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Case Study - Accountants

Is Efficiency Optional?
Partners in accountancy practices pride themselves in being able to offer their clients a long term, professional, and yet personal service over a considerable range of activities. However, like many of their clients, accountants are faced with the challenge of doing it more efficiently in an ever changing environment.

Computers are now common place in accountancy practices, and in their clients, and in the various government agencies with whom they communicate daily. As a result, accountants have to deal with multiple sources and formats of information.

Yet core client information and internal administration data are generally still managed using print-outs which are stored in manilla folders. These print-outs are sourced from paper correspondence & notes, and from electronic files such as e.mails word processed documents, spreadsheets and specialist application software such as Sage or Iris.

Increasingly, accountants are storing their information in several discrete systems and, as anyone who has tried to keep two diaries knows, this could not be described as 'best practice'! Information is held in manilla folders, on computer servers and on a myriad of PCs throughout the premises. Indeed, staff often use their own systems for naming files and folders on their PCs, making comprehensive retrieval difficult, particularly during absences from the office.

One Chartered Accountant has said "95% of our information is looked at only once, yet we pay to print it off our computers, we pay for storage space to house it and we pay for staff to retrieve it. Further, current files are not always to hand when a client calls, and this causes delays and costly call-backs to clients. Then, when we have to send information to a client, we either have to post it or fax it or find the original electronic file and e.mail it. It simply doesn't make sense any more to have so much of our information on our computer and yet have to depend so heavily on paper print-outs. The only time we really need to put our information on paper is for our clients and even then we are increasingly being asked for it to be sent electronically."

Stress, it is said, comes more from work we know we have to do in the future, rather than from the work we are doing now. An accountant's day can be made more acceptable if his systems reduce 'the number of balls he has in the air' at any one time, by enabling all the information he requires to be immediately accessible.

Allan Leighton, current Chairman of Royal Mail Group plc and past CEO of Walmart-Asda, has said that "being successful in business is no longer about being the biggest, or the best, or even the first. It is about being quickest, in every area of a business".

INVU is a product that is ideally placed to help accountants overcome these challenges cost-effectively within their practice.

Core Benefits of INVU
The following testimonials are not hard to believe and speak for themselves.
"When a client phones me, I can immediately access all his documents on my computer, see a roadmap of all communications and work done and deal with the issues raised, without involving anyone else and without having to phone him back" This is how one senior partner described his experience of Invu.

"If this place burned, we were in trouble. Now we have multiple security copies of everything, including the contents of all of our PCs which we back-up on our network."

"Frankly, we are just more organised. I can see everything in our practice on my PC and I can see what everyone is doing."

'Nice to Have' Features
Invu clients tend to notice they are photocopying less and they are interrupted less. Their staff workstations look less cluttered and more efficient when clients come to visit.
Staff utilisation improves, freeing up time for more chargeable hours.

Practices in high-rent, or high-wage areas, or in architecturally sensitive buildings, find Invu gives them more cost effective options as they grow.

Re-location of a practice should be a lot easier. Further, some Invu clients feel that an electronic repository of managed client data adds value to their practice.

When auditing off-site, staff can download the appropriate files to their laptop for viewing in their clients' premises.


How INVU Works
Invu captures all paper and electronic documents received by or issued by the company. These documents can then be viewed on a computer screen and printed as hard-copy if required.
Paper documents are captured by running them through a scanner. Modern scanners are inexpensive and fast and they can accept single or multiple sheets. Electronic documents produced by application software, such as invoices, are captured electronically (without scanning) and PC produced documents, such as Word documents and notes, tax computation spreadsheets, web pages, powerpoint presentations and e.mails are also captured electronically. Faxes can be captured electronically or by scanning.

All captured documents are initially entered into designated 'in-trays'. From there they can be classified on-screen as to their 'cabinet, drawer and folder', as in a manual filing system. Document retrieval is then achieved by going to the appropriate 'cabinet, drawer and folder' if these are known, or by searching on key words.

Retrieved documents can then be edited or revised on screen and re-filed, with strict version control and no loss of previous versions. Invu is designed to be tailored to meet individual priorities and company cultures.

The Installation Process
While Invu does not require special computers, the accountants referred to as reference sites took the opportunity to upgrade their workstations and server to provide a solid platform. Hardware is no longer the major cost in new business solutions, so it is generally wise to 'over spec' and 'future proof' in this regard. The old saying that 'the cost of success is usually less than the cost of failure' applies.
An appropriate senior administrator is allocated the responsibility for managing the installation, maintaining the system and interfacing with their Invu Partner.

Careful thought should be given to how documents will be categorised and indexed, before scanning or other inputs are commenced. Often, the existing methodology can be used or developed, and an experienced Invu Partner is a useful advisor to get the best results.

Staff training can be completed easily on or off site. Since all staff will eventually need to know the system, it is recommended that some staff are trained as trainers.

Installation is best achieved gradually, department by department. For example, one practice started with its 'administration' department, followed by its 'taxation' department and then by its 'client accounts' department. To begin with, current documents are transferred to Invu. Archive files are first pruned and then entered into Invu by junior staff as time permits or as an outsourced service.

A programme of early and regular testing of data back-up and recovery tends to enhance staff confidence in the system. Staff sometimes prefer to know that originals are still available, during their learning period, before they are shredded. Once they become used to instant retrieval on screen, few staff volunteer to return to the previous manual system!

Accountants can take comfort from the fact that Invu Partners are specialists in document management in a variety of industries. They don't stop at initial installation, preferring to monitor new clients' use of the system to provide feedback for their 'continual improvement process'. There is no danger of a 'sell and run' approach.

Accountants have found that there are substantial core benefits to be derived from an INVU document management and retrieval system. In addition, there are many 'nice to have' features.

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