Alienstech IT support for Accounting Firms
Firms with an extreme seasonal peak, sensitive client financial data, and software that dictates the hardware.
Accounting practices have a load curve unlike most businesses. For several months the tolerance for downtime is close to zero, and for the rest of the year there is room to make changes. Any sensible plan puts the disruptive work firmly outside the season.
Tax and accounting packages are often specific about what they will run on, and multi user installations are sensitive to network and storage performance. Client financial data raises the stakes on access control, encryption and secure delivery of documents.
Work here usually means capacity ahead of the season, a client portal so returns are not emailed as attachments, multifactor authentication everywhere, and a restore test scheduled well before the busy period starts.
What usually brings people in
- Everything must work through the busy season
- The tax package is slow with several people in it
- Client documents are exchanged as email attachments
- Temporary seasonal staff need access quickly and removed afterward
- Upgrades keep being postponed and then it is January
- A failure during the season would be very expensive