Tech roundtable: Power to the people tech

Over the 13 years since it was first held, the JofA Accounting Technology Roundtable has focused on the trends affecting the profession from the cloud on down. So, after the first half of the 2024 roundtable focused heavily on artificial intelligence (AI), it was inevitable that the conversation would go in different directions in part 2.

The three experts on our panel (see the box, “About the Panelists”) turned their attention to several familiar topics — blockchain, digital assets, and cybersecurity — and a topic new to the roundtable — “people tech.”

What is people tech, and how could it help accounting firms with talent retention? Find out in this transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Donny, you believe 2024 will be a big year for people tech. Can you explain what you mean by people tech and why you expect to see a lot of adoption?

Donny Shimamoto: We’re hearing a lot of concerns about what I’m going to call people problems. Now that we’re doing hybrid work or remote work, how do we start to onboard people better? How do we extend our culture that we are used to doing in office to engage these virtual or part-time or remote workers? How do I stay abreast of my teams and what’s going on? That’s why I think this people tech piece will come in.

I’m purposely not calling it HR tech because, when a lot of people think HR, they think benefits and payroll. The people tech space is so much broader than that. These are technologies helping to facilitate things like weekly check-ins. They’re doing agenda tracking for one-on-ones or even just for regular, better meetings. They are using it for performance reviews and providing feedback and the showing of appreciation. We’ve seen a bunch of apps come up in that space.

This is kind of the new frontier, but it’s very much something that we as accountants need to pay attention to because it’s part of the way that our own firms or finance departments are having to adjust. We’re having to better engage our teams and ensure that everyone doesn’t leave. So, it helps with retention.

Amanda Wilkie: I think now it’s more of a necessity. There’s more of an opportunity to bring people together and to build some of that capacity that everyone’s looking for. A simple example that we’re seeing is Zoom and Microsoft Teams having AI tools that will summarize meetings. It’s not a big deal when it’s the four of us sitting here talking, but if you have tens or hundreds of people on a meeting or a webinar and you really need to summarize or you need to track due-outs and things like that, these tools can help you do that.

Wesley Hartman: I would also like to think that some of the implementation of people tech can really combat burnout. People are leaving accounting not just because they’re retiring but because there are not enough accountants and they’re just burned out from having so much work to get done.

So, instead of a staff member burning out, use technology to create more connectivity with your staff to, for lack of a better word, show that you care about them.

Shimamoto: This is one of those ways where we can use technology for good because it allows us to do simple things like appreciation. “Hey, Wes, thanks for doing this.” Some of them even let me send you a buck for it. And so people go, “Well, it’s just a dollar.” It’s not the dollar that matters. It’s that showing of appreciation, which then lets that staff member or team member that you’re working with feel like, “Oh, someone noticed what I was doing. Someone appreciated that.”

Then, as a partner, I look at all the appreciation that gets sent because we have it posted out to Teams. So we’re able to see who thanked who for what. And sometimes I’ll see stuff where I’m like, “Wow, I didn’t know they were working on that.”

It surfaces a lot of what we kind of saw in the office or you might have overheard in the office, but it brings it into the digital workspace. I think another thing that people really need to look at with this people tech is it’s not just “I’m going to do everything the way I did.” I have to think about it. I have to be a lot more intentional. I have to show that appreciation. I need to engage my staff, and we need to do more of that stuff, because technology by itself is not going to do it.

Wilkie: We’re seeing more and more firms saying, “We’re having problems with engagement. We’re having problems with collaboration. So now we have to bring everyone back in the office.” And they’re saying you have to be back in two days, three days per week. I think that is a very slippery slope because the firms that are figuring out the people tech are looking at it as an opportunity to do things differently. They are not just saying technology is going to fix it. They know they have to think about it and to use it differently. Those are the firms that are truly going to evolve.

Those are the firms that people are really, really going to work for or want to work for. So, I think we’re running a huge risk with the firms that are saying, “Oh well, we need to be back in the office so that we can be back together.” No, we need to leverage technology that brings us together no matter where we are physically.

Shimamoto: Completely agree with you. I hear too many firms saying, “It’s not working. We got to bring everyone back.” No, you didn’t take the effort to adjust the way that you’re managing the firm and working with all the teams.

Hartman: One thing I will caution is, AI is not the thing that’s going to solve all problems. So, if you’re setting up connections with your staff, don’t use an AI bot to make automatic replies or something like that. Actually connect with people.

Wilkie: Wesley, you’re absolutely right. This profession is built on relationships, so leverage as much technology as you can to free up your time so that you can focus on the relationships.

Where are we on blockchain?

Wilkie: We’re getting to the point with blockchain where it’s kind of like talking about the internet. There’s some developments, but it’s not a hot topic anymore. I think what practitioners really need to be aware of is what’s happening in digital assets. You can call them cryptocurrencies, you know, alternative assets, digital assets. I mean, recently the SEC just approved some cryptocurrency ETFs, not to be confused with NFTs, so I think we’re starting to see these digital assets be more incorporated and become not just mainstream but being mixed with more traditional assets.

I think that practitioners really need to pay attention to what’s happening there. Additionally, I would throw in that they really need to start looking at the regulations and the legislation that is coming.

Is there anything new on the cybersecurity front that we want to scare CPAs with or that we want to give some advice where they can do something and actually feel a little better?

Shimamoto: I’m tired of scaring everyone. Let’s say instead of scaring, it’s be mindful that the updates to the FTC rules went into effect last year. Some firms may think they are too small because there is a threshold for the number of records, but it’s a lower threshold, it doesn’t get you out of it. There’s a lower standard that you have to follow, but you still have to have your written information security policy. You must have basically a program where you’re minimizing or addressing some of those risks. It’s not like you totally get out of having to do everything. Even small firms, even small proprietors, need to make sure that they’ve looked and addressed that risk.

The other thing I’m seeing in the trend is that renewals from the cyber insurance companies are becoming a lot more onerous. They are requiring a lot more to be in place. The focus is starting to be more on prevention and detecting cyber threats. We’re starting to see some of that actually become required. We’re starting to see that in the renewals, so we’re seeing increasing cost of the policy renewals and increasing requirements, especially for those with higher risk. And CPA firms, accounting firms have higher risk if you’re dealing with all that taxpayer information.

When you talk about monitoring, are we talking about having people doing penetration testing?

Shimamoto: It’s more to the other side. A lot of these tools use AI, so they’re looking for patterns.

Basically, did I see somebody try and ping a desktop to see if we get into it? Did they also ping the firewall? Did they also ping the tablet? Well, now I see a pattern, and so I’m detecting a pattern rather than just a one-off thing. A lot of our current security measures are focused on an individual device or an individual endpoint, so these tools help to look at the aggregate picture.

Hartman: I’ll scare the accountants out there. I’m going to talk a little bit about quantum computing, which is a new technology that is being talked about but no one’s actually understanding. You hear about data hacks, but they’re like, “Everything’s encrypted, it’s OK.”

Well, bad actors are holding on to that data because they know it’s only a matter of time. Once quantum computing reaches a point where it can break those encryptions, then they get access to all that data. It’s a matter of not just encrypting your data. It’s you encrypt your data, and you’ve got to keep everyone out of your systems.

Shimamoto: The bottom line is rather than worry about detection, be more focused on prevention.

Is there something I should have asked but didn’t?

Hartman: It wasn’t something that you didn’t ask, but I’m just looking at my computer right now, and I switched over from Chrome to Edge because of the feature of vertical tabs. So instead of having a hundred tabs that are super tiny all along the top, it looks more like a bookmark list like on the left side.

It’s really silly, but it makes me feel much more efficient.

Shimamoto: My final advice is pick one or two tech things, focus on those and get those in. Then choose another one or two, and focus on those and get it in. That will actually get you through something rather than trying to do 50 things or even 15 things all at once.

Wilkie: Yeah, it’s all about progress. You’re never going to be done implementing new technology because there’s always something new.

About the panelists

• Donny Shimamoto, CPA/CITP, CGMA, is founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies and inspiration architect of the Center for Accounting Transformation.
• Wesley Hartman is founder of robotic process automation developer Automata Practice Development, former director of technology at a midsize public accounting firm, and co-author of the JofA’s Technology Q&A column.
• Amanda Wilkie is a consultant with Boomer Consulting and former chief information officer at one of the 25 largest public accounting firms in the United States.

About the author

Jeff Drew is the JofA’s editor-inchief. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact him at Jeff.Drew@aicpacima.com.

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