The only thing we know for sure, according to Donny Shimamoto, founder and senior member of the IntrapriseTechKnowlogies consulting and management team, is that we don’t know anything for sure, at least as far as accounting technology goes. While professionals work with increasingly sophisticated hardware and software, Shimamoto said it’s not so much that they’re living in the future but, rather, catching up with the past. He noted that while many of the technologies in use today are considered cutting edge, many of them are based on developments that are actually rather old.
“None of this is earth-shatteringly new. … Even if we go and look, for example, at cloud computing — cloud computing follows the pattern of mainframe computing: large central computers, lots of processors. That’s cloud computing with additional layers and a little more flavor, but in essence that’s what it is,” he said.
Even blockchain, one of the most commonly cited examples of an emerging technology, is more a new manifestation of a relatively old innovation: databases. Blockchain is built, he said, on lists linked to each other, which goes back to the 1970s. Another example is electronic data exchange: While much is said about new ways for data to be passed from one person to another, he noted that people have been doing this since the 1990s.
These are all examples of technologies that were around in the past but took time to become relevant for accountants. This long lead time, though, has meant people are more likely to approach it as a solution for their problems, as opposed to a solution looking for a problem.
“What you’ve really got to do is look for the pattern to figure out what is this enabling me to do. If you can figure that out, you can understand the technology and how you interact with it. You just have to understand the nuances of the new thing that comes around,” he said. “I say don’t treat technology as a solution looking for a problem. Figure out your problem first and then look for your solution. A lot of times it’s not a technological fix but a process or practice fix.”
Avoiding a tech-for-the-sake-of-tech mindset, then, means focusing more on how the solutions available today enable one to address specific problems versus speculating on how to capitalize on the next big thing. In fact, he said, the increased pace of technological change means it’s becoming more difficult to even figure out what the next big thing will be in the first place, let alone how to exploit it. He said he has taken this lesson into his own practice.
“Because the pace of technological change so far is progressing so fast, it’s really hard to put [things] in perspective. A lot of times what my firm did was we would ask our clients where they want to be in the next three to five years. We’ve actually stopped asking that. Now we ask where they want to be two to three years from now, because we really feel in three to five years there will be so much change that occurs within that time. You could see where we are now, but it probably won’t be relevant by the time we get there,” he said.
Despite the many changes facing accountants, one thing Shimamoto says will not change, at least not anytime soon, is the core ethos of the profession. The technology might change, perhaps dramatically, but whether one uses a slide rule or a laptop, the accountant profession will remain fundamentally itself.
“The accountant will still be the trusted advisor to their clients. I think that will hold through and through. That hasn’t changed since the 1800s when the accounting profession was created. It hasn’t changed since they were trusted advisors to royalty who sent ships across the ocean. It hasn’t even changed since the start of accounting, all the way back to Paccioli, when our job was to just count sheep or whatever else there was,” he said.
This story is part of an Accounting Today series called “The Frontier,” where we explore the cutting edge of accounting technology through conversations with thought leaders across the country, who will share with us their observations, hopes, concerns and even a few predictions here and there. We’ll see you at the Frontier.
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