Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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BRIDGING THE GAP By Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP February 2016 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 35 The Next Generation Offce CPA frms aren't always the quickest to adopt change. It's especially diffcult when it comes to the space where you conduct your business. Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better In light of the trend toward a more remote workforce and the fact that many firms have a large portion of their team working at client locations throughout the year, leadership is really starting to analyze utilization of space and the size requirements of the ofce. If you look at the high tech industr y and the office space they maintain, you'll fnd much less square footage per employee than the typical CPA frm. Why waste money on real estate that is usually at 50% capacity on any given day? Hoteling How do you move i nto a sma l ler space, yet accommodate the same or higher level of stafng? Te Big Four have used the concept of hoteling in their ofce space for years and we are now starting to see a growing interest in this concept. Employees simply reser ve a space – cubicle, office or conference room – for the period of t i me t hey w i l l be work i ng i n t he ofce. When they are done, the space is released for someone else to use. Through technolog y, this can be a streamlined process where you log in into a kiosk and reserve a space which already has everything you need to do your work. You can also transfer your phone extension to that loca- tion. Some of the providers leading f irms are using include Condeco, Steelcase a nd A su re, wh i le ot her f i r ms have had c ustom solut ions developed for their frm. Open Space Tere is also a trend to promote and enhance collaboration among teams by bringing down the physical bar- riers that have existed in ofces for so long. T he open plan for an of f ice makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private of f ices and cubicles. At first glance this sounds like a nightmare in terms of managing the noise of other conversations going on in the vicinity. However, the use of "pink noise" has allowed this to work by pumping in background noise that is shaped in terms of sound spectrum and level to provide the level of sound masking and privacy desired in the workspace. Firms that have imple- mented pink noise in their ofces say it's amazing how you can be siting ten feet from someone on the phone a n d n o t b e b o t h e r e d b y t h e i r conversation. Sitting is the New Smoking Another workplace norm, siting at your desk all day, is also being coun- tered in many frms. Research shows that prolonged sitting can cause a n u m b e r o f he a lt h i s s ue s from decreased blood sugar to muscle imbal- ance leading to spinal issues. A n u m b e r o f firms are con- f ront i n g t h i s challenge head on and prov iding their employees with standing desks that raise and lower so that they can alternate posi- tions throughout the day. Tere are a number of providers of these desks but t wo of t he most preva lent i n accounting firms are Varidesk and Geekdesk. We've also come across a few t hat have i nsta l led t read m i l l desk s for those that w ish to get a quick workout during their normal work-routine. Conference Room Upgrades Last month, I focused on the confer- ence room and technologies some frms are employing to upgrade their space for meetings. Here's a recap of the tools that are modernizing con- ference rooms across the country. • F l at Pan el D i s p l ay s an d Smar t Collaboration Screens • Wireless Presentation Technologies • Video Conferencing • Robotics • Reservation Systems As I said at the start of this column, CPA frms aren't always the quickest to adopt change. It's especially dif- cult when it comes to the space where you conduct your business. W hile you m ig ht not adopt a l l of t hese t r e n d s i n y o u r o f f i c e , I w o u l d encourage you to give fair consider- ation to each of these and see if any or all of them ft your frm's culture and employee's needs. Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, MBA , is the CIO of Boomer Consulting , Inc., which provides consulting services to hundreds of the highest performing CPA frms. Our unique and powerful solutions target fve areas critical to a frm's success: Leadership and Management, Client Development, Talent Development, Technology and Compensation. A ccounting firms aren't always quick to adopt change but we can all be assured that changes will continue to come in our pro- fession. One area in which we are seeing considerable change over the last few years is in the utilization of ofce space. As frms face the decision between remodeling their current location or relocating to a new space, they are changing the basic layout of the space and the technology with which they outft the ofce.