THE SITUATION
Loyalty New Zealand Limited manages Fly Buys, the largest loyalty rewards programme in New Zealand with over 2.7 million Fly Buys cardholders. Fly Buys launched in 1996 and now has 80% penetration in NZ households. The group of businesses that makes up Loyalty NZ sees their investment in Fly Buys as an unmatchable long-term competitive advantage, and thus attached great weighting to the need to have a strategic financial package that would support long-term business growth.
Loyalty NZ was constrained by an existing legacy accounting application that was not robust enough or scalable for the business, was prohibitive to maintain and delivered little reporting functionality. Desiring a multi-dimensional view of their financial processes and more dynamic reporting tools, Loyalty NZ went to the market to identify a technology partner that could demonstrate proven expertise in strategic financial applications.
THE PAIN
Hamstrung by an inflexible accounting platform that was not meeting rapid business growth, Loyalty NZ sought a robust, scalable solution that would produce a real time view of key business processes.
One company’s experience is another’s gain
Loyalty NZ was strongly influenced by the measurable business gains that Intergen had secured for the Electricity Commission with the deployment of Microsoft Dynamics NAV coupled with Intergen’s Invoice Approval Master module. Finance Manager Stephen Bayley says “Intergen stood out as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and their work with the Electricity Commission spoke volumes – they were able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics NAV by showing - OK here’s how we understand this customer’s business environment and here’s how we can add measurable business value. Intergen’s Invoice Approval Master streamlined our invoice approval process and is a great example of that measurable business value Intergen provided.”
Lloyd O’Keefe, Project Manager for Intergen, says they can now point to a number of reference situations where the business need has been an exceptionally strategic match with the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Intergen’s Invoice Approval Master module. “Loyalty NZ had a number of key business drivers which we could confidently tick off on this FMIS (Financial Management Information System) project. As part of our project methodology, we first undertook shadowing exercises to understand their business practices. We then designed improved business processes that delivered better efficiencies across financial administrations tasks, provided smarter tools for budget holders to increase their accountability, and provided more flexible and strategic reporting and data mining. It was all about improving business performance to increase the level of service to Loyalty NZ’s business participants.”
10-week turn around - on time, on budget
The FMIS project went live in early November and Loyalty NZ’s financial team is already seeing the efficiencies inherent in Microsoft Dynamics NAV tools to manage their general ledger, accounts payable (including scanned invoices integrated with SharePoint for invoice approvals), accounts receivable, fixed assets and web-based reporting.
THE GAIN
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has made a flying start, bringing a whole magnitude of financial accounting and reporting tools to the table for Loyalty NZ.
Stephen Bayley comments, “We definitely have a new ability to slice and dice information in a more strategic manner, and that will give more independence to business groups to manage their cost centers more effectively. We’ve been able to tighten up on processing at the front end, and we’ll start to see some real gains in administrative processing times. We’ve got 100% data capture, quality reporting and a richer environment to work with. Some wins will be immediate, but the real intention was creating a robust platform that will provide what we need in the future, by bolting on more capabilities as required. Looking long-term, we expect further benefits.”