Pro:Centra network off to solid start

Pro:Centra, the financial services practice management network and referral group established under Stockford sponsorship, has launched its services with a sign up of 70 member firms.

According to Pro:Centra managing director Charles Hornor, the aim behind the network is to enable practices to better manage their businesses.

“Pro:Centra has three main aims: to provide ways to make money, ways to save money and ways to retain staff,” Hornor says.

The 70 Pro:Centra membership firms are independent accounting practices, many with financial planning arms.

Six practice management networks have been developed, two each for New South Wales and Victoria, and one each for Melbourne suburbs and the Australian New Zealand Accounting Network (ANZAN).

Horner says a South Australian network is in the initial stages of setting up, and the group is also working on deals with Western Australian and Queensland practices, which should lead to further networks for these states.

As well as the practice management component, which includes six monthly two day seminars held by each network, Horner says the benefits of Pro:Centra membership include economies of scale gained from the larger network and the wider Stockford group.

“Independent firms want to remain independent. By being a part of Pro:Centra, these firms can get the same prices on resources and the cost benefits of bigger organisations,” he says.

By paying the subscription fee of $55 per month for individual practitioners plus $22 for each extra person, firms can also promote their business specialisations via a database accessible through the Pro:Centra Web site.

The Pro:Centra model is devised from a similar operation Hornor ran when based in London, a worldwide multi-disciplinary network between accountants and law firms. He is confident of the continued uptake of Pro:Centra, and hopes to have strengthened the network to 100 member firms by the end of next financial year.

“When firms get to know each other, you get a remarkable forum of skills and ideas. This is one of the things that is intangible at the start, but which firms will begin to see the benefits of,” he says.