In the spring of 2003, The Basic Skills Agency, a national charity that aims to improve literacy and numeracy standards, decided to overhaul its financial systems and introduce more dynamic reporting software.
The London-based operation opted to switch from their existing solution to a more comprehensive package from PS Financials. "It was recognised that reporting wasn't meeting the needs of internal or external stakeholders,' says financial controller Justin Freebairn. "It was difficult and time-consuming to meet requirements and direct access to the numbers was confined to the finance team. There was real frustration that the details necessary to take decisions weren't always available. We needed to respond to that."
The basic implementation was fairly straightforward, Freebairn recalls, but tweaking the final configuration and getting to grips with Crystal 10 took longer. "We had to re-structure our chart of accounts and create database views using SQL, so it took about three months to get the best out of the package, to start exploiting its full potential."
The next major hurdle for Freebairn and his team was more cultural than technical. "Getting staff outside the finance function to use the new system was a challenge," he recalls. "Routine monthly reporting was a new concept for the organisation and it took time for people to understand the full benefits, to feel confident enough to abandon the familiar spreadsheets." The answer was to highlight the benefits of the new system through frequent communication, training and one on one coaching.
The package accelerated the production of year-end accounts and enabled the introduction of purchase ordering and web-based reporting, "Suddenly teams could look at the big numbers, get a breakdown for each of their programmes and then drill right down to transaction level. We used Crystal Enterprise to publish on-line reports in real-time and we were able to create graphs and charts that really caught the interest of senior management. Budget holders have a much better fix on the numbers now and there's a real sense that the software delivered: it was worth the effort." | 
