IMGCAP(1)] I recently received an email from Africa.
No, it was not from a Nigerian person asking for money to be wired to his bank account. I did not inherit a lump sum of cash.
Yet, that’s of course what my family asked when I told them I was emailing with an accounting professional from Africa. The message was from a professor at a university on the beautiful island of Mauritius - located about 2,000 kilometers off the southeast coast of the continent.
He was asking me about the cloud.
Can you believe they use the cloud in Africa? Who knew?
But what’s even cooler than an African accounting professional contacting me about the cloud, was that I soon discovered that there is going to be a huge accounting "congress" (that’s what they call a conference) in Mauritius in May. Officially called the
What timing!
So, yes, you guessed it: I applied to speak about all things “New Firm” and cloud.
I mean, have you ever known me to be shy?
I’m not sure if I will be selected yet, though it looks promising. However, more importantly, within a couple of days of finding out about this conference, I was able to learn about African accounting associations through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Private Companies Practice Section (otherwise known as PCPS). I was also able to have two Skype calls with cloud vendors (SageOne and Xero) in order to understand the similarities and differences between the cloud in the U.S. and Africa.
Nothing like chatting with South Africa and learning they don’t use the word “cloud” at all. How cool and eye- opening is that? Talk about living in a social-global world.
This experience truly exemplifies how social media impacts our work today. How we can all be global firms no matter what size we actually are! Take for example us: we have five employees at New Vision CPA Group. Yet, my blog is reaching accountants in Africa and is helping them succeed. That’s something.
I very much hope that my future involves traveling to Africa so I can tell you all first-hand how they use the cloud there! Stay tuned
