When Centacare Ballarat outgrew the capabilities of its PC-based accounting software package, it sought a financials application with robustness, flexibility and familiarity. To manage and control its 60 separate cost centres, the Catholic social service organisation chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV, installed and supported by Melbourne-based national ERP software specialist Evolution Business Systems (EBS).
Business problem
Centacare Ballarat is a complex organisation.
With more than 220 employees, 13 offices and a multi-million-dollar annual budget, the Victorian-based Catholic social service organisation is funded by both Federal and State governments to support specific activities. Its wide range of disciplines includes homeless support, advocacy for aged housing, mental health and drug rehabilitation programs, marriage counselling programs and employment services.
Epitomising this complexity, Centacare Ballarat operates 60 different cost centres within its $16 million budget, reflecting different funding programs and agencies, each of which have rigorous reporting requirements.
Additionally, Centacare often pays expenses on behalf of its clients, which means that its accounting system has to maintain records for more than 3300 suppliers.
Early in 2010, Centacare Ballarat recognised that its existing accounting software was no longer meeting its needs. A major limitation was MYOB?s inability to load budgets for each cost centre. To prepare monthly reports, data had to be exported to third party software, a process that could take all night, especially as the data file grew in size near the end of the financial year. Sometimes, this process even crashed during the overnight export.
While MYOB had a wide range of reports, these did not meet the specific needs of a Not For Profit organisation like Centacare Ballarat and could not be modified. The software also had poor network performance and crashed on a regular basis, requiring all users to log out of the system in order to restart it.
Centacare Ballarat finance manager Antony Rucco said the organisation?s requirements had exceeded the capabilities of the software. ?Clearly, it was no longer meeting our needs,? he said.
Technology solution
Primary drivers for Centacare Ballarat moving to a new financial system were its need for improved reporting, better network performance and a chart of accounts structure that better aligned with its operational structure.
Mr. Rucco said Centacare Ballarat had examined available financial solutions and sought recommendations about service providers. ?There are quite a few good domestic and international products available,? he said.
?One of the reasons for choosing Microsoft Dynamics NAV is that we use a Microsoft platform here. We have a SharePoint intranet; we use the Office suite and Windows. It has a common look, touch and feel with other Microsoft products, which people were familiar with.
?Microsoft Dynamics NAV requires an SQL database engine, which we already had for other programs, so it fitted seamlessly into our infrastructure with no tweaking required. Also, a lot of our configuration requirements were met easily by Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
?A key point is that we didn?t want to be locked into something with a high total cost of ownership: Microsoft Dynamics NAV compares very favourably with other programs in terms of total cost of ownership.?
Mr. Rucco said Centacare Ballarat selected Evolution Business Systems (EBS) as its preferred provider based on recommendations and EBS? professional reputation. ?We wanted access to a company that was large enough to meet our needs, yet small enough to be responsive,? he said
?EBS has been great to work with and delivered the NAV project on budget and one month earlier than first planned. Due to a concerted team effort on both sides and a sound, structured implementation methodology, the project achieve a best-case ?go live?, which reduced the original implementation time by one third. This significantly reduced the disruption of the changeover and gave us access to a better system quicker.?
Business benefits
Mr. Rucco said major benefits of Microsoft Dynamics NAV were its robustness, its flexibility and its ability to streamline business processes. ?For a start, it is very robust,? he said.
?Previously, we had problems with MYOB sessions disappearing, which could happen a couple of times a week, forcing everyone to log out. Now, we simply don?t have this application instability occurring, which has saved us a lot of downtime.
?The data and reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV are very logical and intuitive for finance people and the system has a great search function. It is very easy to export Microsoft Dynamics NAV data to Excel or PDF and it?s simple to manipulate the data. We can also import and export budgets directly with Microsoft Dynamics NAV very easily which has saved us many manual hours of manipulation and configuration of data . A nice feature is we can do sensitivity analyses ? creating ?what if? scenarios.
?Our accounts people are settled in with the new software and find that it?s better to use than the previous application. The system is bedded down now, but we?ve only just scratched the surface of what we can do with it.?
Mr. Rucco said the streamlined business processes enabled by Microsoft Dynamics NAV had led to greater responsiveness from the Finance department. ?Our month-end reporting process, which used to take 10-12 days to finalise, is now completed in half this time,? he said.
?This improvement allows us to distribute reports electronically to our Finance committee before their meeting, which gives them time to consider the reports and formulate advice to the board.
?By streamlining processes and saving time keying in data, Microsoft Dynamics NAV has given Finance more time to focus on value-added activities for other people in the organisation rather than just count the beans.?
Mr. Rucco said he would feel comfortable recommending Evolution Business Systems to other Not For Profit organisations. ?They are starting to build up quite a good portfolio of Not For Profit clients,? he said.
?They have good industry experience and have developed a good understanding of the needs and challenges of Not For Profit organisations.?
Australian financial software specialist Evolution Business Systems (EBS) has scored an outstanding 95.68 per cent customer satisfaction rating in the Australian Achiever Awards, held last month.
In the category for Victoria’s Computer Systems & Software Services, EBS received the highly recommended 95.68 per cent rating, based on seven assessment criteria: Time Related Service; Addressing Client Needs; Care and Attention; Value; Attitude; Communication; and Overall Perception.
In the Australian Achiever Awards, each criterion is rated individually in percentage terms and the final score is an amalgam of these. Anything above 80 per cent overall is regarded as exceptional and reflects outstanding customer service. A complete list of all businesses who have achieved over the last five years can be viewed at http://www.achiever.com.au
Now into its 13th year, the Australian Achiever Awards are an independent, unbiased award system based on assessment ratings from a business’s own customers – an indication of a well-run business where satisfied customers are a sign that a business is healthy, worthy of praise and increased custom.
Australian Achiever received comments from Evolution Business Systems clients including:
“We’ve known them for a very long time and we have a great working relationship with them. We’ve had nothing but professional service from them and everything is always dealt with, no matter how small. They always get back to us and are very prompt. We have nothing but praise for them.”
“Evolution Business Systems have helped us grow our business in a way which enabled us to stay small, but effective. They have helped us to work smarter and not harder – they are a very clever group of people. They’re just absolutely wonderful in the way they have supported our growth.”
“Although we have only used their services for a relatively short time, we are really happy with them because they are continually meeting and exceeding our needs. In fact, they are just excellent to work with. We couldn’t ask for more from a service provider.”
EBS founder and director Paul Woods said the high ranking in the Australian Achiever Awards was especially valuable because it came from customers. ?A large proportion of our business comes from referrals,? he said.
?We work alongside our clients and strive to enable them to get the maximum return they can out of their business systems and that makes this feedback especially valuable.?
To verify this report, please call Geoff Harwood, Director, Australian Achiever on 1800 638 318.
Richard Jay Laundry Equipment was established in Adelaide in 1969 and the company has since become a national operation with branches in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The company specialises in the supply of laundry washers, dryers and associated products to commercial and industrial markets.
Richard Jay Laundry Equipment is now the supplier of the largest range of commercial & industrial laundry equipment Australia-wide. They are very proud of the infrastructure and resources they have available to ensure their customers receive the advice and support they require.
Evolution Business Systems are proud to be able to provide the expertise Richard Jay Laundry required to maximise their use of their business system.
Richard Jay was excited to learn that Evolution Business Systems had launched its same-day support services for Adelaide based businesses in early 2010.
At a meeting with Evolution Business Systems, Ms. Cattanach outlined Richard Jay?s requirements to optimise the performance of its Arrow Financials system. “We gave them a list of what we wanted, some of which were immediate needs and others ongoing improvements,” she said.
Ms. Cattanach found Evolution easy to work with; “as well as being willing to visit our office to discuss issues, they are available by telephone and can also provide us with support through remote access.”
Ms. Cattanach said EBS had established itself as Richard Jay’s trusted support partner for Arrow Financials. “It has been a very good experience,” she said.
In everyday life, how do you simplify things? Remove the clutter? Organise what?s left? Put things where you can get to them easily and quickly?
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009?s RoleTailored hides the 90 precent of the features you don?t need to see. It promotes the actions and information that you do need, leaving you with an uncluttered window and an overview of upcoming tasks helping you prioritise your tasks, and keeping your work productive.
Business management software has simplified business processes. But the Microsoft Dynamics NAV RoleTailored approach takes this one step further; it promotes simplified processes for each individual in your company.
For example, in the Role Centre, the ?Activities? tab displays each process you are involved in at that particular moment, giving you a constant overview of the work in that process.
The result; increased productivity and greater job satisfaction, while providing a positive feedback loop as an integral part of your work processes. Easy to personalise for maximum agility the benefits are clear.
You can personalise Role Centres, lists and task pages very quickly to reflect changes in staff, shifts in employee responsibilities or an expansion in your company?s activities, without having to use a member of your IT department.
You get a solution which is easy to use. It provides people with tools and information that can unleash their individual potential and, in turn, fuel new levels of business performance.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has 21 ready-made Role Centres ready for action. Because most people have more than one ?role? in a company, especially if it?s quite a small operation, you can combine different roles to make up each user profile, which becomes a Role a Role Centre.
The RoleTailored approach provides a positive impact on your company?s agility and each Role Centre is extremely easy to personalise, each user can personalise their own Role Centre very quickly.
For more on the RoleTailored Clients see our highlights page here
Microsoft Unveils New Functionality for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, in a press release today:
“We’re delivering this release in response to customer and partner feedback,” said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP at Microsoft. “Microsoft is committed to continuously bringing forth innovation in our ERP solutions, including the integration with cloud services. These latest enhancements to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 are an important step in delivering solutions that drive real business productivity.”
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 Should be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.
So what does this mean for our clients? Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 clients will benefit from the following:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration. Today?s fast-paced business environment demands instant access to customers and vendors. Microsoft is providing built-in integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Benefits of customer relationship management (CRM) integration include eliminating redundant data entries, keeping information up to date in both ERP and CRM solutions, and providing salespeople with the ability to quickly access detailed business information about contracts, pricing and product availability. Customers can choose between integration to on-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with the option to migrate to either option over time.
Online Payment Service for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This enables customers to process payment transactions from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV interface across multiple channels, including e-commerce, point of sale and call center transactions. The Payment Service works with leading payment processing services and all major credit cards.
RoleTailored interface access for remote or roaming users. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 supports direct access from the Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored experience over the Internet. This allows for remote or roaming users to take advantage of the richness and Microsoft Office integration of the RoleTailored interface and the many integration features connected to local resources, such as the operating system and Microsoft Office. This reduces the complexity and overhead compared with using other applications such as Citrix Systems and Terminal Services, especially for hosting partners offering cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics NAV deployments.
Microsoft Application Virtualization support. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 RoleTailored interface can be deployed using Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) technology, which is relevant for both on-premise and hosted solutions. This provides a better experience for the end user as all integration with local applications is done on the desktop. It also cuts IT costs by centrally managing Microsoft Dynamics NAV client installations with automatic deployment to the desktop after an update.
Windows 7 user experience improvements. Through Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, jumplists can be used to open recently accessed customers and vendors for increased business productivity and efficiency, and the icon overlay functionality provides information on system events and status streamlined with the Windows 7 user experience.
Treemap visualization. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 showcases the possibilities around business data visualizations abilities in Microsoft Dynamics NAV through rich ad hoc data visualization. It provides treemap analysis that enables the comparison of any two values, for example sales and profits, which increases business productivity and business insight. The innovative client extensibility framework used allows partners to extend the user experience of Microsoft Dynamics NAV to integrate visualizations into any end-user scenario.
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of easy-to-use, integrated and adaptable ERP and CRM applications that enable business decision-makers to quickly respond to market shifts, take advantage of new trends, increase their competitive edge and drive business success. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is delivered by Evolution Business Systems providing specialised services and additional innovation to help customers excel in their industries.
To find out more about Microsoft Dynamics NAV and how EBS can help you get on with your business:
Call Paul Woods on1300 303 973
To view a demonstration of this client in action see below:
Executive summary
Australian financial software specialist Evolution Business Systems (EBS) has scored an outstanding 95.68 per cent customer satisfaction rating in the Australian Achiever Awards, held last month.
Richard Jay Laundry Equipment was established in Adelaide in 1969 and the company has since become a national operation with branches in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The company specialises in the supply of laundry washers, dryers and associated products to commercial and industrial markets.
