Advancetrack is taking new territories into consideration. Such a move will see it stick to what it’s knows best: world-class outsourcing, offshoring and podsourcing® services, writes MD Vipul Sheth.
Advancetrack has been very UK-centric for a long time. And the UK will remain an integral place for where we offer our services. But, in tandem, it’s time to push into new territories.
Keeping the vision in mind
If you asked me 23 years ago about my vision for Advancetrack, then it would have been one that leverages technology alongside brilliant teams in Indian centres to serve accountancy practices internationally.
It has been a long journey to put ourselves in a market-leading position in the UK, but, during that time, we didn’t want to just ‘stick flags’ in other jurisdictions saying ‘we’re here’ without a presence.
We have tentatively and patiently built knowledge and relationships in Australia/New Zealand and in the US. We’re well-regarded in Ireland. And Canada is on our list too. We are now stepping up in regard to business development teams.
Market perspectives
Because of Australia’s proximity to Asia, their accountants have probably embraced outsourcing and offshoring much faster – in a similar way to being cloud advocates, so that’s worth noting. North America has historically embraced outsourcing in areas such as IT – but, facing a shortage of accountants, there is an opportunity for us to help.
A business like ours that understands tech and process, makes it a very different offering to the bulk of the providers. Equally, we will have serious brand-building to do and winning some great firms that will be able to share their experience and see what we’ve said we do is true!
Gaining a footprint might seem to be about marketing, branding and business development. But as important is the work going on in our Indian centres. The teams recruit and train to be able to produce tax and accounting files that meet jurisdictional law and regulations. While our teams and offering will never be exactly the same, country-by-country, we ‘get’ that excellence in service is everything.
Looking in, and looking forward
It is reminiscent of when I launched Advancetrack in the UK – you feel that you’re on the outside looking in, with opportunities abound. Certainly, in the UK, we consider ourselves one of the leading players; we’re ‘in’.
While not going too granular on competitor analysis, we know who the main players are in those jurisdictions. It’s more important for us to focus on the good work we’ve already done and replicating that as much as possible.
The incumbents are doing things ‘their way’ and we’re looking to bring ‘the Advancetrack way’ of delivering services to the market. We think – and hope – that we will challenge them with a great, robust way of outsourcing, offshoring and our own proprietary podsourcing® offering.
The offering has been written, or spoken, about many times. We talk about how we help to change lives: of those using our service, of end clients that see the benefits, and even the lives of our teams. It’s more than filling a workflow gap. You can read more on the journey from ad-hoc resource to scalability solution by clicking here.
For us, it’s very much about building a group of people that do things our way. And that means doing more with our existing customer base and augmenting this with new accountancy partner firms - any territory we move into will be no different.
We have a culture of excellence within our teams – our team’s mindset is to ‘please’, and the only way to do that is turn up and become a better version of yourself, individually and collectively. By doing that, you’ll have happier and growing customers. And if they’re happy, they’ll share that with fellow professionals.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
If you’d like to talk to us about your growth plans, then please get in touch by clicking here.
