August 2019accountants in it stimulating collaboration

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019

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WelcomeThe annual conference is fast approaching. There’s lots of stimulating program content as well as relaxed networking activities and discussion groups running across the two days. We’re pleased to have Huddle, Sage, Caseware, Redstor, Tikit, Silverfin, Tax Systems, Thomson Reuters, DocsCorp, Star, Databarracks, Symphony and Wolters Kluwer as sponsors. We are of course extremely grateful to these companies as it is their sponsorship that allows the event to take place.

The aim of the conference is to allow all delegates and sponsors to network, exchange ideas and discuss issues in a relaxed and non-pressurised environment. The Wednesday evening reception and dinner is a particularly important part of the conference and a principal area where both technology partners and firms can gain benefit through peer to peer discussions. The conference sessions have been designed to give variation with lots of opportunity for discussion. We look forward to meeting you all at the conference, and we will continue to distribute updates over the next few weeks.

Contents3 Oops… I did it again!

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5 Should accountancy firms now be investing in a modern, cloud-based Electronic Content Management System?

6 Annual Conference 2019

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Oops… I did it again!

A new data breach hits the headlines every day – and the repercussions are only getting more serious. According to the latest ‘Cost of a Data Breach’ report from Ponemon and IBM, companies pay an average of $3.9m per breach.

Preventing these incidents has become a challenge that’s consumed the time and financial resources of security and IT professionals around the world. And when you’re not working to protect your network and data from external attacks, you’re often busy dealing with breaches caused by employees!

We’ve spoken to numerous accounting firms with one common problem: they’ve all had data breaches caused by staff emailing information to the wrong person. Frequently, these incidents included confidential client files – and not only did the firm have to deal with the loss of sensitive data and repair the damage with that client, but they also had to handle the concerns of the client(s) who received the information and were worried about how their own data was being handled. We’ve also heard from many firms where the same staff member repeated the mistake again in future.

What if the right email was sent to the right client every time?

Education and awareness about this issue can only get you so far. In our experience, the team member didn’t knowingly cause the breach. They didn’t intentionally set out to send an email to the wrong person – but often they were rushing, feeling stressed or were tired. So, while you can

ask them to pay more attention and be more careful in future, there’s no guarantee this is going to work in the long term. After all, people are always going to make mistakes.

So, what now?

Well, it’s time for technology to step up and solve this problem. In fact, advances in machine learning and DLP technologies have made it possible to identify when people are about to accidentally leak data – warning users and administrators in real time that a breach is occurring, and even preventing certain emails from being sent altogether. It’s also possible to spot when an email doesn’t have the correct level of security applied and enforce encryption or ensure channels like TLS are used effectively.

The use of this technology can not only reduce the likelihood of a data breach but it also significantly reduces any impacts should a breach occur. The ‘Cost of a Data Breach’ study shows that use of security technologies such as encryption and DLP were associated with lower-than-average data breach costs. In particular, encryption had the greatest impact, reducing costs by an average of $360,000, while security automation that leveraged technologies like machine learning and analytics reduced the cost by an impressive average of $2.5m.

New cyber-threats are constantly emerging – so it’s time to put an end to that frequent exclamation of “Oops… I did it again!” and ensure emails get to the right people every time. It’s important your staff can work securely and efficiently, and it also enables you to focus on other risks.

…advances in machine learning and DLP technologies

have made it possible to identify when people are

about to accidentally leak data

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YOU WORK HARD TO WIN YOUR CLIENTS.NOW IT’S TIME TO DELIVER.

Engage your clients, keep projects on track, and ensureyour communication and content is secure.

®

“For any client engagements we work on, Huddle is mission-critical.”

The #1 Client Portal solution

“Huddle fosters collaborationbetween member firms.”

huddle.com 2019 annual conference platinum sponsor

Should accountancy firms now be investing in a modern, cloud-based Electronic Content Management System?

Do accountants need Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS)? It’s a question that, sooner or later, every firm is going to have to address. Firms are faced with increasing challenges around the growing volumes of data that they have to store, much of it email, and the necessity to demonstrate convincingly to clients that their data is held securely. In addition, like the rest of the knowledge workforce, professionals increasingly want the freedom to work remotely and to be mobile. An ECMS promises not only to tick all of these boxes, but also introduces enhanced functionality and security over older, file-based or on-premise systems. Do these benefits mean that ECMS are automatically a good idea and, if so, how in practice should firms choose a system? The recent experience of Saffery Champness may help to provide some answers.

Why get a modern ECMS?

Julie Berry is the IT Partner at Saffery Champness, the UK’s 12th largest accountancy firm with over 700 employees. Berry says that the decision to look for an ECMS was primarily driven by a desire to improve fee-earner efficiency. The firm was looking for an intuitive system with a powerful document and email search capability and predictive filing, and one which would enable both internal collaboration and secure external document sharing with clients. Saffery Champness also sought a system to support working with files in a consistent way to agreed, formalised and clearly communicated policies. This would help the firm tick important risk and compliance boxes.

Finally, Berry was adamant she wanted a cloud-based system that would deliver cloud’s inherent benefits, including unparalleled security and greatly reduced IT costs since there’s no infrastructure to support. Vitally, it also allows users to access files any time and from any location.

Finding the right partners

With these aspirations in mind, Saffery Champness conducted a rigorous tender process to find its ideal ECMS supplier. Five competing vendors pitched – two of whom were accountancy specialists. However it was the two non-specialist platforms which were shortlisted and the winning bid came from NetDocuments, a native cloud solution, with 20 years of history in the professional services and legal markets. Berry was particularly happy with NetDocuments’ approach to email management. “It’s the biggest area that we wanted to address internally and a big part of the requirement,” she says, “but the specialist accounting DM systems don’t deal with that.”

Tikit led the successful sales engagement at Saffery Champness with NetDocuments, and is undertaking the end-to-end ECMS implementation including, data migration and end user training project, as well as providing post go-live and ongoing support. Tikit is a UK-based, professional services technology developer and vendor, which provides industry-leading consultancy, training and support to over 1,500 clients worldwide.

Julie Berry added that the decision to choose Tikit was relatively easy. “Tikit can draw on 25 years of document management experience. They are a “safe pair of hands” having successfully completed over 200 ECMS implementations in the wider professional services sector. Firms like Saffery Champness are able to benefit from that experience of consultancy, best practice guidance and ongoing training and support.”

Saffery Champness has started its ECMS implementation project with Tikit and is due to go live with NetDocuments before the end of this year.

Watch this space.

If you would like more information about ECMS solutions from Tikit, please contact Colin McArdle at colin.mcardle@tikit.com.

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It’s now 10 years since ait was formed, and what a decade!

This unique conference is the pinnacle of the hard work ait has spent in bringing together member firms, member suppliers as well as new friends and colleagues.

These two days will be filled with round table discussions, informative presentations and networking activities.

Contact Emma Jones admin@aituk.co.uk for further information

Annual Conference 201918th – 19th September, Luton Hoo Hotel

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Get the right email to the right client. Every time.• Prevent emails and attachments

being sent to the wrong person

• Dynamically apply email security relative to risk

• Stop spear phishing attacks

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