Good question and it is because we do not believe it offers clients the best return on their investment.

Many of our competitors are developing solutions with the primary objective of tying clients into annual contracts. This is achieved by tempting clients with an inclusive package of Accountant related modules, such as, Resource Directories, On-line Calculators, Weekly Newsletters etc.

Although these may look attractive to Accountants and represent what they think visitors to their Website would want, it is questionable if they, actually, offer any real business benefit. To think, clients will use their Accountants Website as the first point-of-contact for their business related questions, is a little naive to say the least. Most Small Businesses prefer to use popular Search Engines, such as, Google, to find answers to their questions. If clients are going to use their Accountant, it is more likely they will pick up the telephone rather than try to find it on the Website.

Therefore, the reason we have problems with Websites whose primary objective is; to act as a resource area of, supposedly, useful information, is that;

• if there is no proof or feedback that the resource facilities offer real business benefit to visitors, then, essentially, the Website, in terms of a return-on-investment, is going to be a costly mistake and, to be honest, a bit of a "White Elephant".

Considering, these types of Websites are based on rather dated looking designs, and that, most of them cost approximately £1000 per year, £5000 over a five year period is a lot to pay for something that you have no way of telling is, actually, good value for money. We are not saying Resource areas are a bad idea. What we are saying, however, is; why put all your eggs in one basket and why pay, way over the odds for the privilege?

The biggest flaw, in our opinion, to the above approach for Accountant Website Design is that;

• a Website is not there just to be used by visitors and clients. If designed properly, it should also be used as a day-to-day business tool by the Accountant. It should be proactive rather than just reactive.

We believe, our own model, offers clients the most flexibility and a much better return-on-investment;

• Clients can choose from a large selection of state-of-the-art, Ready-made Web designs, and can do so, with a single payment. What's more, they own a lifetime licence to the Design, in which case, they can quite easily take their Website to another Web Design supplier, if they wish. This is not normally the case with contract based Websites.
• We offer a modular approach to Web Design and clients can select only the parts, they feel will give them the most business benefit. In most cases, this can be achieved with a single payment.
• Apart from offering our Accountant clients, traditional Add-on Modules, such as, Tax Rates & Allowances, Budget Reports and Tax Strategies, we also offer a host of other Web Applications to help turn their Websites into what it should be, a proactive business tool. These can be purchased with a single payment and cover: an On-line Helpdesk for streamlining enquiries coming into the Firm; On-line Frequently Asked Questions system to answer repetitive questions, freeing up valuable staff resource; On-line News Publishing system for keeping visitors up-to-date on breaking business news and events at the Firm; On-line Form Designer for capturing customer information; On-line Newsletter Management system for keeping clients and visitors updated via Email; On-line Event/Tax Calendar with automated notification facilities; Live Chat facilities for interacting with Web Visitors in real-time; Content Management facilities for adding new Web Pages if and when required; and many more.

Put simply, every aspect of our Web Design model can be scrutinised to confirm if real business benefits are being gained and, therefore, if it has proven to be a good return-on-investment.

On the subject of Resource areas, they can be useful to a limited extent. With this in mind, we are currently developing our own Resource Area for Accountants to include a library of useful business articles, useful links and Forms.  What's more, the system even comes with statistical information on the most popular articles, best rated and most reviewed. All this for a £95 annual payment. On-line Calculators will also be following soon after for the same annual payment.

Why not view our Resource Area work-in-progress at the following link;

http://www.theholtpartnership.co.uk/demonstration/links.php

Lets see! How much will you be saving now................... thousands of pounds, we think!