When companies are first established and start doing business, off-the-shelf accounting and financial management software is typically enough to satisfy initial demands. However, as organizations grow and become more complex, they typically require more depth of resources and functionality, and more extensive systems are often necessary. Companies that work with federal government entities have an extra level of complexity, as they require systems and additional reporting that will stand up to additional compliance demands.
Our client, founded in 2011 by two U.S. military veterans, is a government contractor that provides innovative IT, multimedia and organizational improvement services for government entities. Over half of the company’s employees are U.S. military veterans, over 40% are disabled veterans and the company drives profits and proceeds to partners and veterans’ charities. Its largest clients are the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs Administration, and the company also works with several sub-entities under those organizations.
They eventually reached a point in their growth where they needed to consider a new financial management foundation. It moved beyond straightforward, fixed-price contracts that were not initially a heavy lift for an entry-level platform and it became subject to Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) audits.
“As a government contractor starts its business journey, I have learned that a lot of the time, it is perfectly fine with a fairly straightforward and simple system,” said thier chief financial officer. “But the minute that you win a certain size or type of contract, it opens up a whole new door of reporting requirements.”
Growth requires new solutions
For this company, that turning point was winning a large cost plus fixed fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract. At first, the company stayed in its current solution and managed many tasks manually and offline. But leadership understood that was not sufficient or sustainable for the type of reporting and tracking necessary for its new contract.
“They didn’t have real-time visibility into projects and creating reports was completely manual because the systems were not talking together,” said Ian Murray, RSM supervisor. “Project managers were not able to easily see how many hours were booked against the project and how expenses were progressing. They have a small team, so having a system that’s not providing information in real-time and automating processes was stretching them very thin.”
Their leadership came together and determined that the company needed a new financial solution that could provide more real-time transparency into financials and while streamlining processes.
“Many of our business processes happened outside of a platform or system, such as manual email approvals,” commented their CFO. “That was getting confusing and overwhelming, so we were looking for a system that could perform those tasks within the system itself as opposed to the back and forth over email.”
In addition, while the team meets frequently, the organization does not have a physical location. Therefore, a new system had to be highly accessible so everyone could work within it cohesively and enable processes to run more smoothly.
