Not long ago, when it came to client collaboration, it was enough to send an email or use a basic file sharing service. Today, that’s no longer enough. Clients expect a more transparent, secure, and collaborative working relationship. Unfortunately, for many firms this has proved challenging, and often results in the use of a patchwork of disconnected tools, legacy systems, and workplace apps. 

To address the challenge, a new breed of Client Portal technologies has sprung up, enabling firms to better control how they engage and collaborate with clients. Where first-generation client portals offered basic file exchange only, today’s solutions enable teams and clients to gather and work together on shared files, manage tasks, and exchange updates in secure cloud-based workspaces. 

So how do you choose the right Client Portal solution for your business? 
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Step One:
Assess your current tools 
Isn’t email enough? 

For many, email is the default choice for exchanging files with clients. However, it’s a bad choice if you’re looking to coordinate activity across multiple team members and clients, as it is notorious for version conflicts. 

The minute you click send; you lose control over the document. Share a file as an attachment and very quickly you’ll have multiple versions of the same document, with different edits and client comments to manage. In fact, 68% of professionals in the accountancy industry have wasted time working on an out-of-date version of a client file. 

You should also consider the sensitivity of the data you are sharing. Remember, your sensitive content is now sitting (potentially unprotected) on multiple recipients’ devices. You no longer have the security of one document to consider, you have 20! 

How would your client react if you compromised the security of their documents? 

What about file sharing apps?  

Sure, apps like Dropbox make it easy to share files with clients. However, they are predominantly built for consumers and may not offer the level of security that your clients expect. Most will also lack the collaborative features you will likely require. For example, approval workflows, version control, or team workspaces where participants can discuss the latest activity. 
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Microsoft Teams  

There’s plenty of buzz around the industry regarding Microsoft Teams. It’s a great tool for internal collaboration, but that’s its weakness – it’s simply not a scalable or secure way to work externally with clients, or stakeholders outside of your organisation. Not only is there a lack of a visible audit trail of client activity, but it can also be difficult to identify client membership across your Teams’ channels. All of these external user limitations means trying to hack your way around Microsoft Teams to build a Client Portal is not for the faint-hearted! 
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Legacy Portals  

Many Accountancy practices will have a legacy portal solution for sharing. However, they are often too hard to use (especially for clients), and expensive to maintain. This is a common problem. Solutions such as Microsoft SharePoint are extremely powerful tools – but they can also be very complex. This makes them costly to maintain, and difficult to use. These two weaknesses often drive your teams back to email (not collaborative), or file sharing apps (not secure). 

Step Two:
Define your requirements  

A client portal is the best way to keep clients and partners engaged and informed. Here are the things to look for: 

A Branded Experience: Rather than a vanilla experience, look to provide your clients with a branded collaborative space. Clients will have greater confidence in the tool if it reflects their own (or your) branding. 

Audit Trails: It’s vital that you can track both document and client activity. Has your client read the latest version? Did they make revisions? When? Did they share it with colleagues? All of this is vital in delivering greater insight into a client engagement and making sure that projects stay on track.  

Collecting Files: At the start of any client engagement, whether it’s a new business pursuit or an active project, there’s often a period of data collection. For example, for accounting firms this might be the Prepared by Client (PBC) list at the start of an audit. This may run into hundreds of documents. Using email for this is a slow, time consuming process, and it’s also prone to errors with missing files and repeat requests delaying an engagement. The right client portal will help you to automate the collection of client files and keep track of submissions.  

Collaboration Features: Think about the features that are important to your engagements. In particular, an effective client portal will provide the ability to share updates and comments across the team, send documents for client approval, and work on the move with a mobile app. 

Security: Security isn’t just about robust encryption. That should be expected from any serious solution. Instead, evaluate how easy it is to manage document access, or create different access rights between internal teams and your clients.  

Step Three:
Think about deployment  

It’s not all about the technology and features. The success of a client portal roll-out is also based on user adoption – both from your internal teams and your clients. 

If your client portal solution is difficult to use, neither your own team, nor your clients will use it! The right solution must be intuitive to use for your clients and require almost zero training. Road test the key features; is it easy to create a new project workspace, add a document or comment, share files or set an approval? 

Talk to your client-facing teams, as well as the clients themselves to understand the features that would benefit them the most, and don’t forget to evaluate your shortlisted client portal tools on ease-of-use. 

Huddle is the industry’s leading client portal solution, and is trusted by many of the world’s leading accountancy and professional services networks. 

With Huddle, you can create secure, branded cloud-based Workspaces in minutes. It’s even quicker to invite your clients to join you! 
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With an individual workspace for each client, you can keep better control of your files, keep all activity and communications in one secure place, and track progress towards a goal. Also, because it’s cloud-based, all activity and document revisions are automatically synchronized – so everyone always has access to the latest team comments, tasks, and files.