Australian investment specialist 360 Capital Group achieves efficiency and time savings through automation with Sage Intacct.
To meet the company’s new broader strategy required the right level of resources and the right systems in place, says Glenn Butterworth, the Chief Financial Officer at 360 Capital Group.
“The key challenge we have faced over recent years is the growth of the business. We’ve diversified our product range and we are now operating globally, so we needed the resourcing and systems to support this growth,” said Butterworth.
Another challenge 360 Capital Group faced was the fact it had to undertake a lot of manual work. Butterworth explains: “We had to rely a lot on spreadsheets and reconciling, mapping and integrating data outside of our core accounting system.”
The organization also had a number of challenges with some of the funds they operated overseas, which are often very complex structures and operate in foreign currencies.
The search for the right software package was supported by Stefan Coetzer, the Director of Business Solutions at Sage partner MicroChannel.
Coetzer said: “360 Capital Group has some really complex investments and needed a complete financial management oversight of its business. It also needed a cloud platform that would enable it to access this information at any time and from anywhere.”
Coetzer also realized that they needed a software solution to match the structure of the business. He explains: “360 Capital Group has a multi-company structure, with local companies in Australia as well as companies around the world, which require multi-currency and multi consolidation. They take the word multi to a whole other level!”
Time and efficiency savings
Butterworth explains that while using Sage Intacct over the past 18 months, he has seen the serious benefits from time saved during month-end reporting.
“We have managed to reduce the time spent for month-end by two days, which is over a 25% improvement. Also we have seen an improvement in reporting across the group,” he adds.
In addition to the efficiency savings provided by Sage Intacct, Butterworth adds that it now has a system which can keep up with the growth of 360 Capital Group.
“We have built a strong platform that can now be scaled up to meet our long-term objectives, and the current environment offers us a lot of opportunities to do this. Ultimately, we aim to become the leading Australian alternative asset manager,” said Butterworth.
Real-time reporting allows for quick decisions
Coetzer realized that 360 Capital Group needed a system which enabled it to rapidly make decisions, including adding new businesses to the group.
“This is what they do – they are in the business of acquiring other businesses, and this is where Sage Intacct really made a difference. It has strong functionality and allows for rapid deployment,” he adds.
Butterworth agrees, saying that Sage Intacct allows them to do everything in real-time, which supports their agile decision-making approach.
“It’s helped across the group in terms of statutory reporting and management reporting. It’s given operational managers the details they need in terms of performance across the businesses. Having Sage Intacct has just been really critical in helping our decision-making,” adds Butterworth.
Technology to support the changing world of finance
Butterworth and Coetzer have seen how the world of finance has changed rapidly in recent years, with new technology playing a big part in this transformation.
“The role of technology in the financial industry has revolutionized the role of the Chief Financial Officer,” said Butterworth. “Having digital dashboards, business intelligence tools and Artificial Intelligence have really made the CFO’s role critical across the whole organization.”
Coetzer is interested in seeing where technology takes the world of finance next and believes that Sage products are going to play an important role in that evolution.
“What gets me excited about the future is seeing technology that never sleeps, available anywhere and anytime around the world. Technology that never stops innovating. And this is what Sage is great at,” concludes Coetzer.
Click below to share this article