How Efficio, Terrapinn, and Worldline transformed their organizations with Services-as-a-Business solutions
This article is written by Stewart Monk, Vice President & General Manager, EMEA. This is the second blog post in a series of three where we’re taking readers on a virtual global tour showcasing what customers around the world are achieving with FinancialForce. The first blog post, in which the global excursion takes off in North America, can be found here.
In my experience meeting with professional services businesses across Europe throughout the last year, two clear trends stand out regardless of the company’s size or geography: how to differentiate in an increasingly crowded and competitive services marketplace, and how to accelerate efficiencies so spending can be optimized amidst the current economic climate.
Many companies are discovering that having a cloud-native ERP and PSA platform is key to navigating these uncertainties. This is validated by the growth we’ve seen across EMEA in the last year; not only can a platform like FinancialForce’s rise to the occasion, but our solution is a secret ingredient in transforming into a customer-centric, connected services business of the future.
Take for example some of our top European customers, which include the procurement and supply chain consultancy Efficio, global events company Terrapinn, and multinational payment services company Worldline, who have all found success in streamlining their services organizations with FinancialForce. In this blog post, I’ll be your guide as we take you on a virtual tour of these companies so you can better understand the kind of success that is possible with FinancialForce at your fingertips. Let’s go!
First stop: Efficio, a UK-based procurement and supply chain management consultancy firm. The company’s fast growth was hindered by disconnected front and back-office operations, and a reliance on spreadsheets and legacy accounting software. Efficio partnered with FinancialForce to improve its operations by implementing a cloud-based platform that was integrated with Salesforce, which was already being used by the company.
FinancialForce ERP Cloud and Professional Services Cloud have enabled Efficio to automate and simplify routine tasks, improve information flows, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. The platform provides an accurate view of revenue forecasts, complete control over customer-facing projects, and better pipeline visibility. As a result, Efficio was able to achieve sales growth of 35% and expand its headcount by 27% in the year ending June 2022. The platform has also empowered the company to continue scaling, expand internationally, and flex around remote working patterns.
Melanie Stirling, FinancialForce CSM says: “Professional services companies undergoing massive international expansion are routinely approaching FinancialForce for a cloud-based solution to scale-up their ERP and professional services operations in a quick and cost-efficient way. This is exactly the situation Efficio found itself in. Staying connected with a 360-degree customer view was critical for their success, and FinancialForce helped make that possible.”
Or, how about Terrapinn? This market leader in staging large-scale B2B exhibitions and conferences was using both Salesforce and an on-premise SAP instance to run its business. The reconciliation between the two systems was time-consuming, prone to errors, and prevented the company from tracking and reporting on un-invoiced opportunities.
To improve its operations and reap the full value of its Salesforce investment, Terrapinn chose FinancialForce ERP Cloud, which integrated seamlessly with Terrapinn’s Salesforce system to provide a single reporting engine for accurate and up-to-date information. The system automated invoicing, made it easy to run reports, and allowed for quick changes to data. As a result, the finance team was able to close each month in just three days, complete year-end audits in half the time, and save up to £70,000 annually.
Wendy Puckrin, CSM: “Terrapinn serves as a shining example for companies considering a migration from SAP to FinancialForce. The switch has not only proven to be a wise financial decision, but it has also allowed Terrapinn to fully realize the potential of their Salesforce investment. The seamless integration of Salesforce and FinancialForce has eradicated the need for manual spreadsheet work and significantly streamlines their monthly reporting process, resulting in a huge savings of both time and money.”
And finally, Rail Delivery Group (RDG), a client of Worldline, was in need of a cloud-based solution for their financial management processes. They wanted to be able to handle their finances easily, quickly, and efficiently from anywhere, such as being able to view and authorize weekly balance transfers of the £12 billion per annum that flows through UK rail or auditing without the need of physical presence. Worldline decided to transition RDG to FinancialForce Accounting & Financial Reporting while retaining the same look and feel of their reports on the Salesforce platform.
The transition to FinancialForce was a success as RDG’s accounting team experienced no disruption to their workflow. All processes remained intact and even improved after the migration, allowing them to work uninterrupted. FinancialForce has enabled RDG to save time, avoid operational costs, and realize the long-term benefits of cloud software. With the migration, RDG has improved its day-to-day accounting activities and reporting, and has seen approximately £2.4M per annum in operational savings.
Abby Jones, CSM: “FinancialForce has empowered Worldline to maintain market leadership by providing its clients like RDG with a cutting-edge service that maximizes their technology investment while eliminating technical debt. The cloud-native accounting and financial reporting solution not only provides valuable technology benefits – such as catering to very large transaction volumes and seamlessly upgrading versions to leverage innovative new features – but it also provides undeniable bottom-line benefits such as reducing annual operating costs by millions of Pounds.”
Seeing is believing, so read what Efficio, Terapinn, and Worldline had to say about their experience with FinancialForce directly:
- “The power of FinancialForce, purpose built for the Salesforce platform, enabled us to stay connected while growing rapidly and expanding internationally.” – Peter Heit, Director of Operational Finance at Efficio
- “As part of driving business transformation, I led the project to automate our sales, invoicing and booking system. We leveraged FinancialForce ERP Cloud to make this happen, and could not have done it otherwise.” – Richard Williams, Finance Director at Terrapinn
- “We knew the best solution for migrating RDG to the cloud with seamless integration to Salesforce was FinancialForce. That’s why we recently chose FinancialForce for our own accounting needs as well.” – Adrian Hepworth, Chief Architect at Worldline UK&I
Next Steps:
- Read more about Efficio, Terrapinn, and Worldline in their success stories on the FinancialForce website.
- Interested in learning more about how FinancialForce can help your business? Feel free to reach out to us!
Stay tuned to the FinancialForce blog, where in the coming weeks we’ll finish our global tour with a trip east to see what our friends in the APAC region are up to!
