Smith & Williamson is live on IRIS Star Practice Management

The 8th largest accounting firm in the UK has gone live on IRIS Star Practice Management. The culmination of a 10-month project, all Smith & Williamson LLP’s UK offices, plus its offices in the Channel Islands and in Dublin, went live on Star on the same day in August, replacing an in-house system developed a number of years ago. The 1,000 strong Professional Services division of the newly-merged Tilney Smith & Williamson is a member of Nexia, a leading global network of independent accounting and consulting organisations with 258 member firms across 155 countries.

Susan Shaw, Head of Professional Services at Tilney Smith & Williamson and project sponsor, explains: “Our business has changed beyond all recognition since our legacy in-house system was originally implemented. The firm decided it needed a new solution that opened the way to both more sophisticated reporting and new working methods. At the same time, we wanted a system that could integrate easily with the other new technology platforms we have adopted in recent times as well as others we plan to introduce in the future.”

The amount of change Star brought meant that the firm was careful to communicate what was going to happen, with additional training time factored in as the project continued throughout the first COVID-19 lockdown earlier in the year, with all Star services provided remotely from that point on.

“Normally, projects are a mix of onsite and remote work,” explains Star’s Operations Manager, Grant Chaplin, “but since March all work on all projects has been conducted remotely. This means that User Acceptance Testing, Train the Trainer, End User Training, the final Data Conversion and the Go Live itself - topics we would usually expect to conduct onsite - all happened offsite this time. It is testimony to both Star and Smith & Williamson’s project teams that we were able to maintain project momentum in these difficult circumstances. Moreover, we have assisted through three month-ends since as fully remote exercises.” Smith & Williamson is now transitioning to Star’s support desk services.

About Smith & Williamson
Smith & Williamson has been managing the financial affairs of private clients and their business interests for over a century. Founded in Glasgow in 1881, the firm has grown and evolved over the years to offer a wide range of complementary services.

On September 1, 2020, Smith & Williamson merged with Tilney to create the Tilney Smith & Williamson Group. The combined firm aims to deliver imaginative yet pragmatic advice and solutions tailored to individual circumstances. They achieve this by taking the time to get to know their clients and to understand their objectives, needs and aspirations, as well as the longer-term challenges they’re likely to face. Tilney Smith & Williamson is among the ten largest firms of accountants in the UK and its combined investment management business has around £47 billion of funds under management.

With around 3,100 people across all part of their business in 36[] offices across the UK, Ireland and Jersey, Tilney Smith & Williamson Group provides a distinctive range of financial and professional services to meet the needs of its clients.

For information, visit Smith and Williamson (Now evelyn.com)

About Star 
Star leads the market with the most innovative, functionally rich and technically advanced Practice Management software for CPA firms available today.

Star has specialized in the development and supply of Practice Management solutions to medium and larger firms in the UK and Europe since 1973 and has also built an established presence in North Americas, including other Moore network firms in the US and Canada and over 30 of the Top 100 US CPA practices as clients.

Star is part of the Iris Software Group, a $2Bn company that specializes in software solutions for the accounting, payroll and education sectors.