Full integration and swift implementation: ForrestBrown

ForrestBrown is the UK’s largest specialist R&D tax relief consultancy. The firm’s strategic advice helps businesses of all sizes grow and keep innovating by securing vital funding to fuel their growth.

Tracking client progress

Since being founded in 2013, ForrestBrown has grown into the UK’s largest specialist R&D tax credit consultancy. In that time, the business outgrew its processes and systems. ForrestBrown was using different, non-integrated platforms.

As every client worked with several teams within ForrestBrown, it became difficult for managers to audit and extract business intelligence from client projects.

A bespoke workflow

From the outset, ForrestBrown knew they required a bespoke software system. As ForrestBrown and R&D tax relief has evolved, so did the complexity of its clients’ requirements. Alongside its full R&D claim service, ForrestBrown offers bespoke consultancy projects of varying scope and size.

To match their diverse requirements, we recommended our rapid application development platform Intelastel, which could be configured to mirror their existing workflow while integrating all teams within one system. Crucially, it was customisable now and into the future. Intelastel also offered significant time-to-value savings compared to traditional bespoke development, enabling swifter implementation and simpler customisation in the future.

A single source of truth

After mapping out the company’s workflow in a series of discovery sessions, we configured Intelastel to incorporate all touchpoints into a single source of truth. Their new platform had a number of key advantages:

• Projects now have an auditable log of actions, offering complete visibility. Actions are attributed to contributors, creating clear accountability.
• Managers can now track the progress of claims by percentage, making it easy to gain a snapshot of current deliverables in real-time.
• Intelastel has allowed for better version control, where claims cannot be saved over one another. Signed off claims are automatically locked to prevent further changes.
• The system has enabled the introduction of multiple touchpoints between ForrestBrown’s teams, improving efficiency.
• The platform features data-rich management reporting for data analysis to enhance visibility of business efficiency and enable fact-driven decision making.

Collaboration and visibility

ForrestBrown’s claims are now supported by a robust and secure platform that will allow them to grow and flex their processes as they accelerate into the future. The upgraded workflow management system has introduced complete transparency into the process, giving ForrestBrown’s teams clear insight into the status of each claim, and making it much simpler to audit workflow at a glance. The improved workflow has enabled better collaboration.

Intelastel also proved critical within the COVID-19 pandemic. ForrestBrown moved to remote-working early on in the pandemic. The system made this transition simpler and allowed ForrestBrown’s people to keep collaborating closely.

ForrestBrown is now working with us on a second stage of the project, integrating additional documentation into the Intelastel platform to aid further cohesion within their company’s work processes.