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Success Story

Oracle Cloud Implementation Led to Optimized Performance

Results at a Glance

  • Decreased headcount within the accounting and finance department by almost one-third
  • Shortened month-end close process by half

Focus Areas

  • Provided staff augmentation support with nine highly trained specialists
  • Scalable solutions allowed the team to be nimble and onboard and offboard staff as needed

Business Challenge

Overstaffed Accounting Department With Outdated Processes

Our client is a large nonprofit organization that supports children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With multiple lines of revenue equaling over $400 million, the organization employed a team of more than 70 accounting and finance employees — double what other companies of their size employed. Coupled with the overstaffing issue, our client’s accounting and finance systems and processes were outdated, and current practices were slowing down their month-end close, which lasted longer than 10 business days.

To help streamline and automate their accounting and financial work, our client chose to upgrade to Oracle Cloud. While they had an implementation partner, they required additional specialized support throughout the process to assist their accounting and finance team.

Aston Carter previously partnered with this client to provide high-quality candidates through our staffing solutions program. Based on the relationship and trust we developed with our client, we were asked to provide additional functional support during the transition to Oracle Cloud.

Our Solution

Flexible, Scalable and Affordable Solutions

We worked closely with the client’s technical implementation partner, providing staff augmentation support based on the project phase and the client’s needs. As the project progressed, we offered cost-efficient, quick-moving and scalable solutions — such as sourcing, onboarding and offboarding workforce during the life cycle of the transition.

We began the engagement with our client’s primary requirement, which was hiring a skilled project manager who had led an Oracle Cloud implementation at a previous organization. Our team successfully identified a project manager with extensive knowledge of Oracle who captained the implementation process in collaboration with the finance department. For over two years, the project manager played a crucial role in various aspects of the project, including planning, design, testing, go-live and post-integration facets of the project.

We also sourced a fixed assets accounting supervisor to provide additional subject matter expertise, four general ledger accountants to support operational functions related to month-end close and cash management, two AP specialists for operational assistance and one FP&A analyst to aid in revenue and cost planning. These roles were critical to help establish new processes and augment the current staff dedicated to the Oracle Cloud implementation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this project encountered some delays and challenges, including adopting a new remote work environment. To address these issues, we sourced a remote workforce. This allowed us to recruit from a larger pool of candidates, giving us greater flexibility in acquiring the specific skill sets required by our client.

Results

Optimized Performance, Reduced Workforce and Increased Capabilities

As our client’s trusted partner, we effectively addressed significant challenges, from streamlining staffing levels to optimizing month-end close time.

Our client successfully completed the implementation of Oracle Cloud early in 2022. As a result, they enhanced the efficiency of their finance and accounting department, resulting in a nearly one-third reduction in unnecessary staffing. Furthermore, implementing updated processes has dramatically streamlined their month-end close, effectively reducing the time required by almost 50%.

Additionally, the integration with Oracle has provided our client with more comprehensive reporting capabilities, enabling them to analyze and audit data more effectively, driving more informed business decisions.

The Oracle project manager achieved impressive success, prompting our client to appoint them as a permanent executive director.

Through our flexible recruiting strategy, scalable solutions and being a dedicated partner to our client, we’ve helped them transition their accounting and finance staff and procedures to lead to future success.

We are extremely satisfied with the affordable and flexible solutions provided by Aston Carter during our Oracle transition in our accounting and finance department. Their strategic staffing recruitment allowed us to adapt to our changing hiring needs seamlessly, ensuring that we could scale our implementation with ease. We’re pleased with the experienced candidates they were able to source for us during the implementation, a few of whom we opted to hire as full- time employees. This partnership and successful ERP solution has led to increased productivity and less staff being needed to support our month-end close, financial reporting, AP, AR, various other strategic initiatives and many other organizational processes. We continue to partner with the Aston Carter team to support our recruiting needs.

FINANCE EXECUTIVE, LARGE HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION

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