老九品茶es looking to shake-up聽FinTech and put themselves at the forefront of innovation need to start building from the聽bottom-up, according to a leading disruptor.
Mark Sykes, head of BDO鈥檚 老九品茶 Services and Accounting team, beleives the most important developments will come from the people who are using and delivering vital finance services on a day-to-day basis.
He founded the firm鈥檚 award-winning InTouch system which saw a 38 per cent sales growth last year through the early adoption of technology.
It uses tech to assist businesses with improved management information and performance reporting 鈥� data that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, via a desktop, tablet or mobile phone.
He said: 鈥淭he whole profession has changed, the way we work with businesses has changed.
鈥淭he suggestion or idea that the ones at the top are the ones with all the ideas is a load of rubbish.
鈥淭he best ideas come from the people who are involved in the day-to-day paying, facing the day-to-day grind of issues and challenges.
鈥淭hose are the questions you have to overcome.
鈥淸Fintech] is not just about automation tools, although that鈥檚 in there 鈥� there are lovely sophisticated automation tools. At the same time there鈥檚 also how we engage with clients, what do the clients actually want.
鈥淭oo quickly, firms go 鈥業 do accounting better than anyone else鈥� or 鈥業 do law better than anyone else鈥�, and we all sound the same.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of the challenge 鈥� for business to decide to really understand what the client wants and look at this in a fresh way.
鈥淟ook at what鈥檚 going on in this disruptive economy to see whether we can take the best bits from here and there and create something new, create something more exciting.鈥�
Operation both in the UK and internationally, Sykes has a history of embracing the digital agenda and transforming the way professional services are delivered.
He believes that although the process may be difficult, fintech firms must adapt their processes or face the consequences.
He added: 鈥淸Telling executives] is sometimes the hardest card you have to wave sometimes. Because they鈥檙e you鈥檙e paymaster, so it鈥檚 not always the best thing 鈥� but that is one of the things.
鈥淚f anyone is going to know about you in the disruption industry, you need to make sure there is enough energy and drive there, that people are not worrying about doing whatever is needed to get to the right outcome.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in a fast-changing world, and there are lots of things changing in the market place.
鈥淓veryone talks about automation, the robots, they talk about global disruption 鈥� the fact that we have things like Brexit, and there are things going on in America.
鈥淲e can also look at how we change as a culture and the say people behave, so using things like Amazon distribution routes businesses can go to more than 拢30m in two years.鈥�