How IRIS Practice Management is
helping to drive efficiency in a leading Isle of Wight
firm.
Bright Brown is one of the largest accountancy
practices on the Isle of Wight. It is based in Newport and also has
an office on the mainland in Southampton.
The two offices are networked and use the full IRIS Software
Suite to manage a broad range of client services. The system was
installed in March 2003 and replaced a variety of best of breed
solutions that incorporated tax, accounts production, billing, job
tracking and practice management.
The decision to upgrade was based on a clear need for
integration to underpin future business growth. The 'best of breed'
products did not enable the team to share data which was found to
be extremely limiting. Reporting was also an issue.
Gavin Kelly, the firm's IT Manager recalls the
problems the firm experienced. "The systems that we used prior to
IRIS were overly technical when it came to reporting and very slow.
I have seen a real difference since using IRIS. We are able to
produce far more sophisticated management reports in a format which
makes them easy to understand. Every member of the team is now
empowered to find their own data from the centralised database
which means that they do not have to wait for me to produce the
report for them. The time I spend producing reports has been cut
dramatically."
The use of IRIS Practice Management has brought about some of
the firm's most important productivity gains. The job tracking tool
is available to every member of the practice providing a 'real
time' overview of the current and future workload. The Practice
Management system allocates tasks to staff on screen, provides the
means by which jobs can be reviewed in 'real time' and enables
quick access to a 'client view' screen. This screen displays
individual jobs, the associated tasks, lists of attributes,
services associated with the client, work in progress, notes and
communication tracking.
The storing and managing of paper documentation can
be a logistical nightmare for larger practices and Bright Brown is
no exception. The firm finds that the Communication Tracking
facility in IRIS Practice Management is especially useful. The
document tracking and retrieval facilities allow the easier
location, retrieval and viewing of all client communication,
including e-mails, client phone calls and meetings across the
entire network.
Gavin Kelly said "Our long term goal is to go paperless and
IRIS is helping us to attain that goal." The elimination of manual
administrative tasks is helping to deliver real cost efficiencies.
The firm particularly likes the Word templates in AutoMail and find
that with just a little editing and personalisation, letters can be
produced automatically and in bulk in a fraction of the time it
used to take. Gavin Kelly, the IT Manager is in no doubt that IRIS
has delivered a significant return on investment. He said "Prior to
installing IRIS, each of the systems we were using had its own
database which created confusing duplications. Now, we can be
confident that we are using correct data at all times."
Live data access has just
been made available to staff who may need to work from a client's
location or from home. By dialling into the IRIS system using an
Internet connection, staff are able to work remotely and they can
be sure they are working on live data.
Bright Brown is a progressive practice that is making full use
of the IRIS suite of software. Gavin concluded "IRIS is a very
powerful system that is intuitive and easy to use. We chose IRIS
because of its broad functionality and we are now reaping the
benefits."
