4-page Case Study - Posted 4/20/2007
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Finance Software Empowers Staff for a Broadcaster Built from Acquisitions
Accountants, analysts, and auditors of Young Broadcasting Inc.’s finance department are now liberated from tedious manual processes and can focus on generating higher returns for the company. In addition to reducing the time required to accomplish financial tasks by 50 percent or more, implementation of Microsoft Dynamics™ GP also enabled the CEO and other senior executives of the publicly-held company to meet Securities and Exchange Commission requirements.
Situation
As the owner of 10 local television stations across the United States, Young Broadcasting Inc. is a complex puzzle. Sales and finance employees of the New York City–based company were hampered by a plethora of incompatible systems. Each station used a different accounting system, since each was acquired from another owner at various times. Furthermore, each station had a different operating culture.
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[The software] was going to put more data at our fingertips, which would save time and open up opportunities for more creative, and more effective, reporting. |
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Peter Grazioli
Vice President and CIO, Young Broadcasting |
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The lack of integration and inefficiencies of the patchwork of systems had a deleterious impact on the sales and financial teams. All of Young Broadcasting’s revenue is generated by salespeople selling advertising airtime on the shows that each station broadcasts. Like an airline seat, which loses its value once the airplane takes off, the value of airtime disappears once the broadcast begins. So it is imperative that the salespeople are empowered with accurate and up-to-date information about inventory and its value. In addition, the sales team must be kept within corporate boundaries in terms of deal profitability, credit worthiness of their clients, and other financial controls.
“Broadcasting is localized in its market. Affiliate stations are like branch offices, but they have their own culture,” explains Peter Grazioli, Young Broadcasting’s Vice President and CIO. “When each one came into the fold, we inherited the culture of the company that sold it. Instead of pushing our procedures down, initially we made accommodations to keep their culture in place. However, that did not make for the most efficient environment.”
The stations reported financial results to the NYC office in a variety of different spreadsheets, each prepared by a financial analyst spending a week preparing the month-end report. Each set of data was entered into a consolidated spreadsheet, a process that took several analysts at headquarters another five days to complete. While this manual process was obviously inefficient, Controller Stephen Baker and other executives also knew that the company would not be able to pass a Sarbanes-Oxley audit with a manual system.
Solution
Grazioli and Baker were selected to lead a team to find and implement a better solution. They chose the Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting suite for several reasons:
- They wanted a system that was both affordable and manageable.
- Young Broadcasting employees would be comfortable learning to use a new system based on the familiar and easy-to-use Windows® operating system user interface.
- Management would be able to access the fully integrated sales and financial models that would provide a comprehensive view of the business, while incorporating the enterprisewide business rules and controls required to comply with SEC regulations.
“[The software] was going to put more data at our fingertips, which would save time and open opportunities for more creative, and more effective, reporting,” explains Grazioli. The integrated aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics GP solution, along with its ease-of-use and reliability, would help the finance employees refocus on the creative aspects of their jobs instead of menial tasks. The software, he adds, created an opportunity for the employees to “redefine and organize ourselves.” The company wanted to replace a myriad of cultures and practices with one culture and set of practices.
Grazioli and Baker led a team to implement and deploy the system. Grazioli noted that customizations to fit Young’s business model were easy to implement, due to the wizard-like feature selection process.
Benefits
“We threw out our manual, antiquated general ledger systems, and from a financial reporting standpoint, we brought the company into the 21st century,” says Baker.
Faster Access to Reports Enables Timely Decisions
Baker explains that operational efficiencies empowered analysts, auditors, and other financial professionals throughout the organization. The financial analysts at each station reduced the time required to prepare its monthly statement for headquarters to two days from five days.
In addition, automating the internal control-monitoring process reduced corporate auditors’ burden by about 50 percent. Baker says the monthly financial statement consolidation takes five hours instead of five days. As a result, corporate executives get the overall financial statements within 10 days instead of 15.
“These tools enable our executives to make timely and up-to-date decisions,” Baker adds. “And avoid penalties for non-compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. In fact, the company was able to attain Sarbanes-Oxley compliance without having to add substantial additional staff, due to the time savings from a more efficient system,” he notes.
What’s more, better and faster decisions are not the only benefits of the new system.
Automated Processes Eliminate Distractions
In addition to the operating efficiencies, the implementation provided the entire organization with the foundation for a unifying operating culture. “Since we deployed the application, its policies are now Young Broadcasting’s policies,” Baker notes.
“It made a huge cultural improvement,” Grazioli adds. “Microsoft Dynamics GP helped people focus on their jobs”—instead of dealing with distractions stemming from manual processing.
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| Peter Grazioli, Vice President and CIO, Young Broadcasting |
Executive Biography
Peter Grazioli is the Vice President and CIO of Young Broadcasting. He has been employed by Young Broadcasting or its subsidiary, Adam Young Inc., for 17 years. He began his career at Young as a systems administrator. Grazioli has a marketing degree from the New York Institute of Technology.
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