The Pulse

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• From MYOB

• All Businesses Are Digital, Even If They Don’t Know It

  Author: Zac Martin May 30th, 2012 at 5:45 pm

  

  I was driving home last week and noticed a Thai restaurant I hadn’t seen before. Feeling adventurous for dinner that night, we thought we’d try it out and order some take away. I jumped on Google and, to my surprise, the mysterious Thai restaurant could not be found. I tried Google Maps, and again, no result.

  At this stage, most customers would have given up and moved on. But on a desperate hunt for a delicious Penang curry, I even went so far as to stalk them on Google Street View. Unfortunately, their phone number wasn’t visible in the window, so we decided to go back to our trusty local. Read more

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  Topics: Businesses, Featured, Technology, The Web

  It doesn’t matter where in the world we are

  Author: Melina Schamroth May 28th, 2012 at 4:08 pm

  

  I’ve spent the day communicating with people in different cities in varying parts of the world.

  One of them is an integral part of my team, but in reality, no one would know we weren’t sharing an office.

  The modern world of interconnectivity means that we no longer have to sit with our co-workers in the same room from 9-5, 5 days a week. We don’t have to be in the same state, country or time zone, as long as we are working towards the same, unified goal as someone else, we are part of a team. Read more

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  Topics: Businesses, Featured, Your Team

  Are you thinking differently?

  Author: David Smith May 23rd, 2012 at 4:15 pm

  

  These days we spend more time looking at screens almost anything else. About the only time I look at printed material is when I’m on a plane and all the devices have to be turned off. What is worth pondering is whether these connected to the Internet devices with their large amount of storage is changing the way we think.

  I pick up my Kindle. It has the capacity to hold the contents of a complete library. Now I don’t really want to wander around with 3,000 books but I am finding that I often have 4 or 5 books on the go. Usually some fiction, some business management book, some technology book and some science fiction. I find that I jump from one to the other. My reading habits have completely changed. Of course I could have done this in the past but who wants to carry around 4 or 5 books? Read more

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  Topics: Businesses, Featured, Technology

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• Bring Your Own Device

  Author: David Smith May 9th, 2012 at 10:52 am

  

  The latest technology revolution isn’t just under way, it’s about to get bigger.

  Hot on the heels of the “consumerization” of IT is a new uprising, one poised to forever change how we use technology at work. Known as “Bring Your Own Device,” or BYOD, it promises to provide the workforce with increased flexibility and mobility while possibly lowering costs for IT departments.

  The consumerization-of-IT revolution took place after technology devices marketed for personal use—most notably, smartphones and tablets—began being released and adopted faster than corporate IT groups could test, deploy and support them. People bought these devices in droves and brought them—iPhone and Android, iPad and Kindle Fire—to the office. Read more

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  Topics: Accountants, Businesses, Lifestyle, Technology

  Friends, Romans and Countrymen – Lend me your ears!

  Author: James Evangelidis March 28th, 2012 at 12:57 pm

  

  Thank you to William Shakespeare for the above title (sorry I just couldn’t help myself). In an earlier post on the The Pulse I banged on about the importance of asking questions when meeting and discussing issues with clients and pitching for new business. Now we visit the other side of the communication coin – listening.

  Listening is perhaps the most important skill any accountant or professional adviser can bring to a discussion with a client, potential client, staff member, government department, supplier and so on. When you listen … really listen … to the other party some quite amazing things begin to happen. Here are just three to think about: Read more

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  Topics: Accountants, Featured, Your Clients

  The dark side of voice mail

  Author: James Evangelidis March 14th, 2012 at 1:08 pm

  
  In my day job helping accounting firms attract and retain talented partners and staff, I’m often asked what things separate good professionals from great professionals. Leaving technical and relationship building skills to one side, invariably it is the “small things” that really make a difference. One small thing – believe it or not – is voice mail.

  Accountants, like other professions, need to communicate with their clients, prospects, government departments, suppliers and a host of others. Naturally enough, the telephone is a common method of communication. When you use the telephone you can’t avoid the inevitable … voice mail. Read more

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  Topics: Accountants, Featured, Technology

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• Helping businesses get social

  Author: Julian Smith May 29th, 2012 at 4:47 pm

  

  This week, MYOB has taken a big step in helping New Zealand’s businesses embrace social media, by fully integrating social media platforms into our existing enterprise suite.

  We want to see social media more widely used by New Zealand businesses because it can help them to stand out in the online space, find new ways to communicate with their customers and generate sales leads.

  By allowing them to interact with their customers in a more real and enduring way, social media allows businesses to increase customer loyalty, get instant feedback about what is working and what needs to change, and benefit from an ongoing dialogue with potential customers. Read more

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  Topics: Featured, From MYOB, Your Clients

  Government Budget on the right track

  Author: Julian Smith May 21st, 2012 at 11:00 pm

  

  The conventional wisdom has it that Governments hate giving a zero budget. The budget is normally a time for Governments to announce popular big ticket items or the sort of big spending on heath or education that usually wins votes, so if there’s no money in the till, meeting expectations can be difficult.

  However this year the Government is rolling out its second zero budget in a row and, according to the MYOB Business Monitor, the approach is going down surprisingly well. 68% of New Zealand businesses support “an increased focus on cutting Government expenditure to ensure the New Zealand Budget returns to surplus faster.”

  Given the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone, driven by unsustainably large levels of debt, it’s perhaps not surprising that New Zealanders are feeling good about the Government’s emphasis on thrift.

  We’ve seen what happens overseas when countries like Greece embrace “Visanomics” and we don’t want the same thing to happen here. Read more

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  Topics: Businesses, Featured, From MYOB

  Selling Out via Social?

  Author: Steven Wright May 11th, 2012 at 1:50 pm

  

  What’s your social profile worth? Have you even thought about it? Is it growing in value? When you talk, do people listen?

  With social reputation becoming more and more of a relevant form of currency, there are powers at play that are looking to exploit this new medium. In the past, it has all been about celebrity endorsement – getting the star of the day to put their name to a product. As the celebrity space becomes more and more distributed, thought the wonders of the increasingly social internet, a new generation of celebrities with social credibility are sprouting up. Read more

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  Topics: Featured, From MYOB, The Web

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