We recently completed the installation of NetSuite OpenAir for Maine Pointe after its original install partner left gaps in important capabilities and challenged users with needless complexities. Now Maine Pointe can accomplish more with greater ease by using accurate data and performing more simplified actions.
About Maine Pointe
Maine Pointe is a global supply chain and operations consulting firm that helps companies achieve optimal returns. Maine Pointe quickly became a renowned specialist in driving EBITDA, cash, and growth improvements across the business areas of procurement, operations, logistics, data analytics, and leader and organization improvement. The company immortalized its successful methodology in the award-winning Total Value Optimization (TVO) approach.
The company quickly experienced fast, global growth, and industry recognition after its founding in 2004. As a result, it wasn’t long before Maine Pointe outgrew the software tools it started with. They needed a system that could consolidate their multiple software solutions—including Quickbooks, Harvest time tracking software, and Excel—into one solution. In addition, they wanted a system that could support the entire business, including its international activities.
More importantly, however, Maine Pointe wanted greater visibility of its real-time project costs to make accurate, up-to-the-moment profit-and-loss statements. As Don Freitas, Vice President of Finance explained, “We wanted to implement a connected system that would allow us to book resources for clients, compare those bookings with actuals, and feed actual labor costs into budgets, enabling us to perform meaningful project accounting.”
The NetSuite OpenAir Solution
Maine Pointe had worked with Sikich on another project, and they felt that Sikich could help them with their NetSuite OpenAir deployment. The company explained to Sikich exactly what they needed reconfigured to improve both usability and user adoption of the new software:
- expense reporting per project type,
- simplified invoicing,
- pervasive expense categories,
- ensuring correct dates,
- automatic overhead calculations,
- greater efficiency in consulting booking,
- efficient and dependable accounting and finance management, and
- easier reporting on accurate financial data.
Several of their concerns would only take relatively minor effort to address, but others required more comprehensive reconfigurations and adjustments. After Maine Pointe approved the work plan, Sikich got to work right away with the adjustments that would quickly deliver improvements. Brian Hallas, VP of IT said, “We simplified several highly visible tasks and processes for our users, and also saved a significant amount of time for the back-office team members who had to clean up each time somebody made a mistake.” And that was just the beginning.
NetSuite OpenAir Benefits
Now that Sikich as adjusted the OpenAir environment to meet Maine Pointe’s requirements and deliver a productive and pleasant user experience, the company can comfortably manage and fine-tune the solution without assistance. Today, the users appreciate the many ways the solutions has become more efficient and practical for them.
Even more importantly, the company no longer has to manually enter data to generate reports. OpenAir is able to automate these reports with the data already entered in NetSuite. The report automation not only saves countless time, but it also ensures accuracy, eliminating mistakes from manually entered data.
“Today, I know for certain that expenses are accurately being posted to the right project accounts. I no longer have to review all my expense accounts to make
sure they have all been coded properly, and I save time at the end of every close period,” Freitas said.
“The improved accuracy of our financial data has greatly cut down on the number of occasions I need to assist the finance team resolve issues in
OpenAir,” Hallas added.
Want your own NetSuite and/or NetSuite OpenAir success story? Contact us today and see how we can tailor OpenAir to do what your business needs!
