CFO 4.0 - The Future of Finance

250. Beyond the Buzz: Agility, AI and the Future of Finance Tech with ACCA

• Hannah Munro

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In this special live episode, recorded at the ACCA Finance Futures Conference, Hannah Munro joins Alex Falcon Huerta (ACCA) to cut through the hype and explore what it really takes to choose and implement the right finance technology.

From agility in software selection to preparing for the rise of AI, they share stories, frameworks, and practical advice to help finance leaders stay ahead of the curve.

In this episode, Hannah and Alex discuss

  • Why agility is key when selecting and assessing finance software
  • How to rethink ROI beyond time and cost, and measure real business value
  • The dangers of traditional RFPs and how to adopt a more flexible, iterative approach
  • Understanding the technology lifecycle from bleeding edge to rusting edge
  • How to future-proof your finance team with the right AI readiness and mindset
  • Managing resistance to change and building momentum for digital transformation

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance. The CFO role is changing rapidly, moving from cost controller to strategic visionary. And with every change comes opportunity. We are here to help you take advantage of this transition, to win at work, drive your career forwards, and lead with confidence. Join Hannah Monroe, Managing Director of ITAS, a financial transformation consultancy, as she interviews key experts to give you real-world advice and guidance on how to transform your processes, people, and data. Welcome to CFO 4.0, the future of finance.

SPEAKER_01:

So, hello girl. I I'm gonna ask, I was gonna ask you if you could all hear me, but I think that's pretty obvious that you can given the volume in the room. Well, welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us. Um, we are having some slight tech problems, which I think is very appropriate given the name of this session. So, like all good uh presenters, we're gonna improvise. So bear with us as at some point we might need to catch up with the actual slides. So, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Hannah Munro. Um, my passion project is I host the CFO 4.0 podcast, but my real job and my day job is I am founder and managing director of ITES Solutions. So we're a financial transformation consultancy that works with Sage Technology. So, you know, in terms of what we do, we specialise in Sage Intact and Sage 200, um, and we help organizations get value from what they're using. So everything from working with partners, but also to leveraging some of the new and exciting AI technology that we've got coming through. Um, I'm very proud to announce that we were Sage's Customer Success Partner of the Year. So if you're wondering why I can stand up here and talk to you about choosing good tech and making it successful, that is why. And with me um is the amazing Alex Falcon Hueter. Um, if you don't know, she is uh one of the UK's top 50 women in accounting, which I'm sure she won't mind me saying. She's also the founder of a Falcon um accountancy. So um, because I haven't got my slides, I'm gonna read out some of the things that she does, and she might need to join in and let me know. Should I do the introduction?

SPEAKER_02:

For me, that would make sense. So, yeah, so thank you very much, Hannah. So I'm Alex Falconhuerta, I'm the founder of Sorum Falcon. And a little bit about my background, actually, um I've been working with uh like the technology uh world like for probably about 15 years, but I set my practice up in 2015. So um, for the last 10 years, I've been running it digitally uh and I've been uh running it as a digital nomad. So I've been traveling the world and working from various locations around the world. I've just got back from Rome, I was in Australia recently at uh XeroCon Brisbane, um, and I predominantly work with um tech and creatives, um, and so I actually help the technology companies overseas launch into the UK and help them go to market and to grow. Um, and equally, when they um when I work with tech companies in the UK, I've helped them scale into um into the US markets um or um in um like Australia or New Zealand, etc. So um I've just been working uh with tech technology, AI, etc., for quite some time. Um, so probably why I'm here today to help you on your AI journey.

SPEAKER_01:

Great. So I'm a big believer in audience participation. So I'm really sorry if you were anticipating a nab. That isn't going to be possible in this session. So if you could all use your very own technology, your phone to scan the Mentimeter, um, and we're gonna ask you a series of questions as we go through this session. Um, and what we want you guys to do is engage with what we're doing. Fabulous. All right, 26 and counting. Nice, fabulous. We'll give you a few seconds just to get connected. It looks like we're pretty much there. Nice, nice. Okay, so so today's session, if you if you want to know whether you're in the right session, we are talking about technology. So beyond the buzz, how do you actually select the right technology for yourselves if you're in practice, or for business if you're in the the corporate world or public sector? So we talked about introductions. I did say I was gonna do some skipping with these slides. Um, and we're gonna just talk about the current state. So, the current state of technology is obviously changing extremely rapidly. Um, and I love this graphic from uh the World Economic Forum, which actually talks about the pace of change. And for like a bit like Alex, I've been working with technology for I think 15 years now. Um, and every year it gets faster. The pace at which we need to move as organizations changes as well. And what's really interesting is if you look at the pace of change, at some point that's gonna continue to it will well, it will continue to accelerate. So, actually, we need to get really comfortable with change, we need to get really comfortable with how to identify and select technology, and we need to make sure that we're comfortable getting it right. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. So, question for you. Your first question, your first assignment is when you hear the words new technology, do you feel A, excited like a kid at Christmas, overwhelmed, like standing in front of 57 toothpaste options at Tesco, and skeptical. If I'd a pound for every time tech was going to change my life, I'd have retired by now. Where are we sitting? Nice, love this. We've got a lot of people sitting in the excited bucket. Okay, so that gives us a bit of a benchmark for what we're talking about today. And I guess if you're turning up to talk on AI and tech, I'd be surprised if you weren't in that first bucket. So that's good. Okay. So, um, how a lot of people feel when they uh get involved in technology is a little bit like the my friend here. Um, and no, that is not me on a bad hair day. So um, when we're thinking about how to select tech, let's just talk about how you felt when you first got, I guess, got into digitizing your practice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so yeah, like um when I first set up my practice, um, again, like it was 2015, but I'm gonna just take it back a little bit before then because I was in the era where it was like desktop paper, Excel spreadsheets. Actually, before Excel spreadsheets, I worked in a firm which was they uh used to make me uh write out paceslips and calculate it manually, and I had to uh stick T troll balances together with sticky tape and write them out, so it's the worst experience of my life. Um, and I remember speaking to my boss at the time saying, Hey, you know, I'm used to Excel, I've been like using Excel every day in my school life. Please can I use Excel? And one of the first things he said to me was, um, what's the benefit of that? Like I nearly died again. Um, and so um, and then it went from that's that side to then cloud. And so I've been through this tech journey like throughout my whole life. Um, and so it wasn't an overwhelming thing for me. And as a what they would call an early adopter in technology, um, I was embracing technology from the very beginning because it was making my life easier and it was making my life um better. My handwriting was terrible, so of course I wanted to type stuff up and I wanted everything to be neat and tidy when I presented my work to my boss or to my clients at the time. So when it came to me setting up my business, I was going from um uh going from uh desktop to cloud, and cloud was really early days, similar to how AI is at its early stages today. Um it's like learning that stuff early, early days before it goes mental. So I was an early adopter of cloud where I'm a zero user, uh, and so they had no add-ons, no uh products in the marketplace at the time. So it would then be five products that I would have to learn. It doesn't seem so scary. Forward three years post that there was over a thousand add-ons. So if I had to learn a thousand add-ons to zero back then, I would have had the same overwhelm. Um and so we're gonna talk about how I selected my products a little bit further in the presentation. But again, it's just learning my um story, so how I managed to get to where I am today.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think the first thing I will say with any kind of technology change is you need to start with why. If you don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to achieve with any kind of purchase or selection process, you are effectively dooming yourself to failure. So that's what we're gonna start with. How do you establish the why and what does that look like? So um one of the recent stats, any recent stats, as recent as a lot of stats get, is that actually there was a ONS um survey that established that um companies that invest in tech, particularly advanced tech, see a 19% higher turnover per worker. So, you know, when we're starting to think about the case for change, we just need to start thinking about the value, not just in terms of time saved, but also the value in terms of the revenue impact on the business itself. Um again, some audience participation. The last tech implementation that you went through or your business went through, um, how many of you actually had a clear value and benefits assessment before you actually purchased? Option one, yes, a 10-page business case with charts and everything. Kind of more of a bright idea and a post-it. Uh know what's a business case. You're answering that one, you are in the right room. Um and tech, we don't do tech. Okay, we've got some real honesty in this room, which is lovely. Okay. There's the nice thing about this, it is anonymous. We won't be coming up and tapping you on the shoulder afterwards, questioning you about your answers. Okay, so and and actually, uh, from my experience, that that kind of is where most people sit. They have an idea, they know it's going to help, but what they've not really done is assessed it as they've gone through this process. So, um, from my perspective, one of the biggest challenges is people focus on time or cost, right? And that, in my opinion, and based on that stat that we just looked at from the um ONS and from what I've seen of businesses, is just a part of the story. So, one of the things, if you take nothing away from today is I want you to start broadening your thoughts on what is a good ROI and what should it include, and how do you calculate it? So, before I jump into my framework, I want to ask Alex like how do you assess ROI for your practice and for your clients?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, yeah, thank you very much. So, I guess like when we talk about ROI, when um I run a practice or when I think about my clients from my side and from the business perspective, there's a the there's like the internal products that have my for my practice, but then you've got the external products that we have for the clients. And so majority of the time I'll check things like, you know, is it going to save people time? Is it going to make their life easier? It's not necessarily about the cost. So if, say, for example, it's taken one of my staff members 10 hours to do a job, um, if they had to do it manually and a product, if I implement a product, um, it's going to then take them two hours. One of the um biggest things that people forget is is the salary cost of manual labour or how much it takes. So what I try to do is work out, for example, if somebody's doing a task and it's gonna take three people to do that particular task, there must be something out there that's going to essentially take that away. Um, and so when we look at the cost of a product, it feels expensive when you first look at it. So uh you might think 150 pounds, etc., is expensive, but what we don't see is the hidden cost. So I would then look at how much it's costing my whole team to do that particular task, not just my team, but with my clients as well. I see it time and time again when they're doing manual tasks. So there's lots of things that I think about and not necessarily um, you know, like the the value of the product. I think that's the last part that I review. Um, and essentially it's just making sure that people understand that product and they know how to use it as well. So I need it to be easy for me to implement that within the company and I have an amazing support team, not just with myself, but with that um product as well. So if they have a good support system, because we need that support when we implement it, that's like what's really high on my list when I come to implement tech.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks, Alex. And and when we are working through um ROI, so we built out an ROI framework and a modeler that helps people understand value, right? And I put things into five categories. So the first category is time saved, right? And this is what Alex was exactly talking about. This is the number of hours spent. And what I would challenge you to say is don't just think about the hours spent entering, think about the time spent responding to queries, dealing with emails, saving that email, putting it somewhere else, emailing to somebody else, coming back, filing the paper, all of those things um incur time. And I think we underestimate the cost of reconciliation when you haven't got integrations. So, and and once you start digging into that, all of a sudden you start to generate um a broader understanding of time. The other thing I would say with any kind of ROI is think an extended time frame because it's not just the salaries that you have now, it's the pay increase you're going to do over the next three to five years that's going to impact you. It's going to be a bonus potentially that's going to hit. It could be any of those things that you have to pay. It could be the cost of the subscriptions for the people that you have to hire, you know, for their for their own IT infrastructure. So people costs start with salary, and we all know that they don't end there. So thinking of that as well. Risk avoided. And I think this for me is really pertinent in today's um environment, right? We are surrounded by risk and actually understanding the value of risk. If your systems went down, if you don't have, if we just think about what's happening at the moment with all the cyber attacks, there's a massive case for the value of a cybersecurity software. And the same applies to your finance system, your operational system. What would happen if that went down for a considerable number of days or weeks, right? And and actually putting a number behind that and putting that in front of your senior team. And whether you're in practice or whether you're in the public sector or corporate, that gives you a really good way to put the numbers that you're spending into context. Um, costs not incurred. So we talked about um saving money maybe on existing staff, but what about the staff you're not going to hire? The recruitment costs, the time spent training those people. You know, it is still when you actually start to think about scaling, it um additional comes in. Things like the interest we're not going to spend on all the money that we've saved on salaries, you know, the costs of um credit, we know it's not cheap, and then it's going up as well. So all of those things can go in. And the spend we've not made, the the costs we've not spent on things like procurement. So when we if we've managed to shrink our spend or get more control around budgets, what could that save us? And and just modelling some scenarios again helps you put expense into context. And revenue generated or lost. And I had a brilliant um customer case study recently, they managed to get their reporting down from six weeks to half a day. And and their biggest takeaway was the fact that when they gave the information in half a day to their contract managers, those contract managers could actually use that information because it was real time. And so they were able to increase margins by about 0.5 of a percent, which doesn't sound like a lot, but imagine this as the business grows what that could mean to that organization. So again, we're getting numbers, we're actually starting to put a number on the value of tech and change and intangibles. We talked about speeding up things like month end. We talk about it, but why do we need to do it? So using ways and modelling that on things like turnover margins or overheads, yeah, and using a small percentage, like and giving asking your customers or your team to estimate if you had better information and you can make better, fast decisions, what would that do to our business? And if we don't have that, are we able to scale and hit that? And what does that mean in terms of numbers? Again, you're starting to put a true number on the value of transformation, change, and tech. So that's some things to consider when you're putting together your business case. Now, interestingly, this has actually gone up from 65%. I was talking to um a uh a friend of mine who were his ex uh big four accountancy, and he was saying that about 10 years ago it was 65%, it's now gone up to 70%, right? And I and I want to draw your attention, it's not that they technically fail, it's that they fail to achieve their objectives, right? And so the one piece I'm gonna start with before handing over to Alex and get her thoughts is did they actually define those objectives well enough in the first place? Did they actually assess those objectives? So if you want to know whether your project is worth doing, we need to start with a good why. Yeah, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, it was a really interesting stat because um for me I just think it's absolutely crazy. But um, and and I know where it comes from because I've worked with those bosses that have told me that it's not gonna work, um, that it's gonna take up too much time, that we don't have the um that we don't have the um capacity to get things done. But this is the issue. The issue is it fails because we don't have the tech mindset, we don't have that person that's in charge to say, we need to do something about it. So we need to have somebody in the room, somebody in the company, in the organization that's actually going to drive that project forward and actually want to do something about it. It also comes down to, um, for example, employees who are scared, who are they don't want to step outside of their comfort zone. They look at this tech and they have tech overwhelm or they think it's going to take their job. There's also the the fear of when we have this product here and they don't know how to use it properly, they don't know how to integrate it. So there's like a multitude of reasons why uh a project will fail. And equally, project management, sometimes people don't know how to lead a project. And so these are some of the skills that essentially we've learned and we've been trained in as ACCA qualified. So when we've got all this the skills, we can go ahead and we can project manage these things. So again, it comes from the mindset and project management to implement technology. We know how to do it, we just need to do it by size.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. Thank you. And and one of the things I think is driven a lot of this behaviour is the way some companies approach requirement gathering. So um, who's heard the term? Because this was a real shock to me to Alex, you hadn't heard it. So who's heard the term RFP? Hands up. Come on. Right, so request for proposals. So, and very often this is a quick summary of the business and a very long list of features, right? And and I I'm gonna challenge everybody in the room to really rethink that as an approach. It works well if you know your exact destination and how you want something to specifically work. But when you think of your clients, when you think of yourselves, how many of you actually know exactly how you want something to work? And how many of you actually want to go on a process where you get the best out of the tech that you're working with and you optimize your processes to make them more efficient than they are now? So for me, I think the challenge with RFPs is that they are geared towards people that have a set destination in mind versus those that are gone on a true transformation journey, right? And so what and when we think about the pace of change we're seeing right now in the market, if you spend three to six months putting together a really good requirements document, by the time you get on the end of it, the tech's changed. Yeah? We've got new things coming through. So my first shout out in this age of AI and new tech is that we need to rethink how we select. We need to be way more agile and we need to be able to adapt to the new technology and react quicker. Okay. Now, I'm not saying this is appropriate for all sizes of businesses. If you're a massive multi-corporate, you know, your um HSBC bank, for instance, you probably need to get a nice big list of requirements. But I would hope that you also have a whole load of process docs to go alongside that as well. Um, but actually for the rest of us that live in the real world that maybe have a finance team of anything from two to 20 people, if we're lucky, right? We actually need to start thinking about how we take advantage of speed, how we become more agile, and actually start to think this through. And one of the really big things that you need to consider if you're going out and thinking about tech and vendors is how you inform multiple of vendors about your business and your organization, right? Do you have your current state of play documented? Do you have your current use cases, your billing scenarios, your purchasing workflows, your authorization routes? And that for me is what should make up our new way of assessing tech is actually how do we give these consultants, these solution vendors, enough information that they can guide us on how much they can impact our organization. Like when you're going through and assessing different tech, how do you assess the requirements or set out the capabilities that you need from that software?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, okay, I mean, I do have, I mean, I don't document everything, but I have like in my head um a system that I actually go through when I select a product. But I do I do look for um like how the agile support, which I've mentioned before, like the support that I'm gonna get from that particular software. And the reason being is because I have to tap into that so much and it affects my everyday. So my clo my clients um and it affects my practice and my business. Um, the when it when it comes to the support, they also usually they will have like regular updates, or you'll have an account manager. And I actually utilize those those times because if you think about like the the amount of updates that a product, one product would have, and I'll be working with over, you know, 20 plus products within my practice, within my business. And so just having those little catch-ups of get those updates of what is relevant in what I need to know because I can't keep on top of physically everything, just we're not robots, although I have got bots in my business that does most of the bookkeeping. So, yeah, so there's like a whole load of stuff of being able to adapt. Um, businesses that adapt are the most successful.

SPEAKER_01:

And one of the things I would always recommend so the way that we look at partners depends on where they are at in their development lifecycle. So we've heard the terminology leading edge. Yeah, we're right at the beginning. So we tend to think about um partners and technologies into four categories: bleeding edge, leading edge, dull edge, and rusting edge, right? And and the reason for that is that by categorizing the partners and the technology you're working with, you can help decide what questions you should ask that partner or that software vendor about their product. So, for instance, if it's bleeding edge, you need to think about how do I de-risk this? We're right at the beginning of our journey, and they haven't got a huge amount of case studies, so good luck asking for them. You need to find different ways to ask them to and evaluate that tech stack than maybe something that's got is been in the market for 10 years and has a huge amount of experience behind it. So, one of the things I would say is think about that. So, leading edge and is obviously that sort of new technology fresh out in the market. They're still figuring out their place very often. They're still getting or dealing with the the bugs. Um, leading edge tends to be innovative, um, but at the forefront of the market, but it's still got some kind of history behind it. It's got some kind of um what's the word, examples. You know, it's got a decent amount of customers on, so you can start to get a gauge for how well it works. The Doll Edge, which is actually where a lot of technology sits, is that post is that post piece. They've established the markets, they've expanded potentially out into new ones. Um, and it's strong software that's got a lot of features. Um, and Rusting Edge is is a technology that's on the verge. You know, it might be might have an end of life, it might have an anticipated end of life. Um, and and you when you're looking at the roadmap, there's not a huge amount of new capability coming into it. So figuring out where the software that you're looking at actually sits will help adapt your questions to suit where they're at. Now, before anybody falls asleep, put another question for you. The last tech that you um you chose, where were they at in their tech life cycle? Uh bleeding edge, leading edge, dull edge, rusting edge. Oh, somebody's already uh been on me. A couple of people have been on that bleeding edge. And and while this is populating, I think there's a piece just to say though, there are advantages to being right at the front. Okay. Um, there's obviously a lot of challenges. There's more risk, there's potentially more expense, but actually getting that first mover advantage can actually create a USP for you as an organization. So thinking through that as you go through. Yeah. What's interesting is nobody yet has selected that rusting edge. So you're obviously all very good at identifying it, um, but it's it's where it should be, right? The majority, and certainly unless you've got a really good reason, the majority of the purchases should be at the leading edge. So figuring out where a software sits will help you figure out where you should go with it. Okay. So when we're thinking about assessing software and partners, what do you look at, Alex?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I've got a whole list here, so I'm just gonna read some of it out. So I talk to my network and my peers because they've probably tried, tested, and used it, and they'll probably give me like the best advice. Um, I talk to the people in practice uh as a practice owner, so if it's either for the client or if it's essentially for um the practice itself. So um, if somebody's using it, they'll tell me the advantages and disadvantages. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just saying that if it's it doesn't do something that I need it to do, then it's probably not a good fit for me. Um, their customer support is relevant. The team, their team, and the development team. So when I talk about the development team, is if I see that the product has a huge development team and they're staying ahead of the curve and they're innovating, and I can see that they're continuously making improvements to their product, I usually know that that's a good sign because they're going to keep me relevant, my clients relevant, and keep me up to date. At the end of the day, it's down to reputation. So I want to know that I'm delivering the best and the highest end products I can with my clients. Um, does it do what I need? I have I had a product in the past, inventory product, that didn't factor in um stock in transit. Therefore, the inventory product or the value was incorrect. So it didn't, it wasn't a good look. Um if they have an account manager, which I mentioned. Um and um again, if they're keeping up to date, and again, the less manual input, the better. Um, because essentially I want to integrate with as many platforms as possible. So integration for me is a key thing.

SPEAKER_01:

So when we think about the technology at different levels, firstly, if it's on the bleeding edge, we will make sure that we have a slower run-up to enable both uh team and customers, right? So we will pick one, maybe two customers, we will have an open and honest conversation with them, and then we will thoroughly vet the capabilities and make sure we've had conversations with the product team to understand what's the roadmap for the next 12 to 18 months. Very often, one of the things you need to think about is I would take it for a sense check, right? And I'll talk about in this tips that one of my biggest tips is to make sure when you're getting demos, not to get distracted by the shiny toy in the room. It's super easy, especially when you're tech geek like me. I love a bit of tech, it's very exciting. Um, but actually putting use cases and scenarios through, making sure that you're willing and able to have capacity to hand hold a lot more when you're at that bleeding edge is so important. Leading edge, what I'm looking for is case studies. And impact statements. I want to know that what they're saying they can do delivers results and can I prove it? And I'm looking at the makeup of the team, how they're funded. Because very often, depending on an organization, knowing where they're going, are they looking for an exit in three years? Are they PE backed? Understanding the dynamics and the drivers in that organization will also understand how they're investing in it. So that's one thing to think about. Dell Edge, and I'll, you know, it's not a bad place to be. It's a really safe place to be. So you should be able to take that tool on board. You should be able to implement it fairly quickly. And we look at how we can enable our team fast to take advantage of it. But I am questioning the roadmap. So I'm really thinking how much how much life will my customers get out of this product if we implement it and has it worth. And Dull Edge, to be honest, I avoid it unless it's got a really unique space in the market. Because there are some solutions that haven't necessarily been developed because they are older, but they just do the job so well that it's really hard for their competitors to hit. So you there will be some products that you may come across that where dull edge is okay, but just make sure you have a really good conversation about where we're going next and what their plan is so that you can mitigate any risk. Okay. So we're going to talk about uh the change chasm. So we've talked a lot about being at the front edge and then you know what where you're at. So I'm gonna hand over to Alex to talk about the chasm. I think that's how you pronounce it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Uh thanks very much. So I mean, some of you might be familiar with this because this was introduced to me probably about 15 years ago. Um, and at the beginning I didn't really understand what it was. Um, but then um, the more I kind of learned about technology, the more I learned about adoption, um, I was like, wow, like I'm sitting in this like early adopters category. So I would see some of the products that were being innovated, um, and then I would see what that product actually does for me, how it's going to support me, how it's going to help me. So I was sitting uh in uh in an accounts department um with paper on my left hand side, desktop computer in front of me. I would then sit and manually process these bank lines on a software individually, manually importing, and then I would finish off my set of accounts syntacts, and then I'll put this paper on the right hand side. And during winter in the UK, you know how horrendous that is. So you're going in at dark and you're leaving at dark, and I just felt like I was in uh like in a manufacturing line of accounts preparation, and I just thought, wow, this is not my life. I've studied blood, sweat, and tears to get qualified as an accountant, and there must be more to it. So learning about cloud and about technology and uh working with Zero and a lot of the accounting partners, I learned about the curve, the technology curve, and the and and basically working out where I was. And I think a lot of it is quite scary for a lot of you because you don't want to be an early adopter because you want to see that it works and you want to see that it's tested. But ultimately, being at the front end and making those decisions early, early on actually helps you going forward without being at the end when you do then have tech overwhelm. So I think it's one of the key areas of okay, we have AI coming and it is already there. It's been around for actually quite a number of years. Um, but we're still early days, and therefore, um I would really consider that you just embrace it as as we are as we are today. So you become one of those visionaries.

SPEAKER_01:

And we talk about this uh on a slight side note very often with the teams, right? So one of my top tips for implementation when you're thinking about getting success is one of the things you need to ask yourself is what's the spread across my team of these categories of people? And having you like have and I I class them personally into different into the categories of um cha you know, excited about change, comfortable all dealing with change and change haters, right? And actually you need a balance of all three, and the balance depends on how much change you're going through. So there's no right answer. But if you have all change lovers, when you get on the other side of that project, you will end up with people that won't maintain it. Yeah. You'll have that they'll want to go off and do this for another organization, they'll want to disappear and start the next project, right? So you need to have and you need to have the people that are comfortable with change, right? They'll do it, but they'll do it for short periods of time because and they're normally a really good like middle ground, right? So they'll they'll they'll feed into it, um, they'll they'll deal with it, but as soon as they can get out of it, they will. And then you've got the skeptics, and people always dismiss the skeptics, and that is your superpower in a in a technology project because they are the ones that could tell you everything that might not work. They will tell you and they will keep telling you. So my my advice with that is get them in early, get them looking at the tech, and get them to get all of the problems out on the table at the beginning. Because then once you get over that, once you get them on board, they are your, they're normally the go-to person in the organization as well, the one that answers all the questions for everybody else. Yep. They are your person that will make sure that any new person that joins your organization knows that tech. They will be the the coach, they will be the person that sits in the background and makes sure it works ongoing. So this same cycle you can also apply to the team that you're working with, and making sure we've got the right balance is really, really critical. Okay, so um when so we're gonna go into our final few points, um, but I'd love some feedback. What is your biggest concern when evaluating new tech? Doing a quick time check given the technology let us down at the beginning. Oh, interesting. Or integration. So we need to cover that in our top tips. Nice. That that that's super interesting, the variety. Obviously, integration is the big one, but there is actually quite a few in different topics. And whoever the others are, come and have a conversation afterwards. I'm interested. Lovely. Um, okay, so um, let's let's start with our top tips for success when it comes to selecting technology. So, first one's yours, Alex.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so my top tip would be to um build for automation and AI, essentially, because this is what we're doing today, and you want to make it as efficient as possible uh for your team and for yourself to save money.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm gonna add to that and say the three words I want you, I would suggest you remember when you're looking at um success with tech, and that is simplify first, then standardize, then systemise. So I see a lot of customers that will lean into automating bad processes. And actually, a bad process is still a bad process when AI is doing it, right? So actually getting hold of your processes and your data before and uh while you are looking at technology is really critical. And don't underestimate the amount of time that is going to take as part of your implementation, yeah. Um, and make sure that you're assessing that as part of your cost assessment for any new tech.

SPEAKER_02:

So tip number two, Alex. Uh so my tip number two is to look at the product, um, sorry, look at the partner, not just the product. Um, and that essentially will help you with integration, believe it or not, because there is a number of times I've come across where it's down to the partner who will essentially help you integrate, that they should have a decent support, customer support system to help you bring that, as well as awesome product management. But uh yeah, usually they would have a team that will help you.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, my next tip is to challenge development. So many organizations create themselves a development and legacy overhead because they decide that they have to get a bespoke process or a bespoke bit of code written for the solution that you're on. If you are asking your software vendor for customization, you've got to ask yourself first why you're even asking for that. What is it about you that is so different from every other user of that software that you cannot use a bit of configuration to adapt your processes to work within it? Now, the caveat to that is that if that that particular bit of development is a USP for your business, so it adds value to your internal processes or your customers, then you can then assess the value. But make sure you understand not just the cost of that initial build, but the cost of maintaining it. Because every single upgrade, every single new integration that you go with, you're going to have to think about that bespokeness because it's not written into the way that they've developed their own code. So really challenge hard on bespoke. Configuration is different, ticking boxes, you know, writing um a, you know, um a little, you know, a small piece of script that is within guidelines. That's I would allow that, but fundamentally rewriting whole bits of code, you just need to ask the question, should I be doing it? And making sure you're challenging effectively internally.

SPEAKER_02:

Tip number three. So my tip number three is um sorry, just bear with me a second. Had a lot to run a lot today, did they? Yeah, so is to measure ROI beyond money. And exactly what I talked about before, as accountants, we look at cost. It's drilled into our head to look at the bottom line. This is looking deeper and understanding that bringing in a product or AI or technology will save you money in the long run, um, especially as you scale and you grow. Um, because essentially humans can't do everything, and you can speed things up and actually have a higher delivery, high quality delivery.

SPEAKER_01:

And my last and final tip is around specifically AI. So there's three things I'm looking at when I'm assessing a customer's readiness for AI. So, one are their processes simplified, right? Because right now there's a lot of money being thrown at AI. Yeah. Um, but we're moving towards a consumption-based model in terms of cost, right? So the costs of AI are going to start potentially to increase. So if we've got a bad process that consumes a lot of effort from an AI tool, then it could be that in the future that's going to cost us a lot. So actually, let's get ahead of that. Let's simplify our processes and get ourselves ready. The second thing I'm looking at is are my data structures clear, find, and enabled for AI? Do I use the same data structures across all the systems that I work with? Can AI connect the dots between what that field means in this system versus that system? And if you don't think you're there, then find a way to you need to figure out a plan to get there and have a work stream to look at that. And, you know, finally, is look at how can AI access my data? Do you have open APIs? Can data be pulled from the system that you're using in bulk? And how easy, how robust is that API and how broad is that API? Are there any data sets that sit within that platform that we cannot access? Um, and that would be my final tip for today's session. So um last but not least, um, on the Mentimeter, um, we we wanted to try and leave some time tech dependent for some questions. So if anyone has any questions, Amanda, I'm not sure if you could do a round with the uh no mics, so it will hand out. So yeah, go for it. Do you want to just say your name as well?

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you for the insightful session. I uh to note my question because I didn't want to interrupt you. I'll be keen, I'll be glad if you can some of us determine the stages of our character. So I'll be quite keen if you can explore or share some something about how you've worked with your clients, adopt AI solutions, like ROPs, chatbots, you mentioned those. I'll be quite keen if you can share some insight on that. And um maybe to wrap it up is to give us even if you can share some thoughts on how we can future both our careers with with skills. What what are your takes? I mean, you you're you're out there, what do you think we should be doing? Are she really getting better prepared to to how the long deal to our careers? Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so I'll uh I'll start on that. So um examples. So we're very much focused on internal, right? Personally, I feel like there's some guardrails we need to be careful of with exposing our data externally via AI right now. So we are very much focused on internal automation around AI. So everything from um, for instance, assessing um discovery calls, identifying points, using it internally for note-taking, I think is a big one that everyone's using it for. Um we've we've looked at things like um uh discrepancy reporting, so identifying issues in the GL where there's um things that are missing or coded wrong. There's tools outlier detection, um, AP automation. You're probably already using some AI and if you're using any kind of AP automation. A lot of those tools are starting to really lean into that. And it's a it's a nice, easy way to look at it. And I always think of AI in two different categories. There's AI-enabled tools, and there's pure like bottom-up AI building. And we're very much at the moment focused on leveraging AI-enabled tools versus building AI bops, etc., from scratch, though we've got some interesting stuff coming and working on around credit control.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, so I would um I'm gonna just talk about the what would what to do in terms of what about our jobs. Um, so when I first started my practice, I was called Sorin Falcon Accountancy. And I realized that accountancy isn't, we it it's not, it doesn't really say exactly what we do because we do advisory, we do like project management, we do all these things. So I essentially removed accountancy from my title. And that's because I don't want people to assume I do tax and I do accounting and I do compliance. It's probably like 1% of what we do. And that's also because I recognize that with the tech and with AI coming into play, that it means that we need to change and we need to adapt. Exactly what you were saying, people are concerned and they're worried. But we're talking about uh what Paul talked about from Capitalize, um, you know, um, in terms of um human touch, of the human element and the advisory of taking what AI does and being able to advise clients or businesses how to grow. We've we've again we've studied this, we know how to um help people grow, we know how to give them advice for future stuff. So it's using that data and talking through the information so they really understand it. So I'm spending most of my time project managing all this stuff with teams, with with software partners, and um, and also with my clients as well. So it's just it's adapting as you go along. Um, in terms of things I have. So I've been using RPA um to do bookkeeping in my business. Um, I use products like Grammarly, like meeting notes. One of the basic things that you could look at is um I appreciate people would use Google or Microsoft, depending on what you use, is just have a play around with Copilot with Gemini, because one of the small things that you can teach your teen is, well, they'll never have to do a pivot table again. So they can take data, extract, export it, whatever, into each one of those. Um, and essentially they can play around and say, what do I need from this? I can pull this data out. I don't need to manually do this or filter it anymore. I just use the AI that's built in. So that's just I'm just gonna say one because I don't want to overwhelm, but just have a go.

SPEAKER_01:

And then just I guess to follow on from that, it was an interesting question around security, and I think it needs addressing. So I talked about how we are using it. So I'm very much focused on internal automation as in bookkeeping, internal system automation right now. I think a lot more needs to be done before we start exposing a huge amount externally because there's you know prompt hacking that's become a bit of a career choice by the sound of it, some people. Um, but there's things like that that add risk into that. So when I talked earlier about APIs, when I said the word robust, it's not just about volume of data, it's security. So that's why it's so important to pick strong base systems for tools like this, right? Um, and that's where you need to be very careful about the right partners. You'll see a theme coming through, the right tech partners that you work with, because they need to have that strength around security. Um, and if they dismiss your concerns, you probably have um a concern, you need to be concerned and getting into the depths and looking at how they are securing their AI tools, how they're minimizing things like prompt hacking, and also making sure you're really careful about what tools you connect your data to. So, for instance, if you store your HR files in SharePoint and you connect your Chat GBT to your Microsoft SharePoint, don't be surprised if some clever person figures out how to ask it where what somebody's salary is, right? So thinking about the data sources you connect into API and how you enable that for your employees is really important. Anything else on that one?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, just um the um AI Act uh was released. Um, so obviously there's a lot of legislation around AI today um for Europe. Um, and therefore um companies are gonna have to abide by the regulations because I think it started in 2025. Um so essentially the software's will probably be ahead of that, hopefully. But in terms of the security, I mean, I have two-step authentication, I have every authentication um in place, and that's also due to a fraud that I had on uh um a selfie that was um where I had money taken from my bank. Uh it was£53,000 FYI from my Revolute, and therefore I am high security. I also look at my business in terms of what else I can implement to make sure that data is safe, and for example, not emailing things, not emailing data. It's easy for us to email data. It's also easy for the client to email data, make sure we have a secure sharing portal where that data is saved and it's kept in when it comes to like things like meeting notes and things like that. AI could look at the whole of your business or practice or whatever, and it can read your meeting notes and it can create content and it can do so much. But again, just starting from step one and then just learning it as you go as you go along.

SPEAKER_01:

And one big thing that we've done as an organization, I forgot to mention, is making sure you know what I AI tools your team are using. If they say they're not using any, they're probably lying if they're under the age of 30. Um, so getting hold of that, and there are differences in things like team workspaces in Chat GBT versus the free version. There's a reason things are free and getting hold and understanding why certain what it what JEBT and the tools you're using are doing with that data and how they're learning off of it is really important. Because if you give a free version to something, you don't be surprised if that appears in somebody else's query from a different organization. So that's something. And then we've got a theme here around laggards and a board of skeptics, right? So, how do we address, I guess, a resistance to change? And have you got any tips just to finish us off?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. So um, when you do have um a team that is just they're just refusing to change, again, you just take it step by step. You don't need to take their entire job away from them. You can essentially just change one part and just train them and give them their full support. Because I, as in the early days when I started my practice, nobody knew technology and I had to find accountants and teach them the tech. Therefore, I've taken them through those stages and through those phases. I do exactly the same with clients today. I don't give them everything all at once. I just start with one thing, one small thing, show them what difference it makes. They will soon adapt slowly. And they might keep their old Excel spreadsheet at the same time, but eventually they'll start to find that that'll become easier.

SPEAKER_01:

So, one of the things I talk about a lot is the snowball of change, right? Imagine you've got a snowball at the top of a hill and it rolls down. It's very small when it starts. By the time you get down the bottom, it's massive. And that's because each small step that you take should create capacity for the next level of change, right? And if you follow that rhythm of change creates capacity, that capacity goes into more change, all of a sudden you're creating momentum. And momentum's really quick, is really powerful. The things I would I would say is the first thing is don't make your change projects too long. There's a certain amount of time that a lot of people can pay attention for, right? So if you've got a big project, split it up into three month chunks and build in a rest period because you'll have your change excited people that will just crack on and keep going and never stop. The rest of them will need a break. They're going to need to recover to reset and get ready and re-energize for the next wave of change. So building a both capacity but also a staggering, so they don't feel like they're on the hamster world continuously. Um, and I I think for me, where we started is a really good piece around lag arts because when you really show them the ROI, whether that's monetary value, if it's a senior team, yeah, or for and even for those senior teams, making it personal, right? If they want to be able to get a report when they want it on a Friday afternoon when you're out of the office, if you can demonstrate that what you're doing is gonna tick that one box for them, um, you're gonna get that movement. For the junior team, it's trying to tie it to their personal goals. So tying it to you're gonna have experience of implementation, you can get to add this to your CV. I'm gonna build, I'm gonna put you on a project management course so you can put that tick box on LinkedIn and help you develop. So try and make it personal, either in terms of it's gonna make their lives easier in work or it's gonna give them an advantage in the future. Awesome. So, how are we doing for time, Amanda? I think we're out two minutes. So it's wonders. Oh, I'm gonna leave this one with Alex. I think it's a great one for you, Alex. What advice would you give traditional accountants to become visionary and embrace new AI technologies? I mean, I'm gonna tie this into travel because I haven't mentioned nomading yet.

SPEAKER_02:

No, on a serious note. So um, when I first started my practice, um, or actually before then, I um I worked out, and I do this not just with accounting, I actually do this with my like every process of my life. I go to countries that are fast, like fast, like uh innovative and fast, like they think ahead of whatever they choose to do. Like Norway has electric roads. I mean, I'd love to be able to walk around and never charge my phone again, for example. I'm not saying that a country's done that, but that'd be amazing. And you have South Korea who basically um builds their vision around the human rather than forcing the human to change, like they have a traffic light system on the floor because everybody's standing on their phone and they're not, oh, they're looking at their phone. So when they walk, they're not really noticing. So they're building around the human. Um, and so one of the things I did is um I went to New Zealand and I learned about um how to do things fast, efficient. And one of the tips I had was, oh, you just speak to the surfer guys who run who are entrepreneurial because essentially they would have built in like all their systems and processes so they can surf. Um, and so one of the things I do recommend is going to like technology um conferences, looking at some of the really exciting things, bringing your team to these things to see what is possible. Um, and I'm not saying to bring all of that stuff in, but you actually learn from how others are doing it and actually excites the team as well because it might give them ideas on how to bring that into the company, into the business. Um, so again, learning from people who have been there, done that from other countries, going to other countries' conferences who are advanced and who are way ahead to then understand what the future could look like for your business.

SPEAKER_01:

And I would say, at least as a note, that's not just applicable to accountants. I think if you've got a team and you're wanting to get them excited, send them to the conference to the software you're investing in. Get them to see all the wow, get them speaking to users that are really excited about it. And yeah, you've you you've got to invest in the people that you're working with. You've got to get them excited because that's how you get that momentum, that change momentum. Thank you so much, guys. I hope this has been helpful and you've taken something away. Um, we'll be around for a few minutes afterwards if you want to come and ask some questions. But yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03:

Hey Google, what's the best accounting software for my business? Give it a couple of years, and I'll bet you she'll be able to answer you pretty accurately. But for now, it's still one of the few questions Google can't give you an answer for. But we can. Take our free quiz and find out which stage products is the right fit for your business. Just head to itasolutions.co.uk.

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