The Wize Way

Episode 27: Why firms need scalable technology

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 1 • Episode 27

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Episode 27: Why firms need scalable technology

In this episode of The Wize Guys Podcast, Jamie Johns delved into the use of technology in scalability. With scalability, it’s important to roll out your tools and systems to really anywhere in the world, at any time and any place.

In line with this, he introduced SharePoint, a handy software from Microsoft that allows users to easily access and navigate through all of the tools and programs they use in their firm. Watch the video to learn more about SharePoint and how it can help scale your firm, particularly in the technology area.

Timestamps:

0:35 - Reasons why technology is the 2nd barrier to scaling your practice
1:14 - Key Point #1: Sharepoint and CloudStack
3:52 - Key Point #2: Technology order
4:22 - Key Point #3: Security

Quotations:

“The second barrier to growth that it and all are talking about in step eight is the use of technology and scalability. So with scalability, it's really important that you can roll out your equipment or tools or systems to really anywhere in the world at any time at any place.” - Jamie Johns

“Do a technology audit you feel like, and use the technology audit to determine what systems are still server dependent versus what is cloud-dependent or cloud-based.” - Jamie Johns

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Download the full transcript here.


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Episode 27: Why firms need scalable technology

Hi, it's Jamie Johns here from Wize Mentoring. 

The second barrier to growth that it and all are talking about in step eight is the use of technology and scalability. So with scalability, it's really important that you can roll out your equipment or tools or systems to really anywhere in the world at any time at any place. And so what I just wanted to run through was two or three really important points to accounting firm owners out there around how to really scale your firm.

What I've got on the screen here is a system called SharePoint, which is designed by Microsoft and we've just called these ones Sky Hub. And if I just run through this first, I'm going to start with, what's called the CloudStack. Now a CloudStack is all the core systems that you use to run your accounting firm. 

Now, some years ago, we moved our whole firm to the cloud and we got rid of a server. Now in Australia, for example, a new server set up with all the features will cost you around anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Now we of course don't have that cost any more because we have a cloud stack and we moved w the majority of their clients to the cloud, and also all our internal systems to the cloud as well.

Now, some of the core programs that we use, of course, Zero, Zero Practice Manager, Class Super now Infinity, Karbon, Practice Ignition, and Ontraport our CRM. We also use a system called Tony Foale, Client Heartbeat, both of these net promoter scores for your clients and for your employees. So different systems here are all there purely because they're in the cloud. There are different ones called unleashed and receipt bank. And also what we do is all their documents are in the cloud as well. And so that's really what your CloudStack is about now. If we just quickly run through other things here, we've got monthly meeting minutes here that the staff can access. We've got just some little cultural building aspects here about the AOL office in Ballarat, the temperature there and that, and the temperature in the clock office in the Philippines. We've got a calendar over here and we've got the latest seminars attended. 

So the real point here is this whole system is in the cloud and you don't need a server. So all of our staff simply have laptops which have a steam card to them, so they can access provided they've got internet access, they've got their office, they've got all their tools. So reach out to us at Wize Mentoring and certainly ask us questions about what systems we use and have a look at your own firm. Do a technology audit you feel like, and use the technology audit to determine what systems are still server dependent versus what is cloud-dependent or cloud-based. So a lot of firms will always have something that is the server bay. So you can certainly make a real effort to move that across to the cloud. 

The other issue is security. So it's really important that you have all your patches up to date, even on your laptops. It must have been patched up to date, must have software updates and stoled. You must use something like Practice Protect. We'll go into an interview with James Barris on how practice protect helps protect passwords of all these systems that you use. You must also have some good authentication policies, procedures, and password renewal systems as well. 

So, yeah, hopefully, that gives you a bit of an idea of how SharePoint works, how it works for us, and how you can make your practice or firms scale, particularly in the technology area.