Accountancy practice Scrutton Bland is headquartered in Ipswich. It become newsworthy as the first firm to sign up to a deal with Konica Minolta and eCopy. James McElhinney, partner, is responsible for IT at the one hundred and sixty person firm.
James says the legal tech journey for their female led firm, started with Interwoven some four years ago. “We wanted an electronic document retrieval system which would enable us to do away with paper files altogether.” He says. They opted for the Konica Minolta and eCopy deal to advance again. James explains how they use it. “As soon as post comes in, we scan it all, then if a client rings up, we just look up their file and history and can see our own response trail. James says they signed up to eCopy through their use of Konica Minolta. “We’d used their printers and ‘copiers so asked them if they could come up with something with the essential requirement being that it had to fit with Interwoven. “That’s when they came up with the idea of eCopy. We now scan our post in and if someone rings up with a query on the Inland Revenue, can search on everything we’ve ever received from them by section.”
James says previously they had to sort post before it hit the document management system and things were sometime difficult to find on the server. “We had to put a title on everything then. eCopy allows us to put the post in, allocate it, then press send to lodge it into the DM where it can’t be mislaid. It also allows all staff to use the system rather than just allocated support staff.” He adds that pdf’s are used for finished documents so that everyone is clear where they are.
When I suggest that the firm is showing some style, James says he wouldn’t like Scrutton Bland to have any labels to live up to. “We don’t like to say things like that.” He says, allowing us to glimpse his cheeky sense of humour. “We might end up falling over a cliff.” He chuckles briefly before adding an insight into the firms thinking. “We look at what situations are going to arise and review technology that can speed up our workflow.” He explains some changes that have affected their industry. “In the past we had a thousand clients who wanted tax returns at a certain time. Things were easy.We knew we’d have a thousand bills to generate. With self assessment, that work has gone so we have to find work from other sources. We discovered that more and more of clients had moved to digital systems so felt we should as well to stay ahead.” James says one of the things they’ve looked at is allowing clients to access their own directories to see their postal trail and tax returns. “It saves partners doing secretarial work.” He adds that younger staff or as they are being identified as ‘keyboard kids’ are also driving IT initiatives. “They highlight new technology and lobby partners to review software.”
IT has become vital for their one hundred and sixty employees based in 3 locations and James confirms that they have specialist software to cover their main areas of business which are accountancy, general insurance and an IFA business. “We tend to use different suppliers for everything and ask incoming vendors to consider the integration issues before I sign off on purchases.”
Space saving is one of the main benefits of the digital revolution at the firm. “It’s enabled us to free up storage space and put ten desks back in. He says also the speed and agility is essential for retaining customers. “People want immediate responses these days. If they email and want a copy of their tax return, we need to know how to retrieve a document with no delay.” Of the eCopy system, James says. “It’s very simple to use with a big touch screen and big buttons.” Which he jokes. “Even partners can use.”
James is involved with IT at Scrutton Bland because in a previous incarnation as a sole practitioner he had a client who was an ‘IT boff’. “I used to talk to him for hours.” He says before having a trip down memory lane. “He used to tell me about programmes and introduced me to VisiCalc which was what we used before EXCEL. Everything was on the keyboard and Dos based then. I had him as a client so he told me what to do. When I joined Scrutton Bland, we didn’t even have email. They said can you do it for us so I did.” Although he confesses that his knowledge is limited so he supervises more these days.
Of his career, James says he started out wanting to be a lawyer then adds in his usual cheeky tone. “But I wasn’t bright enough.” He explains it was because he wanted a qualification that would enable him to change his job.
Work at the firm consists of a broad section of locally, owner managed businesses. “Many are trying to build businesses because there is less interest in pensions.” He confirms that the latest increase in the capital gains tax rate from 10 to 18%, which is set to hit retiring entrepreneurs, has caused a rush of work. “Anyone who had a company sale in the pipeline is pushing to sell by 5th April to save the extra tax bill. It’s also affecting the holiday let market with people thinking of selling up.”
Although James says there is plenty of work for Scrutton Bland, they have joined a group called Nexia to assist with international connections. “I have a client who has sold up and is emigrating to Australia. He went there to buy a business, so I referred him to a lawyer through the Nexia network. As the world gets smaller we need to know about international law and issues.”
Three reasons from James for recommending eCopy
Ease of use: incoming post is sorted in one hit instead of two
It has OCR recognition on mail.
They are nice people to deal with.
Three pieces of information about Scrutton Bland
They have twelve partners and two are female. The managing partner is female.
An unusually broad range of services that includes insuring your property or business and IFA advice.
Average age for partners in the firm is only forty five. Retirement age is sixty and staff can stay on if they want.
http://www.scruttonbland.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment