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Q&A: Relate's Ian Lucey on CRM for accountants

Relate Software director Ian Lucey offers some insights into how contact and client relationship management systems can benefit practitioners.

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Q: Are accountants reluctant to consider client relationship management systems?
A: Historically accountants have been completely in the dark as to what CRM means to them. They see CRM as a business or sales application which does not translate into practice: "Why would we need to deal with our clients through a system? The phone is our only requirement." It has been more a case of accountants being unaware of the benefits CRM can bring to their business rather than reluctance.

Q: What kinds of firms are the most enthusiastic for this kind of system?
A: Practices cannot complete without an effective CRM system. Who is looking for CRM systems? Progressive firms who actively market for new business, firms who want to be in control of the client relationship, firms who want to improve information flow within their organisation. Practices that are looking to move ahead.

Q: What kind of specialist requirements do practitioners have when it comes to CRM?
A: Communications, communications, communications: email, letters, SMS texts; fax; etc. But also areas such as WIP, deadlines, job planning, workflow management, books in - all tracked on a client by client basis or collectively to be managed properly.

Q: How does DRIVE cater for these needs?
A: We see four key areas to running a practice - DRIVE does all of them in one system. 1. Compliance tools (accounts production, tax, company secretarial); 2. Practice management (time, billing and financials); 3. CRM (Communications, marketing); and 4. Workflow (deadlines, books in, staff & job planning).

Q: Can you tell us more about DRIVE's mobile capabilities?
A: Many practitioners now spend a large section of their time out of the office. We see two requirements primary requirements from accountants working outside of the office:

• Remote staff - with wifi connections, staff can now log on remotely to see and interact with the complete client file. This was impossible before with paper based files.


• Mobile workers - when people are out of the office but between meetings they can effectivelly do mobile work from their BlackBerrys or Pocket PCs - but this is only really feasible if data can be transferred to and from the handheld device.

Q: Where and how do practitioners get a return from using these kinds of systems?
A: Client retention - losing clients is very expensive. And missed deadlines can be very costly. In the event of any problems with a tax case, having a communication history to hand is essential - the time savings for preparing any such cases is enormous. Then there are savings on less duplication of work and much, much more.

Click here to find out about how DRIVE helped former Small Firm of the Year winner FPM streamline its practice systems

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