Over the past year, co-presidents Alex Solomon and his brother, Edward, have led Net at Work through a time of massive change. But the pandemic didn’t slow them down.
Net at Work’s bread and butter is connected and hosted software that works seamlessly together. The company is a consulting and implementation expert for a range of Sage products, in addition to MIP, NetSuite, Acumatica, and a host of other applications, and provides cloud hosting and infrastructure solutions that connect those solutions for users. Last year, its mettle was put to the test — and it passed with flying colors.
Together with Pixafy, Net at Work debuted erpCommerce last year in March, right at the beginning of the pandemic that forced many U.S. businesses online. The platform allows companies using Sage X3 to integrate with Magento Commerce and launch a fully transactional website within 60 days. This put Net at Work right at the forefront of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, helping businesses and firms operate fully online quickly and in a meaningful way.
But how does business move forward as the Delta variant poses a renewed threat, and the future remains uncertain?
Alex Solomon sat down with Accounting Today to share his thoughts on how the accounting profession and their clients can embrace the rapid adoption of technology driven by the pandemic, and plan for a stable future in unstable times.
How did Net at Work respond to the pandemic, and what lies ahead as things get back to “normal?”
Part of our growth last year was yes, we do e-commerce and hosting, and people needed to go remote. But a big part of our growth came from clients telling their firms, “You’ve got to get me stable,” and the firm said, “Let me bring in my partner.” This is what we do.
Do you know how busy credit card processing was for us? When the pandemic hit, our customers called us and said, “Get me up and running right away; I need to get paid; I can’t get to the office and get my checks.” That’s how we build out our business — what do our clients want and need? So we say, “What’s next? What do they want now?” That’s our competitive advantage — build a business around that, so when it becomes the norm, we’re already there.
How does the profession keep up the digital transformation momentum spurred by the pandemic?
We won’t lose momentum. The pandemic was not a one-off. Today it’s a pandemic, but 10 years ago it was something else. Now, it’s a cybersecurity crisis. You need to get ahead of it. You need to have someone who understands technology and embraces it.
The move to the cloud and online operations didn’t happen because of the pandemic — the pandemic was a catalyst for what needed to happen anyway.
Usually, when a recession hits. Things come back slowly, cautiously. This is different, as the pandemic was an outside factor acting in markets. People are bouncing back, and I don’t think we’re going to backslide. Yes, a lot of organizations and firms implemented new systems last year, but they were forced to do it last-minute. Now, people are really assessing and planning — it’s a new world. They’re now asking questions like, “How do I improve my systems?”
I also don’t think organizations did everything they needed to do to get future-ready — they did the minimum in order to just get up and working. We still have a long way to go with digital transformation. Most companies were just trying to keep head above water and still invest in technology. Now that things have come back, you’re building on a new foundation. We moved brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. You’ve got to build a whole new world now.
Net at Work is a big proponent of client accounting services — where do you think CAS as a service stands today, especially after last year?
We learned a lot from the Paycheck Protection Program. Accountants needed help helping their clients apply for PPP — they learned where the challenges were with client data. That opened up a lot of opportunities.
For instance, businesses can get development credits from the government. The accounting firm is there to help the client figure out whether their IP is eligible for development credits, and to help validate that IP.
Sales and use tax is another example of an area clients really need help with, especially with so many businesses moving online during the pandemic. We have firms asking us all the time for sales and use tax systems, and we have multiple tools to recommend.
Could you describe how Net at Work works with its firm partners?
The way we built Net at Work is to not have square pegs in round holes. In fact, we don’t even talk about the tools. We talk about the needs of the client, what they want to accomplish, the industry they’re in, if they want to grow, and how they want to grow. Then based on that bag of tricks, we say, “Here are the tools that work best for your industry. This is what’s going to give you the competitive advantage.” That’s why firms love us — they know we’re not going to force one thing in.
These days accountants are consultants, so a firm can tap into us for HR, compliance, infrastructure; and things like credit card processing to make sure a client is maximizing pricing. Some firms build out their own practices to provide these services, but we fill that need as a partner.
This is how the Net at Work Alliance Program works — clients go to their trusted advisor, whether it’s their accountant, financial advisor, or fractional CFO, and those advisors now have the muscle behind them to address the client’s sometimes very complex needs.
You mentioned cybersecurity as a major concern today. How can firms prepare for this challenge?
The ransomware crisis and the pandemic didn’t necessarily have anything to do with each other, but we went from one to the other very quickly. The days of being reactive are over. What applies now more than ever is, you need to get ahead of it. So my advice is to first set up secure systems, and then get a cybersecurity insurance policy. We’re in a different world now. We’re not an insurance company, but every day now we tell clients to buy cyber insurance. You can’t avoid it anymore.
