Horwath Clark Whitehill

Background

Horwath Clark is a leading authority in five areas of excellence: Corporate, Not for profit, Professional Practices, Pensions Funds and Private Clients.

Their goal is to build a long-term relationship with their clients and dedicate as much partner time as possible to meet their needs.

They have 67 partners and around 500 staff based in eight offices in the UK.

Challenges

Having wholly committed to asset management for over eight years, Horwath Clark Whitehill had identified the numerous benefits of concise and up to date records of assets and software titles. However, Ian Norman, national IT director, explains the company's difficulties with its previous solution: "It proved highly expensive and was unable to fulfil our requirements. We were keen to find a hosted solution that not only presented ease of use, but that was highly cost effective and efficient to deploy."

A decision was made to research and source a solution that boasted simplicity, ease of navigation and multi user functionality.

Solution

Parago Software and Grey Matter, demonstrated the solution known as assetVault, powered by Parago, to the accountancy firm.

Highly impressed by its icon based user interface, Ian commented: "The usability of assetVault is very refreshing. The demonstrated ease of navigation and simplicity of use were the key reasons for our deployment of assetVault."

Due to the established relationship with both Parago Software and Grey Matter, and the appealing range of qualities of the asset management solution, within the space of a few weeks the company had made the decision to roll out a pilot. One month later, assetVault is now live throughout the eight UK offices

Benefit

The accountancy firm is now confident of a thorough record of assets and software titles. Described by Ian as 'a granular view of the whole estate,' Horwath Clark Whitehill can now, at the click of a button, review its ownership and state of assets.

"The design and creation of this solution really does put the user at the heart. The standard suite of icons available is more than adequate allowing us to easily import numerous details to each asset and software title owned by the company."

"For example we have been able to log the depreciation of each asset behind its icon. We were unable to do this prior to using assetVault."

"With the introduction of the software usage metering facility we will now be able to see not only what software is installed and licensed but also how often it is being used on every computer. This will enable us to closely monitor our licensing expenditure and hopefully reduce it within years to come," explained Ian.

A further function that Horwath Clark Whitehill has identified is the ability to capture details of the company's power consumption. Furthering its commitment to a 'green image' the accountancy firm can now determine its electricity pay out on all hardware such as servers, computers, laptops, printers and audio visual equipment. Identifying electricity use, the company can issue policies such as designated switch off times. "The meter does not just calculate the energy savings for our firm, it also gauges C02 emissions. Being environmentally conscious is made easy!"

The IT manager and support manager at Horwath Clark Whitehill are also able to complete budget forecasting with ease, using the multi-user function. Ian explained: "As all detils are logged in one place, we can report on procurement and replacements simply. Previously this would have been very complicated; with assetVault it is quick task. The multi-user function has enabled our personnel to jointly manage the firm’s asset management highly efficiently."

The Future

Two future plans are currently in place at Horwath Clark Whitehill. At present, all mobile phone technologies such as Blackberries are excluded from assetVault’s view of assets. "In time we would like to add mobile phones to the technology suite so that we can have a clear view on ownership, contracts and replacement needs." explained Ian.

In addition, the firm would like to introduce the solution to other areas of the business; the finance department will benefit greatly from assetVault. Concise procurement records, as well as guarantee details and replacement dates will allow for substantial cost savings and efficient future spend.

Ian concluded: "Asset management is a crucial task for companies nationwide. A responsibility that can seem somewhat daunting and time-consuming for those companies or personnel uninformed of the issue is made extremely simple and hassle free with assetVault."