This is not an isolated perception. Only a very limited number of accountants could state that they had any supplier whom they felt was truly a reliable partner. The overwhelming majority felt that the vendor community in the accounting industry had betrayed the profession in the past several years.

 

The good work that was done by many vendors over the past decade or longer in building a solid working relationship has largely been shattered and now is in dire need of rebuilding. Most incredible is the state of denial of many vendors who still think they have the accounting market locked up. Some vendors are even convinced that their products are so superior and their marketshare so dominant that selling their wares through accounting professionals will be a simple task.

 

The robust business growth cycle that we just left behind has created a mindset among vendors that the accounting market did not pose much of a challenge. Vendors didn't even have to hide many of their mistakes, because when the money was flowing in, nobody cared about them.

 

Vendors weren't paying attention to the accounting professionals in the accounting market, especially those that thought the new economy was all about bypassing the accountant. When the accountants became aware of this severe economic threat to their livelihood they countered with various defensive measures. As a result they were keeping a watchful eye on the vendors and never again believing the gilded proposals of the past.

 

The interesting thing is, it often wasn't the senior management and founding executives of the software vendors that almost ruined the marketplace. It was frequently the middle management that had been installed at the behest of the venture capital firms. They believed that their mass market expertise in food, liquor, cosmetics, tobacco marketing would work wonders in the backward almost third world market atmosphere of accounting services providers. More and more vendors succumbed to the siren call of non-accounting background executives who directed formerly successful accounting industry vendors with the aplomb of a social director conducting a musical chairs game on the deck of the Titanic during its evacuation. Many accounting vendors with dominant market share lost their position and sometimes their companies because some middle managers with a background in soaps and cleansers were trying to impress someone with a "new approach to the market."

 

In many cases, senior managers with their vision blinded by stock options, weren't even aware of what was going on until it was too late. This industry can still be turned around with hard work, commitment and mutual respect.  Vendors must understand that accounting professionals consult regularly with their client base that in effect is the marketplace. Accountants are the dominant delivery mechanism that influences business owners as to what technology and services will be acquired, deployed and utilized. Accountants must really understand that they provide vital services that convince their client's perception as to what solution should be used to solve the problem at hand. Ultimately, accountants must accept the realization that what their business is bottom line basically about is solving problems.

 

While the vendors were losing their way in the marketplace, accounting professionals were solving problems by providing solutions that included all types of computer hardware and software. No software providers' products ever solved a single problem and clients were never really concerned about the brand being used to provide the solutions.

 

With a slower economic pace looming ahead of us, accountants and accounting software vendors must forge new partnering relationships based on mutual respect and economic viability. Relationships are very delicate. Many of them have been shattered, especially over the past two years with the onslaught of application service providers who performed a reenactment of Barbarians at the Gate. Many more relationships will be ruined with the various consolidations that beset the accounting industry today. No person, firm or organization is immune. Betrayal comes in many guises.

 

Beware the portals formed by some of the very organizations that are supposed to lead the profession.

 

Make sure you perform due diligence on your partnering and don't close your eyes while you kiss.