april2021 - 6

FROM THE TRENCHES

CLIENT
EXPERIENCE
FOR TODAY

Collaboration
Is the New

" Must Have "
WHEN DID COLLABORATION become a " must have? " While many milestone releases of
products could be shown as the starting line, working simultaneously together on the
same file is an attitude. It is different this decade than it was at any time before. While I still
despise getting large documents via an email attachment, now I don't want attachments
or links based on the security risk alone. Not to mention the lost work and rework that
occurs when people don't work together! Also, there is a strong connection between
collaboration and providing advisory services in a satisfactory way to all parties involved.
So, how can collaboration improve
the practice of accounting while
enhancing the final work product and
deliverable? How can collaboration
save time, money, and effort? Do you
have a proactive way of working collaboratively? You may do a lot of work
on your own. But how do you know
those who consume your work don't
have to overcome challenges? Most
importantly, how do you work with
clients to make their interactions
with you as seamless as possible?

APRIL 2021 ■

How do you improve your client and
team member experience?
For example, in writing this
column, I'm starting the process in
Word. Wouldn't it be easier on the
editors if I could write this inside the
content management system used
for editing, website publication, and
press runs? Why should they have to
translate this document into various
formats using their talents in clerical
translation when they could spend
more time improving my writing

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technique and making it easier for
you, the reader, to consume this
content?

HOW DO WE COLLABORATE ON INFORMATION
WITH CLIENTS?
First, let's look at some milestone
productivity technologies and their
release dates. Among these is the
release of what is now Google Workspace, initially released on March 9,
2006, as Google Docs and Sheets,

RANDY JOHNSTON

EVP & Partner
K2 Enterprises &
CEO of Network Management Group, Inc.
randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com
@RPJohnston

and updated on August 28, 2006,
as Google Apps for Your Domain.
Many small businesses use Google
Workspace exclusively.
Microsoft had some collaboration
in mind with the release of SharePoint
on March 28, 2001, but this was
released primarily as a document
management and storage system. It
was not until Office 365 was released
on June 28, 2011, as a response to
Google's success with the features of
Google Sheets improving and multiple
people editing those Sheets, and that
the Google Workspace product was
starting to become a threat to Excel,
that Microsoft took this suite seriously. Co-authoring for Excel didn't
arrive until March 2017 with the
release of Microsoft Teams.
I can't imagine developing a work
product in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
today where I don't use co-authoring.
Collaboration reached a new peak
for Microsoft with the name change
from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 as
a superset of Enterprise features
on July 10, 2017, and consumer and
small business rebranding on April
21, 2020. One could argue that even
though Adobe Cloud wasn't released
until 2013, prior versions of Adobe
had some co-authoring features as
early as 2004 with the LiveCycle
Designer. Of course, Zoho Corporation is celebrating its 25th anniversary
this year. Zoho One contains Zoho
Docs, Sheet, and other collaborative
productivity competitors that have
also been in the market for over ten
years too.

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april2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of april2021