Rachel Fisch, the new North America general manager for accounting automation solutions provider Dext, said accountants should soon expect to see a lot more of her and her company. This not only means physically, at events like Xerocon and QuickBooks Connect, but also in terms of attention to, and presence in, the North American accounting profession.
"We can get involved to really partner, and just get a little louder, with our presence in North America," she said. "From a product perspective, for example, they will see [Dext] probably won't be as U.K.-centric as they have been in the past. … Though that is still where we're centered, we still want to see globalization and localization if we want to be successful in other areas and other countries."
The effort to expand Dext's presence among North American accountants was part of why Fisch, who leads her own accounting firm in addition to her new position, came to the role in the first place. As an actual firm owner who is part of the very same market Dext is expanding its footprint in, Fisch has always had one foot in the technology world and one foot in the practitioner world, often thinking in terms of how one can enhance the other.
"We do have some concentration of domain experts out there in the U.K., but not only is it great to have that North America view too, but also to have someone at a leadership level [who understands their needs personally] to be able to have those conversations with them," she said.
It also means Dext can move faster in the North American market, she added, since she will be able to approve things directly versus going through the process in another country.
For instance, she cited a recent meeting with a practitioner in Ontario who talked about needing a specific functionality for the product. Fisch contacted him to better understand his workflow and how Dext, in the future, could meet those needs. She contrasted this direct approach with that same practitioner having to go through other channels first.
Fisch made a similar point when discussing her background as a QuickBooks trainer for both users and Pro Advisors. "Typically, other software companies will have a smaller accountant-driven channel, but the entire company here, almost, is accountant-driven, so knowing the products as well as I do and knowing the compelling language you'd want to use for Dext and knowing the differentiators from other products [helps.]... Because I did the demos for my own firms, it's very personal knowledge I can now bring, whether it's to our new business team or our client success teams, to really help shape these conversations and be impactful," she said.
The need for someone who can do this in the context of North America is important for Dext, as Fisch said the market, like other regions, has unique properties that call for specific approaches. One of the challenges is that the North American market is quite diverse, given the many different circumstances between accountants in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the differences between Quebec and the rest of the country. Looking at just Canada versus the U.S., she said, one can see that U.S. CPAs are far more likely to be in public practice versus Canadian ones, only 15% of whom work at accounting firms. Quebec has an entirely different tax system than the rest of Canada, and its francophone background means it also has a different mix of French language-supporting accounting products commonly in use. Dext's international reach, though, will help with the latter issue.
"We have a very strong presence in France as well, so we can leverage a lot of French language resources we have in France to roll those out in Quebec as well, so we wouldn't see a lot of differences from firm to firm in other provinces, but Quebec is unique," she said.
While in the short term Fisch has most recently overseen the creation of a new account executive role as well as done some rethinking of certain roles to encourage consistent processes and models, the long-term plan is more engagement with the North American accounting community to better gear Dext toward its needs. Though she demurred on sharing specifics, Fisch said professionals will soon see concrete demonstrations of what that means.
"I think there may be a general sense that Dext has not been innovating or that there may not have been a clearer acquisition strategy," she said. "I think later this year, everyone will realize how much innovation has been going on behind the scenes and what the plan was all along behind those acquisitions. It should be coming out just in time for the larger conferences. Hopefully by Xerocon or [QuickBooks] Connect we can be a bit louder about it, but even as someone who has loved Dext as long as I have, I'm excited about what is coming," she said.
