3E Accounting Set Up Digital Research & Development – The First Among SMEs
3E Accounting has established an in-house Digital Research and Development (“DR&D”) team, the first among SMEs in Singapore, to harness innovative technologies to digitally transform its business.
3E Accounting Spearheads Digital Research and Development to Support Accountancy Industry Digital Plan
When 3E Accounting was set up in 2011, founder Lawrence Chai encountered the twin challenges many Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) faced – how to attract talent to join a small firm, yet offer flexible work arrangements (FWAs) so crucial to retaining talent.
Technology was the key. Through astute investment in Cloud-based solutions and Virtual Private Network (VPN) servers, 3E Accounting empowered employees with the flexibility to work anywhere, at any place with full access to email, document management, calendar scheduling, all on Cloud. With this, the firm put in place FWAs on flexi-place and flexi-time which was recognised by The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) when 3E Accounting won the Exemplary Employer Award .
As the world bears witness to disruptions to traditional business structures with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the 3E Accounting DR&D team will play an important strategic role to future-proof the business. Its mandate is a complete transformation of business strategies to enhance operational efficiency with technology, as part of our Digital Journey.
“At 3E Accounting, we believe in constantly challenging ourselves to innovate through technology to achieve ever higher productivity, customer satisfaction, and full regulatory compliance. The DR&D team is our response to the Government’s call to champion Smart Nation initiatives. The team will formulate the 3E Accounting Digital Master Plan to map out the digital transformation of the business,” said founder Lawrence Chai. Focusing on the new growth areas in robotic business automation (RPA), Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Digital Master Plan will support the Accountancy Industry Digital Plan as a sectoral enabler for the Professional Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM).
With the tools and data available to accounting firms rapidly changing, clients’ expectations have evolved exponentially. The 3E Accounting Mobile App, one of the very first projects that the team developed, is an in-house designed mobile app to make business and products more accessible in this digital age. The unique same-day appointment scheduling feature on the app promises increased productivity and seamless access for customers. “The 3E Accounting mobile app is more than just a business app, it is our commitment to an enhanced digital relationship,” adds Lawrence. Refer to Annex to download the mobile app.
Digital transformation is more than building digital capabilities, it is about building partnerships to deploy digital technologies to participate in the Digital Economy. 3E Accounting recently partnered the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to develop an Accounting Report Automation software prototype. This will allow the conversion of trial balance to accounting report automatically.
Upcoming projects will continue the 3E Accounting’s ventures into robotic process automation (RPA) to integrate data between software at Graphic User Interface (GUI) level with RPA, and without the need for human input, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert scanned documents to editable and searchable data, Facial Recognition technology for customer authentication for letter collection, and a chatbot with Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology whose answers to enquiries are indistinguishable from a human’s.
We are delighted and privileged to be featured in media publications, who highlighted that 3E Accounting makes history with industry first Digital R&D. Founder and Technopreneur Lawrence Chai shares his perspective on the imperative for digital transformation in an exclusive interview with TechCompanyNews.
