The accounting industry has always been awash with massive amounts of data and now thanks to technological advancements, that information is quite literally at its fingertips.
Supercharged by the cloud and technologies like AI, capturing, collecting and analyzing large sets of data is not only possible but accessible to firms both large and small. AI-enabled software can analyze vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time it would take a human practitioner to quickly and easily identify patterns, potential issues and efficiency opportunities.
Harnessing the Power of AI
Even if a firm isn’t utilizing the data, it’s still creating it and is there for the taking. A recent report by the Capgemini Research Institute, Data-Powered Enterprises: The Path to Data Mastery, found that those companies categorized as “data masters” (17% of the 500 companies surveyed worldwide) reported a 39% higher net income margin the previous year than the whole of the 500 companies on average, and 42% higher net income growth over the past three years. Among the data-related actions that helped put those data masters over the top, 87% of data executives said their company has a vision for a data-powered enterprise with AI at its center.
Data insights can be an extremely valuable asset. More companies are beginning to discover the significant benefits from a strategy that harnesses the power of data and AI.
Turning Insights into Action
How do firms capture the massive amounts of data when there are often multiple disparate solutions that make it difficult to navigate and collect?
Fieldguide Insights, part of Fieldguide's overall AI platform, provides a centralized way to make sure that firms are in control of all their engagement data. Practitioners have one place to gain visibility into every phase of their engagements, allowing for smarter, data-driven decisions. Firm leaders know exactly what their team is working on, they can identify potential overages and delays before they happen, enabling teams to manage client relationships with greater precision.
“We are able to use data from Fieldguide Insights to share with our team and identify specific actions they can take that could save us hundreds of hours per year,” said Angela Haasch, Partner at Wipfli.
Insights Light the Path Toward Success
The path to taking your firm from lagging to leading, starts by harnessing your data to gain a comprehensive understanding of your firm’s current position. Fieldguide Insights serves as a guiding light into that visibility.
Here are three invaluable insights you can get with Fieldguide:
- Time Saving Insights
Time saving insights can take details and information buried in large data sets and render a clear picture of what that data is saying. Are your team members spending too much on specific engagements? How can their time be used more efficiently? With end–to-end insights you can then get a customized plan to improve every phase of your engagements, from how to save additional time to where your firm’s time would best be utilized.
- Practice Insights
Practice insights can pinpoint client bottlenecks by enabling firms to see which clients have been the least responsive or require the most effort and implement changes to improve client collaboration. Moreover, Practice Insights highlight client responsiveness to requests, specifically showing what client interactions are causing multiple review cycles or project delays. Armed with these key insights, firms can make more informed resourcing decisions.
- Time Tracking Insights
Identifying areas that are negatively impacting margins and profitability - before they erode revenue is a game changer. Time Tracking Insights provide valuable detailed information on how team members are spending their time on activities and engagements. With these key insights, firms can determine where time and resources are being wasted and take immediate action to solve those issues.
If you want to set your company up for success for years to come, it’s essential to future-proof your business and be open to the transformative technologies that are here to stay. Read how the Fieldguide team gathered key customer insights to determine which types of engagements and phases offered the highest efficiency gains in its new benchmark report, Transforming your Firm: the Impact of Smarter Engagements.
November 19, 2024
