We spoke with Alastair Barlow, co-founder of flinder, about how they\u2019ve transformed their clients\u2019 businesses by becoming trusted advisors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve spoken at length about why firms need to embrace connected accounting. That\u2019s why we\u2019re always delighted to speak to customers who\u2019ve successfully managed to do this. Take the UK\u2019s flinder<\/a>, for example. This accounting, consulting and data analytics business has used Silverfin to transform their clients\u2019 businesses by becoming trusted business advisors.<\/p>\n At our recent \u2018Fast Forward Studio’ event, we were fortunate enough to speak with Alastair Barlow, founder of flinder, about how they\u2019ve done this \u2014 and to pick his brains about what advice they\u2019d give to other firms looking to do the same.<\/p>\n flinder looks, feels, and operates quite differently from most accounting practices. That\u2019s because they\u2019re not traditional accountants per se, by design.<\/p>\n \u201cMy co-founder and I saw a huge gap in the market\u201d, Alastair told us. \u201cWe were analysing how multinationals run their finance functions and suddenly wondered why nobody had brought these same principles, and that same technological infrastructure, to fast-growing SMEs. So that\u2019s what we do \u2014 we build and run smart finance functions for complex, high-growth businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n flinder\u2019s core proposition for its client services revolves around something they term \u2018the flinder effect\u2019. “The flinder effect is the manifestation of our vision of what the finance function should look like for any business. It\u2019s focused around a few core value-drivers: efficiency, control and insight, supported by a set-up that allows our team to focus as much time and energy as possible on interpretation and insights.\u201d This is very familiar to us at Silverfin – we call this connected accounting.<\/p>\n flinder quickly realised that it could only provide a full finance function-type service by working with best-in-class tools. \u201cSilverfin has played an absolutely pivotal role in our success. Take our monitoring procedures, for example. Silverfin gives us the tools to constantly monitor our clients\u2019 data with minimal effort. There\u2019s no need to waste time conducting monthly monitoring sessions and relaying these insights to our clients. Instead, we have one ongoing, smooth, efficient monitoring process that allows us to always stay on top of our clients\u2019 businesses. This is pivotal when working with high-growth, fast-changing organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that flinder isn\u2019t just dealing <\/em>with fast-growth businesses \u2014 it\u2019s actually one itself. And while growth is great, it brings a number of challenges, such as standardisation. \u201cSetting up Silverfin right from the get-go was one of the best decisions we ever made. Everything\u2019s automatically standardised and consistent, whether we\u2019re onboarding a new tech startup or are completing working papers<\/a> for one of our oldest clients. Having this level of reliability provides an immense amount of control and efficiency. In many ways, this has been the bedrock of our rapid growth over the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n It was great to hear at Fast Forward Studio about Silverfin\u2019s significant impact on flinder. That said, we knew we\u2019d be remiss not to ask Alastair what he\u2019d tell other firms looking to have a similarly wide-ranging (and valuable) impact on their clients.<\/p>\n \u201cInvest in people\u201d, he commented. \u201cIf you\u2019re fortunate enough to be working with tools like Silverfin, your technology will already sort out most of the preparation side of things \u2014 whether that\u2019s creating working papers or end-of-year accounts. This means that you can let the tech do its thing while you focus on developing amazing financial advisors. Rely on your tools to do their job and teach the team the soft skills they need to build long-lasting, valuable relationships with clients. We\u2019re not living in a people versus technology era \u2014 it\u2019s people and <\/em>technology.\u201d<\/p>\n This is probably obvious for forward-thinking firms, but it might seem slightly daunting for those that are still yet to digitally transform. However, Alastair believes it\u2019s now or never when it comes to digital transformation. \u201cLook, you\u2019re just delaying the inevitable \u2014 and you\u2019re hurting your firm\u2019s growth. Digital transformation might be painful, but it\u2019s less painful than seeing your clients leave you so they can go work with another more advanced firm.\u201d<\/p>\n So what would Alastair advise firms to do who are yet to tackle their own digital transformation projects?<\/p>\n \u201cFigure out your baseline. Understand where you are today and identify where you want to be after you transform. Hone in on specific areas of your service that can be improved fairly easily and that clients will really appreciate. These quick wins, or low-hanging fruit, are the best place to start. Your wider digital transformation project will quickly gain momentum if you begin knocking off improvement by improvement. Eventually, you\u2019ll gain the confidence to tackle even the most complex of roadmaps. Starting small doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll end small.\u201d<\/p>\n He also reiterated that you need to consider the people aspect of change management as opposed to merely focusing on the technological hurdles. \u201cYou can implement all the new technology that you want, but unless you also have team-wide buy-in, you\u2019ll unlock no benefits whatsoever. Remember: it\u2019s up to your people to use your technology.\u201d<\/p>\n And lastly, don\u2019t feel the need to go it alone. \u201cLook, it\u2019s your digital transformation \u2014 so you need to take ownership of the process. But don\u2019t be scared to enlist help from outside the organisation. If you\u2019re implementing a new tool then work closely with your provider\u2019s onboarding teams. They\u2019re invested in making sure you derive as much value as possible from their tool and they\u2019ve seen all sorts of implementation hiccups before. In other words, they\u2019re a fantastic resource to help you get complex projects over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n flinder is an inspiring firm of the future. It shows us all how you can adopt a connected accounting approach to provide clients with a great and progressive service and one that\u2019s efficient, competitive and profitable too. But while they might be spearheading the connected accounting movement, that doesn\u2019t mean that your firm can\u2019t also get stuck in.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019re looking to embrace the future of accounting, find out more by watching Fast Forward Studio<\/a> or contact us to book a demo<\/a> to see how Silverfin can help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We spoke with Alastair Barlow, co-founder of flinder, about how they\u2019ve transformed their clients\u2019 businesses by becoming trusted advisors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":96409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[925],"tags":[880,912,915,920,942],"class_list":["post-96408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog-en-ie","tag-connected-accounting-en-ie","tag-customer-stories-en-ie","tag-digital-transformation-en-ie","tag-fast-forward-en-ie"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFind a gap in the market<\/span><\/h3>\n
Where Silverfin comes in<\/span><\/h3>\n
Top tips from a leading firm of the future<\/span><\/h3>\n
Join flinder in your own digital transformation<\/span><\/h3>\n