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As modern accounting practices evolve, firms face several challenges, such as evolving customer expectations, rising competition, stringent compliance, advanced cyber threats, and workforce flexibility requirements.
Moreover, digital transformation has led accounting firms to adopt AI-powered applications that require real-time processing.
The legacy office desktops are not equipped to adapt to the evolving accounting landscape as accountants demand greater operational flexibility. It has prompted modern accounting firms to migrate to a more flexible, scalable, and secure IT solution: Desktop as a Service (DaaS).
Desktop as a Service is an offering by cloud service providers that provides virtual desktops to accountants at pay-as-you-go pricing. It alleviates most IT challenges for the accounting firm, allowing it to focus on core processes. Due to the perks DaaS offers, its market value is forecasted to reach USD 48.7 billion by 2035 at a CAGR of 18%.
In this blog, we will discuss some practical use cases that make Desktop as a Service the right option for accounting and CPA firms.
1. You experience system crashes during the tax season.
For accounting and CPA firms, tax season means long hours, extensive workloads, and client expectations. If you experience even minor disruption during this period, it results in delays and poor client experience.
However, you might have experienced that physical desktops often crash due to excessive workload, causing significant downtime. This is because office desktops have limited resources and are often overwhelmed by the extensive usage of accounting software and storage.
On the other hand, Desktop as a Service offers virtual desktops built in a scalable cloud environment. These virtual desktops scale automatically according to the dynamic business requirements. When your workload normalizes after the tax season, the virtual desktop reverts to its original configuration. It ensures you never experience any downtime due to a sudden increase in workload.
Moreover, you can opt for any number of virtual desktops to cater to tax season requirements. DaaS providers can provision these desktops instantly without any capital investments.
2. You want to implement flexible work policies.
Ever since the pandemic, every accountant prefers to work in a hybrid setting so they can maintain work-life balance. Firms have tried to implement hybrid policies that offer work flexibility to accountants, but have found it challenging to do so with the local IT infrastructure.
When you have physical desktops, you can implement remote work protocols only with a VPN or remote access tools. Both of these offer suboptimal performance, and accountants experience frequent lags, screen freezes, or application crashes. Moreover, these solutions are vulnerable to advanced cyber threats.
With DaaS, accountants can access virtual desktops created in the provider’s VDI environment from any location at any time. All they need to do is pick up any device (can be a personal smartphone, laptop, or tablet), open a web browser, and log in to the provider’s cloud portal.
It enables accounting firms to implement effective and secure remote work policies without making significant changes to the existing IT setup.
3. You encounter frequent data security issues.
Accounting firms are the preferred targets for cyberattackers worldwide. As you work on highly sensitive information, even a small vulnerability in your security posture can cost you millions. If you encounter security incidents, such as unauthorized access, unusual traffic, or phishing attempts, it means your in-house data security infrastructure is not capable of handling the advanced threat landscape.
In the case of DaaS, service providers deploy a multi-tier security infrastructure with advanced features, including SSO, data encryption, 24/7 network monitoring, endpoint security, Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDPS). Moreover, they implement access controls, enabling you to set user roles and permissions to prevent unauthorized access.
Moreover, their data centers have physical security controls, including multi-level authorization and 24/7 CCTV surveillance.
4. Your productivity is getting affected by downtime.
Operational disruptions due to major physical events, such as fire or natural disasters, are a reality for numerous accounting firms. In that case, you can do nothing but wait for the event to subside and the systems to get back up.
If you have experienced such an event in the past or operate in a disaster-prone zone, it is time to start looking for a reliable desktop platform that ensures all-time availability.
DaaS providers guarantee a minimum uptime of 99.99 percent in their SLA. They implement a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan that ensures continuous operations by deploying hardware and equipment redundancy in data centers. Moreover, your accounting apps and data are replicated in multiple data centers to prevent downtime due to natural disasters.
5. Your IT costs are getting out of hand.
Are your IT expenses costing you more than you can afford? You have to constantly invest in new desktops and supporting equipment, such as cabling and air conditioning. You are paying hefty power bills to keep the systems running. Moreover, you must incur recurring costs in recruiting, training, and paying the IT team.
DaaS saves big on both capital and operational expenses. Firstly, you don’t need to procure high-end desktops for your office as virtual desktops can be accessed on personal devices, such as smartphones and laptops. Secondly, since there are fewer physical laptops, you can work with a compact IT team that coordinates with the DaaS provider. Moreover, DaaS also minimizes the costs of hardware replacement, upgrades, and licensing.
Switch to managed DaaS and turn unpredictable capital expenses into a simple, flat monthly cost.
6. You are struggling with compliance.
As an accounting firm, you must comply with multiple regulatory requirements from bodies such as the IRS and FTC. This includes maintaining a Written Information Security Plan (WISP) to protect sensitive taxpayer and client data.
Moreover, there are regulations depending on your location and clientele, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA. Any event of non-compliance with these can lead to considerable penalties and legal issues. However, it can be challenging for a CPA firm to track all regulations.
A DaaS provider ensures compliance with all relevant data regulations. They deploy a comprehensive security posture that prevents non-compliance incidents and offer real-time reports for audits.
7. You find it challenging to share files with the client.
Sharing files and forms with clients for signatures and approvals is an everyday process for any accounting firm. However, when you share these documents over email, it generates long threads and multiple copies of the same file, which is frustrating to manage. Moreover, this complex workflow causes significant delays in the accounting process.
DaaS offers an online platform where accountants and clients can collaborate in real time. You can upload forms and documents to the cloud, which the clients can access from their location with the right credentials. It prevents the creation of multiple copies of the same file, as all stakeholders can access and work on a single file.
8. Your IT team is unable to resolve issues in time.
Is your in-house IT team working 24/7 to ensure that any IT issue faced by accountants is resolved on time, but is still unable to minimize service disruptions? It may be due to several reasons, such as staff shortage or lack of expertise.
Hosted virtual desktop providers offer you 24/7/365 customer support via call, chat, or email. You can connect with their representatives anytime for a swift and concrete resolution to any issue. It relieves the pressure from your in-house IT team and allows them to focus on other tasks.
Get 24/7 expert support and 99.99% uptime built for accounting firms.
9. Managing desktops for a large workforce is a challenge.
In a CPA firm, a dedicated workstation must be allotted to each employee. Moreover, the system requirements for each department vary based on the tools they install and the data they store.
Managing each department’s physical desktops can be challenging, as you need to constantly monitor each desktop’s health, provision new systems, replace faulty hardware, and manage OS licensing.
Desktop as a Service streamlines desktop management. As desktops are virtual, you can manage them all on a centralized control plane. Moreover, virtual desktops can be provisioned in minutes, and you can create desktop pools to configure desktops in bulk for a particular department. If you want to deprovision a virtual desktop, you can do so with a single click.
Choose the DaaS Provider Wisely
Desktop as a Service can overcome most of the challenges posed by a legacy desktop infrastructure. However, before choosing the DaaS provider, you must analyze your current IT setup to get a clear picture of what you are looking for.
Moreover, you must research each provider thoroughly to check their reliability. No DaaS provider should be chosen before trying out their services first.
If you want to see how your firm can benefit from DaaS, try Ace Cloud Hosting’s 7-day free trial. We offer virtual desktop services optimized for the accounting industry with 99.99% uptime, 247/365 support, and high-performance computing desktops.
