Ahead of the Digital Accountancy Show, Andy Fisher shares a couple of ideas to think about when speaking to software vendors both during and after the show.
Don’t want to watch the video? You can read the full transcription below.
I’ve been involved with Practice and moving to completely cloud-based and paperless systems over the last 8 yrs. During that time I have had experience with Xero, Sage, Digita and Iris to name a few, and now work with other practices to help them with their digital journey.
So I have been following the posts for the up and coming Digital Accountancy show with loads of reasons why you should attend the show but to be honest for any forward-thinking modern practice surely the question should be why wouldn’t you go?
So with the show in mind, I thought I would give you 5 things to consider when talking to software suppliers
1, Remember all the companies at the show have software they want to sell to you
Remember all the companies at the show have software they want to sell you so make sure you take your time to check out all that’s on offer before you arrange your demos. My advice is to keep an open mind and make sure you ask a lot of questions.
2. The software at the show has been optimised for the show so arrange a demo at your office on your platform
It’s very important that you see how the software operates on your platform, keep in mind that your bandwidth and office network may have an effect on how the software works, also the number of computers you have in the office and how many of them are working in the cloud, arrange the demo when you know your network will be at its busiest.
3. Ask how secure will your data be
If the company you are talking to holds your data it is your responsibility to know how secure that data will be from being hacked or accessed by anyone else.
4. Will your data be backed up and how can you recover data should you need to?
It is most likely that if the company holds your data it will be backed up and I am sure they will be happy to tell you just that, BUT in the event that something happens and you need to recover data or roll your data back to a certain time then you need to know that this is possible and how long it will take to happen, Also be aware that backups are only kept for a certain amount of time and often only cover a short amount of time, so ask is you have a problem how far back can you recover your data.
5. What happens with your data if you choose to move to a different software supplier? Is your data transferable?
This is a very important question to ask and understand I expect most will answer that yes your data is transferable BUT ask in what format you will be able to transfer your data and what data will actually be able to be transferred
So I hope that will give you something to think about when attending the show and if you need any help or advice then please get in touch.
Andy has worked in IT for over 20yrs while working for Unisys he worked as project director implementing Financial systems for many private and public sector clients, In more recent years he has been involved in practice most recently dealing with moving a conventional practice to complete cloud based and paperless system, He now works with Practices helping and advising with their digital journey.
