CASE STUDY: California TaxMasters

When Cindy and Diane started California TaxMasters in 1999, the sisters had no idea how popular their tax-preparation services would become. What had started in one storefront office expanded to a second office across town—one for Cindy and one for Diane. Now, six years later, the business has exploded to fill nine offices in five counties with 50 employees; two more offices are scheduled to open within the next six months. With Cindy and Diane at the helm, they realize that they are losing touch with their dispersed staff, and want to retain a uniformity to the business. They contact DataDesignIT.

Because the business has grown one office at a time, there is an inconsistency in how each office operates. After investigating the operations of each location, DataDesignIT carefully documents the processes and procedures used by each office, taking note of both operational inefficiencies and effective proceses. After Cindy and Diane review a detailed report of the operations, they begin implementing plans to consolidate bookkeeping services, computer-lease agreements, and insurance plans. This change alone forecasts to provide significant annual savings.

DataDesignIT then creates a secure intranet site that allows all the offices to communicate with one another and share common files. Moreover, DataDesignIT creates web-based forms for entering and tracking customer information. Another form is developed for entering employee worktime. All this data is stored in an Oracle database that was also designed and configured by DataDesignIT. Now Cindy and Diane use a series of online reports to slice-and-dice customer data up by various components, such as demographics, salary range, and geographical area. Also, now that customer and employee worktime is linked, Cindy and Diane can efficiently see where employee time is being spent on billable and non-billable time, and make calculated business decisions.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the new two offices, doors open to operations poised for efficiency and effectiveness. The intranet has enabled Cindy and Diane to better administrate each office to support their business goals and standards. Finally, all employee time and customer data is being tracked uniformly, so they can analyze the reports for each employee and office.