JOHN GLENNON

RSM Ireland

The firm is one of the top 10 accountancy firms in Ireland, specialising in providing business advice to mid-market businesses. Founding partner John Glennon has considerable experience in helping domestic mid-market leaders develop strategies to grow their business.

ACTIVITY We experienced demand for expertise in areas such as business continuity services, the reorganisation of business operations systems, the digitalisation of infrastructure, as well as advice regarding the application of government supports for businesses. At a time when businesses are being challenged to transform, we remain dedicated to providing innovative, high-quality services and solutions to help our clients reimagine their future.

Our IT projects finally justified the investments we have made in recent years and our staff have been – and still are – unbelievably resilient. We are now beginning to reimagine our business model for a post-Covid world of hybrid working, and beginning to plan for the further digitalisation of our business.

SERVICES More and more of our clients value our services that are provided through technology and SaaS platforms. Some of our management consulting services have evolved in recent months, such as our recent engagement in an alliance partnership agreement with NetSuite, which we will now be implementing and supporting for clients.

Another area where we excelled by advancing our technology is our outsourced business services. Our SaaS-based offering to clients allows the entire client engagement to happen virtually, giving our clients hasslefree, direct access to the services they require, with immediate results. This is particularly popular with our FDI clients, as well as businesses impacted by Covid-19.

Our audit unit had a strong 2020 as our teams and clients adapted well to a new approach. We had invested in Caseware technology – cloud accounting software that allows for higher levels of productivity and efficiency.

REMOTE WORKING The absent interactions with colleagues, the chat at the coffee machine and quick hellos in the corridor, are missed. We were aware early on that communication was key. Units held weekly meetings and as managing partner, I gave regular email updates. We also held firm-wide presentations via Microsoft Teams. We recently developed a ‘conversation-led management’ system, where every member of staff has a one-to-one ‘check-in’ meeting every two weeks.

ENTERPRISE With Covid-19 transforming the marketplace in 2020, we established a new business continuity service. A substantial aspect of our contingency focus is on mitigating the adverse effects of any crisis through emergency planning and helping businesses overcome the disruption they face.

Our HR consultancy offering was expanded through the introduction of PeopleLog. We provide implementation and training to clients on using PeopleLog to ease their internal HR team’s workload. This automates some of the more time-consuming document management tasks so our client’s HR team can focus on ‘bigger-picture’ initiatives.

‘We are now beginning to reimagine our business model’