Category Archives: Relationships

The Trouble with Technology

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I make a living selling technology. I’m passionate about the fact that technology is changing the world for the better, and I’m proud to say that I have a front row seat to watch tomorrow’s technology become today’s reality. Numbers don’t lie. When we survey XCM users each year after the busyness of tax season, we are thrilled to hear that our technology often saves our clients well over an hour a day per person. On the Xpitax side, without both scanning and Cloud technologies, this outsourcing model would be impossible. When you look at it that way, it’s hard to find anything to complain about as far as technology goes…or is it?

**Warning – I’m officially standing on my soapbox in my stilettos**

Let’s be real for a minute – who are we kidding? We all deal with technology trials and tribulations virtually every day. How often are you tempted to throw your iPhone across the room when you’ve dropped a call for the 3rd time in 10 minutes (not to mention that you were still talking for 2 minutes before realizing the like was dead)? Sure it’s great that you can book your airline reservations from the amazing little device, but sometime you just simply want to make a phone call. How about those web-based training sessions that you’re struggling to understand because you can only catch every third word of the presenter and his slide deck is moving about 28 seconds slower than his talk track? Why do we all just accept this as “normal” and go about our business pretending it isn’t a problem? It IS a problem, because it keeps us from concentrating on our main goal.

From my shoes, I see two main issues with technology:

  1. Technology isn’t fail-proof, so when looking to put your best foot forward, relying on it is risky
  2. There’s just no substitute for face time

As technology advances and enable us to have more access to information when & where we need it, typically as automated as we want it, we are able to be more productive as we adopt the “self-service” approach. I know I use this every day when it comes to tracking packages online, paying bills, booking travel arrangements, and numerous other areas of personal and professional life. The danger comes when this dependence on using technology takes over the desire to have human interaction, and foster relationships with clients, colleagues, and partners.

Video, web, and teleconferencing services are in surplus these days – and the ability to
connect with clients, prospects, and even friends and family via GoToMeeting, WebEx, or Skype can shrink the distance between two individuals. These technologies allow me to start a Friday morning on a team call with my colleagues around the country, to present Xpitax to a firm in Nevada in the early afternoon, and to meet with a local SoCal accounting firm and show XCM for Client Accounting Services all in the same day – all without leaving my “soffice” (Sofa+Office). But what do I give up by not being in person at these various meetings? And what happens when the technology I’m relying on lets me down?

I sat in a board room this past week at a very large accounting firm in the Midwest. While I made the effort to fly out and be on-site for the meeting, I relied on web telephone conferencing to include my President in the meeting with me. By the end of the meeting, we had reconnected the web conference twice, and redialed into the teleconference three times. Needless to say, the flaws in technology were not only distracting, but extremely stressful too.

The saving grace was my ability to interact with the group inside the room, to make eye contact, read body language, and even poke fun and make light of the frustrating technology failure. Thankfully, the meeting was still a success, but had I not been there in person, it might have had a different outcome.

As the world seems to move faster & faster each day, it’s so important that we do step back and remember that deep down, we all value personal interactions. Sure it’s easy to sit back and say that it’s more productive to conduct business from your comfy office chair…but don’t underestimate the power of a real handshake. Shortly after starting at XCM I had the opportunity to visit two prospects in New York – both were very busy, but agreed to my visit. I have no doubt that the relationships I started building that week will continue to be vital to the future success of these two clients. As I arrived home late that Friday afternoon, I had a voicemail from one of the firms I had met with. The message said something like “I wanted to call you and give you the good news – because you were the one who showed up at our office…”.

So don’t be afraid of a little TSA pat down – before you know it you’ll sporting premier hotel status and plenty of airline miles to boot…go out and build those relationships – maybe I’ll see you on the road (I’m the one with the bag full of shoes).

It’s a Small World After All…

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When I came onboard with XCM and Xpitax this past Summer, I was quite familiar with the XCM workflow solution itself as well as with most of the team. I had spent time with them at various trade shows, and worked with them as fellow partners in CloudSolutions Alliance. The side of the house that I was less familiar with was our Xpitax outsourced accounting services business – and the international team behind those services.

I’ve since come to learn that in addition to our team in Braintree (and the handful of remote folks throughout the US), I have the pleasure of calling another group -developers and tax professionals from our Chennai and Bangalore offices – fellow Xpitax colleagues as well.

During my first few weeks on the job, I asked a lot of questions about the international Xpitax team. Who are they? Does the same team work with one client or is it more like a call center environment? What are the conditions like in our India offices? How do our clients communicate with our team in India? I was definitely feeling a bit out of my element, and a tad unsure of exactly how to explain the way our outsourcing model really works…mostly because it was just a big unknown. Naturally, most of us don’t care too much for the unknown, so I figured if I need to sell these services, first I have to believe in the model myself – which means get educated.

Well a few weeks ago the world got a little bit smaller. After a recent trip to India, our Founder and CEO (yes, Professor Workflow himself, Mark Albrecht) addressed our U.S. team with a plea to unify our multiple offices. With that in mind, our VP of Client Services, Colleen Osborne (with some help from Facebook), created an interactive platform for our teams to communicate, share photos & ideas, and learn about each other. I’m sure some might say I’m just easily amused, but seeing photos of our team and having the opportunity to wish them a happy holiday (last month they celebrated Vinayaka Chathurthi, a national holiday in India) completely brought these people to life, and gave me a whole new perspective on this part of our company.

Just as important, it proved once again that technology can truly bridge the gap in physical miles – and even time zones. Without platforms like Facebook, the Xpitax team would still be a list of emails in our Outlook contact group “Chennai”, but with the medium to interact with them, I’ve begun to make a whole new set of friends. Likewise, without solutions like XCM, the outsourcing model of Xpitax wouldn’t be anywhere nearly as successful as it is today, where an accounting firm can track the status, open points, estimated completion date, number of open items remaining, and several other elements of any outsourced return, anytime (most firms don’t even have that much control over returns or projects inside their own firms, let alone one that is being completed by someone half-way around the globe). With Cloud-based tools like these, geography instantly becomes a non-issue, and productivity becomes the big priority.

With the launching of the new Xpitax Facebook group, I decided to post some photos from a recent company outing we had in Cape Cod, figuring it would give the India teams a chance to see some of us outside of the typical work setting. I was caught by surprise (in a great way) when photos appeared just hours later showing Colleen and a few of the folks from the team in India at the beach during her recent visit. I guess the old adage is true – it really is a Small World After All!

Sometimes 2nd Impressions Make a World of Difference

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When I’m not on the road for work, you can typically find me at the local Irvine 24 Hour Fitness most weeknights. Yep, that’s me there on the treadmill with my iPhone in hand – glued to the Pinterest app or typing away at those emails I didn’t get to earlier that day (so if you ever get an email from me around 10pm eastern, please forgive the typos!). We have come to know our gym fondly as the “Roid Gym” – due to the fact that the clientele is predominately made up of those “amped up” on various quasi-legal substances. Being there as often as I am, I tend to see the same usual suspects several times each week. One fellow in particularalways stood out to me and made me glad that I wasn’t there by myself. We’d notice this guy was there virtually every day/ night (he would often be jogging in circles in the parking lot after dark). He always used weight machines, but never really seemed to be doing much with them. Unlike most of the regulars, he never said hello, or spoke to anyone – but I’d often catch a glimpse of him staring my way, which made me extremely uncomfortable – great, now I have to worry about gym stalkers too! We had all kinds of theories about this guy – perhaps he didn’t speak English, was somehow mentally handicapped, and based on the pick-up truck he has parked in the lot (piled high with a full load of possessions in the bed), we figured he was likely homeless.

Well one day I decided to go over for an afternoon workout, and found myself on the spin bike. Not too long after I was warmed up, I was joined by my gym stalker on the bike two down from me. We didn’t even make eye contact, and I just continued peddling away. But something was about to happen that would not only change my view of this gentleman, but would force me to reevaluate the way I judge anyone in the future. The girl who normally works the front desk, who had just gotten off duty and was getting in her own spin before heading home, jumped up on the bike in between us.

Macy immediately greeted the man “Hey Harold – how are you?”. I’m pretty sure I stopped dead in my tracks as the man replied in the sweetest of tones “Not bad, how are you young lady?”. I wound up listening in to their conversation which went on for several minutes before Harold got up and declared “off to the next thing, talk to you later!”. As soon as he was out of earshot, I turned to Macy and began to dig for info. She told me that he comes in every day while she’s at the front desk, and would never speak. One day, she decided she was going to talk to him regardless of whether he replied or not, so she began to greet him by name each time he would enter. After a while, she said he began to reply and would even engage in brief conversations with her.

Hearing her talk about him instantly made me feel completely mistaken about my first impression of Harold. So I decided to try her approach and see what happens. Next time I saw him walk in, rather than looking away, I looked straight his way until our eyes met – then I gave him a big smile and said hello. As I got up after my ride, I told him “See you later…it’s Harold, right? I’m Kim”. Of all the times that I’d seen Harold at the gym, I’d never once seen him smile – but I got a big grin out of him that day…and guess what? I’ve gotten it each and every time I’ve seen him since.