Competition Commission
The Competition Commission is one of the independent
public bodies which help ensure healthy competition between
companies within the UK for the benefit of companies, customers and
the economy. Each inquiry is led by a decision-making body drawn
from a wide panel of highly skilled Government-appointed
members.
Business challenges
Successfully managing an unknown number of inquiries and
associated costs within a Government-defined annual budget is the
key challenge for Sue McDonald, Head of Finance for the Competition
Commission. "Because we have no choice over the number, and
variety, of the referrals that come through, we are to some extent,
at the mercy of market forces. But if we can establish the ongoing
nature of the associated costs, then that's half the battle." The
need to efficiently capture project-related data, as well as
improved reporting facilities, therefore prompted the search for a
new system.
Finding Dimensions
After deciding not to upgrade their existing Sun System, the
Competition Commission did some Internet research and made an
appointment to view Access Dimensions at the
London City office.
After seeing the web-enabled FocalPoint
modules in action, the organisation agreed they'd found the system
they were looking for. For benchmarking purposes, the Government
raised several questions about the system's functionality and
price. The purchase fitted within neatly into the CC's capital
expenditure so the deal went through smoothly. After a similarly
straightforward implementation, involving some detailed planning,
the system was ready to go live.
Reporting
"Dimensions has reduced the time taken to close our
monthly accounts by 50%" Sue McDonald
Head of Finance
The reports in the previous system were proving too rigid for
the organisation's purposes, forcing users to manually cut and
paste data to get the information needed for decision-making. The
situation was easily rectified through the development of a large
number of tailor-made Crystal reports, which provide users with the
exact information they need in seconds.
"Our reports are so user-friendly now," says Sue McDonald.
"There's a lot of drill-down functionality so you can look what a
figure's made up of, which is also useful at the end of the month,
providing me with the facility easily cross-check if anything's
missing."
Office Integration
Access Dimensions' integration with Microsoft Office
has also resulted in significant time-savings for Sue McDonald -
particularly when it comes to providing information that has to be
accessed by lots of different people, such as board packs. "Now,
instead of having to re-format lots of reports, I place Excel
sheets within a workbook, which is just so much easier for people
to access and use."
Timesheets and expenses
Accurately accounting for the organisations' labour and expenses
was also a key driver towards visibility of costs. Previously, the
organisation's members filled out this information on Excel
spreadsheets, which was then re-keyed into the accounts, leading to
inevitable time delays. Now, all in-house staff enter their time
via FocalPoint, which enables
this data to be routed to an approver and directed straight into
the accounts, cutting out time-consuming data entry
Purchasing and invoicing
Installing FocalPoint has also tightened purchase control.
"Previously, a purchase request would take days to reach approval
stage. Since installing FocalPoint, information is approved much
more quickly. Now, purchase requests are
raised online so that when we need to pay an invoice, we can
quickly check and approve. The alerts also keep approvers on their
toes so they tend to approve things far more quickly."
Creating budgets
"Gaining the information I needed to create a budget could take
days of liaison with the project teams" states Sue McDonald. Our
web-based budgeting functionality (a module configured to the
organisation's specific needs) has really sped up the process. Each
time we get an inquiry, I simply allocate resources to it - based
on hourly rates, for example and make any adjustments as a team.
It's a much more efficent way of working."
Effect on the business
The combination of Access Dimensions and FocalPoint has, in Sue
McDonald's words, "definitely speeded up our internal processes. In
terms of the project and service side, electronic authorisation has
enabled us to reduce our 30-day Part Payment Statistic from 90% to
98% - and ultimately reduced the time taken to close our monthly
accounts by 50%. And when I'm asked questions about costs, I can
get the information instantly. I'm very happy with our system and
would definitely recommend it."
Benefits
- Time savings - Tailor-made Crystal reports can
be run in seconds, providing managers with complete, up-to-date
information for decision-making. Previously, this would have relied
on manual cut/paste methods which were time-consuming and
error-prone. FocalPoint enables many more people within an
organisation to enter and access management information, meaning
that the data is ready to process more quickly, reducing the time
to produce month end reports by 50%.
- Efficiency gains - Budgets can be created
quickly then modified, tracked and updated as projects progress.
This eliminates the need to spend extensive time with project
teams.
- Cost control - Decision-makers can see at a
glance where projects face going over budget and can take
preventative action.
- Visibility - full audit trail with drill-down
provides transparency of where funds have been spent
Looking for a new finance system? Breeze through the RFI process with our quick-start guide. In two parts, we explain what an RFI is, what it should set out to achieve and some pitfalls to avoid. Also includes a downloadable template so that you can get started straightaway.
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