GMC Global Streamlines Operations by Replacing Multiple Legacy Applications and Thousands of Spreadsheets with NetSuite SRP
NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced that GMC Global has gone live after an eight-week implementation with NetSuite’s cloud-based professional services automation (PSA) solution that manages its five offices worldwide. More than 180 full-time employees and contractors based in Australia, Asia, North America and South America now rely on NetSuite for project management, time and expense, global billing, resource management and reporting.
Part of the SMEC Group, GMC Global is an Australian headquartered professional services consulting organisation to the global mining industry. It is a specialist in business process and change management with three key business lines – supply chain, work management (maintenance) and learning/education. Eighty four percent of its workforce is comprised of consultants, who spend 90 percent of their time on assignment in remote mining locations.
GMC Global’s evaluation of solutions determined that NetSuite’s cloud-based PSA solution was clearly the best fit to suit its requirements. It wanted one standardised solution to reduce its significant back office overhead, improve the accuracy of collecting time and expense data from consultants in the field, streamline its invoicing process and get a better overall view of how its consultants and projects are managed. NetSuite replaced a number of different systems, including Sage ACCPAC for inventory, invoicing and financial management; Quicktime’s timesheet system for time and expenses in Australia and Asia; and a spreadsheet-based system used in North and South America. None of these systems were integrated, leading to inconsistent global processes, data inaccuracy, as well as regular delays in the availability of information.
“Our business depends on effective resource management and accurate tracking of time, so having access to timely data that we can easily convert into an invoice is critical for us,” said Thomas Hynes, Executive General Manager of Global Operations for GMC Global. “NetSuite PSA enables us to have up-to-date information and visibility globally, which is making a very big difference to our business. We can now report with a level of accuracy and confidence that we didn’t have before, and significantly less time – it really is a significant improvement.”
NetSuite PSA delivers flexible project management capabilities to help GMC Global efficiently manage its workforce and to better understand the execution and financial position of each project. It also provides timelier and more accurate reporting and invoicing, which is a significant improvement to the manual and cumbersome processes it previously operated.
“We are experiencing a major growth spurt globally that we currently envisage will continue well into the foreseeable future,” commented Mr. Hynes. “NetSuite definitely has the scalability to grow with us, which was a critical factor in our selection. It is really a very good fit for our business.”
According to Mr. Hynes, GMC Global has only addressed three quarters of the puzzle and is currently gearing up to upgrade to NetSuite’s Services Resource Planning (SRP) software suite for even greater financial management of its global business. NetSuite SRP is the only complete cloud-based SRP software suite that helps organisations to run an entire services business.
“Moving to NetSuite SRP will complete the picture for us and enable some of the things that are restricting us at the moment, like global accessibility and managing processes consistently across all regions,” commented Mr. Hynes. “Once we get there, we expect to have a far better view of our overall business and it will allow us to optimise our support organisational structure.”
Mark Troselj, Managing Director of APAC for NetSuite, said: “Having so many consultants out in remote locations makes it even more important for companies like GMC Global to have access to cloud-based tools. NetSuite PSA is designed specifically for professional services companies to enable their consultants to access the full functionality of the solution from anywhere in the world. Not only can companies manage their full project lifecycle in real-time, but they gain complete visibility that can only be achieved using the cloud.”
For four consecutive years, NetSuite has been the leader in the professional services automation market. NetSuite's SRP and PSA software helps services organisations automate and manage key aspects of their business—from resource management to project management, marketing, skills tracking, service delivery, billing, revenue management, and driving repeat business from existing clients. For global services organisations, these solutions enable them to overcome the challenges of global services delivery, including comprehensive support for multiple languages, currencies, taxation rules and global resource pools, as well as real-time global visibility across their entire business. NetSuite owned 26 percent market share of the professional services automation market in 2011, according to the SPI Research 2012 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report.
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