On today's deep dive bonus episode, Martin Bissett of the Accountants Influencers Podcast interviews Dermot Hamblin on Sage's acquisition of GoProposal and the challenges accounting firms have with software.

Dermot Hamblin has spent over 20 years in the accounting tech sector, launching three Practice Management solutions into the UK. He was employee number 44 at IRIS when they were a family firm. After 10 years of hyper growth and private equity rounds, he worked with Exchequer, a market leading ERP solution.

After a spell with Thomson Reuters Digita, he led a range of tech contracts in Bulgaria and Australia and several software start-ups. In 2015, he launched Panalitix coaching in the UK and now works with a range of software vendors and accountancy firms to embrace the digital environment.

Key shownotes from the whole interview include:

✓ What accounting firms need in place to become successful and client-centric in a digital world

✓ Whether accountants should force certain software on their clients or give them more choice of vendors

✓ How an accounting firm's attitude to general ledger software may inhibit their growth

✓ Thoughts on Sage's motivation to acquiring of GoProposal and how accounting practitioners may benefit

When not working, Dermot runs marathons, plays squash, is trustee for a children's charity and supports amateur football.

Dermot Hamblin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dermothamblin/

NOTE TO LISTENERS:

This is a full-length interview (usually 20-30 mins long) from which the highlights show earlier in the week was taken. You can listen to this on a previous episode.

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