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CCH rolls out ProSystem integrated practice suite

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25th Dec 2005
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Less than 12 months after it acquired PROacc, CCH is ready to roll out ProSystem, its integrated practice management suite for mid-market firms.

Based around a central client database, the software is designed to connect the CCH Taxpoint family of tax tools with time & fees, accounts preparation and audit paper software from PROacc.

CCH director of practice software Paul Brace said the CCH was striving to achieve a hybrid of "best of breed" applications with data-level integration.

"There's no compromise on individual products - they can operate on their own. But where they have common data, they either share it or synchronise," said Brace

Before last year's acquisition, the two software houses were working on links between their applications. But since the deal, the client data hub has been built from the ground up. For those interested in the technical nuances the inter-system communication is driven by COM serves passing XML instructions between them. According to Brace, this will make it possible for non-CCH software can integrate with ProSystem.

The software comes with PROpal, a small on-screen palette that holds short cuts to related applications. PROpal can be configured by users not just to fire up another application, but to issue command line instructions. A browser to open at a specific URL, for example, or PROpal could automatically issue the user's identity and password to log into the target application, Brace said.

Back in the 1990s, software house CSM, conceived the "Accountant's Desktop". A few years later all of the leading players in practice management software are offering integration.

Brace had the grace to admit that ProSystem was not a million miles away from the concept, which echoes the Data Control Centre within the practice software range at Sage, where CSM ended up.

"Integration is definitely the way the market is going," said Brace. "Functionality is what sells individual products, but they won's sell unless you can integrate the tools into a comprehensive suite."

While IRIS might argue that it's nothing new, the march towards integration has been swift - and partially driven by the wave of consolidations carried out by CCH and Sage.

"The coming of integration has to do with the changes accountants have been going through," Brace commented.

The changing relationships between the accounting profession and its clients and things like the increase in audit threshold means accounts need to look at new ways to replace compliance revenues," Brace explained.

The CCH strategy is based on continuing to deliver best of breed tools to keep up with compliance issues, he continued, alongside value-added products. The third prong is represented by hybrid products such as Client Relate and Client Adviser. Underpinned by resources from CCH Information, the object of these applications is to link benchmarking information and details of regulatory changes to the details held in tax and practice client databases.

Including these proactive relationship managment tools, ProSystem itself incorporates 14 separate applications, including a fixed asset register, a business modelling tool to analyse client businesses and an automated tax return review program that flags up both potential problems that would attract Inland Revenue interest - and potential marketing opportunities for follow-up services.

The core ProSystem starts from £3,165 for a basic implementation with accounts production, personal and corporate tax. Any add-on modules are priced separately.

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