to a new level with the kind of collaborative environment we use today. Earlier I used to take instructions from clients on email or IM, mostly Skype and do the work. Further feedback came on the same channels. Today, my client and I use wikis for collaborating on specific projects and we have a superior experience in tracking, commenting and ensuring that work completes effectively with high efficiencies. We can even have selective access to other stake holders like Auditors to come in for specific item closures. In fact our experience on tax returns closure was far superior to earlier times, because we had three way collaboration on a wiki between my client, our team and the client’s auditor.

TA: Can you list down the advantages you see for an accountant to build skills in collaboration and collaboration tools?

Harish: Sure. My list would be as follows:

• Improved management of project tasks and processes on wikis. This ensures that work gets completed accurately and we do not miss on filings, timelines or documentation.
• High traceability. Improved visibility on communication trails. Every comment added gets alerted to stakeholders on email.
• Improved documentation management. 

The CCH Acounting Trends survey conducted towards the end of last year showed that the greatest factor driving change in firms is the need to increase revenue and reduce cost  through productivity and efficiency improvements. Improving processes and workflows, going paperless, outsourcing and smartsourcing, on demand applications are some of the hot strategies being looked at as potential drivers. 

Mike Braun, the Intacct CEO has this to say "Cloud-based accounting applications dramatically improve the economic model for client accounting services. CPA firms report a 50% improvement in financial performance for their client accounting services practice. Here’s the breakdown: 100% increase in proactive consulting hours; 3% to 5% increase in overall billings by offering more, higher value “trusted advisor services;” 10% capacity increase for accounting staff; time savings of 50 hours per bookkeeper per quarter; and a near total elimination of in-house IT expenses" 

The real breakthrough is when firms learn to leverage combinations of some of the strategies mentioned earlier, as suits them best. For example, you can select the cloud based application that best suits your business model and workflows. From there, you can smartsource - or in other words design your workflow to take advantage of remote engagement. It matters little to the cloud application whether your accountant is working from his office, home or even from another country. The key here is how you design your solution. We have collaborated with some of our clients in designing  solutions for them with good results.  If you are ready to consider this for your business, contact us and we will be happy to serve you

Introduction of Performance management systems in Small and Medium businesses has often been contentious. While these businesses boast of loyalties promoted by trust and relationship, the challenge has been with infusing professionalism and objectivity. 

However, when accounting and bookkeeping or other corporate finance functions are smartsourced (The key to SmartSourcing: Team and Workflow Design) to ThomasandAlex, it presents a wonderful opportunity to introduce a highly objective system that focuses on throughput and productivity. The supersensitivity for cost and value has been set forever by the recession. Management by productivity and throughput becomes the key lever for regulating cost and value. This is an essential competitive advantage that small and medium businesses can no longer ignore. 

The productivity tracking system is set up together with the customer and pricing is calibrated to this system. From our experience we have found that it is best for the system to evolve through these stages. 

1. To keep the risks low initially for the customer, engagement begins with a dedicated resource on a full time or part-time equivalent basis
2. Workflow definitions are achieved and transition of processes to this accountant completes
3. A productivity system is set up for these processes. Throughput measures are outcome focussed and typical measures would be transaction volumes, quantity and type of documents  processed etc.
4. Baselines are marked for current processes as well as other potential processes that can be smartsourced. These are based on measurements agreed jointly with the customer.
5. From this point onwards, scalability of engagement is on the basis of productivity. 

When ThomasandAlex began its services, the core of the value proposition lay in providing bookkeeping and accounting services with an edge. Being trusted with the upkeep of books of the business also gave the privilege to examine improvement opportunities in business operations. But how does a qualified accountant get empowered to provide services with such an edge? These recent initiatives have greatly helped:

1. Business process mapping and Business Analysis:
   
2. Productivity and Quality Assurance framework
3. Technology solutions that take advantage of SaaS and PaaS