TVision Technology Limited
Imprint
Imprint is a recruitment group based in the United Kingdom. It delivers services to hundreds of clients each week and has more than 1,000 temporary employees at any one time. Previously disparate billing and payments systems meant that the accounts and payroll team often worked hours of overtime every week to ensure payments were made on time. With help from Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner TVision Technology, the company implemented Microsoft® Dynamics NAV™ business management software. Employees have now cut overtime and can process up to 20 per cent more payments every week.
Business Challenge
Imprint is an international recruitment business based in the United Kingdom (U.K.). It has six different recruitment agencies – Imprint Search and Selection, WoodHamill, Accreate, ECHM, iQ selection, and Morgan McKinley—and each one tailors its service to a different industry. For example, ECHM recruits temporary and permanent employees for general industry and the public sector, while Morgan McKinley provides candidates for banking and financial services.
Imprint has 14 offices across Europe and Asia Pacific, and employs more than 1,000 temporary staff at any one time. Each week, the accounts team invoices hundreds of clients for recruitment services, while the payroll team organises for all contract employees to be paid.
Between 2003 and 2006, Imprint grew rapidly, acquiring several businesses in quick succession. Disparate IT systems meant that financial data was not linked, and accounts and payroll employees were unable to import data from one application to another. Rebecca Cunningham, Payroll Manager, Imprint, says: “Our payroll information was held in a separate system to accounts information. Consequently, employees spent much of their time re-entering data into different applications to invoice customers and pay contractors.”
Employees worked hours of overtime to ensure that contractor payments were made on time and customers received correct invoices. However, in spite of their best efforts, Imprint still experienced delays in invoicing, and employees frequently entered data until 10pm the night before pay was due.
The IT team at Imprint looked for a solution that would consolidate its financial information, and streamline its payroll and billing processes.
The Solution
In 2006, Imprint teamed with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner TVision Technology, to implement a solution based on Microsoft® Dynamics NAV™ 4.0. After evaluating a number of other solutions, including Safe Computing and Sage, Imprint decided that the Microsoft business management software suited its needs.
Imprint became familiar with the billing, payables, and reporting features of Microsoft Dynamics NAV after acquiring Morgan McKinley in 2005. The company had been using the solution for six months prior to its acquisition by Imprint.
“We saw what Microsoft Dynamics NAV could achieve when we acquired Morgan McKinley. So we knew how well it worked in a recruitment environment,” says Cunningham.
TVision Technology focuses exclusively on Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions, and used it to create its customised billing and payments system, Agency Time. This is designed to fit the needs of recruitment companies. It uses a Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database to hold all company information.
TVision Technology integrated all of the existing Imprint accounts, invoicing, and payroll applications into a single, consolidated system within three months. Richard Thompson, Managing Director, TVision Technology, says: “Now employees from both departments can automatically export data to create customised invoices, pay slips, Microsoft Office Excel® reports, and other documents from a single-view interface.” The accounts team can also create automatic ‘rules’, which correlate billing rates with specific services and organise this information into the format required by the customer.
The integration was complete in September 2006, and by December the system was rolled out company-wide. Information from both accounts and payroll is now linked together.
The Benefits
Imprint employees working in the payroll and accounts department at head office can now manage and view the financial data from across the organisation. They use this information to process invoices and wages seamlessly. Information is consistently up to date, and employees are equipped to provide managers with meaningful data that supports strategic business decisions.
- Comprehensive reports can now be created in one day instead of a week. Employees can consolidate and present information in a variety of ways, helping senior managers to analyse information and make decisions faster.
- The accounts team can create different invoicing formats to suit clients’ individual specifications. Imprint delivers recruitment services to a variety of industries, so this represents a significant customer service advantage.
- Employees can set up automated payment and billing rules for most transactions. This cuts down on double-entry of information, and frees their time for more valuable activities.
- Employees work within normal office hours, and have dramatically reduced the overtime that they previously had to do. They can organise their day more efficiently and concentrate on doing their jobs rather than time-consuming manual processes.
- The integrated banking system helps the business use resources more efficiently and cust costs. For example, overtime wages are reduced, and managers can work faster because they have the information and figures at their fingertips.
- The same team of payroll employees can now precess an extra 500 permanent employee wages. This equates to a processing increase of approximately 20 percent – without the need to hire extra personnel.
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers a similar and user-friendly interface, helping Imprint to keep training costs down, and ensuring rapid adoption by employees across the business.
"Employees can automatically export data to create customised invoices, pay slips, Microsoft Office Excel® reports, and other documents from a single-view interface."
Elena Hayes, Payroll Manager, Imprint
