United Kingdom Testimonials

“ Princecroft Willis went live with APS Advance in August 2002 following a detailed review of all Practice Management software. We were particularly impressed by the attitude of the APS Team to supply a solution for us and not for us to fit around a solution. In particular APS recognised a method for us to connect our two remote offices over a WAN using standard Microsoft technology without the need for expensive hardware, software and communications equipment. This was something that no other supplier could provide.

The data conversion process went well and the installation process was thorough and we were assigned a consultant who rapidly got to know not only how we work but also how our staff work. This made the transition as smooth as possible.

Over the initial months there were very few major problems and small technical issues were solved efficiently and speedily.

August 2004 saw us upgrade to the current version of APS Advance and this went smoothly with only minor problems that were rectified as quickly as possible. This upgrade once again showed to us that we had invested in the right product as APS constantly run and develop on current Microsoft technology allowing us to get the most from our product but also by using standard office based applications.

The level of support in 2004 was not as before but APS were quick to identify this problem and take steps to resolve any customer issues. We appreciate the constant communication and honesty of the APS team.

In April 2005 we merged with another local practice and increased our licences by over one third. This process was particular technical and difficult due to the data that we were importing but APS did very well on this import and subsequent amendments.

Since our merger and consultations with APS we have installed APS Vigilant which is proving to be an invaluable automated reporting tool. Thanks again to APS.

In summary APS are:

	an excellent company to work with
	fit around you not the other way around
	help us to develop our practice and see them as key in this proces
	acknowledge any faults and address them as quickly as possible
	Part of our team

James Robinson
Partner
Princecroft Willis LLP, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers.
james.robinson@princecroftwillis.co.uk

APS reference – Accountancy Age Awards 2005 – Mid-range Software Package of the Year.

As a thirteen partner firm Goodman Jones needs to have a strong relationship with its Practice Management partner. We know what we want our Practice Management and associated systems to achieve for us and, in APS, we have found a partner who has worked with us very much as a part of our team to help us achieve our specific goals.

APS is a software supplier that is more than just a supplier. They have a knack of working with our team to ensure that the solutions they provide are moulded around our needs rather than their own which we have found is not the case with many other suppliers. Their ability to tailor their suite of products to our own business environment has been second to none.

Goodman Jones has been working with APS since 1999. As users of Advance Practice Management and Practice IQ, we would have no hesitation in recommending the company, its software and the highly motivated team to other firms

We wish APS well in the Accountancy Age Awards 2005.

Larry Phillips
Managing Partner
Goodman Jones LLP
Telephone: 020 7388 2444
larry.phillips@goodmanjones.com

“ We are a medium sized firm of Chartered Accountants in the South West of England and have had relations with APS since 1999 when we took on board their practice management software.

They are an innovative and reliable business partner who we would be happy to recommend to other practices. Their personnel are always friendly and helpful and, of all the software houses we deal with, they are the most accessible and reliable.

We use several of their products which have become the backbone of our practice management. Their careful use of the latest technologies means that we can trust the information given by their products and, when it is needed, rely on their support if any problems are encountered.

The contact details of our I T Manager are below and he would be only too willing to talk to anyone regarding our relationship with APS.

Simpkins Edwards
Richard Holt - I T Manager
Tel: 01392 211233
RHolt@SimpkinsEdwards.co.uk

” During the past 6 years, Myers Clark have developed a close working relationship with APS.

From the moment we met both Brian Coventry and Daren Chidwick we have been impressed by their commitment to customer satisfaction. The staff are a pleasure to work with and will always do their best to help resolve issues, as and when they arise.

Even now, six years on, the staff of APS and Myers Clark are in regular contact to ensure that we try to utilise their products in the most efficient manner possible for our business.

Their hands on pro-active approach from the start has been refreshing and made the decision to change from our then suppliers has never been questioned.

Software : Practice Management System

The introduction and implementation of the Advance Practice Management System about 5 years ago has enabled us to streamline our internal practice management procedures. The client console including central database has become an integral part of our working practice. Advance timesheets has enabled staff to enter their time record in an efficient manner resulting in a smoother end of month rollover. Through the use of Advance Fees we were able to empower users to produce client invoices for the work performed and in turn this has led to quicker fee generation. WIP and debtor management has improved and become less onerous with real time information provided to the end users.

More recently through the introduction of the reporting tool Advance IQ, users can run all the relevant reports from within an internet explorer interface. The information provided has enabled us to move the practice forward and reduce the administrative burden associated with our old system.

Despite being feature rich the software is user friendly and now integrates seamlessly within our working environment.

Summary

APS has an excellent product portfolio which when combined with their friendly support results in an unprecented commitment from a software supplier. We would have no hesitation recommending them in the future and look forward to our good relationship continuing.

Richard Sadler
Myers Clark
Tel: +44 (0) 1923 224411
richards@myersclark.co.uk

“ BulleyDavey are a medium sized firm with twelve partners operating from five offices in the Cambridgeshire area. We migrated from Star PMS in 2004 as part of an upgrade programme designed to move our entire major client related software solutions across to SQL server based products.\

When selecting APS Advance we were primarily looking for software that would enable us to deliver a practice management system directly to the desktop of all partners and staff within the firm. We needed a solution which would enable users make their timesheets entries directly into the work in progress system and to be able to produce accurately calculated bills immediately on completion of work.

This has been achieved very reliably by virtue of Virtual Private Networking between the firm’s offices and Windows Terminal Services connections. APS Advance more than satisfied these key criteria and has proved to be a very successful investment for my firm which represents excellent value for money.

In my opinion the software has been very well designed with a high level of useful functionality for firms of all sizes and structures. As a direct result of this, coupled with extremely good ease of use for our staff, we were able to implement the change from Star with the minimum disruption.

The flexibility of the database design has enabled us to implement a complex departmental structure and hierarchy to suite our reporting requirements. We have also been able to implement some excellent controls over access to data, editing and reporting functions including some impressive standard and bespoke reporting delivered via APS PracticeIQ.

I have been very impressed by the excellent technical support and general customer care which has been provided by APS.

Taking these factors into account I have no hesitation to commend APS Advance to any firm looking for a reliable and cost effective solution for professional practice management.

Julian S Higgins
Partner, BulleyDavey
Julian.Higgins@bulleydavey.co.uk

" Armstrong Watson have been users of APS Practice Management software since December 2002.

Goals

During this period our main priorities have been (in chronological order):

	Achieve acceptable performance over our 15-office wide area network
	Deploy dynamic business intelligence management reporting
	Extend our PM system beyond its original time and billing function to more of a CRM driven system
	Achieve data integration between our disparate production systems Progress

Our progress in achieving these objectives can be described as follows:

The multi-tier architecture of APS Advance has enabled us to configure the system to match our network infrastructure and attain the required performance. We currently push on average 10,000 time transactions a week into the system from just under 300 users.

The use of Microsoft Analysis Services OLAP architecture by APS within the Advance suite has levered us up to the next level of reporting from the transaction based reporting systems we traditionally used. The Advance data warehouse now contains over 4 million transactions but this is easily handled by the cube and web based reporting tool provided within Advance. The adoption of this tool has enabled us as a company to ride the steep learning curve into this architecture and in doing so has brought powerful management control to the decision makers within the firm.

The flexible object based structure on which Advance is based has allowed us to gradually extend the scope of the customer database to reflect both our aims and changing circumstances over time. The database is configurable through the application rather than requiring costly database expertise. In addition, the ease with which this data can be extracted and analysed empowers the users to make use of this expanding knowledge resource.

APS sits on an open SQL platform. Along with our other systems which sit on SQL we now have the opportunity to create virtual views of our client data across applications. The Advance application allows this information to be exposed within the PM system, thereby encouraging users to make use of key client information that previously may have been difficult to reach.

Summary

We do not claim that APS is a perfect system, as none are. However, the system has gone a long way in helping us achieve our goals and we are confident that we have the 'right fit' for our company. Any PM system in a company of our size, mixture of applications and geographical spread faces many challenges. We still have many areas in which we can progress and look forward to working with APS in
moving forward"

Neil Conacher
Software Manager, Armstrong Watson
Tel: 01228 553333
Neil.Conacher@armstrongwatson.co.uk

“ Since the move in 2002 from our aging and inefficient Unix based time and fees recording system, Menzies have enjoyed the benefits of the efficient and user friendly PM system from Advanced Professional Solutions Limited (APS). We have fully embraced its time, fees and client relationship applications and are totally reliant on the management reporting that was never available from our previous system. This reporting has been heavily customised by the APS team who have worked tirelessly to ensure it fits with Menzies requirements.

Via our centrally located Citrix 'farm', we have some 250 users across 9 sites, all with access to Advance and associated reporting. These products have proved to work well in such an environment.

To complicate our installation, Menzies Corporate Restructuring runs a separate Advance database to Menzies Chartered Accountants. With the sound technical knowledge the APS team have of both their product and of Microsoft SQL Server, they have managed to set-up both PM and reporting databases to co-exist on one server. This has simplified things for Menzies and at the same time has saved the cost of additional hardware and software licences.

Menzies have been through a couple of updates of Advance, and with the assistance of the APS team, these have all been fully implemented without a major hitch.

In the event we need technical assistance, on the whole the APS support team provide quick and effective solutions, especially since the recent introduction of their support 'logging' system. With more problematic queries, the support team have connected to our systems remotely via the Internet and have demonstrated fixes as well as implementing them. This, for Menzies internal support, has proved most beneficial and a good educational exercise. On the rare occasions where neither of the above has been appropriate or has not resolved the issue, we have been able to make use of the APS support team in New Zealand, thus comforting Menzies that 24 hour support is available if needs be.

Dave Gibbons
Menzies
Tel: +44 (0)1483 755000
dgibbons@menzies.co.uk

" Mazars continue to work with APS to develop and enhance their Practice Management system and have recently deployed the latest version of Advance 2000 across its remaining 14 offices. A team of technical experts, led by the Managing Director Brian Coventry, have helped Mazars to successfully deploy Advance 2000 to more than 1,000 staff using Thin Client Services. With the addition of complimentary solutions such as Practice IQ Reporting and integration with their preferred accounting system Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics, Advance 2000 now provides Mazars with electronic expense approvals, automatic fee billing directly from the purchase ledger and a full management information suit.

Based on the excellent working relationship developed over a number of years, Mazars continue to collaborate with APS in exploring how Advance 2000 may integrate with other software tools and applications to meet the continuing high demand of the Partnership to enhance our competitive use of IT."

Dave Cross
MAZARS LLP
Tel : (+44) 20 73 77 10 00
david.cross@mazars.co.uk

“ The Advance Practice Management Software (“Advance”) went live in our organisation on 1 November 2004 after a considerable planning exercise facilitated by yourselves. The implementation was incredibly smooth and resulted in very little disruption for users. I have no doubt that your organisation’s attention to detail in the planning process was a key factor in this. I was also most impressed by yours’ and you team’s dedication to delivering the product and its implementation to us exactly as we wanted it.

Advance has been a great success in our organisation in numerous ways. From a Management perspective I would highlight three important areas. First, the timely completion of time sheets in the organisation has greatly improved resulting in lower WIP lock up and faster generation of cash. Second, my internal Finance team are now spending more time on the important issues and less time on the mundane, the knock on effect is that I am able to devote more time to strategic areas. Third, my fellow partners now have immediate access to accurate WIP, billing and their own performance data enabling them to take appropriate action sooner. Previously this information was distributed centrally on a monthly basis.”

M Di Leto
Finance Partner
Saffery Champness
+44 (0)20 7841 4000

“ We were impressed to discover that initial support and set-up was being carried out by someone as high up in APS as he was. Also the amount of time and effort they have put in to fix any issues and to help move the product forward never ceases to impress me.”
Lee Puttock, Menzies Chartered Accountants

“ This system is really easy to use and any problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently by the support team. For more technical problems, the Webex support system is fantastic and helps clear up difficult problems very efficiently.”
Margaret Palmer, Chiene & Tait CA

“ Advance has helped move important aspects of our practice management requirements to the next level. We look forward to working with APS to ensure that future aspects of the system attain the same positive impact.”
David G. Austin, Partner – Armstrong Watson

“ An excellent product backed up by an excellent team who listen to your needs when they arise and treat you as a client rather than a customer.”
A.D. Flambard, Partner - Hazlewoods

“ This year we wanted to dramatically increase billing at our Tavistock location. We devised a game that the Managers want to play and they check progress during the month, each month, using Advance. From February 2003 to date (October 2003) we are billing 170% of 2002 levels.”
Jeremy Stone - Condy Mathias in England

“ Advance is very user friendly. Users can pull off reports and present them on any desktop in almost real-time. We weren’t in control of the reporting process before, whereas now we are. Advance is so much better than anything out there, which is why we went with it. The other system we looked at was far too complicated.”
Salvador Amico – Menzies Chartered Accountants, England