Leonie Ladgrove - Partner
Tel: +61 3 9947 5001
Email: leoniel@stantins.com.au

Involvement in selection process
I am the IT partner for the firm and have coordinated the whole implementation of APS. Basically you would call me the final decision maker!

General

When did your firm implement its APS Advance Practice Management system?
We implemented APS in March 2005. I started looking at APS a year or so beforehand but with so many other issues going on at the time, including a change in partnership and building our own commercial premises it seemed too much to take on.

In the end though I got to the stage where I could no longer trust the integrity of Solution 6 and as we already had a good relationship with APS through Michael Donnelly, the whole decision making process was easy.

Once I was serious about the need for change I would say it only took us about one month, it was all pretty fast moving.

How many users do you have?
We currently have about 15 employees using APS. Our firm has three partners and employees 20 staff.

Which APS products have you taken out licences to use?
We currently have Advance Practice Management, Xcede Professional Accounting, Practice IQ and Advance Tax.

Who was you previous supplier and how long were you using that supplier’s software for?
We were with Paxus originally and then Paxus was taken over by Solution 6. All up I would say it was at least 10 years.

We got to the stage where the reports generated by Sol6 were unreliable in terms of time costing. We could no longer accurately track WIP and as such our billing was affected.

We also lost confidence in the MAS ledgers as we had trouble rolling over files etc. Our dealings with Solution 6 at the time were disappointing as their approach to our problems was to look at upgrading to their new version of software that was still inadequate for our needs in comparison to the APS software.

Basically we were with Solution 6 for way too long.

Was your decision to move over to APS made on gut-feel, or was it more scientific than that? Please explain how you went about making your decision…. (e.g. team approach: IT manager, IT Partner, Work Group etc…)
An internal team consisting of partners and managers looked at various systems and decided to go with APS. This decision was confirmed after meeting with APS face to face. They were great and made us all feel comfortable with our decision.

Installation / Implementation

Conversion of practice data from your old system to your new one was of course going to be one of the major issues in your implementation – can you tell me how the APS consultant performed in this regard?
Our consultant was very helpful and really guided us through every step. We were worried about data being lost but in the end we really didn’t lose anything – which was a great relief to all of us.

Product

Functionality

How does the Advance suite compare to you previous product in terms of functionality?
APS is significantly more functional than the software we were used to with Sol6.

Our greatest improvements have been made in billings. Our first year with APS saw our revenue grow above what was expected through normal growth - by about 40%. I can only put this down to the functionality of the software.

Also, marketing for our firm is now a lot easier with the ease in which reports can be generated based on criteria required. A recent mail out to clients related to the current changes to superannuation legislation. In a heart beat we printed off a list of all clients aged over 50 with dividend, rental and interest income to target un-deducted contribution strategies.

It was impossible to achieve this sort of thing with Sol6.

Future Development

What would you like to see APS add to its product set in its next releases of Advance that will assist your business? If APS could provide industry benchmark results for management accounting purposes then that would be fantastic.

Do you have any final words that sum up how you feel about APS, its team and its software?
We have been happy with our decision to move over to APS, mainly because our billings have increased substantially. We also think the Helpdesk is fantastic.

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