The Cloud …. the most disruptive technology ever ? – Forbes

Interesting article on Forbes by Greg Satell which profiles @Xero and how it has disrupted the accounting industry……

Why The Cloud Just Might Be The Most Disruptive Technology Ever – Forbes.

Xerocon All Stars Band – A 2013 Highlight !

I needed to get this up onto my blog as it was one of the highlights of 2013 for me being part of this awesome band !

For those that haven’t had the pleasure of watching the Xero All Stars Band in action at Xerocon 2013 sit back, watch and enjoy….. and watch out for the band at Xerocon 2014 🙂

NSW Government has to do more….

I generally don’t make opinionated comments on political subjects that are not in my field of work or have no direct relevance to my personal life but I feel that this subject needs to have plenty of comment from the public to make Barry O’Farrell and his team listen (BTW, I am a staunch liberal supporter).

There needs to be harsher penalties for those idiots out there that think they can get a belly full of alcohol and go out there and knock someone down just for the sheer hell of it or to prove what a “man” they are. As we have seen in the past 18 months there can be devastating effects with the death of an innocent person just out to have a good time. Or the serious injuries caused (sometimes long lasting) to those persons out with friends.

This senseless violence, more often than perpetrated by drunk fools needs to be stamped out and the only way to do this is to come down hard on those responsible..yes, I am talking about mandatory sentencing for random and senseless acts of violence. Courts and judges have their place in our legal system, but sometimes the sentencing just has to be written into our laws.

(And as I write this I watch on the news another 19 year old has been bashed in Penrith at the McDonalds by a stranger. This just highlights my personal opinion on this matter)

My wife Jade and I made a conscious decision some 8 years ago to stay away from going out in the city unless we had to because it was just getting too dangerous. Having seen friends come close to being bashed due to simply running into someone as they left a toilet in a club or finding out that our next door neighbour got bashed because he “had a go” at a girl for kicking his coke bottle over as he sat and ate a pie in a city park early one morning and the girl’s boyfriend calls his mates to come back to set upon my neighbour and his friends is more than enough reason to want to stay away from the city. Sad really, because we love Sydney and we met in a nightclub (good old Berry St Tavern) and loved the nightlife, but not at the expense of our safety.

There also needs to be stricter rules and regulations in trouble spots to help reduce the number of drunk idiots on our streets. I am one who believes very strongly in supporting small and medium businesses as they are an important part of our economy and I know restrictions on opening hours etc can result in lost profts and job cuts (as will be argued) but when society has to deal with the effects of alcohol fuelled violence, something needs to be done

Maybe RSA laws can be enforced better. As an example of the system breaking down my own firm was “cut off” after one drink in a local drinking establishment in Crows Nest on our christmas party because one of the girls threw a napkin and we were “too loud” (mind you, the place was packed and you had to yell to be heard) yet they allowed us to finish our drinks (which was a double round)….? If we were that drunk that we couldn’t buy anymore drinks should we have been allowed to firstly buy them and secondly finish what we bought ? No, i don’t think so.

I obtained my RSA in 1999 and I am pretty sure they should have asked us to leave straightaway if we were that bad. As I said, just an example of where the RSA rules meant nothing really because we could still have a drink when we were deemed to be “drunk”, all 15 of us (even though there were 3 non-drinkers). If this practice is repeated in trouble hot spots across Sydney it is easy to see why there are drunk idiots on our streets causing violence.

Finally, I totally agree that the term “king hit” needs to be changed for “coward punch”. Like everyone else I concur that these idiots are not “Kings”, they are total cowards, too scared to go toe to toe with their target because sometimes you just don’t know what sort of self defense skills they have OR they could even be a black belt. They prefer to come from behind or from the side like cowards. This is not war, there is no prize for using the element of surprise when you punch someone walking along the street with their girlfriend whether you have a reason to or not. It is a dog act and you are not a man. And like we have seen, this sort of coward punch can change the lives of not only the victim but so many others.

I saw this personally some years ago when my cousin Andy was attacked via a “king hit” as he waited to go to school at a train station. It was a pre-meditated attack, with the offender having warned him either the day before or a few days before that if he turned up at the train station that day he would get him. He did, from the side, with a “coward punch” that put Andy in hospital with swelling and bleeding on the brain and permanent damage and a huge scar on the side of his head in the shape of a question mark (fitting actually…as he has always been a bit clueless..sorry cuz 🙂 ). He is lucky to be alive today as the coward used a knuckle duster as well. He was too scared too take Andy on man to man because he probably knew Andy could defend himself (I know, we went toe to toe a few times at the motorbike park) and would probably kick his arse so he opted for the coward option and hit him before Andy knew he was there.

The personal toll on his immediate family (as well as the extended clan) at the time was huge and I could not imagine what the effect would have been then and still to this day if he had not been lucky to survive and recover to lead a fairly normal life. He would not have married and produced three beautiful children thus robbing my uncle and ex-aunt of these special events…it is easy to see how the effects can be far reaching.

As I said at the start, I don’t normally make comment on topics like this but enough is enough. I love our city and have lived here all my life but with two young children now of my own, I want it to be a safe place for them to go out when they are older so that they can experience the magic that Sydney provides.

Ok, rant over 🙂

Reflections on Xerocon 2013

Well Xerocon Sydney 2013 has come and gone and has left an unforgettable mark on the accounting and bookkeeping industry for more than one reason. Visionary leadership, product innovation, revolutionary thought processes and just a damn good time are what defined this years conference and has me excited about the next phase of our industry’s life cycle.

I’m going to give my thoughts on what all of this means and so for all of the data, you can find the Live Blog from Day 1 here and from Day 2 here plus a wrap up from Managing Director Chris Ridd here.

Products updates….for the day to day Xero User

Purchase Orders, Quotes & Inventory are finally coming. Long requested features which will complete the package for most SMEs. From where I was sitting all three appeared to be very robust solutions and I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

Payroll updates, filing solutions and report updates are further enhancements which will all improve the functionality and user experience.

For my clients, these updates will be fantastic and even for those that are hanging onto their desktop platform, with these new features it will be hard for them to hold us off any longer !

But that is not all. The redevelopment of Xero Touch will make it even easier to do “bank recs in bed”. ! And the roll out of “Banking 2.0” is a complete revolution in the way that SMEs can use Xero and their Internet banking to streamline their payment processes. Bank West and Macquarie Bank are now working with Xero on this new platform and it will be very interesting to see how this will work.

Product Updates….for us Accountants & Bookkeepers – Practice Studio

The first installment of Xero Tax is here. September 19th to be exact ! Activity statements are coming and for practitioners is the first part of the long awaited final feature set to make Practice Studio complete !

And now we have been promised C Forms, I Forms, T Forms, P Forms and SMSF Forms by June 2014 just in time for our next tax season WHICH means for many Xero partners (like us) that have held onto their legacy tax software it will be bye-bye and good riddance !

This may for many partners also be the catalyst for the move from legacy ledger systems to having all of their clients ledgers (Xero day to day users or not) hosted within Xero ledger. This will however force Xero to rethink its pricing on these ledgers to make it more affordable (because at $60 per year, across say 200 ledgers it does get pricey). and work with partners to find a way to get data transferred over from these legacy system efficiently however this process may be left to a cloud integrator solution partner.

I for one can’t wait. I have voiced my opinion on a number of occasions re the urgent need for Xero to get tax finished (albeit with a sense of self need) however after a few chats with Oliver Furniss I am very confident that the finished product is going to be once again world class and not just a replacement product but a much better product than is currently available in the market, desktop or cloud based !

WorkflowMax is getting a great re-design and its integration with Microsoft Sharepoint Online is not far away which will make my team’s life much easier when finding client documents through our practice management solution.

Thanks to HubOne, our integration between WorkflowMax and Sharepoint Online will get even better with the Modern Practice 2.0 (the MPP) as it becomes a two way system, with a focus on creating more efficient workflows from lists and forms in the MPP.

Workpapers get some updates that are all designed to make the client fit in with our processes as well as streamline our internal processes.

Profiles within My Xero will allow the EFS team to promote their skills to the Xero community and the new training module within My Xero will see a better management of my team’s Xero skill sets.

All of these improvements to the Practice Studio will allow us to continue with our goal of continuous internal innovation, all designed to drive internal efficiencies.

The Vibe, The Businesses, The Battle & The Awards….

The place was buzzing. Just the sheer number of registrants indicates that the revolution is in full swing, not to mention all the new Xero staff faces around the place as well as the huge number of Add-On partners in the exhibition hall. The number of new faces amongst the partners was great, but also a little scary ! It shows that our first mover advantage is quickly being clawed back as savvy accountants and bookkeepers see just how damn good Xero is and get on board.

I was lucky to sit on a partner panel following a great speaker session from Tania Titman (cue the jokes..:) the MD of Consolid8 who within the space of 12 months went from traditional firm to Gold Partner and industry leader. It shows just how easy it is to make it happen with Xero if you get the right people on board who believe in the revolution. She gave an insightful account of their move to the cloud and how they use the cloud to deliver a great service to their clients.

But that is not to say that us first movers are not still leading the charge. My great friends at Interactive Accounting continued in their award winning way, taking out the Marketing Innovation Award, their third award in a row. And the ninjas at Growthwise grabbed the 100% Xero award, their second award in two years. In both cases very deserving winners as they continue the revolution.

But there are new kids on the block. Poole Group took out the top gong for the accountants and they are an example of the firms shifting from the old way to the new way (like EFS). And the top bookkeeper award went to EyeOnBooks who are continuing the trend of a new age of professional bookkeepers using Xero to leverage off the efficiencies created by the program, but also of the opportunities created by Xero in being able to provide value added services to your clients, whether an accountant or bookkeeper.

On the accountant v bookkeeper debate…well that was in full swing and in the final Q&A the battle lines were drawn. Fortunately the heat was directed to the Xero leadership team and it was good to see the response that a new workable solution was needed to reward both sets of professionals and it would be looked at. Until this happens there will be instances of bookkeepers and accountants battling for position but in the end business is business. We are selling relationships and ultimately I feel the organisation that holds the greater relationship with the client will win out. Hence why we provide a full bookkeeping service to our clients, at the same rates as the top bookkeepers as we see a huge market out there using Xero to deliver the service. It makes good business sense and also means we aren’t having to go through this battle !

No awards for EFS this year but that is ok. Our time will come and we will continue to sit out there at the front leading the disruption in the industry using Xero as our platform. Our position in the market was reinforced when Chartered Accountants President and Deloitte Private Partner Tim Gullifer singled me out in his key note speech which was a pat on the back in itself and proves that we are on the right track as a business and as industry leaders.

My Highlight….

My highlight for the conference this year was being part of the Xero All Stars Band which provided the entire night’s entertainment for the Gala Ball ! With only one rehearsal on the Wednesday night before the conference the 16 member outfit pulled off what will go down in history and will be talked about for a long long time in the Xero community and accounting world !

A wrap up of the band’s experience from Andrew Whitelaw (Drummer, Guitarist and Singer) is here. And not too far away, on this page the video highlights package will be there ! But in the meantime, here is an iPhone recording from Harvee Pene from ChangeGPS to either remind you of the fun or get you wanting the full video highlights reel now !!

Rumour has it that CEO Rod Drury was so impressed that our next call up will be for Xerocon Auckland in Feb 2014 ! Lets hope so because the Xero All Stars Band are the real deal and it will be great to play with them all again !

So in closing Xerocon 2013 was a memorable one for me. I think that our industry is going to continue to change at a rapid rate and for those accounting firms out there that don’t get on board with technology they will start to see their clients make the move themselves. This is one risk we are not going to take as a business because it is these clients that will be looking for accounting firms in the Xero community to look after their ongoing affairs because we ‘get’ Xero and we ‘get’ technology and this is what they are looking for in true advisers moving forward.

Helping others…..

Today I got my official notification of my appointment as a Justice of the Peace and it got me thinking about why I do what I do and always feel the need to help out where I can.

Quite of number of people ask me this question and my answer is always “I just do it because I want to”. Why is this the case? I can’t really answer that. Maybe it is because when I was growing up I received help from others or maybe it is because my mum taught me that helping others is the right thing to do. It is probably both to be honest and it is probably the fact that I would not be where I am today without getting this help.

I have always had this desire to give back to society. Whether it be helping individuals or organisations and whether it be a paid engagement or voluntary work I always want to find a way to ensure that the recipient of my assistance is in a better position after I have finished doing whatever it is I am doing than they were before I started.

Being a perfectionist I never do things half-assed and when it comes to my voluntary work I always find myself working that little bit harder to make a difference. Not saying that I don’t work hard and to the best of my ability when I am getting paid, but when it comes to helping anyone I never want to disappoint and will put the task first before myself or my family (which often comes at the risk of making my wife very upset !)

It is always about finding that balance between helping others and looking after Number 1 and Number 1’s family which gets harder and harder as my family grows and my time is needed there, and rightly so.

But even with increasing family demands I know that I will always find the time to help others and fortunately I have a wife that supports me in this because she understands that it is something in my genetic makeup that drives this and it is who I am and I will probably never change.

And I don’t want to change. I get great satisfaction out of helping others and making a difference where I can and hence why I often find to hard to say “No” !