Just recently an article noted working as a short-term contractor, casual employee, or freelancer is taking its toll on Australian workers. At the same time we are seeing research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the journal Social Indicators Research, indicating that since 1984 casual employment in Australia has grown from 15 per cent of the workforce to 25 …
CSIRO modelling and the impacts of offshoring and automation on Australian accountants
Last week we mentioned the CSIRO released a report on “Tomorrows digitally enabled workforce”. At 112 pages it’s certainly a detailed document, but it’s worth also looking at the Appendix on modelling. In “Modelling occupation changes in Australia”, the CSIRO identified 4 different work activities: Knowledge, Influencing people, Machines and Movement, Personal Services. In the first model, skills are noted …
Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce
Earlier this year the CSIRO released a report on “Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce”. Whilst this report is quite a read at 122 pages, this contains significant nuggets of information that give important offerings for accountants, and accounting firm owners. The move to the knowledge economy, offshoring and automation, and the new entrepreneurial freelancer models. As to why this report has …
KPCB’s 2016 Internet trends report. Voice and other trends affecting accounting compliance
KPCB’s Mary Meeker has become a legend for publishing the annual compilation of the most critical statistics and trends in technology. The 2016 Internet trends report was released last month with the slides available here. It’s well worth spending some time going through and having a look at some amazing trends, and new businesses that have sprung up virtually overnight …
The Australian accounting world just got smaller… LinkedIn “Freelancer for hire” service
You might have noticed in the news just recently that Microsoft and LinkedIn announced they have entered into an agreement under which Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for an all cash transaction of $26.2 Billion. Whilst some people are scratching their heads at the amount paid, some others are explaining the underlying reasons, including quite possibly the largest database of connected professionals on …
Lessons for accountants from the mattress industry
Just last week there was a news article that spoke about the indignation of some customers hearing that mattress companies had 300% markups, huge profits, and hundreds of near identical mattresses sold under different names and prices. The mattress article above mentioned beds that retail for $10,000 are being made for as little as $1,500 overseas. That is, the manufacture cost …
Joining the Dots… Decision making for a new era
Now that accountants have been advised of the need to rely less on compliance revenue, there is a lot of talk around pushing into new areas to support their clients, with business consulting being one of the newly touted revenue streams. At the same time, it’s worth looking at Management accounting, the oft overlooked relative. The AICPA and CIMA have been …
Accountants advised on outsourcing quality problems
Mitchell Turner released an article on Accountants Daily, explaining that there can be inconsistency issues and wavering quality levels when it comes to outsourcing of operations overseas. This article might have been headed: “Problems with outsourcing”. As the article indicates, one Outsourcing provider notes the problems with controlling and managing outsourcing operations, quite possibly in reference to the recent trend …
Millennials and their impact on Australian Accounting firms… and the fixed offshore resource model
Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y) are the demographic generation following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when the generation starts and ends; most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. The Millennials seem to be making a lot of people worried. With blog postings like …
Digital Australia: Impacts on Accountants
The EY Digital Australia: State of the Nation report provides a view of digital engagement amongst Australians. The report noticed a step change in 2015 in smartphone usage. Smartphone usage pushed through the 80% mark in this survey with 96% of 18-34 year olds using a smartphone. Consumers reveal many Australian companies fail to get the basics right, and the …
