Guest Post by Patricia Sigmon

In organizations of the future, every employee will have extensive knowledge and facility with cloud-based technology. Your organization is in danger of being left behind if you don’t acquire — or train — cloud thinkers.

HR professionals need to hire people who have strong skill sets in technology, particularly cloud technology. What skills do these cloud-thinking professionals need to have? Here are some general guidelines to help you weed out all but the best, most tech-savvy hires. You can also use these qualifications for training and development purposes.

What New Accounting Hires Should Know

When recruiting new accounting personnel, find candidates who have online banking experience, including bank reconciliation, bill payment, electronic transfers, international banking, transfer fees, and recurring billing and recurring payment. They also need to be familiar with ecommerce-based ordering, paying, and fund receipt, as well as online invoicing.

The cloud-thinking accounting pro should have facility with online time and billing (labor tracking) reconciliation for service employees, and mastery of cloud-based full accounting systems. And check to see that they have solid experience with online payroll, 1099 sub-contractor, and expense payments, and with online interactive human resource systems.

The cloud-savvy accounting professional needs to have knowledge of direct electronic tax submission and payment, experience with electronic management of investment and 401k contributions, and the ability to do online sales orders, purchase orders, general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and fixed asset management.

Finally, he or she should have remote access experience through a terminal server, as well as various internet connectivity resources, and experience with apps for banking and accounting alerts using PDAs.

What New Administrators Need to Know

Some tech skills every new (and existing) administration professional should know or commit to learning include management of customer relationships online for customers, salespersons, and vendors, and knowledge of popular CRM systems such as salesperson.com and sugar.com. New hires should also know how to accomplish inventory control using cloud-based inventory systems.

In the area of marketing, he or she should know marketing management using online email lists merged with in-house list management; cloud-based marketing systems for newsletter and mass emails, such as Zift and Constant Contact; and various cloud-based advertising, such as Google Ads and others. Website search engine optimization is a must, as is an understanding of website tools such as Google Analytics; experience with social networking in a business forum, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter; and experience with blogs, online webinars, YouTube publications, and online postings.

The cloud-thinking administration pro needs to have knowledge of online recruiting techniques; competence with ecommerce, online ordering, and online accounting functions; and familiarity with cloud-based email, Outlook, document sharing, and file transfers. Remote access experience through a terminal server, as well as various internet connectivity resources, is a plus, as is the use of apps for administrative alerts using PDAs.

Finally, find administrators who have experience with cloud-based “management by exception” techniques.

What New Tech-Support Hires Need to Know

Every IT professional these days should have knowledge of competitive cloud-based accounting systems such as NetSuite, SAP ByDesign, and others; experience with outsourced managed services, such as file server and PC monitoring systems; and competency with cloud-based data backup-and-retrieval systems.

He or she needs to have kept up with new developments in cloud-based Microsoft and Apple solutions, and have experience managing email archiving, retrieval systems, folder management, and former employee file management.

Finally, check to see if the new hire has experience with “return on investment” strategies for in-house versus outsourced employee, software, hardware, and process systems.

About the Contributor

Patricia Sigmon is founder and president of LPS Consulting, a 30-year-old technology firm that specializes in creating technology solutions for small to midsize businesses, with profit generation and return on investment as the focus. Sigmon also provides profit-generation advice in her boutique, profit-centric firm, David Advisory Group. A successful entrepreneur, a sought-after speaker, and one of our leading experts in the field of profit management, she is author of Six Steps to Creating Profit: A Guide for Small and Mid-sized Service-Based Businesses (Wiley).

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