MYOB CEO Tim Reed says the biggest reason accountants hold back from implementing new technology is because their current systems are “not broken”, and while firms may continue to run for a long time without implementing new technology, they miss great opportunities to improve their business.
“The biggest factor is that [technology] is not broken. When you go out and you talk to a business owner about change, there’s many things that are on their mind at any moment in time, and if they’ve been doing something for ten years and it works the way they’ve done it, it’s always worked that way, it’s not broken, it doesn’t get to the top of their list,” Mr Reed said.
“Fundamentally, the functionality existed on the desktop, the data existed, it was just locked away, and so the power of it was incredibly constrained, and what we can now do is open that up but if you’re not looking for that, then the challenge that many business owners face is it’s not broken, I’m going to put it to the bottom of my list.”
Mr Reed said rather than waiting for technology to stop working completely, accountants should start thinking of technology as an opportunity for “new ways of doing things”.
While accounting firms may continue to run for a long period time without new systems, challenges will present themselves as client and employee demands change over time.
“I think there’s multiple downsides to not [implementing new technology] and challenges that come with it. It depends on the individual small business, and I don’t want to overplay it, but for me, small businesses, they can run quite inefficiently for a long period of time. It’s not an inspiring thought but they exist. I think one of the challenges that comes in is the expectations of employees change,” Mr Reed said.
“Many businesses will survive for a long time the old way. We just think there’s great opportunity for all businesses to start thinking afresh about new ways of doing things.”
