Ep. 167: Ben Taylor - API Driven Accounting

Contact Ben Taylor:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentaylor8/


SoftLedger:
https://softledger.com/general-ledger-accounting-software


Full Transcript:
Adam: (00:05)
Hey everyone. Thank you for coming back to listen to another
episode of Count Me In, I am your host Adam Larson, and this is
episode 176 of our series. As we hold conversations about various
topics impacting the accounting and finance world, one of the
underlying themes across most is strategy. In this episode,
you'll hear from Paul Ruppert, an ambidextrous executive with
deep experience in startups, as well as global fortune 100
enterprises who shares as knowledge and expertise on strategic
partnerships. Keep listening to hear more about how the finance
team can best support large strategic initiatives for the
organization.

Mitch: (00:50)
So as we get through today's conversation, we're gonna look at
some concepts around strategy, strategic partnerships, but I
think it's first important to kick off what are some of the
biggest considerations or are challenges that many are facing in
today's business landscape?

Paul: (01:06)
I think, you know, many people get into business thinking that
there's some linearity from a plus B plus C equals D equation,
but in reality, it's all about adaptability and change. And
change is not only the change that you experience when you start
facing various types of problems and challenges and friction
points, but also your ability to manifest change, create that
change and live through that change. I've been involved in
businesses on a global basis and how I approach the business in
the US was very different than I was approaching the business
when I was in Hong Kong or in Europe. And that adaptability, that
agility as it's often described, you know, in technology is
really the the watch word more than anything else, in my view.
You know, there's, as I mentioned earlier, earlier before our
call, I don't believe in a silver bullet solution.

Mitch: (02:13)
And as we talk about adaptability, agility, you know, the bottom
line is we are looking to advance the business, right, advance
the function and adapt to modern advancements. And I think you
just kind of mentioned briefly technology here, but without
having a crystal ball and being able to see into the future
perfectly, what does the future of business really look like?
And, you know, as we continue to adapt and be agile, what are we
really preparing for? What is the future of the business
landscape look like?

Paul: (02:45)
Well, you know, that's a big, big question in the context of
where is everything going. If you just look at our immediate past
in past history, you know, three years ago, I'm involved in the
text messaging business and it's been around, it's how, you know,
enterprises communicate and connect with end consumers. And we
live through it on a day to day basis. When you get tested for
what's called a one time password, you know, you just proving
that you are who you are. And the business let's say three plus
years ago was moving steadily along. And let's say let's call
grocery store rates, meaning about three to 5% growth rate. This
is a fairly established industry. You know, it's roughly about
$200 billion of business globally. It's quite large, but people
don't really experience on a day to day basis relative to cost
and effect if you will, but they still utilize it.

Paul: (03:47)
And since the pandemic, because of the dynamics of how we behave
as human beings and being working from home environments and the
fact that we are now utilizing zoom and video, et cetera, the
reality is that the messaging business has grown to about 30%
CAGR for the next three years is what the expectation is. And I
am of the belief that once human beings experience something much
more convenient for them, they usually don't turn backwards and
want to do something less convenient. Okay. So in all of that
context, that's kind of the dynamics of where we are going, what
it looks like and the over the horizon perspective, the crystal
ball, as you characterized it is that your expectations often may
be unexpected. Things may not go as you think they are going. And
there's lots of converging factors, you know, digitalization
prior to COVID, the growth of it, the speed of it, the means in
which many business were able to quickly and with great agility
pivot to new types of initiatives, you know, I can talk about
call centers that were stripped down from being on premise in the
course of four to five days and redistributed to the the call
center rep's homes, because everybody shifted, you know, we
couldn't be in large groups any longer, it was just too
unsafe.

Mitch: (05:22)
Now a lot of our listeners are in, you know, the business of
opportunity recognition. And I know it's very difficult and maybe
unexpected as some of these you know, evolutions arise. You know,
we first spoke, I know you mentioned something along the lines of
you know, the business landscape reaching 6G. So with some of
this uncertainty but so much opportunity, what can our listeners
really take away you know, from the idea or what should they be
doing really to maybe open their eyes a little bit and see what
this opportunity means for their individual businesses,

Paul: (06:03)
Right. Yeah. You know, we all watch well, many of us watch
professional football, the NFL on weekends, and, you know, the
number of mobile phone companies like principally T-Mobile,
AT&T, and Verizon all talking about 5G. And then if you were
to turn to your spouse or friend that you're watching the game
with and ask the question, so why is 5G better than 4G outside of
the reach? You know the reality there is that what we're doing
right now is probably gonna be the, one of the big manifestations
of 5G value, which is video and speed and processing. And so as
we then move to 6G, then it becomes much more engaged on such
things as what's called sentiment and intent. So you might be
reaching out to, you know, let's say your mobile phone provider,
because you've got an issue with your iPhone or something along
those lines and that inbound call or inbound message or whatever
it might be that platform that you're utilizing to connect with
your provider, they already have a sense of what your intent
is.

Paul: (