Tom Foremski has written a thought provoking piece talking about how the internet has 'devalued everything.'
One of the more stark examples he offers is Craigslist:
Take a look at the classified ads business. The Pew Center reports that in 2000 this was a $19.6 billion a year business. In 2008 it had fallen to $9.9 billion because of online classified ads — mostly Craigslist.
And Craigslist doesn’t charge for the vast majority of its classified ads. Craigslist has managed to pull the majority of nearly $10 billion out the classified ads industry in a single year using an operation staffed by just 30 people. There are estimates that Craigslist could take in $100 million this year.
Again, we see the power of the Internet and how it devalues everything it touches. In this case, Craigslist’s use of Internet technologies has managed to transmute $10 billion in value into $100 million. It’s the opposite of the dreams of alchemists - Craigslist has managed to transmute gold into lead. That’s what the Internet provides — the means to dramatically devalue an existing industry.
The last few days I've been dipping in and out of Crunch.co.uk, a software and services offering that at first troubled me.
When you visit the site there isn't a lot to be seen other than a bit of video (shown above) and some information about the founders along with a sign up form and the promise of tax savings through the creation of a limited company. I'm not going to comment on the company thing because as always there are ups and downs though I see the logic. Instead, I was drawn to the
'about' section where it says:
The key team members are Darren Fell, Drew Griffiths and Steve Crouch. With a combined experience of a successful internet entrepreneur, a web agency owner and an accountant who's had his practice (with 750+ customers) since 1991, you could say it could be the perfect team to revolutionise the way Freelancers accounts are done.
And that's just the founders. The rest of the team are outstanding with top Project Managers, outstanding Development Managers and uber-cool, not stuffy Accountants and book keepers!
This is fascinating because it is giving us a glimpse into what the future of practicing accounting might look like. On the price front, Crunch is offering all compliance work at a
fixed fee of £59.50 a month. It requires that the client uses Crunch's billing banking and expense service and there is no offer of face time. But that's unlikley to be necessary for many of its market: freelancers, contractors and small business people.
When I left practice 16 years ago there was no way to realistically prepare a set of limited company accounts and get everything filed for much less than £1,000 or roughly £1,400 in today's money. We considered ourselves pretty efficient. Assuming the model works then that means Crunch has created a service that halves the cost of my example albeit they're factoring in some time and attention by the client. But there are nuances to this model.
Blevin Franks, which uses
FreeAgentCentral, has developed
a spreadsheet which helps contractors work out which structure to use. See above.
The person who made the Blevin Franks video is also an accountant who actively maintains not one but TWO blogs. And she's a sole prsctitioner. Another person who lives in a virtual environment. She is based in Carlisle. Phil Richards, the person who fronts the video lives in Malta. Go figure?
Blevin Franks is giving that spreadsheet away for free. In my day, that would have been a good half day consultation combined with another half day running all the spreadsheet permutation, peer review etc. In today's money that's: £1,200 just disappeared. Oh yes - and they're on Facebook.
Earlier this week I took a client call about developing some communications tools for the firm's tax department. These will help the firm limit its marketing spend while expanding its authority in the markets it serves. Even as little as five years ago, that would be a serious engagement. Today, we'll get it done in maybe two days and I'll likely tag it onto other things I need to get done at around the time and so making best use of time.
The trip will be arranged in the Internet using Kayak and probably Travelodge or Ibis, depending on where I need to be and what the Oyster card costs are likely to be, depending on hotel choice.
Do you see where this is going? If we think about it, much of our lives is now being impacted by Internet based services. We just don't necessarily see it. But then I never thought I'd hear the day when someone said:
#e2conf twitter and facebook are the new crm.
But then I know of companies that are getting leads via Twitter. Which is free. And did you know that Salesforce.com will integrate with Twitter in the near future? Why should you care? I suggest investing 6 mins of your time
listening to John Peavoy, the greatest salesman Salesforce.com never had. Part two of that conversation will be coming soon. If Twitter piques your interest then I thoroughly recommend
Laura Fitton et al's Twitter for Dummies. Laura's a good pal and someone with her heart in the right place.
We might not like it and with compliance shrinking for all but the largest players, the market is going to get unquestionably tougher as the drift effect takes hold, especially in the middle market. Are you ready? If not then I suspect you might get run over by the likes of Crunch.co.uk and Blevin Franks.
Endnote: this is largely a re-posting of something I wrote on my personal weblog. I rarely (I think twice) do that but I see this topic of erosion as critical to radical modernisation. At the time of writing I did not think I could improve it much but I also wanted it to reach a wider readership so while the original article remains intact, this has been slightly improved with additional links.