JOHNSTON CARMICHAEL are the largest independent firm of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers in Scotland, with a team of over 800 employees based across 13 locations across Scotland and beyond.

With over 16,000 clients across a diverse range of sectors, their industry specialists use their expertise and experience to act as trusted advisers offering detailed knowledge of their clients’ sector and insights to meet their individual needs across audit, tax, personal finance, and other key areas.

“When we embarked on the selection process for a new client portal, we had a long list of requirements. Providing basic sharing of information securely was a given, but we also wanted to enhance client service and improve our internal processes to support the digitalisation of our services. The project team were unanimous in the decision to select Glasscubes as our partner.”

YVONNE IRWIN Director Client Service & Projects, Johnston Carmichael

The Challenge

We found our existing client portal solution to be very basic, clunky, and not intuitive for users. As a result, less than 10% of our client base used the portal, they often found workarounds or reverted to email. Internally, our Client Relationship Managers also used alternative mediums to communicate with clients, which often lead to confusion and frustration.

The lack of adoption by clients to engage with us digitally was resulting in inefficiencies and increased costs. We were concerned that we could potentially lose clients if we could not provide a ‘easy’ way of doing business with us.

Clients became frustrated, as it was unclear where their information was located. Information was unstructured in our existing portal, just a list of folders, which contained various types of information e.g., communications, client information uploads, draft & final accounts, as well as completed returns. Additionally, duplicate files were often saved under the same name, which resulted in version control issues.

Why Glasscubes?

We went to tender in search of a supplier that could provide the best fit to our immediate requirements, while also considering how their solution might evolve over time.

Our requirements included the need for electronic document approvals, bulk file requests, client collaboration, a comprehensive audit trail and detailed reporting, all in one place. The ease of internal and external user management, single sign-on for our staff and a comprehensive API to seamlessly integrate with our other systems was also important to us. In addition, we hoped for a marketing capability, which would allow us to target information and updates to clients based on their industry.

Glasscubes met our requirements but were also chosen based on the credibility of their team and the passion they have for the platform.

“The Glasscubes team have taken the time to understand our business, the use case of each team, and have been on hand to support. We have received great feedback from our clients and are looking forward to continuing to build on our relationship with Glasscubes.”

The Transition

The Glasscubes migration team understood the requirements of each of our business lines and provided options to the pain points that were identified. We worked closely with them throughout the planning and execution of our migration. Careful consideration was given to the impact on clients that were users of our current portal facility and we agreed what should be transferred, to ensure the quality of data that was migrated.

The security of information was paramount, so assigning the correct level of access to internal and external users was critical. Stakeholders were engaged to ensure they embraced Glasscubes. Our Business Intelligence Team were involved to integrate Glasscubes into our other embedded systems. Finally, we agreed the client onboarding process and arranged staff training.

"More and more data is being processed and past between stakeholders digitally – a best in class system is critical to successfully engage with your stakeholders and client base. For that reason, we would recommend Glasscubes."

EWAN BOLT Head of Digital Solutions

The Result

We have found Glasscubes to be very proactive and willing to support our clients and firm. They are always available and have demonstrated flexibility by customising elements of the platform to meet our specific requirements.

Since the launch we have seen an increase in the uptake of both clients and staff, compared to our previous system. It has saved our firm time, is ‘easy to use’, and has been especially successful for our audit business line and their clients. Glasscubes is a feature rich product that allows us to interact with our clients in a better way.

We feel very positive about the future and that Glasscubes will continue to evolve with our business to deliver what is required by our firm and clients.