Intuition and “hunches” have their time and place, but I believe it would be foolish to ignore data, writes Natasha Pepper.
Data.
Thanks to the evolution of technology, including portable smart devices and the internet, we are constantly connected all the time and from anywhere in the world, and, as a result of that interconnectivity, enormous volumes and a variety of data are created.
However, this data only forms part of a business equation; it is not information alone. Today, many accountants, including myself, integrate analytical skills alongside accounting knowledge and experience to explore and translate this data into meaningful information. No longer are accountants, hiding quietly in the background, using spreadsheets to unsociable crunch numbers all day for retrospective reporting from the confines of bland, probably grey-coloured, cubicles.
In actual fact, accountants, through data analysis, are your business advisers and decision-making partners.
Working alongside different areas of a law firm in real-time, data analysis by accountants can assist decision-makers understand what findings mean and the various options available, leading to better informed decisions to make the most of potential opportunities. Data analysis can also support risk management by reducing inherent degrees of uncertainty, not only limited to financial impacts but can extend to areas such as health and safety impacts, reputational impacts and the threat of obsolescence or disruption.
But what is the potential value of the data collected? How does one leverage this information-rich data to formulate valuable strategic insights and competitive advantage? How can a law firm foster a culture of behaviours and beliefs centred around data?
Data collection, infrastructure and management
Of course, intuition and “hunches” have their time and place, but I believe it would be foolish to ignore data. Expensive AI or data mining programs are not necessarily required to extract information from data; you can start making data-driven decisions using small data sets that will grow and evolve for the needs of the firm over time. It also goes without saying that any decisions made should be ethical and support and align with the firm’s values.
Natasha Pepper is the finance and data manager at Travis Schultz & Partners.