With 600 sub-branches spread nationwide providing numerous well-child services, the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society touches the lives of more than 91% of families with young children around the country each year. As a not for profit Plunket manages complex funding requirements, including volunteer funding, government and sponsorship and it is imperative that it understands the cost and value of its services and makes the most efficient use of its resources. By implementing Microsoft® Business Solutions-Navision® (now known as Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV), Plunket has been able to transform its financial management, leading to high quality reporting, improved business insight and decision-making, and a significant reduction in its administrative workload. Management reports that once took up to ten days can now be completed in four.
According to Alison Molloy, Plunket’s general manager of finance and information systems, the organisation’s previous eight-year-old financial system required a high degree of manual intervention to produce monthly and annual management reports. Additionally, Plunket tracked its client information, investment schedules, and asset and general ledgers in separate systems that were not integrated, adding another layer of complexity to the reporting process.
“Reporting was very labour intensive, and placed a heavy administrative load on the treasurers and at national office,” says Molloy. “As the funding requirements became more complex, so too did the reporting and it could take us up to ten days to produce a report.”
Molloy cites an example where the same data had to be manually entered four times to complete one reporting process.
“At the entity level, a bill would be paid, coded on to the bank statement and then faxed to the national office where it would be entered into the old system. Data would then have to be entered again at year-end by the National Office in relation to assets and investments.”
Situation
Both a government and privately funded organisation, it is imperative that Plunket manages complex funding requirements, understands the cost and value of its services and makes the most efficient use of its resources. However, Plunket’s legacy eight-year-old financial system required a high degree of manual intervention to produce monthly and annual management reports.
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We chose Microsoft Navision because it provided the level of integration, flexibility and reporting we needed. It also had a similar look and feel to other Microsoft products, making it easier to train staff to use the system, which is important given the spread of our people around the country. |
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Alison Molloy
GM Finance & Information Systems
Royal New Zealand Plunket Society |
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Solution
By implementing Microsoft® Business Solutions-Navision® (now known as Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV), Plunket has been able to transform its financial management, leading to high quality reporting, improved business insight and decision-making, and a significant reduction in administration. Management reports that once took up to ten days can now be completed in four.
Transforming Financial Management
Once Plunket made the decision to invest in a new financial management solution in January 2005, the organisation evaluated a number of out-of-the-box solutions against the following key criteria: ease of use, integration with existing systems, future-proofing, and ability to streamline the reporting process. Microsoft Navision, supported by technology partner Topaz Solutions, proved to be the best solution, according to Molloy.
“We chose Microsoft Navision because it provided the level of integration, flexibility and reporting we needed. It also had a similar look and feel to other Microsoft products, making it easier to train staff to use the system, which is important given the spread of our people around the country.”
Molloy explains that forging a close partnership with Topaz, providing extensive user training and securing staff buy-in were critical factors to ensuring a successful implementation, with the Microsoft Navision solution going live in July 2005.
“Topaz did their homework and really got to know our business. They provided us with a solution rather than just giving us the product they had to sell.”
Streamlined Financial Processes = Strategic Impact
According to Molloy, Microsoft Navision had an immediate strategic impact on Plunket’s business, changing how it reports across specific regions and activities.
National Office staff have more time to provide analytical review to volunteer finances and the intention is to further streamline the work to enable more time to be spent on volunteer activity and less on bureaucratic paperwork.
Molloys adds that Plunket takes its financial responsibilities very seriously. With Microsoft Navision, the society can provide stakeholders with a high level of financial transparency to demonstrate its economic value and justify continued and appropriate funding.
“Plunket is accountable for how it spends stakeholder and government money - we’re now able provide them with financial reports on a daily basis when negotiating funding.”
Simplified recording and reporting has lessened the administrative burden on staff and contributed to a reduction in turnover amongst treasurers at the sub-branch level.
“High office bearer turnovers are a fact of volunteer life but the new system has made life a lot easier for treasurers. As a result of this and other measures, we’ve dropped from an approximate 50% turnover two years ago to around 30% today.”
In addition, volunteers will be able to spend more time serving their community rather than focusing on financial tasks.
“Why spend 10-15 hours doing financial tasks, when a volunteer can halve the time and spend eight hours serving the community instead?”
High Quality Reporting = Valuable Business Insight
By standardising all financial data and automating reporting processes within the new system, Plunket also has access to better financial information, leading to improved decision-making and more efficient use of resources across the organisation. In addition to having access to timely, high quality, easy-to-read management reports, Plunket has the ability to report against budgets at the activity level, giving its managers more control over decision-making.
“With Microsoft Navision, we're able to collect and use financial information in a way that helps our decision-making on a daily basis. We know when we are under or overachieving and what that means in terms of financial efficiencies, staffing needs and so on.”
Improved Operational Efficiency
Plunket has also streamlined financial processes by removing unnecessary levels of complexity, says Molloy.
“The Microsoft Navision ledger structure is very logical. In our old system we had seven to eight codes for telephone expenses and now we have one. We went down from 28 pages of general ledger codes to eight pages including the balance sheet.”
While Plunket has significantly reduced manual data entry, Molloy hopes to reduce administration even further once Microsoft Navision becomes the single point of data entry across the organisation.
“We'll eventually be fully online so we’ll pay our bills online, download the bank statements, upload them into Microsoft Navision and then have reports online with a two to three day turnaround.
“People will also have access to real-time information and they'll have much more control about decisions and how they use that information. It's about making the users' lives easier because that's what we need to do with volunteers.”
Improving Customer Relationships Next Priority
Plunket is also moving another important business function online with the help of Microsoft technology to support its donor management.
“Currently people send us cheques and we manually upload that data, reconcile with the bank and use manual processes to reconcile credit card transactions. The CRM system will enable people to go online and automatically link with the Navision system,” Molloy concludes.
For More Information
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For more information about Royal New Zealand Plunket Society services, call (64) (4) 472 2021 or visit the Web site at: www.plunket.org.nz
For more information about Topaz Solutions services, call (64) (4) 472 1308 or visit the Web site at: www.topazsolutions.co.nz
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