Final Thoughts about Automation and Staff

I hope you have enjoyed this part of the series about people and the benefits accounting automation can have on them. If I get my wish I will, in the near future, complete a book about technology and people. I have toyed with the title “Technology Does Nothing”. It is either an idea that is ahead of its time or it is something that no one is interested in… that’s at least what my publisher’s view of the topic. Maybe the title is bad, because when I explain the point my publisher moved from not interested in it at all to… “well maybe we can talk more about it later”.

The point that technology does nothing has to do with the idea (I wish I could write fact) that technology is only as good as the people it serves. With some people, you know who you are, in a technology initiative, sometimes the points and clicks of the software becomes more important than the outcome of the implementation. Meaning, that the whole point of software is to improve people’s lives. I was one of those early dot-comer… where some of my colleagues and competitors  were making millions off on an idea. I finally decided to join them in the middle of 2000 and then the money dried up and we were stuck with an idea and no millions. From that we decided that we had to create internet software that people would use and pay for… imagine that? My point is, in the early days of internet software the ideas were not so useful to people… they had no real benefits.

Today we are lucky. The software that companies employ have to be more than cool… it has to serve people. Accounting Automation is no exceptions. The CFO needs greater visibility and control, the controller has to get process improvement, the tech staff time needs to be used wisely and the operations staff needs to be beneficiaries of time savings. If not… it’s just cool.

Next i am going to write about different companies that can benefit from accounting automation… stay tuned.

Buy the book – The Argument to Automate – How Innovation Can INSPIRE Not Fire – click here to buy

(Also) To get your copy of The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation – click here to buy