Commissioning a new suite of core software

Sector

Accountancy Firm

Business Size

100 people

The Client

Our client is a multi-office firm of accountants with 100 staff, who had traditionally operated a “all-in-one” suite of software covering practice management, document management, and production system for tax and other service lines. This software was preventing the firm from accessing and analysing its own data because of its closed architecture. The software was also becoming increasingly expensive without adding more features.

The Engagement

The firm already has an in-house IT support team who provide their team with help whenever specific issues arose. The internal team are good but lacked the market and sector experience to make a major change to core software systems. We worked with this team to blend their excellent knowledge of users and their needs, with our knowledge of possible providers and systems.

Our Approach

This would be the biggest IT change the firm had undertaken in many years. We spent time with service line heads and the management board to determine their appetite for change, and decided on a approach to change the practice and document management systems in the first instance, establish a new “framework” for an open IT architecture, and then choose software for each service line that could operate with this framework.

Our knowledge bridged the professional staff at the firm, who were very clear on their wants and needs, the internal IT team who provided excellent platform and technical expertise, and the selection of options and providers on the market. We were able to complement the firm’s existing internal capabilities, add value to the project and give the Directors an increased level of confidence in its successful completion.

The Result

We selected the correct solution for practice management and effected the data transfer and setup of the new practice management system, moving from a closed, legacy on-premise system to a modern, open, cloud-based alternative. Similarly, we selected and then facilitated the adoption of a new, open, cloud-based document management system, not only matching its predecessor but enabling unheard-of efficiencies through automation.

The next phase will see replacement of each service-line production system, including tax, accounts production and company secretarial will cloud systems, integrated with one another and the new practice management system.