Partner s SaaS Solution Improves Productivity and Lowers Ownership Costs for CPA Firms Overview Country: United States Industry: Hosting, Application-Service, and Software As A Service Providers; Professional Services Partner Profile Riverwoods, Illinois based CCH is a Wolters Kluwer business providing tax, accounting and business law information and software solutions. The company has approximately 1,000 products for the United States market. For more information visit www.cchgroup.com. Business Situation CCH provides their best-selling solution, the ProSystem fx Suite, to accounting firms and tax specialists. To meet burgeoning demand for a SaaS solution, CCH is rearchitecting the Suite into a true SaaS product. Solution The new Suite will feature a true SaaS architecture to take advantage of many new features and functional capabilities that will provide both internal and customer benefits- and help CCH bring new innovations to their customers to make their lives easier. Benefits Customers using the new ProSystem fx Suite will experience increased productivity, true integration across all applications, and a lower total cost of ownership. "Integration of our client service and practice management applications is an essential part of our long-term strategy for maximizing the quality and profitability of our business. CCH has the proven products, market presence, and development resources to help us achieve our goals." Susan Harris, Burr, Pilger & Mayer CCH provides integrated information services, software and workflow tools for tax, accounting, business and legal professionals. The company s flagship software solution, the ProSystem fx Suite, has been completely re-architected from the ground up as a SaaS solution. The new Suite incorporates the most current technologies available and provides several compelling new features such as a common database across all applications, complete integration of all applications, and a personalized dashboard. CCH customers will benefit from the SaaS approach as it completely removes the burden on IT resources, provides access from anywhere, and provides a predictable monthly cost. More importantly, the new Suite provides customers with productivity gains and news ways of working that no other solution can offer.
We re excited about what the new ProSystem fx Suite can do to improve our customer s productivity. With all of the new features and functionality, a true SaaS approach, and the use of innovative new technologies, this is the most powerful and comprehensive solution available. We re really looking forward to showing our customers how we can make their lives easier. Bob Dias, VP of Marketing for CCH Situation CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business is a leading provider of integrated information services, software and workflow tools to address the evolving requirements of tax, accounting, business and legal professionals. CCH offers the ProSystem fx Suite, the market s most powerful, integrated software suite that includes modules for tax compliance, tax planning, trial balance, fixed assets, practice management, document management, workflow management, paperless tax and audit engagements, client write-up, web site development, secure portal communications and off-shore outsourcing services. CCH s industry-leading programs deliver ultimate office productivity and help professionals move toward a paperless work environment. CPA firms of all sizes have embraced the ProSystem fx Suite to help run their firms. The Suite is now the leading product used by more accounting firms than any other solution. CCH customers appreciate the depth of thought and detail that went into developing the solution and are quick to sing the product s praises. CCH customer Susan Harris of accounting firm Burr, Pilger & Mayer is a good representation of the type of feedback CCH gets on a regular basis: Integration of our client service and practice management applications is an essential part of our long-term strategy for maximizing the quality and profitability of our business. CCH has the proven products, market presence, and development resources to help us achieve our goals. CCH has offered solutions in the ProSystem fx Suite as both an on-premise client/server version that runs on a customer s network, as well as an Application Service Provider (ASP) version that allows customers to remotely access applications in a hosted environment. Over the last couple of years, the company has been laying the foundation for an entirely updated next generation version of the ProSystem fx Suite. This new version will address a number of market dynamics that have evolved over the last few years: 1. Costs to maintain and update the software code are increasing 2. Costs to license technologies associated with the ASP version of the product are also increasing 3. Customers are increasingly embracing and utilizing the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model 4. Innovative new technologies are available to incorporate into product development 5. Easy integration of third party applications into the CCH application framework is in high demand 6. Explosion of security regulation is mandating highly secure, extensible solutions 7. Social trend where people do not want to be geographically constrained to work in an office The new product Suite will feature a true SaaS architecture to take advantage of many new features and functional capabilities that will provide both internal and customer benefits- and help CCH bring new innovations to their customers to make their lives easier. Solution CCH developed the new ProSystem fx Suite after hundreds of customer interviews with tax preparers and accountants to help determine new features and ways to improve workflow. The interviews were conducted using innovative contextual design processes where CCH employees observed customers in the workplace and gained a deep understanding of what people were trying to accomplish while at work. Many new disruptive ideas were woven into CCH s new application framework, which will automate workflow and significantly reduce the user s time in preparing tax returns, financial
Using the most modern and recommended technology stacks that Microsoft offers enables us to meet a wide variety of business objectives through one program. Microsoft has really made our lives better and in turn, we ve been able to improve the lives of our customers. Brian Diffin, VP of Software Development for CCH statements, and other work products. The company also re-architected the Suite to work in a more integrated fashion and incorporates the latest technologies available. The cornerstone of the new Suite is its SaaS architecture. The solution takes advantage of the latest technologies for building and delivering SaaS-based products. The new SaaS architecture enables a number of compelling features for the new ProSystem fx Suite, including: Centralized data- the Suite uses one common database across all applications. That allows users to enter data only once and that data will populate all applications where the data is needed. So if an address is updated in one place it is updated across returns and everywhere else it shows up. Integration across all Suite applicationsall applications that comprise the Suite are integrated as a cohesive centralized framework. Utilizing a single sign-on solution, users can now sign into the application once and immediately gain access to all licensed applications. CCH s single sign-on solution also integrates with Active Directory, so user access extends to third party applications used by CCH customers Other components of CCH s new framework include a common installation manager for installing applications, common firm administration manager for entering common data consumable by all the applications, common services layer, and common user interface shell. Personalization- users can now create their own customized dashboards with the information they need the most; including even third-party applications. We re excited about what the new ProSystem fx Suite can do to improve our customer s productivity. With all of the new features and functionality, a true SaaS approach, and the use of innovative new technologies, this is the most powerful and comprehensive solution available. We re really looking forward to showing our customers how we can make their lives easier, commented Bob Dias, VP of Marketing for CCH. Smart Client Approach CCH utilizes the Microsoft platform for all of their product development, including Visual Studio and the Microsoft.Net Framework. The company was also able to incorporate several new technologies to make the new Suite a more enhanced user experience. Two such technologies include Microsoft Silverlight and the XAML-based Windows Presentation Foundation. Windows Presentation Foundation enables the creation of enhanced SaaS-based applications called Smart Clients. A Smart Client approach bridges the gap between the rich user experience of desktop applications with browser based web applications accessible anywhere, anytime. The new ProSystem fx Suite will feature Smart Client applications that have a rich user interface like a regular desktop application, while using the internet to access and update data as needed. In addition, Smart Clients can still run without Internet access so work can be accomplished on a plane or in remote areas where the Internet is not available. Benefits CCH s new offering provides a number of cost, time, and productivity advantages for both CCH customers as well as within CCH itself. For CCH customers, the Suite offers several immediate benefits. Increased Productivity The biggest customer advantage is in the area of productivity. With the centralized framework and common database and the deep integration of all ProSystem fx Suite applications, customers will be able to save a
significant amount of time for data entry and simply moving from one application to another. In addition, since the Suite is accessed over the Internet, employees can literally work from anywhere at anytime. Removes Geographic Boundaries for Employees Accounting firms can broaden their potential employee base to virtually anywhere as users can make use of the exact same functionality and data whether in an office or 3,000 miles away. Minimizes Burden on IT Resources Deployment, maintenance, and product updates are all handled by CCH so accounting firms do not need to involve IT resources for any facet of the product. Customers simply sign up over the Internet to get started. Since the Suite is hosted by CCH, there is no need to involve strategic IT resources in getting servers up and running and loading the software. In addition, all product updates are handled automatically over the Internet so users will always have the most recent version of the product. Predictable Monthly Costs With a SaaS model, customers essentially lease the solution and pay a predictable monthly cost based on the number of users. This provides the greatest flexibility to scale up or down as needed and you only pay for what is used. Operational Efficiencies and New Revenue Opportunities for CCH The SaaS approach has proven to be a great benefit for the CCH organization as well. From new operational efficiencies, to better partner integration, to an overall increase in revenue opportunities, CCH is experiencing a number of benefits, including: Lower Maintenance Costs- The new architecture for the Suite features one unified code base for all versions of the product. This will lower the costs to maintain and update the product. In addition, the previous ASP version required high licensing costs for the remote access component so the company is experiencing savings with some third party technologies as well. Lower Customer Support Costs The new SaaS suite uses a common installation manager where electronic updates are distributed automatically. This new platform will lower the number of support calls into CCH involving installation of their products on Customers premises, either on a file server or standalone PC. Easier Third Party Application Integrationthe ProSystem fx Suite was developed as a platform, which simply means that other software developers can easily integrate their own applications into the platform. Since CCH is the leading solution provider for CPA firms, the company literally gets hundreds of requests to integrate with the platform. In the past, the company was unable to accommodate many requests as the time required was too great. Now, CCH can provide a software developer kit (SDK) and third party developers can create and deploy their own apps without burdening CCH resources. Faster Sales Cycle- by removing the burden on customer IT resources, customers can accelerate their deployment times to days instead of months. This results in faster sales cycle times and greater revenues for the company. New Services Opportunities- now that each CCH customer has a unified database, there is an opportunity to provide much deeper and valuable services to CPA firms. CCH could offer a Services Bureau for things like data querying and data mining to take the burden off of CPA firms having to do it themselves. While this is a future opportunity, it has only become possible with the new architecture.
For More Information For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about CCH products and services visit: http://www.cchgroup.com. Efficiencies from Standardization on Microsoft Technologies Finally, CCH has gained operational efficiencies by standardizing their development on the Microsoft platform. Whether it s leveraging the existing skills and experience of their development team, having a unified code base, or creating a stunning new user interface for the Suite, all of this is a direct result of CCH s commitment to Microsoft products and technologies. Brian Diffin, CCH s VP of Software Development best sums up this notion; Using the most modern and recommended technology stacks that Microsoft offers enables us to meet a wide variety of business objectives through one program. Microsoft has really made our lives better and in turn, we ve been able to improve the lives of our customers. About the Microsoft ISV Incubation Program The Microsoft Incubation Center Program is designed to ease the commercial, financial, and technical challenges ISVs encounter while adding a service-based delivery application to their business offerings. Microsoft has established global facilities with a set of Gold Certified Partners in Hosting to guide ISVs through a structured series of business and architectural consulting sessions to ensure their business model and applications are ready for servicebased delivery. For more information visit: www.microsoft.com/hosting/programs/incub ationcenter.mspx Software + Services Software-plus-services is an industry shift driven by the fast-growing recognition that combining Internet services with client and server software can deliver exciting new opportunities. Microsoft is dedicated to helping individuals and businesses take advantage of these opportunities. By bringing together the best of both software and services, we maximize capabilities, choice, and flexibility for our customers. The broad software-plus-services approach unites multiple industry phenomena including software as a service, service-oriented development, and the Web 2.0 user experience under a common umbrella. For more information about software-plusservices, go to: www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices/ Software and Services Microsoft Visual Studio Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Microsoft.Net Framework 3.5 Microsoft Silverlight Windows Presentation Foundation. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published June 2010