An ERP system is supposed to help a company improve efficiency, reduce costs, and heighten insight. An aging SAP application was doing exactly the opposite at Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, which provides newspaper, magazine, catalog, and other print publishers with distribution services and logistics software.
The system was no longer supported by SAP, and it imposed high costs with on-premise infrastructure, internal SAP support staff, and the need for third-party consultants to make even the most minor changes. Despite ongoing expenses, PCF had to export data into Excel for reporting, and struggled with inefficient transaction processing.
“We needed to make a change to a system that could allow us to do things more cost-effectively and in a more timely manner without a lot of extra cost,” Jerry Hosza, PCF Director of Accounting and Financial Reporting, says in a Sage Intacct customer success video.
PCF’s top priority was a financial management solution that could run in the cloud and deliver cost savings. Sage Intacct has delivered on both objectives and more.
“I would estimate our cost savings at a few hundred thousand dollars a year in switching from SAP to Sage Intacct,” Hosza said. The 250-employee PCF has been able to reduce and repurpose headcount, and hasn’t needed an outside consultant since the solution was implemented by Sage Intacct partner CompuData.
Faster Processes, Greater Insights
Now, PCF is running faster and with greater insights for more informed decision-making. Time needed for client billing and AR processes has been cut by 50%, with invoices going a day earlier. Monthly financial reporting is 15% to 20% faster, while PCF has cut 20% from its transaction processing time.
Those gains have freed time for the accounting and finance team to delve into analytics, providing the business with insights critical to long-term success and supporting satisfaction among customers that include The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek.
“Now we have data in real-time at our fingertips, so we can focus our efforts on analyzing that data and making more accurate forecasts for the next month or even the next year," said Hosza, whose company won a 2017 Sage Intacct Customer Success Award.
PCF’s newfound insights are valuable for the Maryland-based company to protect its volatile margins, and to support expansion into additional logistics services as well as its DART distribution software, a comprehensive, all-in-one solution to manage routes, carriers, and subscribers.
To learn more about PCF’s many successes with Sage Intacct, watch the customer success video.
November 15, 2018
1 min read
