Professional Services: Greentree a perfect fit for Acumen
Greentree (who were recently recognised as one of 25 global rising stars by MIS magazine) has helped enhance the financial management of one of New Zealand's largest public relations companies...
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With a reputation for delivering excellence in perception management, Acumen Group now has more comprehensive and flexible internal financial reporting than ever. Acumen Group has national coverage with offices in Wellington and Auckland, and the finance function of both offices is run from Wellington. "The decision to invest in Greentree Financials," says Acumen financial controller Mandy Hancock, "was partly due to our older version of CBA not being Y2K compliant, and partly due to wanting to upgrade our entire information technology platform. When we discovered that our computers and accounting software were unable to take us into the new millennium, we decided to use the opportunity to develop a superior computer framework that would ultimately help us to serve our clients better." The finance team at Acumen carried out extensive research into the various job management and accounting packages available and decided that the Windows-based Greentree system was the one that met all their processing and reporting requirements. Acumen purchased the General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Cash Management modules of the system and will move to the Payroll and Fixed Assets modules once they are released. "On the 1st of April 2001 we had a painless migration from the legacy financials to Greentree," says Hancock. "With the dealer support we received any issues were ironed out and within a month we were able to provide month-end accounts using the new system. Once we got through that important first stage, we knew we'd made the right decision with Greentree." Commenting on the positive impact of Greentree on their processes, Hancock says since implementing Greentree, Acumen's financial operation has become more cost effective and efficient. "With the online application," she says, "considerable time has been reduced in processing the data and analysing the accounts. "An impressive result of the new financial system is that the monthly billing cycle is completed much more quickly, meaning clients pay more quickly and cash has been generated in the business. In addition, fewer administration and finance staff are needed." Acumen has found that the month and year-end reporting function is now a process that takes just minutes to complete. All transactions entered into Greentree are date stamped with the relevant period and year, so there's no formal period-end aging that needs to be performed. "The ease of producing financial information and the flexibility of the financial reporting in Excel," says Hancock, "are two fundamental benefits for us and particularly for decision making in the management team." Providing timely and informative reports helps ensure Acumen operates effectively and profitably. All standard reports within Greentree have been designed to provide key information in a logical and easy to read format. The Greentree Report Writer, an integral part of Greentree, provides a complete management reporting tool for creating just about any type of transaction-based report required. "Month end reports take us only two minutes to complete now," says Hancock. "Greentree's integration with Excel is really fast and I can just whiz through the entire blue book of financial reports. Overall the Greentree product has taken us forward. The support we have receive, from Datacom Systems Ltd and Greentree International, in response to our requests has been excellent." For information about this case study contact www.greentree.com/customers/profiles/acumen.cfm Graham Hill |
June 2003 To view a full version of this case study, click here (PDF 223kb)
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