The Situation
Provident Capital Limited (PCL) is one of Australia's leading diversified finance and investment (funds management) groups, creating and managing high quality fixed interest investments and innovative mortgage lending. Their growth is due to our expertise in identifying the need for alternative methods of investment and finance and delivering innovative and rewarding financial solutions.
With five years of planned growth on the horizon and the new financial year fast approaching, PCL needed to get its financial system and processes upgraded.
PCL was using basic system for its accounting and financial activities. Limitations with this software were apparent; The old system did not have the tools or the capacity to support PCL’s financial and accounting activities, or its future growth. With the anticipated changes in the next five years, it was time to move to a software system that could handle PCL’s drive in the market. As PCL’s Financial Controller, Carl Kennedy says:
“We had outgrown the current system and, with no capability for reporting, we were unable to provide efficient and timely information to the team. We were looking for a company and software system that could deliver seamless financial and accounting processes within a tight deadline of two months, in time for the new financial year on 1st July 2011.”
In its search for a solution, PCL engaged Intergen and Microsoft, which proved to be the perfect fit. Microsoft’s renowned financial software platform and Intergen’s inside knowledge and experience with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ensured PCL was in the best hands.
The Pain
With PCL’s current accounting and financial system limitations and performance gaps were becoming a hindrance. With significant growth forecast for the next five years, along with the financial year coming to a close, this needed to be remedied quickly.
The old system wasn’t a seamless, integrated financial solution and required a lot of manual intervention. Some of this work stemmed from a cumbersome file-based structure which required manual maintenance. Carl Kennedy says, “Our separate legal entities meant maintaining separate files, which doubled the transaction time when reconciling and agreeing to intercompany balances. Historical data was only available before and after the current year, requiring staff to manually load and interrogate the data.”
Another issue was that the old system didn’t have the capacity to process large volumes of transactions, resulting in a backlog. With growth projected, PCL needed a system that could handle greater volumes of work.
Another important performance gap was the old system’s inability to automatically produce reports. Staff had to generate their own reports through Excel. Using NAV, reports were constructed to give the team a view of financials, transactions, budgeting and forecasting activity. Carl Kennedy says, “We were after a system that consolidated this financial, reporting and accounting activity, making it easily accessible and efficiently managed.” NAV met this challenge.
The Gain
PCL now has a seamless, integrated financial and accounting platform. Microsoft Dynamics NAV gives PCL the opportunity to glide through financial, reporting and accounting activities, without time consuming glitches along the way. As Carl Kennedy says:
“We can now spend more time on analytical work – previously we were doing a lot of compiling and customising. This was taking too long and was creating bottlenecks along the way. Now we have a seamless software platform that gives us access to all data and allows us to create reports within an all-in-one system. This saves us time and creates capacity for the finance team to add more value by doing more analytical work. We no longer have to wait and upload and construct accounting and financial reports – they can all be generated automatically now. Plus we can process large volumes transactions efficiently.”
In terms of the project itself, Carl Kennedy says: “Intergen delivered on time, ahead of schedule and within cost – which was great for us. We had a tight deadline and this was met.”
Now PCL can embrace its future growth with confidence. Reports and analytics can be provided to the team with ease, and the new financial year was welcomed as a fresh start.