Former members of a north London accountancy firm have branched out to become Micrsoft CRM resellers and are now offering a version of the system tailored for accountants. John Stokdyk reports.

JSM Technology in Edgware was founded by Jeremy Hyman, Mike Feingold and Sarah Whittome. The three previously worked together in the IT department of Berg Kaprow Lewis, where they were involved in developing the search/content management application that eventually became Singleview (acquired by CCH along with MYOB's other practice software).

In March 2008, JSM's founders negotiated a management buyout from Berg Kaprow Lewis so they could develop a new business reselling Microsoft Dynamics CRM software. For the first year, JSM concentrated on developing a CRM and delivery management system for the fuel/oil industry. When the founders started to consider ways to diversify, they focused on the business they all new best - accountancy.

The Microsoft-based CRM for Accountants application is the first result of their efforts. "It does what it says on the tin," said Hyman.

CRM would help practitioners strengthen their relationships with clients. "If you talk to a partner, they will know their top 10 clients. But what about the next 90 or 100 after that? Wouldn't you like to enjoy the same familiarity with your whole client base?" he said.

Microsoft CRM also brings some tremendous opportunities for practice automation by integrating directly with users' Outlook mailboxes, calendars and task alerts. The accountants-turned-software developers are now working with a client firm to explore how the CRM application could integrate with practice management systems.

"What we have is a very strong workflow engine. What we're trying to do is to take compliance processes - for example anti-money laundering checks - and build them into the workflow engine," said Hyman.

"Workflow is king to all of this - that's where we're going to make huge differences to practices."

While many accountants think of workflow as automatic reminders of tax deadlines and the like, JSM thinks that it can use Microsoft CRM's scheduling and alerting tools to cut up to 30% from many manual processes.

"Say a client rings the contact partner and asks about a share option scheme. That partner will email the tax partner, who will give it to a manager with a list of 73 things to do. Nothing happens. Often you will hear from clients that they went somewhere else to someone who nagged them about the task.

"When you use workflow, the contact partner can enter the narrative detail into the CRM system but record it as an opportunity. According to how it's programmed, the application can create a workflow path for someone to follow it up within two days and will send out a PDF to the client about the firm's share scheme expertise. The client has the info pack, the tax partner has a task - and the managing partner can see what work is in the pipeline. That to me is workflow."

Hyman and his colleagues have a strong track-record at adapting new technologies for accountants and it will be worth watching their progress in the next few months. If CRM for Accountants is as successful as their Singleview project, CRM and workflow tools could gain an important foothold within the profession.