The Tax and Accounting business of Thomson Reuters is completing a process that puts both software help and the ability for users to make suggestions into applications within its CS Professional suite.The company is consolidating support efforts in a new online Help and How-to Center, along with placing the Ideas Community, already available in most products in the suite, into UltraTax and WebBuilder before year's end.
The Help and How-to Center gives Thomson a uniform tool for gauging how clients use products and what they find useful, according to Brian Vroom, VP of development. "We will know more about where to invest more in help," said Vroom during the company's Synergy user conference this week. The center enables Thomson to know more about "what are people using and what are they not using," he continued.
The Ideas Community first appeared in Practice CS in in 2009 and since has been made available in Netfirm and Accounting CS.
Vroom emphasized that the Ideas Community is different than Arne, the user community tool. Thomson reads, but does not get involved in Arne, but will read and respond as part of the newer service. Thomson emphasized that users are also able to comment on each other's ideas.
