App Advisory Services: What, How & Why

Are you interested in offering app advisory services at your firm?

Do you want more information about what this service offering is, how to price them and how to scope the work?

Lucky for you, because I had the chance to chat with an expert on the subject, Will Farnell.

Will has run a cloud firm in the UK since 2009 and is currently a Xero platinum partner.

He also recently co-founded App Advisory Plus which helps firms find the right apps for their clients and to get support on them when needed.

Listen to the episode below to learn more about how you can implement app advisory into your firm.

But First, What Are App Advisory Services?

Will Farnell

There are a ton of apps in the cloud accounting ecosystem. In fact, I list 131 of the best cloud accounting software apps in an article of mine.

This means that clients are often looking for help in researching, selecting and implementing the best ones to automate certain workflows.

Enter app advisory services.

One of the challenges of app advisory is that firms don’t know how to price, package and sell these kinds of services. Often times, the advice given in this area is done free of charge.

The podcast below attacks this topic head-on to help your firm implement this kind of service offering.

Give it a listen!

App Advisory Podcast Episode

1:40 – What are app advisory services?

5:40 – Will explains the purpose of app advisory. The core is about removing friction for clients and delivering a good customer experience.

8:03 – Will describes what App Advisory Plus is and how it can help firms.

21:10 – There are a lot of firms providing app advisory informally, giving value away for free. How do you formalize this into a service offering?

22:35 – While Will doesn’t believe in timesheets, he does find that the firms not on timesheets are actually doing the worst with app advisory services. It all comes down to poor scoping. He explains why.

25:00 – “You can’t do app advisory if you haven’t done fact-finding and process mapping.”

29:26 – I ask whether app advisory services are once-off projects or if they can be built into a subscription offering.

33:50 – We chat about scoping app advisory for a subscription model.

39:20 – I make the differentiation between app support services and app advisory services. Will gives last thoughts about developing a recurring revenue model around app advisory.

42:25 – Will and I both agree that bookkeeping is a requirement if you’re going to be providing any kind of advisory service. Will shares why he provides daily bookkeeping services to his clients.

50:15 – What skillset and profile is required to be able to deliver app advisory?

52:40 – I ask Will what some of his favorite lesser-known favorite cloud accounting apps are.

55:05 – For those interested in App Advisory Plus, click here.

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App Advisory Services: What, How & Why

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