Kancellar.hu, founded in 2002, is a leading IT security firm in Hungary with its sights set on increasing its presence in international markets.
As a professional services organisation Kancellar.hu’s costs are driven primarily by its resources. Therefore, tight control over their financials, specifically cost and cash management, is critical to their success. They deliver project and services ranging in length from weeks to several years and like many project based organisations capturing time accurately and efficiently as well as related costs is essential.
MS Excel was the tool used to track and analyse their billable hours which proved to be tedious, inaccurate and difficult to analyse. The temporary accounting system was also time consuming. In particular, it became more difficult to analyse the information captured and to be proactive in their decision making process. Kancellar.hu was in need of a tool with flexibility, one that is well suited for a company with international ambitions.
Kancellar.hu’s primary goal was to control costs and manage the organization more efficiently. As competitive and economic factors driven by forces in the financial markets drove prices down, costs remained fixed and payment terms for clients were extended as collection became more challenging. It became imperative that the correct systems be in place to ensure project and company profitability.
Kancellar.hu identified the following priorities:
Project Time Reporting
Accurately capturing time spent on projects and having key performance indicators reported on a regular and ad hoc basis proved to be challenging and in many cases impossible.
Accurate and Timely Billing
How much time was being lost due to the incorrect capture of time? Delays in time processing led to delays in producing invoices which of course impacted cash flow.
Financial Reporting
Timely and accurate reporting is vital, particularly during difficult economic times. Kancellar.hu’s reporting process took too long, leaving the company in a reactionary mode. Decisions were being made sometimes with incomplete data.
Consolidation
With the plans to open offices abroad, integrating financial data from different legal entities will be necessary for a consolidated overview.
Kancellar.hu set out to evaluate products available on the market that would meet their accounting and financial management needs as the priority. Considering their line of business it was also important for Kancellar.hu to find a solution that they could install on their own in-house servers in order to protect sensitive client information. The solution also needed to have a low total cost of ownership as they were a small developing company very conscious of costs and wary about heavy investments. The system would need to be scalable and intuitive, so that they themselves could maintain and administer the system as the company grew and evolved.
Ferenc Zsigri, Kancellar.hu’s Deputy-CEO, spent considerable time researching the available options on the market that could meet their needs and deliver a solution that was safe, flexible, easy-to-use and within their budget. “At first glance, we thought the solution was beyond our means. But when we considered our business and expansion plans we were convinced that LLP Hungary’s solution, Infor SunSystems and Infor Query & Analysis (Vision), would be a good decision for us in the long run,” says Zsigri.
Another contributing factor in their decision was the fact that Zsigri had previous experience with SunSystems and therefore knew that he could manage the system with little additional consulting costs.
After the successful implementation of Infor SunSystems, Kancellar.hu returned to LLP Hungary to consider the solution needed to meet the requirements of their professional serviced team. They decided to add time@work, project time sheets, as part of their integrated solution.
„At first glance, we thought the solution was beyond our means. But when we considered our business and expansion plans we were convinced that LLP Hungary’s solution, Infor SunSystems and Infor Query & Analysis (Vision), would be a good decision for us in the long run.“
Kancellar.hu implemented Infor SunSystems Financial modules along with Infor Query & Analysis (Vision) reporting module, as well as the web based time recording module of time@work. The whole solution was implemented in short time frame and is being maintained by internal resources, with only the occasional support call required.
Daily cash flow reports are now being produced along with other key financial reports to help manage the day to day decisions made by management. Project time reports are now accurate and processed in a timely fashion making scheduling and billing more efficient.
“Infor SunSystems and time@work have brought significant benefits to Kancellar. hu’s operations,” added Zsigri.
“Financially we have seen a payback just in terms of capturing all actual time worked on projects, not even to mention its impact on our cash flow, and the speed in which we can receive our key reports that help management make business operations crisis resistant.”
From the business point of view the results realized include:
Zsigri adds, “Using Vision (Infor Query & Analysis), reports that used to take a day to compile are now automated and available immediately.”
The low total cost of ownership was also a major win for Kancellar.hu.
“Being a smaller company, being nimble and self-sufficient is vital to our continued success. We have the know-how to make changes to the system, create additional reports, and act as the system administrator. You can’t achieve that with many other solutions on the market so your year on year costs with the others can be much higher. In the end, the solution has out-performed our expectations,” concluded Zsigri.
All of these aspects benefit the business now, but the ease in which the users adopted and embraced the system is proof of the solution’s simplicity in terms of the user interface.
Zsigri adds, “Using Vision (Infor Query & Analysis), reports that used to take a day to compile are now automated and available immediately.”
