Why organizations switch from Oracle Netsuite to Sage Intacct

It’s a question on the minds of many organizations looking to automate financial management, improve visibility, and scale operations: Which would be better for our business, Oracle NetSuite or Sage Intacct?

To help answer that question, we brought together three finance leaders whose organizations are thriving with Sage Intacct — after switching from NetSuite implementations that fell short of expectations and didn’t meet their needs around three common areas.

• Integrations causing delays to their close
• Having to do Reporting out of spreadsheets
• Automating quote-to-cash to increase cash-flow

Tune into our on-demand webinar, Why Folks Switch from a Suite to Sage Intacct, to hear first-hand accounts from finance leaders of these businesses:

• BFA Global, a consulting firm that delivers innovative financial and digital solutions to improve the wellbeing and resilience of underserved people in developing nations around the world.

• BIG Language Solutions, a fast-growing global provider of secure translation, interpretation, and related language software and services important in legal, marketing, and financial use cases for its corporate customers.

• Aptitude Health, a global leader in evidence-based software and solutions for life science companies seeking to identify, develop, and commercialize oncology and hematology therapies that improve patient outcomes.

BFA Global Moves to 80% Strategic Focus

Founded in 2006 with dual headquarters in Boston and Kenya, BFA Global has 80 full-time employees and up to 50 specialty consultants working on projects around the world. As a project-based business that depends heavily on data, it’s critical for BFA to track financials at the project level.

“While we could get some information by project, we weren’t able to produce project P&Ls with NetSuite,” says Lyn Braz, CFO. “The system wasn’t set up right, so it was a very manual process and took a long time to get basic financial statements — and we were paying a lot of money for it.”

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WATCH: BFA Global – A Suite Switcher Story (5 minute video)

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Finding that NetSuite provided “the equivalent of the functionality of QuickBooks,” BFA Global struggled with delays and manual data work. Project managers diverted time from BFA Global’s core mission to set up projects and cobble together their own P&Ls statements. Invoices were late, and financial reporting could take six weeks.

Switching from NetSuite to Sage Intacct, BFA is now more efficient and collaborative in managing its financials, and delivering tech that benefits people in areas including Africa, Asia, and Latin America. BFA has:

• Transformed from 80% tactical, manual work to 80% strategic, data-driven work
• Improved consultant utilization by 10%
• Reduced days sales outstanding (DSO) by 40%
• Increased operational cash flow by 40%
• Cut financial reporting 88% from six weeks to five days
• Reduced accounting software costs by 50%

Sage Intacct dashboards now provide leaders and project managers with timely information that used to be manually assembled over days.

“Our project managers and consultants use Sage Intacct project dashboards to get information and drill into details,” Braz says. “Before they had to do project profitability P&Ls by themselves — they don’t have to spend time doing that anymore.”

BFA Global is saving more time by automating workflows such as invoicing and revenue recognition, and seamlessly managing multiple currencies and global entities. The company is now more data-driven, with a workforce empowered to focus on its mission.

“One of Sage Intacct’s philosophies is ‘customer for life,’ and they really focus on customer service,” Braz says. “We’re really thrilled that we switched. Sage Intacct is a great partner, and they really walk their talk about being a ‘customer for life.’”

BIG Language Repurposes 10 FTEs with Automation

Based in Atlanta with 26 global locations and 300 employees, BIG Language faced issues linking its NetSuite accounting platform to a proprietary ERP system that handles mission-critical processes, as well as systems of companies BIG Language acquired.

That created inefficiencies in financial management, extensive manual data work, and obstacles to BIG Language’s “buy and build” M&A growth strategy. BIG Language found itself looking at a costly and disruptive NetSuite reimplementation to meet its complex multi-entity business needs.

With your competitors, “we didn’t get the white glove service,” as CFO Dave Perlman explains. “It felt like our problems were too small to be meaningful. We were really looking for a solution that delivered efficiency from a cost-saving standpoint and allowed seamless API integration for all our entities.”

Evaluating its options, BIG Language was impressed by Sage Intacct’s commitment to helping the company achieve its goals.

“It became clear that we were only getting the ‘white glove service’ from the Sage Intacct team,” Perlman says. “Now we’re more than a year in with Sage Intacct, and I can say we’re happy and it works. We’re supported by a global Sage Intacct team, and whenever we reach out, we get an instant response.”

With Sage Intacct, BIG Language has:

• Dramatically improved efficiency in global financial management
• Repurposed 10 full-time employees from manual data work to more strategic initiatives
• Readily folded new entities into a standardized global model via the Sage Intacct API
• Scaled globally in line with its aggressive M&A activity

“Sage Intacct was the best solution for us to scale globally,” Perlman says. “There’s real ROI we’ve seen from the efficiency of connecting out proprietary tech with the Sage Intacct API.”

Aptitude Health Improves Its Gross Margin 20%

With offices in Atlanta and the Netherlands and more than 60 life sciences partners, Aptitude Health needed flexibility, visibility, and automation in global multi-entity financial management involving multiple projects at any given time.

But with NetSuite, Aptitude Health’s accounting team struggled with extensive manual work that slowed processes didn’t deliver the insights the decade-old business needed. Tracking utilization and project profitability, compliance with accounting regulations, and difficulties with foreign currency conversions complicated the issues.

“I spent a lot of time pulling data out of the system and organizing it,” says Jenecia Stokes, director of finance. “I had to attempt to be a SQL expert, navigating a lot of technical aspects, to improve financials and do our reports.”

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WATCH: Aptitude Health – A Suite Switcher Story (5 minute video)

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As a result, the monthly close could take three weeks, while slow invoicing throttled cash flow. That all changed when Aptitude Health switched from NetSuite to Sage Intacct.

“Now with Sage Intacct, everything comes out by entity; and we have consolidated reports with automated conversion from Euros to USD,” Stokes says. “That was the most important thing for us, the consolidation. We’re able to provide the reports to management to make key decisions.”

With timely and accurate reporting across projects and entities, and breakthrough insights into utilization, Aptitude Health has improved its profitability through data-driven decisions. The 80-person company has:

• Improved gross margin by 20% via reporting insights
• Reduced monthly close time 52%, from 21 to 10 days
• Cut invoicing time by 80%
• Accelerated reporting time from days to minutes
• Automated multi-entity consolidation and currency conversions
• Decreased DSO by 50% with fast, accurate invoicing
• Strengthened ASC 606 compliance

Aptitude Health’s switch to Sage Intacct has elevated finance into strategic partner with the business, while Stokes and her team have newfound time to focus on higher value initiatives instead of manual work.

“We get our financials out on time and have better reporting, so we’re able to focus more on really detailed information,” Stokes says. “I can focus on different initiatives within the team because we did a major improvement with Sage Intacct, and we have better work/life balance at the same time.”

To learn more, view the webinar with BFA Global, BIG Language Solutions, and Aptitude Health. To explore how Sage Intacct can help transform your business, visit www.sageintacct.com/easyclimb. You can also join one of our Sage Intacct Coffee Break Demos – register below.