Communications company cuts vendor maintenance time by 50% with Dynamics GP integration

Dynamics GP and FRx Free Reporter increase Winnipeg Free Press customer base

Now that we are live we appreciate the support behind the product. Microsoft Dynamics GP has exceeded our reliability expectations and we do use CustomerSource quite frequently; however, if there is ever the odd time we do go to Encore for support, they have been wonderful to work with.

—Brent Leung
Winnipeg Free Press

Client Profile

 

 

Winnipeg Free Press is a full-service marketing and communications company committed to quality journalism and is dedicated to promoting intellectual, social and economic growth in the Winnipeg community. Today, Winnipeg Free Press has over 125,000 readers and works with over 2,000 vendors monthly from in Canada and around the world.

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The Missing Pages

Winnipeg Free Press was tired of operating an out of date Oracle character based system. The system limitations kept adding up and support simply did not exist because there were no vendors still supporting such an old system. The system was also running on an old HP server that they feared could crash in the future. Winnipeg Free Press knew that if they wanted to grow, they needed a business management system that allowed them to add new business units in one streamlined and flexible management infrastructure.

“We needed a financial system that was flexible and would allow us to grow," stated Brent Leung, Group Controller FP Canadian Newspapers, Winnipeg Free Press. "We felt our old system was cumbersome and extremely difficult to use. More importantly, we needed a system to expand with our business needs."

When WFP turned to Encore they made it clear that product support and flexibility were two of their main criteria in their selection process. Encore showcased Microsoft Dynamics GP, its scalable features, easy-to-use functionality and the time it could save them. The solution was the perfect fit. It was clear to WFP how easy the software was to learn and how flexible it was to suit their unique and growing business needs.

News Travels Fast

Encore was on the ball with WFP right from the start. The go live date was deferred due to key resource changes at WFP; however, this did not affect Encore’s approach to the implementation process, as the scope was well defined and agreed upon prior to implementation.

“Encore came in with their strong sales team, consultants, Project Manager and executive level support, showing us that they were truly committed to our business needs,” states Leung. “Support was really important to us and Encore never left us to figure things out on our own. They always called us to see how things were going and they were always there as our first line of support. Encore communicated plans with us the entire way through and the job was completed in an acceptable amount of time and was done on budget, so there were no surprises on our end.”

Winnipeg Free Press needed three major business units set up; Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon Sun and Canstar Weekly Newspapers. The first step was implementation, which went smoothly and according to plan. The next step was for WFP to get their staff understanding the software and using it to its full potential. Training was an absolute must. To get everyone on board with the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Encore recommended WFP have their staff from each location meet together and have Encore host a classroom style learning session. This proved to be very valuable.

The training for Microsoft Dynamics GP was awesome,” remarks Leung. “The Encore team came in and was very knowledgeable and very hands on. They had every one on the same page; the focus was intense and it was very effective.”

Flipping the Page

Now that WFP is live and running Microsoft Dynamics GP, they appreciate the support behind the product. Leung refers to the support as, ‘second to none’. Encore has a customer service centre that provides support to over 200 customers and customers know they can always leverage knowledgeable Encore resources. To help customers become self sufficient Encore recommends they leverage the online learning tool from Microsoft called CustomerSource.

CustomerSource provides learning plans, training and eLearning courses for every module. It includes support through knowledge base articles, various topics and automated solutions. It has been a useful resource in answering a lot of WFP’s questions and providing them with useful user tips. “Now that we are live we appreciate the support behind the product,” explains Leung. “Microsoft Dynamics GP has exceeded our reliability expectations and we do use CustomerSource quite frequently; however, if there is ever the odd time we do go to Encore for support, they have been wonderful to work with.”

The Latest News

To reduce the steps involved in their business process and increase their overall time efficiency, Microsoft Dynamics GP allows WFP to minimize their paper trail and add key features that their old system did not allow, which they find very valuable. “Microsoft Dynamics GP allows us to view our cheques right on screen before they are printed off, which we find extremely valuable,” states Leung. “Another additional time saving opportunity that we will be leveraging soon is the ability to add image attachments of invoices right to our vendor files; we’re really excited to minimize our paper trail with that feature."

Winnipeg Free Press continues to be impressed with the amount of time Microsoft Dynamics GP truly saves them, especially in their accounts payable department at month end. Winnipeg Free Press has thousands of vendors that they work with on a monthly basis, resulting in an average of 700 weekly invoices that they process. To keep track of all their vendors and to stay on top of the workload, WFP uses the vendor maintenance functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP. This functionality streamlines their processes and gives them the ability to effectively look up their vendor information on a routine basis.

“The set up for the vendor maintenance functionality was a very streamlined and user-friendly process,” explains Leung. “From our old system to now running Microsoft Dynamics GP, we estimate that we have saved 50% of our vendor maintenance time. This includes 20% of our time on vendor information look ups alone! These percentages show the time we’ve truly saved."

Another factor in their time-savings was the add-on module for Microsoft Dynamics GP called FRx Report Writer. The drill down capabilities and report writing functionality in FRx allows WFP to use tools they did not have with their old system, such as, consolidation reporting.

These tools help WFP focus on the details instead of scrambling to meet deadlines at month end. Making changes to financial reports in FRx is very straightforward, so the finance team can take control of report maintenance and no longer need to rely on IT resources to make the necessary changes.

FRx has saved us at least 25% of our time on our monthly variance analysis and 50% of our time on report writing. Consolidation reporting was new for us and gives us the ability to really dive down into the details we need. FRx is a great tool and a huge time saver, especially at month end!"

“To make changes on reports in our old system was a very cumbersome and labour intensive project. We would have to run individual reports to get to the detailed level that FRx allows us to get to,” states Leung. “FRx has saved us at least 25% of our time on our monthly variance analysis and 50% of our time on report writing. Consolidation reporting was new for us and gives us the ability to really dive down into the details we need. FRx is a great tool and a huge time saver, especially at month end. The final benefit that WFP indentified was their ability to purchase and implement a variety of additional modules from Microsoft and Independent Solution Vendors that integrate seamlessly to Microsoft Dynamics GP. Winnipeg Free Press saw this to be extremely valuable in terms of being able to add modules when the time is right for them or when the need arises, allowing the system and its functionality to grow with them. 

“Microsoft Dynamics GP allows us to add additional modules that suit our needs and are useful to us when we need them the most,” states Leung. “This software solution grows with our business as we grow; it’s very exciting!"

As beneficial as Microsoft Dynamics GP has been for WFP, Leung can not stress enough how important support was in their deciding factor to go ahead with Microsoft Dynamics GP. That is ultimately why they turned to Encore and will be recommending them to others.