Freelance World - Integra

Freelance World is a leading provider of accountancy and tax advice services to the contracting and freelance community. Services include book-keeping, accountancy, business & personal taxation for nearly 2,000 clients in over 30 countries.

Freelance World approached Codify as they wished to replace an existing inflexible software system they had outgrown and that was preventing them from working efficiently. The new system had to be fast, reliable and allow Freelance World to deliver an exceptional and seamless service to their clients. Furthermore the system had to be able to support all areas of the business and be able to scale with the growth of the company.

Instead of basing the new system on their existing software, Freelance World went back to the drawing board as Alasdair McGill, Managing Director explains, "From the outset we knew we didn't need a standard accounting system or a standard CRM system, we needed a solution that would meet our specific requirements. We started with a blank canvas and worked with Codify to identify exactly what we needed from a system to enable us to provide the best possible service to our customers. They then identified the technology that would allow us to do it."

Codify provided a solution to Freelance World based on Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM named by Freelance World as Integra. As well as integrating these systems together, Codify created a bespoke Silverlight application to deliver the user interface for the many custom added features and modules. Integra covers many areas such as timesheet and expense input, sales invoicing, process fees, direct debits, bank reconciliations, payroll and monthly reporting.

Freelance World currently manages over one thousand clients in the system with the ability to add up to 20,000. This leaves plenty of scope for future growth as Alasdair explains, "Our software is no longer a barrier to business growth and Integra allows us to deliver a consistent service to our clients. The new software has given us an accelerator to help grow the business and means that I can go and sell with confidence as I know we have the ability to deliver."

Since going live in April 2009, Freelance World is already reaping the benefits of the new system. The extensive reporting capabilities have allowed Freelance World to be more proactive for their clients. For example, they can now run a report that lists timesheets which have not been submitted and pro-actively contact the client to make sure no invoice deadlines are missed. Previously they had no access to management information and are now able to run reports that provide an overview of how the business and individuals are performing. This in turn has allowed them to set and monitor KPI's for their staff.

Freelance World has also seen an increase in efficiency throughout the business. One such example is the queuing system. Previously client timesheets were printed and a pile allocated to each processor to be entered into the system. In the new system, Integra identifies the sender of the email, orders it by priority and service level and then moves it to a particular queue for processing. This area of the system has removed the need for paper and has improved efficiency by 400%.

Freelance World chose Codify for two main reasons as Alasdair explains, "One of our key requirements was for a reliable system, and you can't get more reliable than Microsoft so it made sense to choose a Microsoft Partner. I had heard of Codify's reputation for quality software so this plus the fact they are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner made them the ideal supplier. Right from the beginning Codify put us at ease and understood what we wanted to achieve and the end result is just what we were looking for."