High-growth firms face massive technology platform changes over the next three to five years. Roman Kepczyk explains what’s coming and why strategic leaders need to focus differently. PE-backed and scaling independent firms should concentrate on innovations that strengthen client service. Meanwhile, partner with specialists who handle infrastructure as a utility.
The winning strategy? Unify your firm’s applications, security, and IT services into a purpose-built platform. This maximizes productivity and reduces risk without distracting your team from growth initiatives.
Treating infrastructure as managed services allows firms to stay investor-ready and scale with confidence.
Watch the full series to discover how to accelerate growth and scale with confidence.
Learn more about solutions for investor-backed and high-growth firms at https://www.rightworks.com/solutions/pe-backed-firms/
Speakers:
Derek Distin, VP of Community at Rightworks
Roman Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA, PAFM, Director of Firm Technology Strategy at Rightworks
Transcript
Derek: So for the last 30 years, there’s not been a huge change to much of the core software from the big vendors. Really, most firms are operating on the same software that they probably used 30 years ago. What’s coming in the next three to five years?
Roman: What we see is a lot of new innovation, particularly in the practice management space for workflow innovation. And many of these companies are actually integrating artificial intelligence tools and agentic AI from the get go. So we anticipate that over the next three to five years, firms are going to definitely change their portal and document management system. They will definitely change their practice management with an emphasis on workflow scheduling that’s in there. We anticipate that the binder wars, engagement binders that we use to basically organize work not only for the assurance practice for audits and compilations, but also for our complex tax returns.
Derek: If I’m a strategic leader at a firm and I know this application upheaval is coming, what do I need to do today to ensure that my IT needs are met in the next three to five years?
Roman: Well, I think is the key for strategic leaders is to focus on the innovation that is happening, to see where it improves production processes in the firm, and then to look at the tools that have come out in the last two to four years that are proof of concept and actually working. The uniqueness of the accounting profession is being best met by organizations such as Rightworks that do understand the requirements of tax seasons, of our CAS practices, of the security of the audit side. And when I talk about security, about protecting the whole infrastructure and all the data, not only for the firm, but for their clients as well.
Derek: Is my firm’s time best spent managing IT or focusing on the business?
Roman: You know, that’s an easy question. You always focus on the business when there’s a solution that you can outsource that’s out there. And we’re going to see significant opportunities for automation and innovation, solving problems that we have, but they’re proven solutions that are there. I don’t think you have to be bleeding edge on everything. That’s the advice we’re giving all of our firms now is automate the tools and processes that are causing you issues now and can be streamlined with proven solutions and then monitor those other tools to see at what point do they get to the tipping point where we want to explore actually piloting.
Derek: If I’m a small or mid-size firm going through this change in the next couple of years, how do I benefit by moving to Rightworks?
Roman: Well, I think moving to Rightworks makes your infrastructure a monthly utility that you can scale up and down for. Basically you pay for what you use. Moving to Rightworks also allows you access to our community, which gives you access to peers that are having the same issues as you are. But in some, in many cases, it actually solved the issue and found a path. And by talking to those peers, that’s how we all learn. That’s how I became a consultant to the profession, is that I knew 30 other IT directors and we learned how to automate CPA firms.
Derek: If I am a large firm going through a series of acquisitions or going through hypergrowth, how do I benefit from moving to Rightworks?
Roman: Well, I think one of the big benefits of Rightworks is that we have to build for best of class for the largest organizations, which many of them are PE groups that are out there. And so the requirements they put upon us for performance guarantees for cybersecurity at an enterprise level, disaster recovery planning and remediation at an enterprise level. When Rightworks solves a problem for one of the firms, we solve it for all of them. And so our ability to respond quickly, effectively to issues that are unique to accountants, that is our whole business.
Derek: If I’m a private equity-backed firm and I haven’t chosen a technology provider, what benefits does Rightworks give me?
Roman: A private equity group gets the benefit of 30 years of focused attention on the accounting profession. We have built our systems to be optimized for the specific tax programs during peak busy seasons. The CAS practices, they have offshore employees, the auditors who work remotely, we’re aware of all the different tools that are out there. We support over 3000. And we have direct connections to the top three, four providers out there to make sure we resolve a problem as quickly as possible because they know their clients rely on us for their infrastructure.
Derek: What is one thing that I can do tomorrow to allow me to focus on my clients and not my IT?
Roman: One thing you can do if you want to focus on your clients and not IT infrastructure, is ask your clients, find out where they have friction working with you. Ask them what would make it easier and that’ll direct you to solutions that you can implement.