Baby Steps Slow Real Progress

This past week, I spoke with a few firms at the CCH User Conference about how they implement technology initiatives within their firms. I also spoke at the National Tax Conference in D.C. on a related topic – 7 Key Steps toMaximizing Your IT Investments. The people I talked to expressed the need to take baby steps on IT implementations. They were concerned about overwhelming their staff with too much change at one time, as opposed to just simply jumping in with two feet and rolling out the initiative at once.

I think though their concerns have merit, their overall approach reveals a conservative attitude toward technology adoption and, as such, it may hinder their long-term competitiveness. A recent study by the Bay Street Group found that high performing firms not only embrace positive change, but create a culture of curiosity in which staff are encouraged to innovate. In fact, they're 11 times more likely than low performing firms to encourage employees to explore new technologies and better ways of doing things (read the Seven Habits of HighlySuccessful Firms white paper, based on the study).

In addition to underestimating the competition, these firms may also be underestimating their staff and its ability to embrace positive change. Communicated properly, a change worth making for the better of the whole will ultimately benefit the individual, so why would anyone favor waiting? Make no mistake; clearly communicating the goals - for the organization and the individual - is an essential element of the project plan.

Sometimes that baby step approach means that the people involved in the project have either not fully thought out how the firm is going to use the new technology or are unsure how the new technology is going to work out in their firm. Either way, it will not lead to as successful an implementation as it could be.

In my 35 years in the accounting profession, I have been involved in some pretty significant IT initiatives within my firm of 60 or so people. In 1999, my firm implemented a full blown document management system, ePace (the forerunner to ProSystem fx Engagement), Microsoft Exchange, and introduced something called the Internet to every desktop in the firm. This project took about six months beginning to end. The scope was broad, but was it technology overload? Of course not. Change came swiftly and, at times was protested loudly, but it became intrinsic to our every day work processes and in the end everyone wondered, “how did we ever work before?”

There is no question that change can be painful. Accounting firms have historically been creatures of habit; we did it this way last year, so it should be okay to do it the same way this year  - without questioning whether or not it makes sense.  Having people step out of their comfort zone is a difficult thing. I know - I am an accountant and I still have that problem. But we know through what we say to our clients that the full adoption of technology initiatives to make our businesses more efficient, productive and profitable is the right thing to embrace within our firms. Taking baby steps often only prolongs the pain of change and hinders real progress.