Aspen Marketing Services Unifies Their Company and Pays ...



Overview

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Management Consulting

Customer Profile

As the fifth largest marketing services firm in the United States, Aspen Marketing Services provides integrated marketing services to over 100 clients. They have approximately 300 employees.

Business Situation

As a roll-up of acquired companies, Aspen was operating as five independent divisions on seven different general ledgers; they had an “extremely long close”.

Solution

Microsoft® Business Solutions–Solomon was selected for its integrated accounting, inventory management, and project management capabilities.

Benefits

■ Provides integrated accounting

■ Consolidated reporting

■ Ability to close 68% faster

■ Improved decision making

■ Reduced inventory by $500,000

| | |“Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon is not just an accounting package; it is a business tool for our entire organization.”

Dennis Leary, Vice President, Director of Operations, Aspen Marketing Services

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| | | |As a roll-up of acquired companies, Aspen Marketing Services had five divisions operating |

| | | |independently on seven different general ledgers. They were experiencing a close of three to four |

| | | |weeks. When Patrick O'Rahilly became CEO, he brought with him a determination to unify the company. |

| | | |O'Rahilly felt a major step to a unified company was a unified accounting system; he set an |

| | | |aggressive schedule to implement one. O'Rahilly hired Don Danner, CFO, with the direction to "Get it |

| | | |in, make it work, stay under budget, and work with the philosophy of a unified company." Microsoft |

| | | |reselling partner, ePartners was selected to help identify the best solution to meet Aspen's needs. |

| | | |Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™) was selected for its strengths|

| | | |in accounting integration, inventory management, and project management Microsoft Business |

| | | |Solutions–Solomon was selected for its strengths in accounting integration, inventory management, and|

| | | |project management. Microsoft reselling partner, Omnios was selected to implement the solution on an |

| | | |aggressive schedule. |

| | | | |

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| | | | |

Situation

Founded in 1986, Aspen Marketing Services is the fifth largest marketing services firm in the United States. The company focuses on providing integrated resources for direct response marketing programs.

They offer services through direct marketing including:

■ Branded products (items with company logos including pens, mugs, and wearables that are sold through their on-line store)

■ Interactive services

■ Promotions/premiums

■ Events (mall/mobile marketing through the use of displays and tractor trailers)

■ Strategic planning

Company headquarters are located in West Chicago, Illinois; with regional offices located in Atlanta, Georgia; Boise, Idaho; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Tampa, Florida. The company also has sales offices in Dallas, Texas, and Birmingham, Alabama.

Aspen serves over 100 clients across the United States; it has approximately 300 employees with 100 full-time users and another 100 users with access through web browsers. Annual revenues for 2003 are expected to exceed $130 million.

As a roll-up of several acquired companies, they were operating seven different general ledgers. "Consolidated reporting was done via spread sheets and a lot of elbow grease," says Don Danner, CFO. They were not operating as a unified company.

The two major problems facing the company were an extremely long close (typically three to four weeks) and each division operated with their own identity including discrete accounting systems.

The individual platforms being used ranged from "sort of okay" to "really old and outdated". Since each division operated in a "cocoon", it was difficult to get information about other facets of the company.

While the divergent solutions had been a perceived problem earlier, when Patrick O'Rahilly became CEO of Aspen, he brought with him a new philosophy. O'Rahilly was determined to have the company operate as one, unified company and he felt a major step to this philosophy was having the company operate on a unified accounting system. To ensure this would happen, O'Rahilly hired Danner as the project's champion. "O'Rahilly's directive was clear," says Danner. "He said, ‘Get it in, make it work, stay under budget, and make sure it works with the company philosophy.'"

Since Microsoft reselling partner, ePartners, had experience with both Microsoft® and non-Microsoft products, they were hired by Aspen in a consulting capacity to help them identify the solution that would best meet their needs.

"Along the way to our final selection, we looked at a variety of solutions including SAP and JD Edwards," says Leary. "We felt these solutions were cost ineffective and they would take too long to implement. They were also far too intricate for us to administer effectively on our own."

Solution

Aspen wanted a solution they could administer themselves and one that could be implemented on an aggressive schedule, so they opted for Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon. They knew this solution had strong components for project accounting, distribution, and inventory management.

Because of their size, location, knowledge of the product, and implementations similar to Aspen's, Microsoft reselling partner, Omnios was selected to do the implementation. "Omnios has been a great partner. They were there for us at every step of the way," says Danner. "They lived up to their reputation as the #1 reseller of Microsoft Solomon in the Chicago area."

In October 2002, Aspen set an aggressive implementation timeline:

■ January 1-Financial Management

■ ASAP-Project Management

■ April 1-Supply Chain Management

When Omnios heard the aggressive implementation Aspen proposed, they gulped and rolled up their sleeves. While Aspen acknowledged they couldn't get the entire solution in place that quickly, they believed they could get 75-80 percent of what they wanted accomplished and they were willing to "tweak" the solution as they went along and roll out the remainder in Phase 3. Aspen credits the flexibility of Microsoft Solomon for allowing them to accomplish their flexible and aggressive implementation plan.

Danner worked closely with Dennis Leary, Vice President and Director of Operations, to direct and coordinate the Microsoft Solomon implementation within the company. "When employees came to them with their individual questions about processes, Don and Dennis did an excellent job of keeping the big picture in focus," says Kathie Malkewicz. "They heard everyone's concerns and asked us how this change would fit into the Aspen process. If it didn't fit into the big scheme, it didn't get in."

When the company determined that a concern merited change, the employees became responsible to assure that the process added would work for the entire company, and not just for their division. Only solutions that worked for the entire company were added to the solution.

Previously, one division would contract with a client and then "farm out" some of the services to other divisions. The previous contracts were not truly integrated across the many divisions of the company.

Aspen now pitches the company as an integrated marketing company able to perform a complete bundle of services. Now, three or even four divisions work closely on fulfilling integrated contracts which, at times, are as large as several million dollars.

Microsoft Project Accounting provides Aspen with improved management of the integrated contracts. This solution allows the company to accumulate costs until the completion of the contract and it identifies the portions of the contract that have reached completion. It allows scheduling of revenue and bills independent of each other and it automatically recognizes the amount revenue over time.

Microsoft Project Accounting enables Aspen to track project costs against the contract and it provides visibility of these costs from every part of the company. Whether an employee is working on the contract from Tampa, Boise, or Detroit, they all have access to the same, real-time information. This software also provides easy access to information on profitability on individual projects or portions of projects.

The Financial Management module has provided Aspen with centralized billing. With improved coordination and a common software solution, Aspen has eliminated inter-company billing. They have been able to focus on sales and operations in an unprecedented manner.

Integration of financials with Positive Pay provides Aspen with additional anti-fraud protection which is appreciated by their insurance company.

Benefits

Supportive of Company Philosophy

Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon supports the unified philosophy of Aspen Marketing Services. This software provides consolidated access and real-time visibility throughout the company.

"Microsoft Solomon allows us to manage our company in a way that we really couldn't before," says Leary. "Previously, we relied on each division to tell us how they were doing. With our new software, we have become all seeing and all knowing and it is changing the way we make decisions."

"People are now doing higher level activities," says Leary. "Employees were previously consumed with data entry of transactions; they are now able to do light analysis and quality control functions."

Consolidated Financials

Consolidating financials has supported the philosophy of a totally integrated company as set forth by O'Rahilly. With a unified accounting solution, the company is able to operate as one company rather than as several independent divisions within a company.

This consolidation has saved time and helped build team spirit within the company. "Before implementation, communication between offices was time consuming and difficult. We would be talking about diverse processes and documents," says Kathie Malkewicz, General Accounting Manager. "Now that we have one platform, we can click onto the same screen to discuss and resolve issues quickly and effectively."

"When we operated as independent divisions, people had no need to communicate between offices," say Leary. "Now, employees communicate with each other and they easily call up Chicago, Atlanta, or another location for answers to questions they have."

Aspen appreciates the security of knowing that in the event of a disaster in one location, their company will still be able to be fully functional and to serve their clients from other locations.

Real-time Reporting

Employees throughout the organization can access information about inventory, projects, and financials. Real-time information has improved decision making and the ability to manage the company.

"Microsoft Solomon provides us with the ability to manage the company in a timely manner instead of with information that is 30 days old," says Leary. "We used to have a gap in information. Now, we can actually see where the company is at day to day and month to month. We can know where we are standing on a moment's notice."

Faster Close

Prior to implementation, it took Aspen as long as three to four weeks to close. After implementing Microsoft Solomon, Aspen is able to close 68 percent faster.

Working Capital Reduction

Aspen has been able to reduce their working capital needs by $4 million eliminating interest charges of $250,000 and reducing corporate cost by one percent for additional savings of $1.3 million. The company expects to have full payback from implementation costs within nine to ten months.

Reduced Inventory

Increased visibility and access to inventory has allowed Aspen to reduce inventory by $500,000. With visibility of inventory across all locations, any location can now access inventory from any other site.

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship

and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:

dynamics

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| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Dynamics

− Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics

− Microsoft Business Solutions Financial Management

− Microsoft Business Solutions Project Management |Microsoft Business Solutions Supply Chain Management

− Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon

Partners

■ Omnios

■ ePartners | |

© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Document published October 2003 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:

For more information about Omnios products and services, call 847-459-8500 or visit the Web site at:



For more information about Aspen Marketing Services products and services, call 800-848-0212 or visit the Web site at:

"Microsoft Solomon provides us with the ability to manage the company in a timely manner instead of with information that is 30 days old. We used to have a gap in information. Now, we can actually see where the company is at day to day and month to month. "

Dennis Leary, Vice President and Director of Operations, Aspen Marketing Services

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