Rapiergroup
An events management and communications specialist,
Rapiergroup offers a complete creative service from 3D displays
through to graphics and print. Founded in 1988, it has seen healthy
growth within the US and UK and counts BAE Systems, Lexus, Renault
and Shell among its clients.
The journey
Helen Seaman, group financial director, joined Rapiergroup in
1996. Back then, the company was running a Sage Line 50 system.
However, limitations with the costing functions prompted the search
for a new solution. "We run a lot of projects,
and we weren't getting the information out that we needed," says
Helen. This led to a meeting with Access to see the company's business & accounting
software, Dimensions, in action.
The discovery
Fully convinced by its costing capabilities, Rapiergroup swiftly
moved onto Dimensions - and noticed an
instant difference. "Our Access solution gave us a completely new
dimension in terms of viewing projects; we had far more control,
and the reports gave us the exact information we needed."
Having used Dimensions successfully for several years, Helen
began to look for new ways of making her team more efficient.
"Around 77 per cent of our costs are salary-related, and we wanted
to get a handle on our true project costs. We relied on a full-time
member of the accounts team to re-key timesheets into Dimensions,
which wasn't a good use of their time." Having discussed these
needs with her account manager, Helen undertook a demo of
FocalPoint, Access' web-based portal.
"FocalPoint proved so efficient that we were able to
reduce our administrative costs by 20K per annum within three
months." Helen Seaman
Group Financial Director
Being an online solution, FocalPoint provides site-based and
creative staff with a convenient way to capture information such as
timesheets and expenses, complete with an
in-built approval workflow. Following the demo, Helen was convinced
it was the right fit for the company's needs.
Implementation
Rapiergroup decided to implement the Timesheets module
first. "Access consultants were supportive throughout the planning
process" says Helen. "When they're on site, they give 101 per cent
to the cause; you can tell they love a challenge. My recommendation
for any business thinking of implementing FocalPoint is to keep it
simple to start with. The Access team can do almost anything so
don't try and do it all at once."
The result
Having implemented FocalPoint, Rapiergroup has seen benefits
across all areas of the business, including:
A reduction in overheads
Rapiergroup soon felt the benefit of electronic timesheets. "Our
manual system was proving a lot of work and FocalPoint transformed
that overnight. In fact, the FocalPoint Timesheets module proved so
efficient that we were able to reduce our administrative costs by
20K per annum within three months."
Tighter control over expenses
With Timesheets an instant success, Rapiergroup made the
decision to implement Expenses. Also web-based, this module allows
staff to enter claims as soon as they've been incurred - leading to
greater visibility and prompt reimbursement of claims.
Previously, Rapiergroup had to raise inter-company invoices and
recharge expenses appropriately; now, employees can simply enter
their expenses online and FocalPoint does the rest. "As an employee
who does a lot of travel to the US office, this is so useful...
it's so quick and easy.
Day-to-day, I find the mileage picker really useful as it saves
time re-keying frequent trips between the same offices," says
Helen. "And from a management perspective, we can see the costs
directly, in real-time - it's given us a great deal of
visibility."
Stronger client relationships
Rapiergroup has also been able to react more quickly to client
requests. Using the FocalPoint Project Management module, creative
staff are able to upload graphics to the system and quickly pull up
the relevant information when a client gets in touch. "Now, when
people ask which graphic they used last time, we can instantly give
them answers."
FocalPoint can also be extended to clients, using special user
privileges to view, for example, projects at various stages of
completion. "This has enabled us to establish a tighter process for
proofing work, which ultimately saves time and improves
profitability," says Helen.
Time savings
Convinced by the labour-saving capacity of the Timesheets and
Expenses modules, Rapiergroup soon rolled out the purchasing
functionality. So not only are staff able to raise POs in
Dimensions, they can now do it online via FocalPoint. "Little
things like being able to log on online and duplicate an existing
invoice - is really labour-saving."
Workflow Forms increases efficiency
Rapiergroup also has ties with an after-school activity club for
children, for whom it runs the accounts. Prior to implementing
Dimensions, keeping track of key tasks - such as managing waiting
lists and accurately billing parents - was labour-intensive, mainly
due to the clubs' paper-based processes.
Access has created an electronic workflow for the key processes
involved. This makes it easy for the club to submit the required
information online and for Rapiergroup to do everything from
billing to reporting in the click of
a button. "I'm so impressed with Workflow Forms; it's enabled the
club to maintain their core focus while making life very easy for
us. I would recommend it to all the clubs in the area!"
Post implementation
On a day-to-day basis, Rapiergroup has found Access Support to
be fully competent. "The Access helpdesk is very good. In fact, we
hardly ever call about Dimensions because it's such a stable
platform."
In terms of training, Rapiergroup has created its own 'Idiots
guide to FocalPoint', which allows new starters to quickly get up
to speed. "For the majority of users, we spend very little time or
cost on training - it literally takes an hour to show people how to
enter timesheets, expenses and purchases, which can be done as part
of the induction process. That's the beauty of the FocalPoint; it's
so easy to use."
FocalPoint has been so successful that Rapiergroup has rolled it
out across its UK and US offices. The next project in the pipeline
is Document Management.
"Currently we don't have any visibility of invoices that arrive
into the US office; Document Management will enable us to scan the
information and make it available centrally, which will really
speed things up. We're also considering automating the process to
make it even more efficient."
Summary
Rapiergroup now has a fully embedded accounts system
with a project management system over the top. By replacing many
paper-based processes with electronic, workflow-controlled ones,
the company has seen benefits across all areas of the business
ranging from labour savings and faster processes to cost reductions
in admin and overheads.
Concluding, Helen says, "FocalPoint is great. It's saved us
time, increased accuracy and tightened our processes to the extent
that it's more than paid for itself several times over. I would
definitely recommend FocalPoint to any company in the creative
sector."
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