KPM CPAs Balance Growing Pains with Vertical

KPM CPAs

Technology with Room to Grow

Talk about growth: In a single year, KPM CPAs of Springfield, Missouri, acquired not one, but two separate accounting firms, bringing on clusters of new employees in waves of 15 to 30 people at a time. To keep pace with this growth trajectory, KPM moved into a new building, bringing 110 personnel from all three previous companies into one environment.

“They’re not done growing,” remarked Bill McKeegan, sales manager at All Comm Technologies in Springfield, Missouri, a long-time Vertical Communications dealer that services KPM. “Their goal is to emerge as one of the largest CPA firms in the region, and they still have space to grow.”

For KPM, this time of expansion was also an opportune time to implement a new communications system that could not only support a growing team and deliver powerful new functionalities, but was also easy to learn and maintain—a particularly important attribute since there were so many new team members on the system.

With these objectives in mind, the firm re-evaluated its antiquated, 1990s telecommunications infrastructure. Finding little advantage to salvaging their end-of-life equipment, All Comm introduced the firm to the Vertical Wave IP™ unified communications system. A full-featured, scalable and easy-to-use platform, the Wave IP provides a comprehensive range of capabilities, including sophisticated enterprise mobility tools; customized presence management; and versatile call routing features that can seamlessly direct callers to specific employees or departments.

Since KPM also provides on-site and remote managed services to its clients, the Wave IP’s integration with advanced technologies was particularly appealing.

“Our technology group was excited about these capabilities, especially the mobility features, which are a necessity for them,” said Don Hannay, director of firm administration at KPM. “The technology team is consistently in the field, demonstrating the software suite and canvassing for new managed services customers. With the mobile app, they can be connected to the system at all times, so they never miss a call or a message. It’s a really essential part of our communications system.”

According to Hannay, everyone appreciates the benefits of the presence management capabilities of the system’s ViewPoint user interface, which allows them to share their status at any time with a click of a mouse on their desktop, or from their mobile devices via the built-in ViewPoint Mobile application. (Before the Wave IP system, KPM employees managed their presence with an actual “in/out board.”) Now, staff can instantly see if someone is in a meeting, at lunch, on do not disturb, on the phone, etc.

Instant messaging also has become very popular with staff.

“It’s not even something we talked about when we shopped for the system,” laughs Hannay. “But whenever I pass a workstation, people are IMing each other. They fi nd it easy to use and an effective way to obtain answers to work-related questions.”

The system…uses the same logic as Outlook to set routing rules. I thought I’d start to hear some frustration about learning new interfaces or processes, but we’ve had hardly any issues.”

Don Hannay, Director of Firm Administration, KPM CPAs

KPM used to rely on third-party messaging applications, with employees toggling between various applications that were never integrated. Now, with secure IM integrated right in the phone system, they can enter notes f rom text messages directly into their call records.

Zeroing-Out the Learning Curve Affordably

Even early in the transition, the KPM IT staff was impressed by the ease with which the entire organization was able to improve productivity.

“One of the things we love is that the system is so intuitive. It uses the same logic as Outlook to set routing rules. It’s not some complex process that you have learn from scratch,” says Hannay. “I thought I’d start to hear some frustration about learning new interfaces or processes, but we’ve had hardly any issues. People have barely had to refer to the instructions. They’ve figured it out on their own.”

Not least of all, Wave IP was substantially more affordable than competing systems KPM looked at. The simple switch from traditional phones to a SIP trunking infrastructure provided KPM nearly $500 in savings in carrier fees per month, which offset a percentage of the expenditure.

In addition, IT is now able to configure new users and features as needed, which also helps the bottom line. “The staff is now trained so that they can accommodate future changes on their own,” said McKeegan. “We’re here when they need us, of course, but as you would expect from an accounting firm, they really prefer to use the best method to keep costs down. This system certainly enables that.”