Our Proposal done by Team Big3: Jing Han, Ghee Tat and Jian Rong Qn 9) Finance Function: Propose digital solutions to bring these opportunities of tomorrow to the finance function of today. The mega trends prevailing in the dynamic world we are in today posts many challenges for the finance function. Manual, repetitive processes may mean finance functions are costly and inefficient. Decentralised and geographically dispersed finance functions may find it a challenge to maintain consistency in the quality of finance information, giving rise to inaccuracies and delayed management decisions. Lack of architectural strategy in big data may mean the advantages of insights and analytics may not be fully realised. The opportunities for digitalisation is great. Digital finance is enabled by converging technologies and business trends, each with tremendous potential impact. Many of theEssential 8 Technologies(Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Drones and Robots) will help transform the finance function of the future. Digitalising the function would open up many possibilities; perhaps VR can bring centralised finance teams right to the field. Maybe a Blockchain can connect the ledger to the supply chain.
· Inspiration Initially we wanted to develop a digital solution to resolve the manual and repetitive processes that are prevalent in the accounting industry to save costs, manpower hours and most importantly, allows the accountants to put their skills into better use. However, after talking to the accountants in our various internships and our facilitators, we found out that there is no lack of digital solutions out in the market and most major firms have already bought them (100% software adoption rate). For example, ERP and document(Contract/Invoice) recognition software are able to solve the 3 main problems listed in the problem statement. So we further enquired why are these problems still prevalent despite the firms having these softwares? This is despite the presence of Learning Platform provided by the company like the “The KPMG Learning Academy” The main reason behind this is that accountants are too busy with their daily work, thus do not have the extra time nor motivation to learn about the usage of new applications. Another reason for the strong resistance in relearning new methods of doing things is that people will prefer their old habits of doing things, since they are already familiar it. Hence, continuation of adopting the old methods in doing their works are inefficient and do not help to save time in the long run.
· What it does We built LOTG which means Learn On The Go to solve the 3 factors that deter accountants from learning which is lack of time, motivation and accessibility. This app is a portable learning platform which make learning a fun process as compared to those boring passive classroom lecture learning style. The topics will be split into bite-sized subtopics, where each of them can be done in 10 minutes or less, in the form of multiple choice questions. There will also be a mini quiz after each subtopic to review and consolidate what they have learnt for that lesson. When an incorrect answer is selected, no correct answer will be shown. Instead, an immediate feedback will be shown to explain the reason for the wrong answer. Subsequently, learner will have to choose the correct option before they can proceed to the next question. At the end of the topic, a final test in the form of mini game is required for the learner to complete. This challenge the learner to answer the questions as fast as possible and most importantly have fun at the same time! A leader board feature is added into this game in order to spice things up to encourage some friendly competition among the learners in the company. Finally, an AI chatbot is introduced that act as a virtual assistant for learners to direct their queries and consult their problems. This Al chatbot will give an instantaneous answer or simply guiding the learners to the relevant subtopic that answer their questions.
· How we built it First, each of us (total of 3 members) use google sprint method to generate 24 ideas in a short duration of 3 minutes on ways to address the problem stated in the inspiration section above. Next, we narrowed down our selection between using VR Gaming and Mimo. After weighing the benefits and limitation of both gaming methodologies, we decided to integrate the two and thus the create of LOTG app. To start off, we created a few rough sketches the appearance and function of our app interface. After deciding our overall design of LOTG and finalising the functions of this app, Adobe XD was used to create a prototype. Finally, we use OBS Studio to give a short overall introduction of our app.
· Challenges we ran into With the short time duration given and zero knowledge in the field of accounting, it was definitely a challenge for our team to think of an appropriate solution to the accounting problem mentioned by PwC as well as creating a prototype app from scratch. Next, with the limited programming knowledge and time constraint, it is hard to build the entire algorithm and interface of an app from scratch.
· Accomplishments that we are proud of We experience a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction from finishing this hackathon, as it is our first time participating in such event. Despite our limited knowledge in accounting industry and time constraint that we faced for this event, we have a better understanding of the accounting sector and had a first hand experience in prototyping.
· What we learned We learnt that we should not rush to develop an initial idea as it may be a moment of excitement to just develop it without thinking through the pros and cons. We realised the importance and benefits of using the sprint method, as it is similar to mindmap method where many ideas could be generated in a short duration.
· What is next for our product We hope to be able to get the help of developers and designers to assist us in the building of LOTG before we collaborate with the BIG 4 accounting firms to put our app in place for the change to take place.
Built With
- adobe-xd
- google-sprint
- obs-studio
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