Data integration and integrity: Phillip Carroll Associates

Ian Guerit
Phillip Carroll Associates (PCA) is a chartered accountancy firm, specialising in helping property management companies manage the billing process for over 1,700 properties each year. These tenants include shopping centres, industrial estates and housing residents. An accountant making calculations

The problem

Phillip Carroll Associates’ issue was that their service charge reporting was done manually.
  • It had a spreadsheet for each property – over 1,700 spreadsheets!
  • Spreadsheets needed updating and sharing between internal and external teams
  • No clear overview of audit progress for each property
  • No way to ensure data integrity – i.e. version control and outdated data
  • Processes were time-consuming, messy and inconsistent.
  • Growing demand meant the problem was getting worse!
  • It became clear this process wasn’t sustainable.

The solution

PCA knew it needed a technology solution to solve their problem, and to sustainably scale their business. They needed to be able to:
  • Manage property workflows centrally
  • Gain a ‘single version of the truth’ for property data
  • Allow their customers to log in and manage data remotely (i.e. a portal)
  • Set sophisticated user access permissions for various stakeholders
  • Adhere to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
  • Spend less time and money performing manual tasks
  • Manage the end-to-end service charge process from one place
  • Reconcile accounts and charges
  • Customised reporting and analytics
  • Have a task management function to ensure compliance with customer requirements and SLAs

illumo digital to the rescue!

After reaching out to the market, PCA chose Helastel (now illumo digital) to develop the solution.
“We chose illumo digital’s cloud-based workflow-management platform Intelastel. They gave us the confidence that they understood our needs and would be able to deliver.”
– David Burgess, Managing Director at Phillip Carroll Associates. We worked with PCA and its customers to understand their needs. We did this by mapping out workflows, modelling them in Intelastel and testing the system with users. Eventually, PCA was so impressed that it decided to run many of its other business functions through Intelastel too. Animation of Intelastel's dashboard

Better technology = More sales

Claire Breeze, Head of Service Management, Phillip Carroll Associates:
“Intelastel plays a vital role in our ability to consistently deliver high-quality services to our clients. It’s a key reason so many of them see us as their preferred supplier for service charge reporting.” … “When we’re pitching for new work, we can offer prospects lots of capabilities that they can’t get anywhere else” … “Having the capabilities Intelastel gives us has definitely helped us win new clients.”