Many of us seem to have grown accustomed to the fact that business applications are more challenging to use than websites and applications we use daily in our private lives. Simply put, this does not have to be the case.
Nowadays, a great product design encompasses more than just the look: it covers the behaviours, attitudes and emotions about using a particular product, system or service. It results from practical experiences based on thorough research and constant experimentation in the search for solutions. It emphasizes the end result – the seamless interaction with the product – as the design's prime goal.
A well-designed interface empowers users to deal with issues more efficiently.
When all the required information is available at hand, no time is wasted in searching for it. Furthermore, if only what's required is displayed, users won't get sidetracked with superfluous information.
A modern interface with an intuitive experience makes work feel less like a chore. It supports our work seamlessly without disrupting our train of thought and thus wasting time struggling with various obscure functions and searching for critical information scattered all over the place.
Finally, if the information is presented in a concise and readable way, the chance for errors is significantly reduced. Suppose only the relevant options are made available and visible. In that case, only the information required at any particular stage is presented in a concise and precise way – the chances of a missclick or overlooked information are close to none.
Unlike most competitive tools, whose users describe as old and clunky, Estateably combines user experience best practices influenced by the world's most intuitive and successful business applications with constant user research, testing, feedback and iteration. Our team of product designers is obsessed with listening to our customers, understanding their problems, and creating software solutions that are as elegant as they are functional.
With web-based platforms such as Estateably, firms no longer have to spend considerable amounts of money purchasing and maintaining equipment on-premise, which drastically reduces costs. As such, the requirement to invest in hardware, facilities, utilities, or building out a large data center or IT teams to handle data center operations are no longer necessary while reducing costs related to downtime.
Furthermore, cloud-based systems offer many advanced security features that guarantee that data is securely stored and handled. Cloud storage providers implement baseline protections for their platforms and the data they process, such as authentication, access control, and encryption.
The most relevant benefit of cloud-based solutions in the current environment is the ability to access work systems remotely.
Staff with busy schedules, or who live a long way away from the corporate office, or as is the case currently - forced to work from home for social distancing reasons - can use this feature to keep productivity levels high and stay up-to-date with clients and co-workers.
Information in the cloud can be easily stored, retrieved, recovered, or processed with just a couple of clicks. Users can get access to their work on-the-go, 24/7, from any device as long as they are connected to the internet. On top of that, all software upgrades and updates are done automatically and seamlessly by the software vendor.
Exceptional customer service is much more than answering client inquiries politely and providing technical assistance when required. Yes, the ability to communicate with a live human is essential to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. That's why each Estateably customer can contact a customer service representative directly, at no cost, by phone, email or zoom to resolve any issues.
However, Estateably is committed to servicing its customers in a manner that goes above and beyond traditional customer service standards. We've engineered a customizable system flexible enough to quickly and efficiently meet our customers' needs.
Turnaround time for customizations is setting a new industry standard.
While Estateably customers are free to use our out-of-the-box workflows, others that prefer to maintain their way of doing things are empowered to customize workflows and business processes in a manner that allows for practitioners to digitize their own proprietary workflows. Our system can also quickly adapt to procedural law changes or changes to a court or other governmental forms. With the recent changes to court procedures enabling online submissions, Estateably was the first vendor to incorporate and make available the new Ontario court forms into its product suite.
To effectively administer an estate, multiple individuals holding specialized knowledge and expertise must collaborate towards the completion of a file. For example, law clerks with specialized knowledge of court requirements must ensure forms are filed correctly - the first time.
Trust officers, or lawyers with more of a background in planning issues, must be called upon to interpret the will to ensure that distributions to beneficiaries are done correctly and conform to the testator's wishes and intentions. Tax specialists are often required to help file estate income taxes or conduct post-mortem planning to minimize the estate's tax burden. Trust company managers and practice leaders at law firms must ensure that the estate is administered in a manner that not only complies with firm-specific procedures but jurisdictional laws and regulations.
Today, most - if not all - collaboration happens offline.
In the estate administration workplace, time is a precious resource. Thanks to the centralization of resources and documents on a single platform that everyone on the team can access, the staff at firms using Estateably can avoid wasting time searching for a document or asking for information. Everything is accessible and readily available in just a few clicks.
Estateably's collaboration features allow for multiple resources at a firm to work together on a single file, ensuring that specialists can contribute their expertise towards a more streamlined administration process. With Estateably, administrators can assign tasks throughout the administration process to those most capable of completing them, assigning due dates, and monitoring progress. New hires and other junior resources can tag seasoned administrators within the platform to get help with more esoteric tasks. Managers can approve mission-critical tasks, such as distributions to beneficiaries, online, before execution.
One of the critical elements of maintaining a profitable estate administration practice is accurately forecasting variable costs related to servicing clients - and software does not have to be one of them.
Today, the majority of software providers charge a base, flat-fee for administering estates on their platforms. In addition to the base fee, vendors typically charge practitioners additional fees for estate accounting entries, for example, if they surpass a predefined threshold. Practitioners who require customizations to the base platform to meet their specific business requirements are forced to pay out of pocket, often for the simplest changes. Contacting customer support can also result in additional fees levied on the firm. Most of these fees are passed back to the estate as an out-of-pocket expense. However, when such costs are unusually high, doing so can be challenging at best.
To minimize these kinds of unpleasant conversations with beneficiaries, for sole practitioners and smaller firms with less than three collaborators.
Estateably charges a single, competitive base fee for estates that are administered on our platform, with no surprise extras.
For less than $100 per file, accounting entries are unlimited, product customizations are done free of charge, and customer support is always included. For larger firms where greater internal collaboration is required, a modest $7/month/seat is charged to firms to unlock advanced collaboration features. For national law firms and trust companies, special enterprise pricing is available.
Estateably's pricing model helps ensure that software costs to service estates can be accurately forecasted, and practices - no matter the size - can ensure maximum profitability.
Estateably is setting a new standard for what professionals should expect, and deserve, from the tools they use to conduct business. Our mission is centred around improving a process and industry that has been underserved for years. As we continue to launch across the country, we strive to maintain the high bar we have set while listening to our customers to help us build the future of estate administration for professionals.
Interested in seeing first hand why scores of practitioners are switching to Estateably? Click here to book a demo.
Estateably Inc. © 2024
Estateably Inc. © 2023
