MGI IT Group Meeting

The IT group had its second meeting in April. It was held at CBW's office in Aldgate. It was attended by representatives of eight firms and there were several topics discussed throughout the day, although the underlying theme was to try and understand how to achieve a better return on investment in technology.

The day kicked off by looking at production and practice management systems. Across the firms who attended there were CCH, Digita, and Iris users. There was a lively debate about the value firms got from the software they were using. Firms who used Iris were very happy with the reliability of the software although the non-Iris users felt that it did not have all of the functions of the more sophisticated suppliers such as CCH, Digita or those firms who had adopted a best of breed approach. Firms agreed that they would share software pricing information where possible and this has now happened in relation to the MGI Digita and Iris users.

The next topic discussed was how firms were using technology to better store knowledge and share information. Some firms have adopted document management systems and others were looking at the offerings of the integrated suppliers. It was generally agreed that document and email management were becoming more important for firms in controlling risk, and the ever-growing number of electronic files we are all creating.

Then firms compared how they supported their IT systems. There was a complete range with some firms supporting all of their systems in-house and others completely outsourcing all IT support. It was felt that there was no prescribed best way but that firms had their own reasons for adopting the support model they had.

There was a discussion about disaster recovery planning. Attendees shared concerns about the difficulty they faced ensuring that systems were being managed correctly and how they would recover from a disaster.

Finally firms discussed their development plans for the next 12 months. There was a lunchtime presentation from CCH which highlighted some of the problems facing firms with the introduction of iXBRL over the next few months. The next session is planned for early in the New Year where hopefully we will be able to produce some meaningful metrics that will allow firms to accurately compare IT spend.

David Watson
Milsted Langdon
Part of the MGI association
www.mgi-uk.com