Moore JFC, a Moore Global firm and the first Beeye customer in the Middle East, has rolled out Beeye for resource management across three offices: DIFC (Dubai), Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi. The implementation went live across all three locations in roughly six weeks, starting with the firm's Audit and Assurance practice.
The catalyst: growth outpacing the operating model
Moore JFC has scaled quickly over the last three to four years, particularly in audit. As the firm grew across markets and clients, leadership realized their toolset was not giving them the answers they needed.
"It was immediately clear to us that given our growth, given the way that we were operating and our strategy of how we wish to operate and grow in the next 10 years, traditional tools like Excel and basic timesheet formats were no longer sufficient to manage our people effectively," said Aakriti Mago, Group Chief Operating Officer.
The gaps Aakriti wanted Beeye to close were concrete. How is our time actually being spent? What does recovery look like across engagements? And when recovery falls short, is the cause the work itself, the client, or the skills of the people on the job? Excel could surface hours. It could not surface the reasons behind the numbers.
The catalyst sharpened with the arrival of Malcolm Coates as Group CEO, Assurance, who joined from Deloitte Middle East. Within his first three months, Malcolm completed an operational review across talent, partners, and clients, and shaped a strategy for the next two to three years.
"One of the key elements was in respect of our talent, looking specifically at the booking of staff, ensuring that we could see where people had been booked," Malcolm said.
"Given the size of clients we have, we need flexibility in being able to move people around quickly and assign them to different clients. We also need to look at profitability by client. We were looking for a solution that could provide us with all that." - Malcolm Coates, Group CEO, Assurance, Moore JFC
Why Beeye
Moore JFC looked at several providers. The partnership between Moore Global and Beeye gave Moore JFC a path to engage with Beeye. Two factors mattered most: a platform that worked across multiple service lines, and pricing that reflected a mid-tier firm operating in the region.
"Some of the other players we were looking at were for a specific kind of service line," Aakriti said. "We wanted a software we could test in phase one through audit, but also implement throughout the firm - not just our offices in the UAE but our other regional offices."
The implementation discipline that made six weeks across three offices possible
The implementation moved fast. Audit went live across offices in DIFC, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi in roughly six weeks. The timeline was not luck. The firm scoped requirements internally before evaluating software, aligned partners, managers, and staff on a new resource management process, and treated data readiness as a project in its own right.
A central piece of that structure: PODS. Moore JFC organizes its audit practice into five PODS (one in DIFC, one in Abu Dhabi, three in Sharjah), each made up of around 19 to 20 people. Senior managers and managers run the PODS. Partners and directors step back from day-to-day staffing decisions. The same POD leaders that run day-to-day staffing owned the data preparation that made the rollout possible.
The other piece was the hands-on champion. Maylin Gamutin, Associate Director of Audit and Assurance, ran the implementation end to end with two resource administrators supporting her.
Malcolm credits this structure with success:
“We empowered our senior managers and our managers to run the PODS. By doing that, they were also empowered to implement Beeye across the different offices. We've kept the partners and directors out of it, apart from Maylin of course, allowing the teams to directly implement the product. The teams are responsible for the preparation of the data and making sure it is uploaded correctly into the system. And then they manage the clients and staffing requirements within their POD on a daily basis."
Maylin's account of what made the six weeks possible came back to organizational alignment.
"The speed was largely due to the preparation we did before we went live," Maylin said. "We aligned internally on the objectives of resource management. We ran sessions with partners, managers, and staff to explain the purpose of the system and the planning process. And data readiness was critical. We reviewed and organized client information, staffing profiles, and engagement schedules ahead of time."
From spreadsheets to real-time visibility
It is early days. The full picture on recovery and margins will take more time to transpire. The operational shift is already visible.
The bi-weekly cycle of email chases, manager check-ins, and spreadsheet patching is gone. "Right now it is no longer a manual process," Maylin said. "Any changes can be done quickly in the system and everyone can see the real-time updates. Everyone can see who is available and who is not."
The shift is showing up in leadership decisions too. Aakriti described what busy-season planning now looks like in practice. Rather than working through several Excel sheets and calling around, the big picture is visible immediately:
"We've got 110 staff, they are plotted against these projects. We can quickly see we need eight to ten more people for two months. These can be outsourced… Those sorts of decisions have become a lot easier and more apparent, as opposed to waiting until the crux of busy season and then scrambling for outsourced or seconded resources”
There is also a confidence effect. Partners and managers are running their client books with more clarity on capacity, and conversations with clients about timing and scope are grounded in real data rather than gut feel.
Phase two: advisory, forecasting, and profitability
Phase one was Audit. Advisory rollout is almost complete. Beyond that, the firm is working toward integration with Zoho CRM and a deeper view of profitability across engagements.
"Now that we have visibility, it is time to take this data and assess how we are performing to the potential we believe we can perform," Aakriti said. "Assess whether we have capacity against pipeline. Spot gaps so we can address them before they turn into full blown problems."
Malcolm's advice to other firms beginning the same journey: "Empower your staff. They will run the project. They will get everything delivered. Partners just need to monitor and check in. "
Curious how firms like Moore JFC are improving visibility into capacity, scheduling, and utilization?
Learn more about Beeye for growing firms: https://www.mybeeye.com/en/best-resource-management-for-full-accounting-firm-scheduling
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