As the dust settles after a fantastic Accountex 2019, I’ve been thinking back to the excellent conversations we had and taking stock of what we learned. Something that struck me was the strong sense that accountants today are not only aware of the latest tech offerings but are moving (or have moved already) towards running much more efficient, tech-savvy, cloud based firms. This is the direction that many accountants have been moving in since cloud innovation swept in to save the day.

It appears that the conversation has evolved from the what to the how: “we’ve already moved some clients on to cloud software, now how do we convert not only our clients, but also our employees?” This raises another hot topic from Accountex; people are just as important as the technology that is being implemented!

Purchasing software licenses and saying you’re a cloud based firm is the easy part, anybody can do that. Ensuring your clients and team have bought into the vision and future of your practice is the real challenge. The firms that I have worked with whose people were willing to adapt and whose clients have embraced change are now flying. Everybody has the same vision, employees boast about the great work culture and clients are benefiting from increased value-added services.

Another interesting thing I noted was the increase in firms who are recruiting in-house tech leaders. This is a clear sign of firms embracing change and looking to the future. It also shows that this is not just a quick switch from traditional to cloud. There is a world of possibilities out there; what software do you choose and which apps are the best? The great thing about Accountex is that all the leading software partners are under one roof. If you didn’t have time to talk to every one of them, don’t worry, I guarantee your inbox will be full of follow-up emails from those in attendance.

For us at MarketInvoice, this year’s Accountex was our first. The buzz around the event was fantastic, some excellent innovations were on show and the speakers throughout the two days were top notch. Having met with so many accountants and having received such a positive response to our invoice finance solutions, we’ll certainly be attending again. But before that, we’re looking forward to what’s in store for us at Accountex Summit North later this year.