Aston Shaw found its business processes had not grown in line with headcount
Founded in 1969, Aston Shaw is a mid-sized accounting practice with 6 offices across the East of England. It has seen continued growth over the past decade, doubling in headcount.
As an accountancy practice, there is a lot of client data to manage. However, business processes and systems had not evolved in line with headcount growth. In many instances, core client data remained primarily in the heads of account managers!
This challenge was made worse by a lack of integration across the different IT systems in use. As a result, client data had to be manually copied between systems, which was inefficient and led to data inaccuracy. An example of this inefficiency is a simple task such as a client’s change of address. This would have to be manually entered into 3 different systems!
With data being either unavailable or unreliable it was of limited use to marketing and sales.
Desperately seeking opportunities (and supporting products)
Aston Shaw wanted to solve these issues and to identify further opportunities that accurate, centralised client data could bring. With the help of CRM Insights, the Workbooks CRM product was implemented.
The decision to use Workbooks CRM was driven, in part, by its out-of-the-box integration capabilities with the new practice management system, CCH from Wolters Kluwer. This ensured changes made in one system are automatically reflected in the other.
Centralised data drives business opportunity
An optimally configured, integrated and adopted CRM means that all client interactions can be centrally recorded. This makes it easier to manage client relationships throughout the entire life cycle.
Driving further business opportunities is one area where Aston Shaw has seen improvement. Previously the firm was quite lax in this regard.
“There would be no follow up, no chasing. People are busy so they would forget. And, without support from the systems, they couldn’t be expected to stay on top of things.”
Charlie Maylin, Systems Analyst
The CRM has enabled those with sales responsibilities to be held to account. Not from the pressure of accountability, but from having client and opportunity data readily available to act upon. As a result, conversion rates have increased.
"We’ve taken information out of people heads and put it into the system. Now people can see the open leads, and we can be more organised and disciplined about managing them."
Charlie Maylin, Systems Analyst
Improvements don’t stop at sales
Aston Shaw has seen benefits across a broad range of business areas. For example, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes were previously burdensome on both staff and clients. Now, through expert configuration and bespoke script development by CRM Insights, Workbooks CRM is seamlessly integrated with Trust ID to automate much of the AML process. The resultant process is much slicker and the client experience improved.
"The benefits that CRM Insights have provided us are difficult to pinpoint into any one benefit. It’s more a collection of small improvements that together add up to make a large impact."
Charlie Maylin, Systems Analyst
Have your business processes and systems fallen behind the growth in your business?
This is a common challenge for many businesses that experience periods of growth. There's so much focus on winning the work, and in getting the human resources to deliver the work, that business process optimisation and systems alignment often get left by the wayside. The irony is that improving business processes and efficiency along the way, can often result in enabling your existing people to do a lot more with the same available time.
If these are issues that your business is facing, or if you simply want to explore the integration and optimisation opportunities that may be available to you, click or tap on the button below to schedule a free consultation with one of our CRM experts
