Collaboration – the Future of Australian financial services firms

Accountants and accounting firms have been warned repeatedly over the years that technological advancements will end compliance-based services. As we start to see this reflected in reality – a 2016 survey from Accountants Daily shows one in five respondents have noticed a decline in compliance-based services in the past year, we need to understand what methods will assure a sound future for our firms and practices.

Xero Australia’s managing director Trent Innes believes we will soon experience “100 per cent digital accounting practices,” and that “any business unwilling to be a part of its connected world will likely find themselves isolated from insight and stuck in the past.”

Ben Smoker, chief executive at Saxo Capital Markets Australia, agrees, and recognises the need for Australian firms to rethink the ways in which they deliver value to clients. In his opinion, the future success of firms lies in collaborative initiatives – “when businesses with different capabilities combine efforts to deliver more value.”

“A clear advantage for forward-thinking companies who chose to accelerate their growth by collaborating with other firms is the reduction of costs and time that would take building technological infrastructure on their own,” Mr Smoker said.

“Companies in finance are free to choose isolation over collaboration, but […] in this highly competitive sector, collaborating with a fast execution will be a defining factor for businesses to increase or even maintain market share,” he concludes.