The Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) is one of the largest state CPA associations in the nation, representing more than 22,600 certified public accountants.

ICPAS was already working with BDO Digital to manage their critical business systems with virtual database administrator monitoring and knew that BDO had the skill set and experience to help elevate their technology strategy in other capacities. ICPAS felt confident turning to BDO Digital for help.
 

Transitioning to a New Cloud Environment

After completing a discovery of ICPAS’s current cloud environment, BDO Digital identified ways to optimize and improve it by migrating to Microsoft Azure.
 

They were looking to increase their access to information on their own cloud environment. We were able not only to upgrade, but we gave them the flexibility to bring in new services at a much more predictable cost.

-BDO Digital Infrastructure Services Group Manager Mike Romp

In addition, BDO Digital provides direct support to the Illinois CPA Society as a Microsoft Cloud Solution provider. This allows the Society to go directly to BDO Digital for any support needs, rather than working through Microsoft. That’s not all. BDO Digital’s expertise goes even further, as the firm boasts a number of Office 365 MVPs, a Microsoft designation signifying a deep knowledge of Microsoft products.
 

The Illinois CPA Society wants to be able to provide a modern experience to its members. This upgrade was the first step in their cloud journey to provide those innovative new services for their members.

-BDO Digital Infrastructure Services Group Managing Director Wally Seliga

Alongside the Microsoft Azure work, BDO Digital also moved the Society’s IT operational and support needs to BDO Digital. The services BDO Digital is providing include:

• Infrastructure and Cloud Managed Services — 24 hours, seven days a week monitoring, management and support for the Society’s technology ecosystems, both on-site and in the cloud
• Service Desk — Provides the Society with the people, processes and technology needed to ensure a mature, flexible, end-user support model that increases productivity, promotes a positive user experience and reduces costs
• Security Monitoring — 24 hours, seven days a week monitoring, detection and response for alerts generated by the Society’s end-user devices
• Virtual Database Administrator (DBA) — Proactive SQL (Structured Query Language) database management focused on optimizing the performance and stability for a key business line application migrated to Azure

 

The two projects — while separate — really worked in tandem. The client was extremely impressed with the collaboration and how well it all came together.

-BDO Digital Business Development Manager Jana Price
 

Results and Future Plans

In addition to the completed work, BDO Digital is working with ICPAS to consolidate some of their Office 365 applications and optimize its Microsoft licenses. Down the road the Society is also looking to improve data analytics capabilities and modernize its technology at a broader level.
 

The work we’ve completed is a major step in helping the Society become more digital and modern for their members. They want to stay relevant with the content they’re delivering to their members, and how they deliver it. They’ve been really happy with what we’ve already provided, and we look forward to building our partnership.

-BDO Digital Business Development Manager Jana Price
 

A Happy Client

Following the completion of the work, the Society’s Chief Technology Director emailed BDO Chief Operating Officer Steve Ferrara, an Illinois CPA Society board member, to highlight the team’s great work:

Greetings from ICPAS! I hope this message finds you well. As you know, ICPAS recently transitioned MSP services to BDO Digital on 10/2/2020.  We are extremely happy with the results, as everything went smoothly, and we have been functioning at the highest levels of efficiency within our Azure hosted services and Managed Service Desk contexts since then. I felt it important to reach out to you directly to personally commend the BDO Digital team for their exceptional performance in this effort.

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