Technology
What ScanSnap & Fujitsu are doing for Accountants
Feb. 28, 2011
Over the past year Fujitsu ScanSnap
has teamed up with SpeedTax,
a provider of SaaS, fully-automated sales tax management solutions, in a strategic
alliance aimed at educating and informing CPAs and accounting professionals
about paperless, document management, cloud and SaaS solutions. Last June, Jim
Bourke of WithumSmith+Brown
authored a white paper titled “3
Key Tech Strategies of Successful 21st Century Accounting Firms”,
underwritten by Fujitsu and SpeedTax, discussing how these technologies are
making firms more successful.
Recently the alliance expanded to include XCM
Solutions, a pioneer in delivering paperless workflow solutions to the accounting
profession, and has dubbed itself The CloudSolutions Alliance.
The main goal of The CloudSolutions Alliance is to provide firms of all sizes
with solutions that not only integrate and form an end-to-end solution for clients,
but also are simple and easy to implement regardless of firm size.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap team’s most recent strategic initiative and the first
as The CloudSolutions Alliance is a new
study conducted by Bay
Street Group. Managing partners, partners, senior executives and senior
staff from Top 100 accounting firms participated in the survey, which shows
that the best-managed, most successful firms are aggressively adopting Cloud,
SaaS and document management solutions. The survey results show that firms are
adopting these technologies in order to become more competitive, provider better
client service, and improve client retention.
Bay Street Group’s top-line survey results show that:
- Top 100 firms adopting both scanners and SaaS are seven times more likely
than firms not adopting SaaS or scanners to be “highly focused on client
needs and expectations.” - High Performing Top 100 firms are six times more likely than low performing
firms to be aggressively adopting portable document scanners. - High Performing Top 100 firms are twice as likely as low performing firms
to be aggressively adopting SaaS. - CPAs at Top 100 firms who adopt SaaS are more likely than SaaS non-adopters
to agree that new technologies are changing client expectations. To be successful,
accounting firms should be more technologically savvy and learn to adapt faster
to changing business conditions. - SaaS adopters are more likely to achieve consistent and measurable increases
in productivity, use the best software and equipment available, and automate
workflow management. - Similarly, adopters of Portable Document Scanners are more likely to adopt
new SaaS solutions, edge out the competition in adopting new technologies
and automate workflow management as much as possible.
Small and mid-sized firms are really looking to the Top 100 firms to see what
is and isn’t working. They’re also taking notice of the early technology
adopters, and everywhere they turn they’re seeing and hearing about the
Cloud, document management and “SaaS”. Over the past several months
Fujitsu reports they’ve seen firms of all sizes benefit from adopting these
new technologies – and their clients are receiving better service as a
result of doing business with forward thinking firms.