Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Procurer Reduces Maintenance Costs by 90 Percent with Financial Management Solution
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Professional services
Customer Profile
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Prosero handles procurement services such as strategic sourcing and compliance and supplier management. Prosero has 100 employees and 2004 revenues of U.S.$7 million.
Business Situation
When the company changed lines of business, it needed to move from its SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning system to a more streamlined, cost-effective accounting software package.
Solution
Working with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner I.B.I.S., Prosero chose to deploy Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® software.
Benefits
Cost savings of 90 percent compared to previous solution
Increased efficiency with user-friendly report writing
Easy reconciliation that saves up to five hours per month / “We selected Microsoft Great Plains because of its out-of-the-box functionality and the ongoing savings itwould deliver with a significantly lower total cost ofownership.”
Henry Page, Treasurer and Controller, Prosero
When procurement specialist Prosero changed its business model to move away from process-heavy e-procurement, its SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning system suddenly was more than the company needed—and certainly more than it wanted to pay for and support. To replace the old system, Prosero selected Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains®(now part of Microsoft DynamicsTM), which delivers complete, cost-effective financial and business management functionality. The company turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner I.B.I.S. to implement Microsoft Great Plains. Prosero now has increased itsaccounting efficiency. What’s more, employees also are more self-sufficient, so the IT staff no longer has to take time away fromstrategic initiatives to help write reports. Microsoft Great Plains can scale to meet the needs of Prosero, yet it saves the company 90 percent in annual maintenance costs compared to theSAP R/3 system.
Situation
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Prosero delivers procurement solutions to companies in the manufacturing, construction, real estate, utility, and services industries. The company provides such offerings as strategic sourcing, contract deployment, compliance management, and, for customers in the manufacturing industry, material logistics and planning. Additionally, Prosero offers a range of procurement technologies, from electronic procurement (e-procurement) systems to expenditure analysis software. With 100 employees in 10 locations, Prosero had 2004 revenues of approximately U.S.$7 million and is projected to earn $13 million in 2005.
When Prosero decided to change its line of business in 2004, the company reduced the need for much of its previous enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality. Prior to 2004, Prosero used an SAP R/3 ERP system for accounting, for placing orders on the Web, and as a transaction engine. But eliminating e-procurement from its business offerings meant that Prosero could simplify its financial services requirements. As a result, the company examined its SAP system and determined that SAPwas no longer the right fit for its streamlined business model. “SAP was more than we needed,” says Henry Page, Treasurer and Controller for Prosero. “The total cost of ownership was enormous, and SAP had a tendency to be bulky and awkward for pulling reports.”
By removing SAP from its environment, Prosero hoped to significantly reduce the hefty annual maintenance fees that it paid for the SAP system, which cost the company up to $60,000 each year. Prosero also wanted to reduce the number of staff members necessary to maintain the company’s accounting system. “We had 25 people on the IT staff, 5of whom were dedicated to maintaining our SAP system,” says Page. “Once we switched business models, using the SAP system was like killing a fly with a nuclear weapon. It was much more than we needed, and much more than we needed to keep paying for.”
Without the functional requirements of eprocurement to worry about, Prosero looked to accommodate the accounting needs shared by most businesses of its size. Prosero needed an affordable solution that provided the ability to generate income statements, cash-flow statements, balance sheets, and profit-and-loss statements by location, with each statement broken down into a 12-month view. The company also wanted to be able to produce reports showing the profitability of each customer for each month, as well as revenue activity.
Solution
In its search for a new solution, Prosero evaluated several vendors’ systems, including Peachtree solutions from Best Software, QuickBooks Financial Software from Intuit, solutions from ACCPAC International, and multiple Microsoft® Business Solutions applications. After considering the offerings, Prosero selected Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® Professional Edition because it met all of the company’s business requirements and was reasonably priced. “We selected Microsoft Great Plains because of its out-of-the-box functionality and the ongoing savings it would deliver with a significantly lower total cost of ownership,” says Page.
In fact, several years ago, Prosero acquired a company that used Microsoft Great Plains for its accounting. At the time of the acquisition, Prosero opted not to use the acquired company’s system, but after deciding to move from SAP to Microsoft Great Plains, Prosero reestablished the Microsoft Great Plains licenses. “We were able to control costs by just upgrading and augmenting our Microsoft Great Plains software, rather than purchasing new licenses,” says Page.
To find knowledgeable help for its deployment of Microsoft Great Plains, Prosero contacted Microsoft Corporation to ask whether it could recommend a local partner. Microsoft put Prosero in contact with I.B.I.S. Technologies, a local Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that is highly qualified to lead Microsoft Business Solutions implementations. An I.B.I.S. consultant set up the new system on-site at Prosero, working with the company to determine what data to convert and how best to make the switch from the SAP system to Microsoft Great Plains.
“We’ve been very pleased with I.B.I.S. and how well we were able to communicate as we laid out the schedule and worked together,” says Page. “The whole implementation went smoothly. Our I.B.I.S. consultant knew exactly what he needed from us, when he needed it, and in what format.”
The implementation took place on a rolling basis; the implementation team downloaded data a month at a time from the SAP system onto Microsoft Great Plains. Starting in May 2004, Prosero used both systems in parallel, and the final conversion to a solely Microsoft Great Plains system was completed in mid–July 2004. “The implementation went smoothly in large part because it was absolutely a collaborative effort,” says Clinton Weldon, Director of Professional Services forI.B.I.S.
A few integration issues arose because proprietary systems at Prosero needed to be tied into the new solution, but I.B.I.S. and Prosero used the Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager to link the systems. Prosero also wanted Microsoft Great Plains to be able to handle the files that Prosero receives from its payroll generator; uploading those files would save the company time and effort. “Using Integration Manager made the project much easier, which was critical because we had to move fairly quickly. The SAP license for Prosero was expiring, and we needed to transfer the company over to Microsoft Great Plains before that happened,” says Jon Byrd, Senior Account Executive for I.B.I.S.
I.B.I.S. conducted training covering the Microsoft Great Plains General Ledger, Payables Management, and Receivables Management modules, plus the Microsoft FRx® Report Server module from Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx Professional. Because Microsoft Great Plains is more intuitive than the company’s previous SAP R/3 system, it took just three days to train the three-member Prosero accounting department.
“As with any technology change, some of our employees were reluctant to learn a new system,” says Page. “Everyone adjusted, and now our employees all appreciate what they can do using Microsoft Great Plains.” Microsoft Great Plains accommodated all of the company’s previous procedures—even down to using the same account numbers—which further eased the users’ transition to the new solution.
Benefits
For Prosero, Microsoft Business Solutions provides all of the accounting functionality that the company needs at a fraction of the cost of its former SAP R/3 system. Employees can get detailed reports more easily, and Microsoft Great Plains interoperates with outside systems, which increases company productivity.
Cost Savings of 90 Percent Compared to Previous System
The SAP R/3 system cost Prosero up to $60,000 each year in maintenance fees alone. The company now saves approximately $54,000 annually since moving to Microsoft Great Plains, which costs just $6,000 to use each year. The 90 percent cost savings helps Prosero run a leaner business and focus its resources on more strategic financial pursuits. “It just didn’t make sense to keep paying all of that money for functionality that we were no longer using,” says Page. “The Microsoft Great Plains solution is meeting our needs at an economical breakpoint. We made a solid financial decision in making the move to Microsoft Great Plains.”
Additionally, supporting the accounting system is no longer the Herculean task that it once was.Prosero does not have any employees dedicated to supporting the Microsoft Business Solutions system. “There’s no comparison when it comes to the level of support needed to support the Microsoft solution,” says Page. “Instead of needing five people to run it, we now just have to conduct normal database maintenance on the back end, with no Microsoft Business Solutions–specific support required.”
Greater Efficiency with User-Friendly Report Writing
Prosero uses the multidimensional analysis functionality in Microsoft Great Plains and the FRx Report Server to organize information into different types of reports. Because managers can gather more detailed information than what was easily available before, they have better insight for making business decisions. For example, it is far easier to run internal reports showing profits per business unit, which helps Prosero be more accurate in its cost allocations.
Such reports would be extremely useful if the company hired a consultant to support one of its units, because the company needs to know the total cost of that consultant and how much he or she is spending in support of each one of theprofit centers. “Using normal Microsoft Great Plains functionality, we record the total cost of a consultant and tag each expense item that can be connected to a particular business unit with codes from the Microsoft Great Plains Multidimensional Analysis module. Then we use the multidimensional analysis in FRx Report Server to pull reports by business unit that consolidate the costs of our consultants, so we can determine the actual profitability of a particular customer,” explains Page.
Because Microsoft Great Plains is easier to use than SAP R/3, Prosero users are able to navigate the new system better and be more self-sufficient when extracting the information they need. “Prosero accounting department employees are finding it easier to be independent, rather than having to go to the IT staff to help gather information,” says Byrd.
The new user independence extends to reports as well. With the SAP system, Prosero had to hire a special SAP consultant to write reports that Prosero could then run on its own. Having this consultant was necessary because it was too difficult and complicated for any Prosero users to write the reports themselves. “I would have had to go to aweeklong, expensive training class to learnhow to write reports using SAP,” says Page. “We decided not to incur that cost or spend that time, nor did we want to spend resources on bringing the SAP consultant back, so we were restricted to using the generic, basic reports.”
Prosero finds that the Microsoft Great Plains reporting solution is more intuitive to use, which means that the company can handle report writing on its own, yet generate the specific details that it needs for making informed business decisions. “Now, with Microsoft Great Plains, it’s really easy for me to write in-depth, specialized reports myself, which is a huge timesaver,” says Page. “New capabilities, such as report writing and SmartLists, help in our decision making. Our management has more up-to-date, consistent information by individual business unit, along with visibility into details such as expenses by line item and by business area. We’ve never been able to obtain and analyze that sort of specific information so easily before.”
Easy Reconciliation for Real-Time Accuracy
Bank reconciliation also is easier now because the Microsoft Great Plains solution not only clears checks, but also clears deposits and other such activities. Because the solution interoperates with outside systems, such as those at the company’s bank, Prosero accounting employees can use the system to see on a daily basis which checks have cleared, which is helpful because Prosero cuts a large number of checks.
“Microsoft Great Plains is more detailed in terms of what it can accomplish in the area of bank reconciliation,” says Page. “Using the new system, I save between two and five hours of work each month just on reconciling. Plus, now I consistently have a clear picture of where the company stands financially, which is valuable for keeping on track and making important decisions without having to wait for accurate information.”
Prosero is so pleased with the Microsoft Great Plains solution that it recently upgraded to the latest version, Microsoft Great Plains version 8.0. “We’ve found a solid system that we can depend on, so we want to keep it current to take advantage of the latest technology,” says Page. “Microsoft Great Plains gives us the long-term solution we were looking for.”
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship
and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to: