1. 2020 delivered more than its fair share of challenges, but thinking technology, what were you most grateful for?
Over the last decade, I’ve been a huge advocate for flexible and remote working, having the choice to work from anywhere.
2020 did have its challenges, however it forced greater adoption of cloud technologies. As the pandemic hit, service based businesses throughout Australia and the world had to adapt to working mainly from home, online.
As consumers we took to purchasing online and even adoption of social platforms saw exponential growth. Both in our work and personal lives we had to adopt these technologies very quickly.
As a transformation specialist, I’m reminded of a picture a friend sent me, this is true for both work and play:
2. From a tech perspective, what do you believe is the greatest issue facing the accounting industry right now?
Many clients have had to transform the way they do business by using technology more extensively, and in some cases pivot to brand new revenue streams just to stay afloat.
This transition for our clients from a tech perspective in this “always on” world requires us as a profession to overhaul our service delivery and business models in order for us to deliver a better customer experience.
I believe the greatest issue facing the accounting industry is our ability to evolve and reimagine our services in this new reality, at pace.
3. What’s the number 1 tech solution on your wish list?
In July 2020 we formed a new business unit in the Audit Assurance and Risk Consulting (AARC) business of KPMG, called Strategy, Growth and Digital (SGD).
This new business saw a team of 40 specialists with Data and Digital capabilities come together virtually with me as the COO.
As you can imagine, being a new team making connections, setting up the business and kicking goals has been ultra-important and all had to be done virtually.
In January this year, I was approached by our leadership to shift my focus within SGD to the Growth Strategy for all of AARC with some 2000 people!
With the various communication tools of Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, Yammer, SMS, WhatsApp, Outlook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc, etc, I feel a bit overwhelmed at times.
Top on my wish list currently is 1 tech solution that offers one consolidated feed as opposed to having to log into different platforms to work across the business and my network.
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