Case Studies

Upgrade Skills and Performance

Using project reports and global reports

Background

Unifund, LLC, headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, provides Microsoft® Windows® - based fund accounting and revenue billing, receivable and collection software solutions and support services to local governments and schools. They have over a decade of experience in meeting the financial information needs of over 300 clients in all six New England states, as well as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

Challenge

While Unifund's business was fast-paced and growing steadily, the company had been having trouble tracking employee hours, project budgets and work habits. Unifund sells services as estimates, so company leaders knew that accurate budget tracking was imperative to the company's success. Despite many attempts to customize various store bought project management software packages, efforts to develop the right project management system failed. None of the options provided the company with enough functionality or sophistication needed for establishing proper project management discipline.

Solution

Unifund's management agreed that the company needed an efficient and sophisticated project management system that could accurately track and manage overall projects and their budgets. During the search, management learned about Vertabase Pro. Company leaders were immediately drawn to this software system, which could meet Unifund's growing needs.

• It was rich in features, cost-effective, and web-based, which could provide support staff and field representatives access to the system from any remote location.
  
  
• Team members could use the system's central repository to input their specific time sheets, project costs and additional expenses.
  
  
• Using Vertabase's detailed reports, Unifund could precisely track overall performance improvements, organize projects, report budget and project status, allocate resources and identify project milestones.
  
  
• And, since all reports were clearly detailed in real-time, managers could identify potential problems and make plans to avoid them.

Results

• Team members were able to provide about $45,000 in additional consulting and training services in 2004, because of remote tracking capabilities.
  
  
• Improvements in tracking capabilities paved the way for proactive marketing of new customer services.
  
  
• For example, Unifund last year tested an additional contract offering on year-end closing services to a select group of existing customers, increasing revenues by $19,000.
  
  
• Company managers anticipate that figure will triple next year with similar offerings to more customers.

"With Vertabase Pro, we always know where we stand relative to budgets" boasts Unifund President Roger Melanson. "Since we sell our services as estimates, we know which projects will need supplemental funding so we can approach our customers in advance. We have developed a billable time mindset for our support personnel who are dedicated to project management. We are now able to hire more qualified people with higher salaries, knowing that we can offset the higher wages with billable production. With the increased billable production and new services we have been able to implement, Vertabase 4 has paid for itself many times over."

Request a Live Demo, a Price Quote or Take a Tour of the product.