Velosio Case Study: Quick Solutions Inc.
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About the Company
INDUSTRY: Information Technology Consulting
LOCATION: Westerville, OH
SYSTEM: Microsoft Dynamics GP
Quick Solutions, Inc. (QSI) is an IT consulting firm located in Westerville, OH. QSI has nineteen service offerings helping clients implement technology solutions to solve business problems. QSI’s offerings encompass all aspects of strategy, people, process and technology. QSI was founded in 1991 in response to a growing demand for outsourced Information Technology consulting services. They now have over 190 consultants engaged at over 70 client sites in a wide range of industries including manufacturing/ distribution, financial services, energy, public sector, retail, professional services and education.
The Challenge
QSI switched from Sage MAS90 to Microsoft Dynamics GP in order to optimize the more robust time and materials management and reporting features found within the Project Accounting module. They struggled with their new solution since their software partner didn’t analyze their business procedures thoroughly before entering their data into Microsoft Dynamics GP.
The Solution
In September of 2012, QSI sought out help from Velosio and the company quickly felt they were in good hands. Velosio educated QSI throughout the process so they understood how they needed to use the system in order to get important business information out.
Results
- Streamlined time tracking processes making time sheets and contracts much easier to manage
- Quicker reporting capabilities and limited errors
Quick Solutions, Inc. (QSI) is an IT consulting firm located in Westerville, OH. QSI has nineteen service offerings helping clients implement technology solutions to solve business problems. QSI’s offerings encompass all aspects of strategy, people, process and technology. QSI was founded in 1991 in response to a growing demand for outsourced Information Technology consulting services. They now have over 190 consultants engaged at over 70 client sites in a wide range of industries including manufacturing/distribution, financial services, energy, public sector, retail, professional services and education.
In December of 2011, QSI made the switch from Sage MAS90 to Microsoft Dynamics GP in order to optimize the more robust time and materials management and reporting features found within the Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting module. Despite their plans, QSI struggled with their new solution since their software partner didn’t analyze their business procedures thoroughly before entering their data into Microsoft Dynamics GP. QSI quickly realized they weren’t using the solution correctly and were forced to deal with some major business pains on top of it all.
Not only were they conducting manual workarounds, they weren’t able to create the profit & loss (P&L) reports to show which projects were profitable and which were not. QSI also wanted to break out financial statements by the different industries they worked with, but they could never organize the information into a comprehensive report due to the way the software was initially configured. The Corporate Controller at the time tried to pull journal entries manually from the General Ledger by industry and after nine months, still wasn’t able to produce the information they needed.
Solution and Benefits
In September of 2012, they sought out help from Velosio, a Microsoft Gold Partner located in Dublin, OH. Once Velosio entered the picture, QSI felt they were in good hands. Pamela Hagely, Director and Corporate Controller at QSI says, “Right off the bat, we had a great working session on the ‘what ifs’ of our business. Velosio wanted to know all the exceptions to the rule so that we didn’t have to create workarounds to deal with those exceptions on a daily basis.” Velosio educated QSI throughout the process so they understood how they needed to use the system in order to get important business information out. Pamela continues, “After that first session, Velosio really understood our business and had the information they needed to set Microsoft Dynamics GP up correctly so we could use it to its fullest ability.”
Reports, Reports, Reports
Since Velosio was able to set everything up properly, QSI could depend on consistency that streamlined data entry processes across the board. All their time sheets are now entered the same way and contracts are much easier to track and manage. Pamela says, “There is finally logic behind how things are set up. Users don’t have any questions on why and we’ve limited the number of manual changes, making our reporting much more accurate as well.”
- By Industry – QSI needed insight into financial information by industry because each of the industries they work with has their own set of margins. Never being able to achieve this insight before, QSI can now see this detail, helping management make important business decisions. Pamela explains, “Velosio took our General Ledger accounts and restructured it to create segments correctly. This produces the industry-specific statements that we never could get before.”
- By Client – Similar to viewing financial information for each industry, QSI wanted to see all of the P&L reports for each of their clients. Now that Velosio has set things up in Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting to attain this real-time information, QSI can quit playing the guessing game. With factual data, they can see where they’re profiting, where they’re losing money, and whether there are trends that they can follow.
- Utilization – QSI currently reports on what their revenue goals are for each consultant. Prior to their work with Velosio, this utilization report was completely manual and was time consuming in that it required data from different sources within the company. Now with the help of Velosio, the utilization report is compiled from the weekly timesheet data captured in Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting and reported in a clearer, more accurate format. Pamela says, “Velosio continues to surprise us in helping us get better reports to help manage our business.”
Time Savings
Velosio also helped QSI to set up and use the Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal that sits on top of the Project Accounting module. The Business Portal application will streamline their time tracking processes by allowing individual users to create their own time sheets. Before Velosio stepped in, one full time employee at QSI would manually enter timesheets for 140 consultants, taking a total of 5 hours every two weeks. With Business Portal, the time entry task is pushed out to each employee to enter their own time. That data is then automatically imported into Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting, saving at least four hours of work for accounting every two weeks. Pamela adds, “This has freed up our finance and accounting experts so they can focus on doing more meaningful tasks for the business.”
Real-Time Business Visibility
QSI can now attain timely information to make better business decisions as a whole. Pamela says, “With this new-found automation and efficiency, we can get reports to our partners by or before the 10th of each month whereas before we struggled to deliver minimal reporting by the 15th.”
User Friendly Process Changes
Not only was Velosio able to set up the software correctly, they helped QSI realize that changing their processes could save them time and limit errors. For example, they used to set up a new project in Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting for each of their consultants. So if they had 6 employees, they had 6 projects reflected in their financial records. Now it’s set up so that there’s only 1 project for each client company they work with, saving significant set up time. All they need to do is assign a new consultant to the project (or company) and they’re ready to go.
Pamela says, “Velosio’s knowledge of the solution and our business has been invaluable to helping us achieve success and an actual ROI for Microsoft Dynamics GP.”
A Better Way
QSI knew there had to be a better way of making Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting work for them without having to invest in costly customizations and they were right. By leveraging the expertise of Velosio, reviewing best practices, and making some process changes, QSI is seeing the benefits.
Pamela says, “I believe the biggest strength of Velosio is that they have consultants who have walked in our shoes. They understand our business because they’ve been there before.” She continues, “Being able to trust our technology partner and depend on them when we deal with issues, even after implementation, is truly priceless.”