digital plumbing - accountex usa · •zapier •onesaas •workato ... with slack and ifttt •...

Digital Plumbing? The Pipeline to ‘Future-Proofing’ Your Business

@matheggem #AccountexUSA

Raise your hand if…

• Heard the term ‘Digital Plumbing’

• Know what an iPaaS is

• Have an iPaaS setup for personal use

• Use iPaaS platforms to automate client work?


What do I do? • CEO of SUM Innovation

• Bkg. arts & nonprofit management.

• 8 years in industry via/ workforce development

• 5 years ago, I was handed the reigns of what was then a small bookkeeping practice

• Today, we are an accounting consulting firm with 3 divisions:

• Outsourced Accounting

• Accounting Technology & Training

• Talent Acquisition & Recruitment

• 20+ employees

• New York > Dallas > Denver > The World


Mathew Heggem Co-founder & CEO

10 Fun Facts: 1. Development/Communications Dir.

for Workforce Development NPO.

2. Founded #SUMtech thought leadership platform for entrepreneurs

3. 2015 CPA Practice Advisor 40 Under 40

4. Speaker at Xerocon, QBConnect, Accountex

5. Writer for SmartCEO, Entrepreneur.com, & others…

6. Volunteer Board President for Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce

7. Ambassador for NYC’s Conscious Capitalism community

8. “The Dancing CEO” & choreographer of Left Side Labs

9. Advisor on Global & Arts Entrepreneurship

10.Certified Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement teacher #LoveYourBody


Mathew Heggem Co-founder & CEO

Meet Our Guest: • Project Manager for the rebranding/modernizing of 20+

Accounting & CPA firms

• Advisor on Nonprofit Audit & Consulting

• 2015 Sales MVP Award at Xero Cloud Accounting

• Founder of HeartBody Business & Lifestyle Coaching

• 2nd & 3rd place wins - NPC San Francisco Championship

• 3rd place win - NPC Governor's Cup

• Inventor and Product Development for ProTrak Fitness Solutions (patent pending)

• Graduate of School of Greatness Entrepreneur Academy - Class 6.0

• Three-time published poetry author

• Brand Ambassador for Aloha & Isagenix Nutritional Systems


Samantha Kowalski VP of #AccTech

“An Introduction to Digital Plumbing”

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA


“If you want to differentiate your practice & position it for growth into the future… develop skills to

connect systems together from multiple vendors. We call this

‘digital plumbing.’ The future will need many digital plumbers to connect systems together and troubleshoot ‘leaks’ in digital

plumbing between applications.” --- Doug Sleeter

What SMBs Want from Their Accountant – 2014 Update

Formerly the Sleeter Blog

A few resources:

bit.ly/DigitalPlumbing101


bit.ly/DigitalPlumbing102

::: AGENDA :::

• Introduce you to #DigitalPlumbing

• Overview of 3 “non-coder” friendly #iPaaS platforms: • Zapier

• OneSaas

• Workato

• Integrating these tools into your practice – today & tomorrow!


• Welcome to the Future.

• It’s happening.

• The take-over has begun!


But, it’s not the the end of the world as we know it!

• Mobile Access to EVERYTHING

• Convenience of Connection (Social & Otherwise)

• Internet of Things (IoT)

• Data, data, data, BIG (good) DATA

• #ZeroDataEntry through Automation

• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

• Solving real-world problems across all industries.


And our industry is at the heart of it!

It’s Bots in Facebook Messenger telling you, thanks to Xero’s Rod Drury, when your next invoice is due.

It’s that woman in the car talking to her iPhone about improving her margins & evaluating her loan options to make payroll. #QBConnect ’16

It’s Jennifer Warawa from Sage “Cloud is not innovation”



“The Awkward Office Love Affair of Bots & Bookkeepers” Written for Entreprenuer.com, November 2016

Based on an interview with Jan Haugo CEO/VP of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers USA (ICBUSA)

bit.ly/BotsLoveBookkeepers

::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato



::: Setting Expectations :::

• 50 mins = Introduction ONLY

• Focus on Usage NOT technical components

• No need to be a developer • “It’s hard bloody code to write!”

Doug Sleeter, SleeterCon 2015

• This is not a ‘programming’ session… HOWEVER: • Sit in on the developer sessions • Learn about App Dev, APIs, etc. • Consider the developer's mindset***


*** “... seeing nearly every

problem as solvable… it’s

not that a solution doesn’t exist. It just that

it doesn’t exist right now. So, #MakeIt & be

AGILE.”

#agilitytrumpsability


Let’s start w/ a simple example.

Digital Plumbing?

• 'If This Then That' • I use it, for example, to email me every time

there’s rain in tomorrow’s forecast.

• You create ‘applets’ by combing 2 services

• It can do other cool things, like:


• “How to transform your office routine with Slack and IFTTT” • https://ifttt.com/blog/2016/07/how-to-

transform-your-office-routine-with-slack

• Household (Home Office) Automation: On/Off: A smart light bulb roundup • https://ifttt.com/blog/2016/10/on-off-a-

smart-light-bulb-roundup

• Business Applications, yes but limited… • https://ifttt.com/applets/427151p-if-

someone-tweets-in-a-specific-area-add-them-to-a-twitter-list

• GIFTTT Guide (The Holidays are Coming!) • https://ifttt.com/m/gifttt-guide-2016


https://ifttt.com/blog/2016/07/how-to-transform-your-office-routine-with-slack















https://ifttt.com/blog/2016/10/on-off-a-smart-light-bulb-roundup













https://ifttt.com/applets/427151p-if-someone-tweets-in-a-specific-area-add-them-to-a-twitter-list



























https://ifttt.com/m/gifttt-guide-2016






Digital Plumbing is what…

• An #AccTech buzzword for the system of technologies that allow data to flow from one application to another.

• Includes developer-oriented tools like APIs and Webhooks, as well as more ‘non-coder-friendly' iPaaS tools like Zapier, Workato, & OneSaaS.

• Makes #ZeroDataEntry & hyper-customized #Automated Business Processes for #SMBs a Reality

• Part of the equation of data flow in the connected “ecosystem” of applications your clients use to run their businesses.


The Accounting Ecosystem:

PEOPLE: Business Leaders,

Entrepreneurs, Programmers, & YOU!

PRACTICE: All that is the act of

finance & accounting,

compliance to management, it's YOUR expertise

PRODUCTS: From QuickBooks to

Expensify, and everything in

between. YOUR #AccTech toolkit.


BENEFITS (you/the customer/both)

• Reduces manual data entry

• Decreases risk of human error

• Shifts time & attention

• Increase capacity

• Provides accurate, real-time data

• Solves the “last mile problem” of affordable customization • SEE Interview w/ CEO of

Workato

• You & your client’s remain competitive & relevant


“Unless our profession continuously innovates

and adds value, we deserve irrelevancy.”

Ron Baker, founder of VeraSage

Institute; Accounting Today, Vol. 30 | No. 10 | October 2016.

http://bit.ly/OnTheirMinds

http://bit.ly/OnTheirMinds

"When equipped with a digital plumbing toolbox, accountants are the

CEO superheros for #SMB city!”


Smarter Businesses = More Jobs

= Thriving Economy = 😃


Top 3 iPaaS

Platforms: ( for those new

to integration )


::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato


• Continuing Education


• Zaps

• Connection between 2+ apps that automates a TASK.

• Trigger + Action = ZAP

• Tasks

• Every time a piece of data moves or action is taken.


• Apps (500+) • Web service/application, e.g.

Xero, Salesforce, MailChimp. • Premium (paid plans)

• Thank you, Autoreplay!*** • AMAZING BLOG!!!!

• https://zapier.com/zapbook/

https://zapier.com/zapbook/

Even the best #apps fail: "3 systems w/ 99.95% uptime means a total of 1/2 day of downtime/year." @IPPAlphaGeek @NerdBoots #QBConnect

*** OneSaas w/ Xero… API Issues RE: Moving to AWS *** “Twitter, SoundCloud, Spotify, Shopify, and other websites have been inaccessible to many users throughout the day. The outages are the result of several distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the DNS provider Dyn” – TechCrunch, Oct. 2016


Finance & Accounting CRM & Customer Support

Ecommerce Tools File Management

Notifications Tools Payment Processing

Proposals & Invoices Reporting & Dashboards

Survey Tools Management Tools Team Collaboration

Time Tracking Scheduling & Calendars

Project Management Communications/Email Marketing Automation

Ads & Analytics Social Media


QuickBooks + _____ w/


Xero + _____ w/


Xero + ToDoIst + SMS w/

1.

2.

3.



• Project ID • Title w/ Invoice Number • Note 2/ Contact Name • Assignment • Due Date • Priority • Labels



• Message • Contact Name • Link to Application


Filter • Name • Status (Error, Delayed) • Date Range

• Generate Task History CSV • Toggle Autoreplay

• Organize by Folder

(Dashboard)

::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato





What Is A Transaction? Any sales related event integrated through OneSaas.

Example: • Customer makes purchase in E-Com system • OneSaas pulls data (amount, contact, product) • OneSaas pushes data out to:

• Accounting System • Fulfillment System • Email marketing system.

= 1 transaction


Accounting, Billing, Invoicing, POS, etc…


QuickBooks + _____ w/


Xero + _____ w/


Let’s make do some plumbing:


***Interview w/ the CEO Jeff Perlman (MailChimp as Destination


Pre-pay 3 months > 3 months history Pre-pay 1 year > 1 year in history

::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato





*

*Transaction = Complete Run of Recipe


Here’s my dashboard Let’s ”Plumb”


<-- Configure your Trigger


<-- Clarify your Trigger Parameters


Custom Message w/ Xero Properties

*Formulas = Advanced Recipes

*


(Formerly ‘We Wired Web’)

FUNCTIONS:

• Support for/bridging between connectivity protocols & data/message delivery styles

• Adapters for cloud-based & on-premises apps, data sources & technology adapters

• Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), HTTP, Java Message Service (JMS), and others

• On-premises software agents (comm. between on-premises systems & iPaaS)

• Data/message Mapping & Transformation

• Data Quality

• Routing & Orchestration

• Integration flow Development & Life-cycle Management Tools

• Adapter Developer Toolkits

• Flow Management, Administration & Monitoring

• API Management

• Community Management

• Reusable Integration Templates

• Prepackaged Integration Flows

• Marketplaces


• "Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is a suite of cloud services enabling development, execution and governance of integration flows connecting any combination of on-premises & cloud-based processes, services, applications and data within individual or across multiple organizations.” • Gartner IT Glossary definition of iPaaS

• Used by IT departments, developers, & business users (aka "citizen integrators")

iPaaS: Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise

Integration Platform as a Service

bit.ly/iPaaS2016report

http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/information-platform-as-a-service-ipaas/


bit.ly/iPaaSMarket

::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato





SUM Innovation Case Study

Advice:

• Do your homework.

• Build STRONG relationships w/ #AccTech Providers

• Select/EMPOWER a cloud champion

• Make #AccTech a TEAM effort

• "the cobbler's children have no shoes”

• “Do, or Do Not. There is no try.” ~Yoda

• ASK (self, team, clients) RE: Bottlenecks

• Expand Sales & In-take process

• Re-evaluate Pricing Strategy • THIS IS WORTH LOTS OF MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• (Re)organize your Brand

• Develop an Up-sell Strategy

• Start small & GO BIG (or go home)


Advice:

• ASK (self, team, clients) RE: Bottlenecks

• Expand Sales & In-take process

• Re-evaluate Pricing Strategy • THIS IS WORTH LOTS OF MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• STRONG relationships w/ the #AccTech Providers

• EMPOWER your cloud champion

• Make #AccTech a TEAM effort

• "the cobbler's children have no shoes"


Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Alice: I don't much care where.

The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

::: AGENDA :::



• OneSaas

• Workato




:: Continuing Education ::

• The Developers Mindset: • APIs, SDKs, Webhooks, etc. • Collaborating w/ Developers • Custom Integration (Services) • Enterprise iPaaS Solutions

• Expansion of Consulting Services: • End-to-End Cloud Software Selection • Process Mapping & “Re-Plumbing” • Org. Restructuring + Change Management

• Mastering ‘Integrated’ Dashboards: • Maestrano • StatX • MS PowerBI


#WeLoveIntegration #RealTimeRocks #TheBotsHaveLanded #KnowledgeIsPower


digital plumbing - accountex usa · •zapier •onesaas •workato ... with slack and ifttt •...

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