Business News

Accountants and business advisors, The Priory Partnership, select an Invu EDM and Kodak scanner solution to improve efficiency, reduce costs and add value to clients

Friday 11. January 2008 - Eastman Kodak Company today announced that The Priory Partnership, a Birkenhead and Chester based firm of chartered accountants, has installed Invu's Series 6 electronic document management (EDM) system, and a Kodak i160 desktop scanner to improve organisational efficiency, reduce costs and add value to a rapidly growing number of clients. The project has been completed by Kodak reseller, Copifax.

With over 2000 clients and 45 staff, The Priory Partnership is a large regional practice covering the Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales regions. It provides a full range of accountancy and taxation services to private individuals right up to multi-million pound turnover organisations. A founding member of the AVN national network of accountants, its focus is broader than just traditional activities as it offers UK owner managed businesses commercial advice, in a proactive and personalised way, so they can thrive and prosper. This includes HR, payroll, business planning, grants and funding assistance, and through sister companies, financial and mortgage services.

With so many clients all generating vast amounts of correspondence and an obligation to keep client related documentation securely for a period of six years to meet statutory requirements[1], the Priory Partnership was sinking under paper.

Amy Timewell, The Priory Partnership’s marketing and business development manager, explains, “Prior to Invu, each client had a correspondence file plus separate files related to accounts, audit, payroll and so on. While documents produced in-house were electronic and saved on our servers, typically they were printed off too and put in appropriate client folders. Duplication was rife with the same items often filed many times. Similarly, while we still do business letters, a lot of client correspondence is done via email and this ended up staying in email outboxes.”

The problems were exacerbated as The Priory Partnership’s two offices in Birkenhead, while in the same block, are not next door to each other. This meant a lot of time running between the two to get client records. Amy Timewell adds, “We get piles of paper – receipts, invoices and so on – sent in when we do annual tax and accounts for clients which is bulky to store, clogs up the office and could be lost forever if there was a fire. The business was also spending over £3k per annum on depositing files at a secure offsite storage facility after two years held at its offices.”

Further to recommendations from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, its accounts software supplier, IRIS, and its own research, The Priory Partnership short listed four document management software vendors, eventually choosing Invu along with Kodak. The system was installed in April 2007.

Amy Timewell explains, “The directors want to use technology to improve and automate the business more and addressing the document management issue was a logical step.”

Invu is delivering significant benefits. First, freeing space and removing paper swamping staff. Second, reducing superfluous costs incurred through offsite storage which, given the quantity of paper handled, was set to grow. Third, improving organisational efficiency by making it faster and easier for staff to access, search and share client information among each other. Fourth, improving the security of client-critical documentation through scanning and storage. And lastly, improving customer service by being able to answer queries quicker as all client documentation is readily accessible.

Additionally, The Priory Partnership now has an extensive audit trail per client showing who worked on what, when, who’s edited information and so on.

As part of the Invu roll out, the company installed a new Dell Xeon 5120 server and upgraded aspects of its IT infrastructure including new LCD screens per person and some new Microsoft Windows XP desktops. Today 43 staff use Invu day-to-day, with training provided by Copifax.

Invu was selected as The Priory Partnership liked the simplicity of the system – it has a Windows ‘look-and-feel’ so easy for staff to get used to – and was cost effective given the level of functionality. Amy Timewell says, “Copifax were really helpful, know a lot about how EDM solutions can help accountants, and genuinely had our best interests at heart. The key thing was that they took us to another firm of accountants so we could see how people work with Invu on a daily basis. This gave us the reassurance we needed that it was the right choice for us.”

Based on Copifax’s recommendation, The Priory Partnership purchased a Kodak i160 duplex scanner given the business is processing up to 3,000 documents per day and required a reliable high quality solution from a well known manufacturer. The i160 is based at one Birkenhead office with a member of staff employed to scan ‘live’ client files, shred these documents once done so that no more paper is sent off site for storage. This means that documents already archived will be destroyed automatically as they reach the six year mark.

The Priory Partnership is also using Invu’s Code Free desktop search software which was another reason for selecting its EDM system. Peter Emmonds, Copifax’s document management consultant, explains, “If a member of staff is working in IRIS and wants to pull up any related client documentation in Invu, they simply highlight a name or code number in IRIS and Code Free will search and find all the associated documentation. The software is a superb way of linking islands of information and works with any Windows application.”

The project has enabled a review of business processes within the business. With 15 new clients won each month, it was very easy for IRIS to be updated by a member of staff without the directors being fully aware of it. Now, one person is responsible for adding clients to both the Invu and IRIS systems resulting in better management information.

Looking to the future, The Priory Partnership is planning to take full advantage of the workflow functionality in Invu now that staff are comfortable using the system. This means if a letter is received which needs action, it can routed to a person with an automatic audit trail generated. Similarly, The Priory Partnership is reviewing whether to allow clients access to the system so certain files and their accounts can be reviewed after a licence fee has been purchased.

Amy Timewell concludes, “Without doubt, installing both an EDM solution and choosing Invu has been a brilliant business decision for us.”

Jonathan Tripp, Kodak’s document imaging marketing manager, UK & EAMER, said, “The Priory Partnership is an excellent example of how a market leading document management solution can make a real and fast difference. Organisational efficiency and client responsiveness have been increased by taking paper taken out of the business which is clearly good for the environment, too. We’re delighted to be an integral part of the project.”