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Experts Share Best Practices in Selecting Accounting Software JERED CADY Executive Vice President, Synergy Business Solutions TAYLOR MACDONALD VP Channel Sales, Intacct

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Housekeeping

Type questions into the chat box or the Q&A box to submit it to our panelists

We’ll try to get to all the questions during the course of the webinar. If we do not get to your question, we’ll make sure to follow up afterwards.

We’ll send a copy of the presentation and recording of the webinar in follow up emails after the event

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Introductions

JERED CADY Executive Vice President

Synergy Business Solutions

TAYLOR MACDONALD VP Channel Sales

Intacct

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Today’s Agenda

Ready to replace your financial applications?

Vendor selection best practices

1. Getting started

2. Define your requirements

3. Understand your options

4. Evaluation process

5. Calculating ROI and economic return

Summary and resources

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Typical Reasons to Change

Struggling with reporting and can’t analyze operating data

Inefficient manual processes are draining productivity

Dependence on unwieldy spreadsheets to run our business

We have multiple locations or currencies

We need real-time access to financial data

Require financial consolidations across several business units

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Inefficiency in the Accounting Function Often Hinders Focus on Business Leadership

Source: Armanino McKenna, “The CFO EvolutionTM Benchmark Survey Results,” Dec 2010

Top Bottlenecks in Monthly Close Process Top Issues for CFO Organizations

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Today’s Agenda

Ready to replace your financial applications?

Vendor selection best practices

1. Getting started

2. Define your requirements

3. Understand your options

4. Evaluation process

5. Calculating ROI and economic return

Summary and resources

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1. Just Get Started

You may decide to stay with your current solution, but you’ll still learn a lot from evaluating all your options:

– Assemble a project team

– Get executive buy in

– Involve end users

– Set clear goals

– Create a project schedule

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2. Define Your Requirements

Document the issues with your current system

Prepare a top-down strategy

– What do you want to achieve with your new system?

– What type of information does management need to make better business decisions?

– What is the business impact of that?

– Which processes do you want to automate?

Tap in to outside experts and your peers

Document expected improvements and ROI/TCO

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4 Key Areas Every CFO Thinks About

Boost productivity of financial processes – Where do you spend your time now?

– What is being done in Excel?

Supply insight for better and faster decisions – How old is the information from which you are

making decisions?

– What is the bottleneck in getting the data?

Focus resources on your core business – What other financial or related systems are critical

to your business?

– Where can you eliminate duplicate entry, entry errors etc?

Deliver scale for growth – What are your business needs 3-4 years from now?

– Do you have a business systems map to meet those needs?

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Additional Items to Consider

What’s your company culture?

– Risk averse? Centralized decision making?

What IT resources are available?

How many people need to access the system?

– Where are they located?

What other systems do you need to integrate with?

What are you using now?

– CRM

– PSA

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3. Understand Your Options

Functional requirements

Software delivery models

Best-in-class vs suite

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Ensure Your Functional Requirements Are Met (1)

Accounting

– GL, Account Reconciliation, Bank Reconciliation, Project Accounting, Fund Accounting, etc.

Finance

– Cash Management, Financial Analysis, Consolidation/Roll-Up, Fixed Asset Management, Tax Management, etc.

Accounts Payable/Receivable

– AP, AR, Billing & Invoicing, Collections Management, Recovery Audit, Purchase Orders, Sales Tax Management

Inventory/Order Management

– Batch Processing, Inventory Management, Order Entry

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Ensure Your Functional Requirements Are Met (2)

Employee Management

– Expense Tracking, Payroll Integration

Reporting

– Reporting, Audit Trail, Multi-Company, Multi-Currency, Multi-Language, Customizable Reporting, Custom User Interface, Customizable Fields, Account Groups

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Ensure You are Meeting Complex Financial Management Needs

Multi-Ledger Multi-Dimensional

+

Multi-Entity Single version of the financial

truth across all entities

Multi-Book View business within multiple scenarios in real time without

extra work

Multi-Currency Unlimited base, transaction and

reporting currencies updated real-time

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Software Delivery Now Comes in Three Flavors

On-Premises

The traditional implementation where you purchase software and run it on your own servers

Hosted

Software physically resides at a remote data center operated by an expert third-party hosting provider

Users access the software–a unique “instance” of the financial system–over the Internet,

usually using a product like Citrix

Cloud / SaaS

The application vendor develops a shared, scalable system that users access over the Internet– just like Google, Amazon, WebEx or on-line banking

New technology that ensures that even if companies make extensive changes to the system,

customizations will automatically continue to work across upgrades

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Best-in-Class vs. Suite–Some Definitions

Manage business by integrating solutions with

best functionality for each department

Pre-integrated applications with less

depth in specific functional areas

Best-in-Class Suite

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Your Choice Depends On Your Needs

Best-in-Class Suite

Purchase Process Decentralized/Functional Autonomy

Centralized

Functional Requirements Deep Varies

Do you have existing apps you want to continue to use (e.g. CRM)?

Look at pre-built integrations and integrations that will need to be built

Will need to replace existing apps

Cost/Growth Buy modules as you need/growth

Buy suite upfront and grow into it

Flexibility/Process Adapt workflow to your business process

Follow prescribed process

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4. Evaluation Process

Check online sources for vendor reputation

Create RFI/RFP based on your requirements

Demo or trial from short list

Calculate ROI/TCO

Check references

Ultimately, the process is about finding the solution that best solves your organizational problem

at the lowest cost / risk

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Review The Vendors’ Online Reputations

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Intacct Web Sentiments - 2011Intacct Web Sentiments–Q4 2011

Other Vendor’s Web Sentiments–Q4 2011

Web sentiment analysis of over 1,000 non-promotional mentions across ~300 posts; October 2011

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What’s Different in the Cloud There is More to Evaluate

Product fit Implementation success

Support quality

+ Operational track record Infrastructure and security

Ongoing business practices / culture ROI / TCO

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Security, Infrastructure, and Operations Evaluate Cloud Vendor Operating Capabilities

Should be far better than you can afford to deploy yourself

– Tier one data center(s)

– Encryption & hardened systems

– 24x7x365 operations

– Disaster recovery center

– Redundant hardware and networking

– SSAE 16 (previously SAS 70)

Possible because costs are spread across thousands of organizations

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Service Level Transparency

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5. Calculate ROI

Revenue Gains

Faster Tracking

More Collections

Increase productivity: • Automate renewals and

maintenance • Manage multiple entities • Speed invoicing • Customize workflows • Improve reporting

accuracy/timeliness • Streamline training

Eliminate: • Hidden costs of force-

fitting applications to business needs

• Professional services and support costs

Reduce costs: • Software license • Hardware costs (server,

networking, etc.) • IT personnel • Annual maintenance • Backup and disaster

recovery • Renewal fees • Annual maintenance • Network, security and

database upgrade costs

Improve management of: • Deferred revenue • Revenue

recognition • Overdue ARs due

to contract non-compliance

• Monthly invoicing

• Financial close processes

• Multi-entity management

Increase revenue by: • Reduce revenue

leakage • Easily integrate

with partner revenue systems

• Improve invoicing effectiveness

Enhance management with: • Real-time visibility

to state of business, esp. for consolidated and multiple entities

• Comparisons across operating units

• Ability to push down decisions

• Strategic KPIs

Expand management control: • Better cash

management • International

visibility

Business Visibility

Deeper Insights Time to

Information

Cost Savings

Automation Savings

Reduced IT Costs

Value from New Financial Application

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Map Your Own Sources of Benefits

Sample Visibility Benefits

Decision Making Control

Management by KPI Better cash management

Ability to enable the organization and push down decisions

International visibility

Comparison across operating units (like franchises, locations)

Sample Revenue Gains

Faster Tracking More Collections

Improve management of deferred revenue and revenue recognition

Reduce revenue leakage

Identify one-time, overdue AR due to contract non-compliance

Integrate with partner revenue management systems more easily

Faster and more effective monthly invoicing

Faster and more effective monthly invoicing

Shortened financial close processes

Multi-entity mgmt, avoid delays and errors

Sample Cost Savings

Reduced IT Costs

Reduce software license costs, obtain discounts

Reduce hardware costs (e.g. server costs, networking equipment, etc.)

Reduce IT personnel requirements Cut annual maintenance and renewal fees

Eliminate need for backup and disaster recovery

Reduce costs to maintain / upgrade network, security, and database

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Typical Benefits to Consider

Benefit Area Drivers Examples

Increased Finance Productivity

Automated allocation, deferral and recognition of revenue

Automated billing, renewal processing, and of reporting

Fewer processing errors

1 FTE = $120K annual savings

Reduced Financial Restatements

Simplified compliance

Reduced audit costs

Increased investor confidence

80 hour reduction in audit costs @ $200/hour = $16K

Faster Closing of the Books

Streamlined, automated processes Reducing monthly close time to 3 days = 20% productivity improvement

Reduced Revenue Leakage

Fewer order and invoice errors

Proactive renewal management

Capturing 5% of $10M / year in renewals = $500K annual savings

Real-time Reporting and Visibility

More consistent financial and operational reporting without need for Excel

Real time visibility into revenue, deferred revenue and renewals

3% of incremental revenue through improved business decision making

Improved Customer Satisfaction

More accurate and timely billing

Reduction in invoice disputes

Reduced DSO

Better customer retention for increased lifetime value

10% increase in captured, billable time for professional services

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Compared to On-Premises The Cloud Offers Better ROI + Shifts Fixed CAPEX to Variable OPEX

9% Software Licenses

43% Implementation

26% Hardware

14% IT Personnel

7% Maintenance

1% Training

68% Subscription Fees

32% Implementation,

Customizations, and Training

On-Premises Cloud Computing

Ongoing Costs Ongoing Costs Apply Fixes, Patches, Upgrade

Downtime Performance tuning

Rewrite customizations Rewrite integrations

Upgrade dependent applications Ongoing burden on IT

Maintain/upgrade hardware Maintain/upgrade network Maintain/upgrade security

Maintain/upgrade database

Subscription fee Training

Configuration

Yankee Group DecisionNote Technology Analysis

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Today’s Agenda

Ready to replace your financial applications?

Vendor selection best practices

1. Getting started

2. Define your requirements

3. Understand your options

4. Evaluation process

5. Calculating ROI and economic return

Summary and resources

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Advice

Don’t wait

Benefits of change far outweigh the pain of change

Do your homework

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Questions?

www.intacct.com | info@intacct.com | 877-437-7765

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

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Interested in Learning More?

Try Intacct with a free 30-day trial http://www.intacct.com/trial

Attend an upcoming webinar http://www.intacct.com/webinars

Follow us on Twitter @intacct_corp

Connect with us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Intacct

Contact us directly info@intacct.com | 877-437-7765

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Thank you!

www.intacct.com | info@intacct.com | 877-437-7765

FOR MORE INFORMATION: