Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Industry BodySaves Time,Improves Efficiency With Business Analytics
Reports Generated 90 Percent Faster, Saves 40 Percent Person-hours
Overview
Country or region: India
Industry:Nonprofit
Customer Profile
Headquartered in New Delhi, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is an association of business organizations in India. Foundedin 1927by G.D. Birla and Purushottam Takkur, it employs 400 people across India.
Business Situation
FICCI faced cumbersome and time-consuming manual processes. To enter or extract data from Tally and generate reports in Microsoft Office Excel took hours and sometimes additional work force.
Solution
With the help of Team Computers, Microsoft®Gold Certified Partner, FICCIdeployedMicrosoftDynamics® NAV2009.
Benefits
Return on Investment in 35 months
Increases productivity by 30 percent
Improves decision making with increased visibility
Saves 40 percent person-hours with dynamic reporting
Reduces accounting and auditing cost / “We are delighted with the increase in efficiency. What took us days to develop is now available online in Dynamics NAV. The process improvement at some instances, especially reporting is a 90 percent.”
D.K.Raina, Finance Controller, FICCI
A non-government, industry body set up in 1927, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is the voice of India's business and industry. It plays a leading role in policy debates that are at the forefront of social, economic and political change.To streamline data, centralize access to information at head office, generate quick, meaningful reports and simplify accounting FICCI decided to replace its standalone IT applications. Itchose Microsoft Dynamics® NAV2009 and partnered withTeam Computers to deploy the solution. The integrated business solution has significantly improved how employees work at the organization.Access to real time information has improved productivity by 30 percent, increasing employeeefficiency with workflows and dynamic reports. It empowers the management to analyze data for strategic decision-making. FICCI is already benefiting from new business solution with considerable enhancement in efficiency, and hence saves time and reduces costs.
Situation
Established in 1927, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is the largest and oldest apex business organization in India. Headquartered in New Delhi,India, it works closely with the government on policy issues, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and expanding business opportunities for industries through a range of specialized services and global linkages. With the help of 400 skilled professionals, it supplements government efforts in 39 sectors of economy through various initiatives.
FICCI has joint business councils with 79 countries around the world. It has direct membership from private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 83,000 companies from regional chambers of commerce.The widespread network of FICCI consists of vast network of business organizations like Chambers of Commerce, trade associations, government bodies, corporate and individuals who contribute. With more than five offices worldwide,FICCI serves as the first port of call for Indian industry and the international business community. FICCI’s revenues increased from about INR 3 crore per annum in 1993-94to current level of about INR110 crore in fiscal 2009-10.
FICCI actively participates inmeetings, seminars, conferences or exhibitions held across the country and worldwide. The participants need to update their expenses and vouchers for verification on a regular basis. The organization heavily relied upon a standalone accounting software Tally to maintain accounts, balance sheets and track all the expenses. Though Tallyhandled different types of vouchers like payment, receipt, adjustments etc. but it had many limitations associated with it.It was not suitable for multiple users accessing same data. “We didn’t have any option to speed up the data entry work other than to invest the time required by the application,” expresses D.K.Raina, Finance Controller, FICCI. Concurrently lack of ledger wise control or review of multiple ledgers for comparisonsadversely affected the performance and increased the working time duration of accounts team.
FICCI’s functional requirements were detailed travel reports, income and expense reports, bifurcated expenses etc. These were created using semi manual processes in Microsoft Office Excel worksheets. Due to lack of integration, data from Tally was re-entered (manually) into Excel sheets.“One report used to take daysto pulltogether because we had to write it out in our diaries, bifurcate the expenses for travel, stay, PR activities etc., feed data in the system and then print it out,” recalls D.K.Raina, Finance Controller, FICCI.
Moreover, lack of effective support from vendors, data backup and server crashing issues, and securityconcerns were impeding the organization.Data from multiple officeswas collated at head office in Delhi for review and analysis. FICCI thus recognized the importance of an integrated ERP solution to increase visibility, have easy access to information, manage accounts and generate multiple reports.
Solution
As a not-for-profit organization, FICCI had budget limitations; therefore,it wanted the return on investment within 7 years. This would recover all costs and investment. Market trends in favor of Microsoft solutions prompted FICCI to approach the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Team Computers. “We discovered that Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides options for optimal analysis and reporting, creates and consolidates reports, and looks for trends and relationships, which was exactly what we needed,” explains D.K.Raina.
Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 began in May 2006 but due to certain limitations, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 was re-implemented in 2008. It has alreadyupgraded the solution to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 this year.Team Computers deployed Finance and Human Resource modules for 15 users.
FICCI decided to implement the base product without any customization to avoid complexity.Its primaryneeds were generating reports and financial management, which were effectively fulfilled by the base model. Limited customizationwas done by Team Computers.
FICCI has already recovered the implementation cost and has plans to add Microsoft Dynamics CRM and other analytical tools. These will integrate with Dynamics NAV to provide a complete view of its member base, activities and financial information.
Benefits
Access to real-time, business-critical information and a wide range of analytical tools to manage budgets, accounts, draw comparisons with previous years’ data and generate regular MIS reports. “Better visibility into data and flexibility of reports are some of the key benefits that save time, money and result in better decision making,” states D.K.Raina, Finance Controller, FICCI.
Return on Investment in 35Months
The analysis and reporting capability of Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been a big boon. With a positive return on investment(ROI) in just 35 months, FICCI has reduced accounting and auditing costs. “We are able to cope up with workload due to increase in revenue, with the same workforce that has run accountsfor the 10 years ago,” explains D.K.Raina, Finance Controller, FICCI.
“With offices in 5 countries and single solution, we can now generate reports,compare the same base figures and benchmark,” concludes D.K.Raina. “ROI is recognized by the improved information flow supports additional growth without hiring people. This reduces the total cost of ownership.”
Increases Productivity by 30 Percent
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has raised the bar on employee productivity by 30 percent, with same number of people doing more. “We are delighted with the increase in efficiency. What took us days to develop is now available online in Dynamics NAV. The process improvement at some instances, especially reporting is a 90percent,” saysD.K.Raina. “We havereorganized our teams, and the employeesare engaged in more productive activities.”
Improves Decision making with Better Visibility
The new business solution has made tasks a lot quicker.“With centralized data server, we have everything in one single solution.Information about funding agencies, our members, and sponsorsto government grants is all available in a single repository,” says D.K.Raina. “It is easy to compare data such as expenses or savings from previous years and take informed decisions.The built-in analysis tools allow us to compare budget across time, departments, project, campaigns, and other dimensions.”
Saves 40 Percent Person-Hours with Dynamic Reporting
Daily reports are a necessary part for most employees’ lives at FICCI.Using dynamic reporting capabilities,detailed information such as space, location, sponsorship, government grants, income, funding agency as well as analysis is available in real time. “Reports were tedious. Earlier it would take daysformanual collation. Now all this is available at the click of a button,” states D.K. Raina.
Reduces Accounting and Auditing Cost
Tracing event specific income or expensesis simple. Further, bifurcating expenses under the heads of travel, hotel stay, preparing presentation, advertisements etc. against the budget allocated and actual amount spent are readily available for comparisons. “We’ve thus been able to audit our billing much more accurately which led to a lot of savings,” states D.K.Raina.It saves time for auditors, government officials and employees.Reduced accounting staff obviously brings down administrative overheads.
A view expressed in this study by Dilip K Raina, Financial Controller, FICCI and is not view of organizations represented by FICCI.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 systemsthat 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:
About Team Computers
Incorporated in 1988, Team Computers was started as Apple Support Shop and servicing of Laser Printers. The Delhi based company has geographically expanded with branches in Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. It has emerged as the single largest IT Infrastructure Solution provider supporting more than 600 customers across the country. With a massively intensive network spread across the Indian sub-continent TEAM is the premier service provider to all IT solutions with expertise in Infrastructure Management Services, Infrastructure Build Solutions, Information Services, Business Intelligence, Business Applications and Consulting Services and Remote Infrastructure Management.