By Lyndon Stickley, CEO of iplicit; an award-winning accounting software developer
Escape your discomfort zone
US Navy Seals have a saying: “The only easy day was yesterday.” That sentiment could well be echoed by some of the FDs and CFOs we hear from.
Many are suffering (unnecessarily) in a discomfort zone that looks like this:
- their old on-premise accounting software is unable to integrate with other true cloud applications, within their organisation
- they resort to numerous time-consuming spreadsheet workarounds to patch ‘holes’ in their reporting processes
- their teams have to manually rekey data to make sense of information from multiple sources
- reports can take days and even weeks to complete – when they could take just hours
- their desktop technology can’t cope with today’s efficient WFH and hybrid working
- essential information is trapped on office servers (or even in filing cabinets) – but they need to access it remotely.
It’s not ideal – so why do they put up with it? What’s so bad that they’d rather soldier on with this sub-optimal status quo?
What’s worse than your outdated on-premise accounting software?
The cost, time and stress involved with upgrading to more powerful software – that’s what. Or so some finance professionals believe.
It’s not uncommon for them to worry that the cure could be worse than the ailment. That’s because of all the pain that they experienced the last time they changed their accounting software.
They can recount horror stories of paying tens of thousands of pounds for an annual licence and similar for implementation charges. But the software was so complex that even the experts took months to install it and customise it.
Back then, too many buyers had to endure a string of broken promises and missed deadlines – all of them bad enough to trigger nightmares, flashbacks and the occasional nervous tick:
- the system cost twice as much as the quoted price
- installation took twice as long as promised
- it still didn’t achieve the intended result because it was so difficult to use
- staff never truly understood the system or liked it.
And we sympathise because their concerns are based on bitter experience. Back then, they were the victims of a cynical software industry that revelled in putting them through the wringer.
The vendors made a fortune from overselling a sledgehammer to crack a nut…and then took forever to install it. All the pain simply meant higher profits for them.
But that was then. This is now…
Don’t get me wrong – there are still vendors out there peddling the old model by charging far too much and taking too long to install the software.
But the difference now is that there are alternatives. Sensible, readily accessible ones.
Don’t let the past define your future
You no longer have to repeat the misery of the past to end the discomfort of the present.
You don’t need the open-heart surgery of a high-priced corporate ERP system that takes a year to install. Now you can opt for the elegant keyhole surgery of mid-market true cloud accounting software – whether you’re an SME or a Nonprofit organisation.
Today’s mid-market cloud accounting software costs a fraction of the price of a big ERP system. And it can be installed in just 15 applied days – over a time period to suit you. The data migration, configuration, implementation and training can all be executed in bite-sized chunks – enabling you to continue with your day job and transition with minimal disruption.
So there’s no reason to continue putting up with the hopelessness of your existing on-premise accounting software. Your fears – though rooted in all-too-real past experience – are based on a future you’ll no longer have to endure.
The Devil you know is no longer worth knowing
Inevitably, ‘Better the Devil you know’ will never be a solution to the increasingly pressing problems posed by old and outmoded accounting software. At what point does prudence become inertia? If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice; deferment is still a decision. Both the saying and the software have a nasty habit of wasting money as well as time in the long run.
And, with every organisation requiring increasing levels of timely, actionable information, hindsight could show that doing nothing, in this instance, is the wrong decision to make.
The future is not what it used to be. Take a look.
