Office Authority Simplifies Decision Making with Microsoft Power BI & CRG Company Combiner

“Our systems were limited to basic accounting functionality and no value-added management components. We needed a cost-effective solution that would accommodate our growing business where we could make fact-based decisions’”, said Rishi Baddaloo, Group Managing Director at Office Authority.

A number of systems Office Authority was using in their daily operations were reaching their end-of-life status. It was essential for them to update their systems in order to maintain a strong advantage over their competition. Baddaloo contacted Corporate Renaissance Group, an internationally recognized and trusted consulting firm and Microsoft Gold partner based in Ottawa, Canada. For over 30 years CRGroup has specialized in delivering complete and coordinated solutions for enterprise resource planning, corporate performance management, business intelligence, financial and costing principles, shared services and employee performance management. Baddaloo believed that CRGroup would be a great partner to undertake their transformation.

CRGroup led the project with a Microsoft Dynamics GP system redesign and reconfiguration. This work consisted of a complete restructure of the chart of accounts; merging two of the three subsidiary company databases together; and deploying the Field Service module to automate after sales service and support. With the foundation in place, automated reporting was then structured through Management Reporter and Power BI.

“We had heard from other companies about CRGroup’s capabilities and knew the value they could bring,” said Baddaloo. “They took time to understand our situation, guided us through the process and more importantly, honestly told us the options and possibilities available given our budget constraints and needs. Based on our early interactions with the team, I was confident that the CRGroup team would provide us with the right solution.”

Consolidating two of the three subsidiary company databases was an elaborate part of the project where a great deal of detail and planning was invested. The use of CRG Company Combiner to complete the consolidation allowed for all historical information and transactions to be kept intact for users to easily report and analyze. Moreover, attention was paid to ensure data consistency by removing duplicates in all of the sub-ledgers (customers and products).

Once the groundwork was laid with the database consolidation, CRGroup leveraged Power BI and Management Reporter to create a structured and automated reporting system that facilitated visibility into the data of the organization. “With the implementation of Power BI we now have real-time Benefits insights into our business with minimal effort,” said Baddaloo.

A critical factor in the success of the project was to sequence the work in ways that would not disrupt or interfere with daily business operations. CRGroup worked with the Office Authority staff to ensure that the Sure Step methodology was followed while preserving the diverse working practices existing within each subsidiary. The project plan respected both the time and budget constraints of the organization. In spite of the various hardware challenges that spawned, CRGroup maintained a high level of performance and consistency throughout the project.