Bishop Fleming is a dynamic UK accountancy firm, providing a comprehensive range of services across a wide range of sectors. They have 37 partners and over 460 people, covering eight offices across the South West and West Midlands.
Bishop Fleming work with SMEs, owner-managed businesses, large FTSE businesses, public sector organisations, charities, schools, and private individuals. A multi award-winning company, Bishop Fleming is currently ranked the 30th largest accountancy firm in the UK by turnover and have been one of the fastest-growing firms over the last decade.
Background
Nexus is proud to have worked with Bishop Fleming for 17 years. On a day-to-day basis we provide them with managed IT services – including routine maintenance, patching, and updates – freeing up their in-house IT team for project tasks and strategic work.
We have also advised and supported Bishop Fleming on a number of IT projects from cloud work within the Microsoft environment to physical equipment, such as the server room or network. Nexus has also helped with Bishop Fleming’s cyber security and their wide area network, linking all their eight offices to each other.
Working with Bishop Fleming
Nexus work with Bishop Fleming in two ways. We deliver on fixed priced projects, where a scope of work is assessed and the client is given a fixed price for completing it. They also benefit from our retainer contracts, where they have a fund which can be called off against any of Nexus’s in-house skills. This means we are available to them at short notice and their IT team can call us for additional help when needed.
Bishop Fleming also benefit from our business-critical cover , which provides 24/7 emergency cover. This means if they need our help with an IT problem at 6pm on a Thursday, we will do our best to have everything up and running for them by Friday morning. It’s an essential and convenient service, which helps Bishop Fleming avoid any unnecessary down-time as a result of an IT problem.
As part of their managed IT services, Nexus acts as a vendor liaison. This means if a piece of equipment fails or needs remedial work, Nexus will look at the problem and liaise with the vendor on behalf of the client.
Andy Fisher, Bishop Fleming’s Technical Project Manager, explains: “They are our main IT personnel. They support us with infrastructure projects, servers and switches. They also monitor our systems and alert us to any problems. They are like an extension of the help desk and they have more technical knowledge than us where advanced issues are concerned.”
Nexus have the expertise to take things forward. They are always available to help when we need them, and their out-of-hours service is great.”
Simon Searle, Bishop Fleming’s Service Delivery Manager
In October 2022, Bishop Fleming acquired Bespoke Tax Accountants in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, effectively merging two accountancy teams. The move is part of Bishop Fleming’s strategic business growth plan and follows an impressive financial year from 2021-2022.
Latest Challenge
As a result of the merger, Bishop Fleming’s headcount rose to 480 employees, requiring 30 new users to be set up on the company’s IT system. Nexus worked with the internal IT team to move the new users onto their Office 365 and Teams.
Andy says: “Nexus recently assisted us with the new set up at our Cheltenham office – new networking, the installation and configuration of all the switches on site.”
Strategy
Nexus were responsible for getting the new users set up on Bishop Fleming’s IT system. It was important for the process to go seamlessly so that new staff had a good experience and Bishop Fleming’s credibility was upheld. The work involved migrating the data across, which was in a different format, and bringing it into Bishop Fleming’s tenant on Microsoft 365.
Three of Nexus’s engineers carried out a technical investigation and discovery to evaluate and look at risks. The engineers worked with the in-house IT team to analyse the risks and mitigate them. Everybody had to be integrated into the active system which could have meant a lot of disruption to the Bishop Fleming team. Nexus therefore ensured that that large majority of the project was delivered remotely, with a lot of out-of-hours work on weekends. This avoided any unnecessary downtime during office hours and subsequent loss of business and profitability.
Solution
Nexus quickly and expertly delivered the following:
- Integrated 30 new users onto Bishop Fleming’s IT system, including setting up new emails, passwords and access to Microsoft Teams in Microsoft 365
- Provided ongoing technical support and assistance
Bishop Fleming is one of Nexus’s longest-running clients and we have spent the last 17 years complementing the skills of their in-house IT team. As both our businesses expand, we look forward to continuing our relationship with them.