The Impact of Self‐Service Applications on Corporate Accounting and Its Customers

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22084
• Date: 01 September 2015
• Author: Phil Binkow
• Published date: 01 September 2015

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DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22084

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The Impact of Self‐Service Applications

on Corporate Accounting and Its

Customers

Phil Binkow

Self‐service is

creating a sea

of change in

customer service

innearly every

industry—for exter-

nal customers, for

internal customers,

and for corporate

staff responsible for

serving both con-

stituencies. This trend

is having salutary

effects on corporate

accounting and finan-

cial departments—

primarily by reducing

costs and increas-

ing satisfaction of

internal and external

customers.

The fundamental

principle of cus-

tomer self‐service is

to provide a com-

pany’s internal and

external customers

the power—usually

via an automated,

online software

application—to get

the information they

want, anytime they

want it, by them-

selves.

For external

customers, we see

such applications

in online banking,

air travel preflight

check‐in, express

shipment tracking,

auto insurance pric-

ing, and account

status look‐up for

many online retail-

ers. For internal cus-

tomers, self‐service

is now being used

by HR to provide

employees access to

their timesheet and

vacation and benefits

status, by procure-

ment to streamline

the purchasing

process for internal

customers, and by

accounting managers

to automate a variety

of financial supply

chain functions, such

Automated customer self‐service represents a

powerful trend in a broad range of consumer and

business environments, including, increasingly,

the corporate accounting department. Self‐ service

applications offer two compelling benefits to

accounting departments: (1) substantial cost sav-

ings due primarily to reduced staffing necessary

to serve external and internal customers, and

(2) increased satisfaction on the part of those

customers. Because of the increased demand in

our society for customer self‐service, organiza-

tions that provide it may also reap reputational

benefits. While some accounting departments

have acquired self‐service automation as part of

company‐wide enterprise resource planning (ERP)

software, such systems require large expendi-

tures, as well as buy‐in across many departments,

including often resource‐strapped information

technology (IT) departments. Research shows that

many ERP systems also experience implementa-

tion budget and schedule overruns. Alternatively,

some accounting departments are adopting more

highly targeted, remotely sited online self‐service

applications, which bring costs down by orders of

magnitude, while reducing IT requirements and

shortening implementation times.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.