How collaboration technology is shaping the client experienceAccountancy & professional services analysis

7out of 10

7 of the Top 10 reasons for losing a client stem from poor collaboration

The success of any accounting or professional services firm hinges on two factors – expertise and efficiency. But while these may appear to be two distant goals, they rely on the same simple capability – effective collaboration.

You might be reading this thinking that you’ve ticked off your collaboration objectives. Perhaps you’ve implemented an internal file-sharing system, or even a client portal.

The problem is, today’s industry professionals still find it too hard to collaborate internally with teams, and externally with clients. It seems many firms have found it hard to balance the need for robust security with ease-of-use and have created new, and often unforeseen, problems as a result.

So, what impact is technology having on the lifecycle of a client? Can better collaboration improve how firms win, retain and grow business?

Success lies in effective collaboration

All data taken from Huddle’s 2016 report “How collaboration technology is shaping the client experience”.

New business pursuits

What could help to reduce hours spent on new business pursuits

From increased competition to the threat of automation, the professional services sector is as challenging as ever. Unfortunately winning new business doesn’t come easily, or cheaply. A typical bid now consumes over $24,000 of otherwise billable time. That’s why finding efficiencies in the process is so valuable. The more efficient you become, the more bids you can process.

Acknowledging how important it is to demonstrate expertise and a wide breadth of services when pursuing new business, it’s no surprise that today’s professionals believe the single fastest way to improving efficiency in the bid process is making it easier to collect information from across the business.

With the ability to better mobilize knowledge across your business, deliver improved approval workflows and aid cross-team collaboration, Huddle clients report a 30% reduction in the time taken to respond to bids. That’s over $7,000 for every bid.

33% Easier collection of data32% Clearer approvals

30% Clearer document workflows29% Better version control

28% Better access to subject matter experts28% Clearer task-setting

27% Removing duplication of effort26% Clearer project management

1% Other

38% 27% 23%

Knowledge at risk!

In order to demonstrate expertise and breadth of service it’s key that you can unlock the knowledge and subject matter expertise that exists across your business.

Unfortunately, as you grow, the ability to leverage organizational knowledge becomes harder and expertise risks being siloed, or lost altogether.

Huddle makes document management simple. Document versioning is controlled and it’s easy to share documents with individuals or entire teams.

Without this, your documents (and knowledge) risk being trapped, deleted, or simply forgotten about.

of industry professionals routinely store documents

on their local hard drive

use a personal cloud file

sharing service

never move them out of email

Controlling organizational knowledge

The lifeblood of any client engagement is the exchange of ideas, insights and documents.

Lots of documents.

92% of industry professionals agree that a collaborative client portal is the ideal solution for securely gathering client documentation, managing tasks, and sharing comments. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and 75% of document exchanges are still managed through email; a technology notorious for creating document versioning issues.

Of greater concern are the 22% who are risking client confidentiality by routinely using personal file-sharing services to exchange documents with clients, and the 16% that rely on unencrypted USB flash drives.

Gathering and sharing documents with clients 68%

Version Control: 68% have wasted time working on an already out-of-date version of a document

Every month, just searching for documents costs $4000 per employee in lost productivity

How long do you spend searching for documents? You probably don’t even think about it anymore. But trust us, it’s too long.

Flooded by an ever increasing volume of documents, and an increase in the number of potential locations in which to store them, the average industry professional spends 13 hours a month searching for documents.

Huddle’s time-stamped audit trails, version control, search functionality and permission management means you spend less time hunting for moved or renamed documents and more time being productive.

The cost of searching for documents is unacceptable

21% 19% 23% 37%

Accessing documents

It stops me entirely

It restricts my productivity considerably

It restricts my productivity

a little

No negative impact

While 93% of industry professionals use a mobile device in their daily working lives, usage remains largely limited to email.

When the need to work remotely arises, more collaborative activities can be challenging.

21% feel completely unable to access company documents when working remotely on their mobile device, 25% unable to share documents and 10% unable to manage approvals. In each of these scenarios, only 37%, 29% and 31% (respectively) felt no negative impact to their productivity?

So what’s going on?

Perhaps it’s a lack of available mobile apps to support legacy collaboration platforms, or maybe a fear over data leakage keeping employee devices locked-down?

Huddle provides native mobile apps so you can keep on working, wherever you are. And our Mobile Device Management capabilities allow IT professionals to mitigate the risk of data loss.

Just how mobile are you?

45% cite changes to project requirements as a key reason for deadlines being missed, 35% agree internal approvals are just taking too long and 26% miss deadlines because it takes too long to consolidate feedback and manage document edits.

Your frustrations are your clients’ frustrationsThe more efficient your engagement, the more profitable you become.

Unfortunately things don’t always run smoothly.

Whether it’s managing tasks across dispersed teams or waiting on client approvals, meeting client demands can be as frustrating as it is challenging.

But when deadlines are missed, these frustrations are felt by clients too. 33% High fees

30% Failure to understand the issues30% Client management failings

31% Unexpected fees27% Deadlines being missed / projects being delayed27% Not demonstrating expertise

24% Poor quality work18% Not being transparent in the engagement

12% Data breach

Why business is lost

At best, poor collaboration can lead to a lack of transparency, broken audit trails, siloed information and duplicated effort. At worst, you may be risking a breach in data confidentiality and client satisfaction.

There remains a chasm between the way in which firms position themselves for new business success (expertise, transparency and breadth of service), and their ability to deliver on this promise. It’s time to close that chasm. In an industry where firms rely on the expertise of their employees, the satisfaction of their clients and the efficiency of their teams for success, better collaboration is of strategic importance and must be at the heart of your business.

A more collaborative future

Huddle is the cloud collaboration solution that makes it easy for teams to stay productive and to work securely beyond the firewall with colleagues, partners and clients.

Trusted by governments and a leader in collaborative technology for the accounting and advisory market, our clients report measurable improvements to billable utilization and client satisfaction.

No other solution delivers the security of Huddle while delivering a user experience that employees and clients love.

For more information, or to request a demo, please visit huddle.com

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