Overview
Rickard Luckin is a leading firm of chartered accountants and tax advisers in Essex. Dean McCormack, a Director at Rickard Luckin, serves as one of the relationship leads in their SME team. A crucial aspect of the services delivered by the firm’s various business teams is ensuring that compliance assignments are completed in line with client expectations and deadlines, which sets the stage for broader advisory services to be offered to satisfied clients.
“Do not let cost be the primary driver. When choosing a solution, ensure it is not entirely unfamiliar to your users. Implementation goes beyond software; behavioural change and accurate data input are crucial. Be brave and embrace change. We had internal champions who facilitated training and adoption, making the transition from Excel to Retain smooth and effective.” - Dean McCormack
Background and Challenge
The leadership team initiated a project, led by Dean, that identified pain points in their existing system, which relied heavily on Excel. Only one person could use the Excel sheet at a time, causing delays and significant lag during scheduling. This led to frequent scheduling conflicts and a substantial administrative burden. Additionally, moving and managing bookings was cumbersome as Excel was not designed for scaled resource management.
Selection Process
To address these challenges, Rickard Luckin embarked on a thorough selection process to find a suitable replacement for Excel. The steps included gathering requirements, conducting initial market research and shortlisting five potential tools. After conducting demos, the list was narrowed down to three.
Retain was chosen due to its user-friendly interface, which closely resembled Excel, making the transition smoother. It has proven successful within the industry and has received positive feedback from employees who have used it before. Additionally, Retain offered the right balance of features without unnecessary extras, unlike other tools that provided more features than needed.
Solution and Implementation
Rickard Luckin implemented Retain with over 80 users, including 25+ managers utilising it for scheduling. The impact was noticeable immediately. Retain integrated seamlessly into their daily operations and became part of the organisational language. The firm could now easily identify resource bottlenecks and underutilised resources.
Results
Retain has significantly transformed Rickard Luckin’s business operations. The firm now enjoys enhanced data visibility for utilisation and capacity planning, improved resource management leading to optimised internal and external resource use, and increased confidence. Strategic insights into resource capacity 12-18 months ahead also allows for informed decision-making. The managers using Retain have a significantly enhanced employee experience, whilst time savings on reduced administrative burden alone are conservatively estimated at around £17k per annum.
Advice for Others
Dean McCormack shares his advice for those considering a similar transition:
“Do not let cost be the primary driver. When choosing a solution, ensure it is not entirely unfamiliar to your users. Implementation goes beyond software; behavioural change and accurate data input are crucial. Be brave and embrace change. We had internal champions who facilitated training and adoption, making the transition from Excel to Retain smooth and effective.”
Rickard Luckin’s journey with Retain showcases the importance of selecting the right tool and managing change effectively to achieve significant operational improvements.