3E Accounting Founder Lawrence Chai Invited to Speak at Accounting and Finance Show Asia

3E Accounting Founder Lawrence Chai Invited to Speak at Accounting and Finance Show Asia

3E Accounting Founder Lawrence Chai spoke at Asia’s largest virtual event – Accounting and Finance Show 2020, on how businesses can utilize technology applications to support business continuity for their practices. Lawrence also shared on key strategies and digital transformation initiatives that firms can adopt to support their Business Continuity Plan (BCP) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Importance of a Business Continuity Plan

A BCP is a set of processes on prevention and recovery from potential threats, such as a pandemic, cyber-attacks, and fire. The purpose of the BCP is to enable operations to carry on prior to and during the execution of crisis recovery. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the firm’s employees and assets are well protected and able to function in the event of a crisis. The lack of a BCP can result in costly consequences for the business like tarnished reputation, financial loss, business failure, loss of productivity and data, injury and death.

 

Supply Chain Diversification for Business Continuity

Lawrence shared that for business operations to continue uninterrupted during a crisis, business leaders must improve the diversity of their supply chains by prioritizing key suppliers and diversifying or expanding the supply network. While there is a need to act fast, firms must also exercise supplier due diligence and maintain good practices on anti-fraud and vendor management.

 

Succession Planning for Business Sustainability

The main objective of succession planning is to ensure the continuity of the business and identify the next generation of leaders to create a future-ready talent pool and workforce. Succession planning not only enables the firm to sustain itself but to continue leading in the market while planning for the future. To ensure a successful succession planning, 3E Accounting introduced a Management Trainee Programme, designed to groom future managers and leaders. This enhanced management development programme will provide the candidates with the best hands-on-training experience and knowledge. Recognising the importance of technology competency in this digital age, 3E Accounting is the first SMP to introduce a technology track for our Management Trainee Programme.

 

Ensuring Business Continuity With Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is crucial to ensure business continuity. Digital BCP entails employees having the information to proactively manage and mitigate risks. Lawrence stated that digital transformation creates a digital framework that helps the firm’s stakeholders to be more prepared when handling cyber threats and crisis. Businesses will also be further equipped to protect the firm’s operations, bottom line and employees. An example of a digital transformation practice that 3E Accounting uses is the Virtual Private Network (VPN), which establishes remote access through a secured private connection. This helps to improve the firm’s business continuity.

 

Technology Applications for Businesses

Businesses can adopt technology applications to achieve business-wide benefits while enabling digital transformation, initial business growth and ultimately leading to business continuity.

Companies can consider adopting the following technology applications:

1. Cloud Accounting Technology Software.
2. Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
3. Data Backup Software.
4. Offsite Backup Software such as a Network-Attached Storage (NAS), FTP server, Google Drive or Dropbox.

In conclusion, there is a need for every business to have a BCP to facilitate business continuity and future-readiness.