Microsoft Power Platform

Baker Tilly leverages the benefits of Microsoft Power Platform

In April 2020, Phil Bown took on the role of Audit Technical & Quality Improvement Manager at Baker Tilly International. From the London headquarters, he began delving into company-wide Quality Audit work. Baker Tilly's 130 member firms are frequently invited to review global quality control procedures. Phil is happy to present an invitation in an efficient way.

Manual work

Along with CIO Adam Grainger and Director of Professional Standards Nick Jeffrey, Phil delves into the current Quality Control system. As they familiarize themselves with these procedures, they are struck by the immense amount of manual work. "London loves spreadsheets" may be a well-known saying, but there is a better way.

Keep IT simple

Adam, Nick, and Phil sit down with the Dutch company Agerion IT. They combine their findings with the experience of Ed Berk and Stefan Frerichs, who are familiar with inspiring international IT projects in the accounting sector. This provides a clear framework for improvements.

"Nobody is happy when I show up with 20+ non-compliant issues. How great would it be to join forces and improve, so we can take the company to the next level?"

Phil Bown, Baker Tilly International

Clear framework for improvement

While Microsoft Excel spreadsheets have served us well for years, the new Microsoft Power Platform can handle this situation even better. Agerion IT is building a custom Quality Improvement app for Baker Tilly International. As Arthihan Velauthapillai, one of the Power Platform specialists at Agerion, shares with a smile:

"This app strives for the best possible collaboration within Baker Tilly: user-friendly for both the member firms and the head office. It was incredibly rewarding to develop a custom app with this impact. You immediately experience a sense of relief within the teams, who can collaborate much more efficiently and positively. After our thorough testing phase, the rollout began immediately."

The Baker Tilly Quality Improvement app

Member firms are now invited to the user-friendly app, where they can easily respond to the International Standard Quality Control 1 requirements. For each ISQC topic, they can easily reuse the current status or, if nothing has changed, previous responses.

As soon as they submit their responses, both the member firm and the head office receive confirmation of the input. This is when the head office, led by Phil and his colleague Carla, comes into the picture. The system makes it very efficient for this team to review the submissions and provide global office reviews.

A summary of the results appears in the 'Global Office QI dashboard'. This customized dashboard, previously maintained manually in Excel, provides real-time updates in Microsoft Power BI and shows compliance per ISQC1 topic for each member firm. Thanks to a smart set of variables in the dataset, future planning for member firms is immediately calculated.

Efficient future planning tool

This is how Baker Tilly International is moving from three complex, manual Excel files and countless emails and phone calls to a central, user-friendly environment for Quality Control. While the head office is saving a tremendous amount of time and gaining a clear overview, the feedback from the first member firms has also been very positive.

This enthusiasm is so great that member firms with their own subnetwork of offices are eager to use the Microsoft Power Platform for more than just ISQC1. Phil summarizes it all: "Let's improve together."