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Some People Are Worth Listening To!
We live in a mass media world.
All we see and hear are opinions. Influencers. Politicians. Celebrities.
Most of it’s nonsense but it’s entertaining.
So when we get one of our own (yes, I’m talking about the accountancy sector) offering advice we should probably take note.
In the accountancy space, we’re blessed with many good people.
I recently caught up with one of them, some of you will know him.
His name is Crawford Millar.
Crawford has worked in the accountancy IT sector (checks notes) for over 25 years!
If you know him, you know he’s a well-grounded Scottish guy, certainly despite his vast experience he is 100% not a know-it-all.
This was a quick casual chat for my benefit, once I read my notes, I knew it was worth sharing and Crawford kindly agreed.
Just to flesh out his credentials he is Chairman of the Wolters Kluwer Scottish User Group.
Wolters Kluwer is a global provider of software solutions for the accountancy sector.
In 2023 they had revenues of €5.6 billion. They serve customers in 180 countries and employ over 21k people.
They’re kind of a big deal!
I asked Crawford what trends he is seeing in the accountancy sector.
He told me that people are interested in understanding artificial intelligence’s practical applications.
A strong movement from legacy software products to more dynamic SaaS solutions.
I also asked him about his decision to move to the cloud. Was it a good decision, and what drove a fundamental shift from ‘on-premises?”
He told me it was 100% the right decision and would never go back.
His reasons, for a flexible work environment, whether through design or covid.
People need to work from anywhere at any time and this can create a bottleneck with a company’s internet.
In effect, the network can become overwhelmed supporting remote staff access.
Moving to the cloud also solved his disaster recovery issues at a stroke.
I ended our quick catch-up by asking Crawford what advice he would offer to an accountancy firm considering change.
“Don’t dive in!” he said.
“Research and learn what a potential cloud partner can bring to the business.”
“Ensure that good SLA’s are present.”
“It’s critical to have trust in the business you partner with.”
“Get to know the team personally.”
The sector is certainly going through rapid change (but when hasn’t it) if you wish to discover more about HDUK and how we can help you…
