Case Study: Smith Newmans

Case Study Overview

Smith Newmans, a growing accountancy practice with offices in Winchester and Andover, modernised their ageing on‑site IT system by moving to a scalable cloud environment with smooth data migration, enabling them to overcome limitations around space, reliability and expansion.

This strategic shift saved the firm over £10,000 in hardware and licensing costs, allowed them to reuse existing machines, and gave them the flexibility needed to complete an office move, integrate an acquired Andover practice, and transition quickly to remote working during COVID.

About Smith Newmans

Smith Newmans (acquired by Xeinadin post case study) is an accountancy practice based at Colden Common near Winchester in Hampshire with a second site in Andover.

They offer a full range of bespoke services to small and medium sized businesses & individuals including all elements of personal and self employed tax, including capital gains and inheritance tax and for companies – corporation tax, accounting, business strategy and consultancy.

Their IT Challenges

*Coretek were acquired by Cobweb in 2025.

Director Nigel Newman from Smith Newmans had recently joined the firm with plans to grow the business to become a recognised name in accountancy in Hampshire, helping more companies achieve their business goals through sound financial advice.

However, they had outgrown their current office and had no additional space to expand. Furthermore, their on-site IT system was reaching end of life and would not provide the scalability or reliability required to grow the business.

The Solution

Coretek proposed that moving their IT to the cloud would provide a far more scalable system and be more cost-effective at the same time. Although this approach is commonplace now, back in 2015 many businesses were still reluctant to move to the cloud, preferring to keep all of their IT on-site. However, Smith Newmans had the foresight to see that this approach was the future and with Coretek’s help, they moved their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud.

By removing their on-site server, Smith Newmans actually experienced a considerable cost saving of thousands of pounds as a replacement server, along with associate licensing costs, was no longer required. The existing machines on site could be reused as thin clients, again providing further savings on the cost of new PC’s for staff. In addition, budgeting and forecasting for IT became much easier as the cloud platform is charged on a small amount per user, per month. The system could also scale up instantly when new staff came on board.

Shortly after the cloud migration, Smith Newmans acquired a larger office building, with the additional capacity needed to grow the business. Due to their cloud platform and the minimum on-site hardware, this move was a quick process.

As the business continued to grow, they acquired an accountancy firm in Andover. Merging the IT systems from the two companies would normally be an arduous task but having their cloud system allowed the Andover office to easily access their system simply via an internet connection and a web browser.

This shift to cloud based working would pay further dividends when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and offices were forced to close. As the company already could access all of their systems online, the transition to remote working was smooth and allowed the business to pivot quickly.

Return on investment

The move to the cloud removed the need for a new on-site server. The estimated cost for this is around £3,000 with an additional £2,000 for the server operating license (OS) and client access licenses (CALs).

By utilising the existing desktops as thin clients, no new machines were required, saving around £5,000 in total.

Without even factoring in the Andover office, Smith Newmans managed to save over £10,000 and gain a more scalable and secure IT system.

It is also worth mentioning the considerable saving in time their cloud platform provided for both the office move and the switch to remote working under the recent lockdown.

Benefits for Smith Newmans

Cost Savings
Saving of over £10,000 on the costs of a new server, licensing and new PCs
Ease of a Cloud Environment
Cloud system made the office move to larger premises quick and pain-free
Efficient IT Infrastructure
Gained a scalable IT system ready to support their ambitious growth plans, (e.g. new site offices could be easily incorporated into the existing system)
Future Proofing
Having a cloud system made working from home under COVID a seamless process