3E Accounting’s Digital Accountant
Drawing on technological advancements, businesses are adopting digital technology to transform their services by replacing manual work with digital processes. In 2019, Forbes estimated that at least 70% of organisations have a digital strategy in place or are working on one; 6 out of 10 companies undergone digital transformation have also created new business models.
Recognising the importance of technology, we set up IT Solution back in 2012. This technology company under the 3E Accounting umbrella provides a comprehensive range of IT solutions and digital marketing services to complement the existing services offered to our clients. We also formed the firm’s Digital Research and Development (R&D) team to lead development in new technological growth areas like Robotics Business Automation (RPA), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Digital Challenge
Digital transformation is one of the key focus among businesses and the evolution of business model ultimately affects the accounting profession from the various methods we collect, verify and use data. The 5Vs; Velocity of business, Volume of transactions and data, Value derived from insight, analysis and prediction from data flow, Variety of systems used due to technology and Veracity of data, is remodelling the accounting workplace and the role accountants play.
In the act of embracing the digital culture, organisations are also changing their business models. It is crucial for accountants to understand how adopted technology enables better business processes, how data flows across them and how to measure the business performances.
The Required Digital Skills
Accountants not only need to focus on basic skillsets, but also recognise that digital skills play an important role in the profession. It is essential to constantly develop distinct skillsets to stay competitive in times of digital evolution. Accountants are generally well honed in traditional digital skills which involve using technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications and spreadsheets. However, it is also important to keep up with emergent technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Data management and analysis are now well supported with advancement in digital tools, and hence accountants will be able to be more dynamic and analytical with their insights.
The specific skills needed to embrace and deploy relevant digital technologies were considered, and one of which is data governance and project management especially from an ethical point of view. Strong technical and ethical skills remain at the core of what accounting professionals do, but these are complement with additional skills. There is a need to govern the integrity of data gathered from the multiple sources – both internal or external, structured or unstructured.
3E Accounting’s Digital Transformation
To adhere to the growth of technology, we established a digital master plan to map out 3E Accounting’s digital transformation. Services offered by 3E Accounting such as company incorporation, accounting, taxation, human resource and secretarial service can now be fully processed digitally. The benefits of digital transformation is realised quickly as an usual company incorporation process which will take up to 2 days to complete is shortened to an hour. With the aid of cloud and automation solutions, we are able to go 100% paperless and digital, and hence increasing our productivity by 50%. The implementation of digital tools and robotics technology help us to save a significant amount of time and manpower, so as to better serve a larger client base.
3E Accounting’s successful digital transformation provide our staffs a platform to develop their digital skills and change their role of performing basic tedious data entry work to better value creation tasks.
3E Accounting’s Robotics Technology
Moving ahead, 3E’s Accounting goal is to build intelligent robots to perform tasks and work with our staffs to improve productivity and enhanced value creation for both internal and external stakeholders. We have already successfully developed the Financial Report Robot and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Robot, and is currently in the process of completing the Tax Robot and Bookkeeping Robot with the Tax Robot officially launching in 2021 and the Bookkeeping Robot targeted to complete by 2022. The development of robots help save up to 90% of time spent on tasks, and with these AI technologies, a 99% increase in work productivity is expected. Furthermore, our staffs are now able to leverage on the automation to derive deeper insights.
By using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to reduce the workload of our staffs, we are able to stay future ready in this competitive market. Our staffs have a competitive advantage through learning on how to work with emergent technologies, to develop their digital skills to stay relevant and essential in times where business models continue to grow with the advancement of technology.
Our Digital Future
There is much more to digital evolution, and technology will grow into areas that have yet to be expected. The pace of change in recent years will be overshadowed by growing technologies like the 5G network and hyper automation. The business models today will be very different from those down the road. Having relevant digital skills and good understanding of the digital landscape are no longer a choice but a necessity. With the digital landscape continuing to evolve and new technologies being adopted at workplaces, maintaining adequate level of competence ensures efficiency in an accountant’s work.
Understanding the digital evolution in business landscape, 3E Accounting has invested over $2.0 million in researching and developing automation robotics and IT infrastructure. Despite not tapping on venture capitalist funding, we have made a giant leap into technology development.