Challenge

Ecovis Clark Jacobs (ECJ) is a major accounting firm in Australia who pride themselves in their highly specialised approach in providing quality perspective and solutions to business problems. They are a member of the Ecovis International Network. ECJ approached and invited ITworx to assist them in creating a digital platform that provides a service portal, as a solution to their new business offering.

The requirements of the platform were tailored to support the services offered by the business, and integrated seamlessly with their business processes. The platform was to be customised based on the needs of the client, to allow them to access their online services, within the service packages offered by ECJ.

The main features of the platform included:

• The platform would be the client’s central point to access all the ECJ services available to them.
• The platform needed to be integrated with their business processes including Xero, and the selected commercial add-on applications from the Xero marketplace.
• The platform must be highly secure by best breed technology available today.

Solution

ITworx worked closely with ECJ to understand their new business and their requirements, and offered a solution to the platform, consisting of these components:

• Web business site – The design of the website was created and implemented (on DNN), taking into consideration their branding as an independent company, as well as a member of the Ecovis International Network. The design covered all the informational pages, and incorporated responsive design techniques in adapting the website to be usable on all screen sizes and devices.
• Service Portal – The portal was integrated with Microsoft Azure Active Directory as the authentication solution underpinning the single sign-on (SSO) access to the selected cloud applications (Xero, Receipt Bank, Deputy, Smart Payroll, Dropbox and other client’s propriety platforms). The Active Directory extension was used to configure and manage those cloud applications, and the client’s access to them.
• Security – A Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate was applied to the user login of the website to allow access of the Service Portal to be loaded in a secure and encrypted environment in the browsers each session.
• Online Registration – To integrate the platform with their current business processes, a robust online registration process was created that allowed ECJ to effortlessly manage their clients.

Impact

The solution provided the following benefits for ECJ:

• An innovative tool that is easy to understand and use, that gave their clients a central point of access to all the services they need for their accounting purposes.
• ECJ administrators can manage the website content and manage the client details of the platform.
• ECJ bookkeepers can personally manage their client’s accounting records and details. They are also able to invite clients to join and select the cloud applications suitable for the clients, depending on their level of engagement.
• ECJ has the option to add any new cloud applications available in the Microsoft Azure marketplace to the portal for the clients to use.
• Communication between ECJ and their clients can now happen seamlessly because all client’s business accounts are live and accessible in real time.
• The online portal effectively and efficiently providing their clients with key reports and data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via a single sign on.