Emerging Solutions Cuts Billing Cycle in Half

Emerging Solutions is a business and technology consulting firm serving Fortune 500 and mid-market companies in the greater Chicago area. Founded in 1997, the company specializes in Enterprise Business Applications, Web Solutions, and Business Performance Management, and partners with leading companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and OutlookSoft.

Situation Analysis

With a workforce of 70 consultants, and upwards of 20-30 projects on the go at any given time, Emerging Solutions’ home-grown system, which captured time and expense data, was laborious and limited in its capabilities to accommodate a highly mobile workforce. The need to implement a more effective solution became a necessity as the Company prepared to migrate its accounting system from QuickBooks to Great Plains. As part of this initiative, Emerging Solutions began searching for a new time and expense reporting system with several criteria in mind. The solution had to be Web-based to enable the Company’s mobile workforce to input time and expense data, regardless of time of day or their geographic location. The solution also had to integrate with the Company’s newly deployed Great Plains accounting system.

Solution

Emerging Solutions selected PSA Timesheet for Time and Billing, an integrated workflow-based time,expense, and billing system. “Following a careful evaluation of four other solutions, PSA emerged as the most cost-effective in terms of price versus capabilities,” said Howard Hohnsen, Chief Financial Officer at Emerging Solutions. “More importantly, it satisfied our primary criteria as a 100% Webbased solution that seamlessly integrates with our project management, payroll and accounting systems, including Great Plains.” PSA Timesheet centralizes and automates the tracking of billing rates, billable work, project status and ongoing cost/revenue updates, enabling companies to create and approve invoices quickly, leading to a reduced billing cycle and improved cash flow.

Results

Following the implementation of PSA Timesheet, Emerging Solutions was able to reduce its billing cycle in half. “It used to take up to a week to create a customer invoice,” explains Mr. Hohnsen. “It now takes just a few days.” PSA Timesheet provides a fully detailed audit of and reporting on all billable project activity executed by more then 70 consultants working across the State. All user data is being validated at the point of entry based on preconfigured policies and procedures, significantly reducing data entry errors and corrections, which has contributed to Emerging Solutions’ considerably shortened billing cycle. In addition, the Company has gained better visibility and control over its projects. The tracking, management and approval of invoices has also been greatly streamlined and simplified.

“The PSA solution is very intuitive and the learning curve was very short,” said Mr. Hohnsen. “It took our consultants only half an hour to an hour to understand how to use the system.” Commenting on PSA’s support services, Mr. Hohnsen adds, “When we document a problem, PSA is not only prompt in their reply, they’re also very good at communicating progress reports and solving or escalating the problem, when it’s required.”

Emerging Solutions has been using PSA Timesheet since November 2003 and has upgraded the solution to every new release since then.