Accounting Firm Digitally Transforms to Increase Revenue, Reduce Costs and Improve Customer Experience

About the Client

This major U.S. public accountant firm in New York City serves a veritable who’s who of the country’s financial elite. These high net-worth, high- profile individuals, investment partnerships, and hedge funds have extremely high expectations, including the need for fast and efficient access to financial information from anywhere.

In the face of a growing workflow as well as changing demands of its high-net-worth clients, this 30-year-old U.S. accounting firm needed to find a better way to process and access client documents. It also needed to replace paper file storage that prevented access during unexpected business closures.

In its quest to go paperless, the company chose Xerox^® DocuShare^®, an innovative content management solution that provides digital storage with easy access to client documents from anywhere in seconds. Xerox’s enterprise content management platform allowed the company to digitise, store, secure, and share information.

Not only is platform ideal in a home-based work environment, it also meets the needs of today’s increasingly hybrid workforce. The secure access of DocuShare allows users to get at their information securely and safely no matter where they are.

The company’s move to DocuShare proved invaluable in facing an unprecedented challenge that lay ahead. When New York City businesses had to shift to remote work during the pandemic shutdown, the firm was able to maintain services for its clients through the transition ⁠— something it hadn't been able to do back in 2001 when the attack on the World Trade Center meant the company’s office just blocks away was inaccessible for three months.

The platform’s speed has also boosted the company’s ability to service its clients, providing a “wow” factor that keeps clients and peers happy and satisfied.

The Challenge

Taming the paper monster

This major U.S. accounting firm operates regionally, with several regular DocuShare users, but its workflow is colossal.

Imagine a huge volume of original, highly sensitive document flowing into the company’s files every month. The problem was not storage; thankfully the company’s office building provided ample space. Rather, the challenge was organising and retrieving paper documents in a timely manner without a small army of file clerks. The company’s files were becoming unmanageable; the risk of lost documents unavoidable.

Bottom line, the company could not grow profitably or perhaps even survive if it could not find a way to access and retrieve client data in an efficient manner. It needed to find a paperless document and content management system.

The Solution

Flexible, affordable, easy to use

Years ago, when the company embarked on a quest to tame the paper monster that was threatening its business, it was ahead of its time. Remote data center computing was in its infancy and the “cloud” trend was nascent.

The company first bought a high-speed, multi-function printer (MFP) to scan its huge volume of documents into PDFs on the company’s new server. The MFP converted paper documents to digital, but did very little in the way of managing them or making them easy to locate in just seconds. Clients still had to wait for answers to their questions.

When executives began researching enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, they found many systems were either too large and expensive for a mid-sized accounting firm or were too small to scale with the firm’s inevitable growth.

Enter Xerox^® DocuShare^®, which enables organisations of all sizes, from small to midsized businesses to global enterprises, to dynamically capture, share, manage, retrieve, distribute information, and integrate with business system. Highly intuitive and secure, DocuShare leads the market in speed of deployment and ease of administration and use. Its unique “open” or cross-platform document management solution significantly reduces IT requirements, resulting in lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and providing a rapid return on investment (ROI).

Despite its massive capabilities, the company was able to install DocuShare in one day with no technical support and no customisation required. Better yet, employees were able to begin using the “drag and drop” interface right away. The company now uses two Xerox^® color laser multifunction printers plus two additional high-speed multi-function devices capable of scanning approximately 150 pages per minute directly into DocuShare.

The Results

Access from anywhere, answers in seconds

“Our clients just want answers, and with our DocuShare solution we can often provide answers before they’re even finished asking the question. This impresses our clients to no end, gives our business a cutting-edge image, and positions us powerfully versus the competition,” says the CEO.

Staff members can now provide answers to virtually any client in seconds rather than hours or days. Best of all, DocuShare enables company employees to securely access important documentation anytime, from anywhere.

While the company still maintains its paper files for a time after scanning, it has completely eliminated the need to visit the large file room, or to route paper.

Unexpected Benefits:

1. The company created an ultrasophisticated and technically savvy approach to serving clients

2. Prompt, state-of-the-art service attracts higher-end clients

3. Forward-looking company image is a tremendous boost for recruiting top talent

4. Efficient document management enables rapid growth and healthier profits

5. Web-based document storage allows for remote offices and continuous access, even in disaster

6. Paperless success promotes a “greener” mentality

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Enterprise Content Management Overview

DocuShare^®

DocuShare^® Flex

DocuShare^® Go

Automatic Document Scanning