As its client roster grew, MHA recognised it was time to transition to a more agile and flexible company culture. This would empower the company’s staff to continue carrying out two highly important client-service objectives: spending time in-person with clients, and at the same time being available to clients by phone, even while on the road.
Because MHA’s previous on-premise phone infrastructure allowed accountants to take and make business calls only from their desk phones, they became essentially inaccessible as soon as they headed out for a client meeting or to meet with colleagues at one of the firm’s other locations across the UK.
“This led to embarrassing situations where we’d have to phone a client and ask to speak with one of our people who we knew was there,” recalls Andrew Carter, MHA’s IT Business Manager.
Not only that, the firm has grown over the years through mergers and acquisitions. As a result, MHA didn’t have a central communications platform—instead, it had a network of different solutions and telecom providers at its many locations. With so many different tools, it meant they didn’t have simple things like a shared company directory for easy internal dialing.
Callers would have to phone into the office’s main number and ask the front-desk staff to transfer them to the right person or department. That wasn’t efficient, and it didn’t allow for the client experience the company wanted to provide.”
