Art Processors is an award-winning creative technology company specialising in rich, immersive experiences for museums, galleries and visitor attractions around the world. Using a thoughtful blend of proprietary technology, digital media, and precision spatial design, Art Processors creates meaningful, moving encounters for audiences.
“The implementation of this solution was so important that it was listed within the top five business priorities last financial year. There is no way that Art Processors could be in the situation we are now without having the Microsoft Dynamics solution in our business.”
Amie Scruton Chief Financial Officer, Art Processors
Challenges
A global organisation with offices in Australia and the United States, Art Processors found that their existing financial software prevented the organisation from moving through the cycle of growth and adapting to market changes in an efficient and optimum way.
Juggling multiple organisations’ financial data across multiple currencies, taxation and business rules, the consolidation of reports became increasingly complicated and time consuming for the financial team. It also limited their ability to influence operational and strategic business decisions with real-time financial activity.
Amie Scruton, Chief Financial Officer at Art Processors, discussed their business challenges. “It was becoming increasingly impossible for the management team, specifically the CEO and I, to make poignant business decisions without myself or my team having to put in hours, sometimes days’ worth of work, in order to bring information together. We had to scrape together the data from two or three different ledgers with different currency conversions.
“We were clearly outgrowing our old software and we needed answers to variances before we were even asking the questions. Real-time and predictive reporting was our biggest challenge.”
Art Processors investigated their business requirements, objectives and the value proposition of a new solution: recognising the need to modernise and simplify their financial processes and reporting.
“We’re an innovative technology company, so it was embarrassing that the finance function of the business wasn’t technologically savvy,” added Scruton.
“It is not just looking at the cost savings. I’m really looking at the opportunities that we’ve got in front of us now. I can now spend my time on more important and strategic projects.”
Amie Scuton Chief Financial Officer, Art Processors
Solution
Art Processors went to market for a comprehensive, cloud-based, business management solution that could handle global entities and provide real-time reporting and analytics. After researching possible solutions and partners, Art Processors partnered with DXC Technology to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Their focus was to digitally transform the business by consolidating global financial data in the cloud — ensuring staff had access to accurate, real-time financial activity.
“The capability of Dynamics 365 has enabled me and other cohorts of the business to be able to rely on the financial data and analytics provided. We had a significant, increasingly complex sales pipeline ahead of us, and there is no way that our previous software could have handled the business that we’re doing now,” said Scruton.
In addition to the increased financial visibility and business performance reporting provided by Dynamics 365, Art Processors had seen a significant uptake from staff due to the solution’s ease of use and the ability to work remotely.
Scruton explained, “The solution has impacted our staff in a very positive way. Firstly, the user interface and the way Microsoft Dynamics works, it just makes everything so much easier. There’s no clicking through a million menus and tabbing here, like we had to with our old software.
“Everything is in one space and it’s highly customisable, so once you get comfortable with the way your page views are working, you know where everything is and you can do things with your eyes shut, which is amazing.”
“Technology will continue to improve and as we have a Microsoft product, who have teams developing future releases, we’ll be working really closely with DXC as to how to implement those in the future.”
Amie Scruton Chief Financial Officer, Art Processors
Benefits and outcomes
Since the implementation of Dynamics 365 Business Central, Art Processors has recognised significant optimisation across their financial reporting and business processes. Now that their data is easily accessible and available in realtime, they have been able to influence strategic decisions that will affect the future of the business.
“The solution has very much influenced the way we make decisions, because the data is there — the data has been analysed, reconciled and it’s real time. In these quite uncertain times, for example, we can monitor expenditure as it’s happening, and that takes not only the technology but also good business processes. Dynamics 365 allows us to make decisions that impact the business right then and there.
“We were really only looking for two things: one — that we could report faster, so that’s a big tick, we can do that. And two — that people would have the data and analytical reporting capability at their fingertips. That has been a significant step change in our organisation,” said Scruton.
Furthermore, when compared to the previous time and manual reporting methods required to merge multiple financial reports, Dynamics 365 Business Central has saved Art Processors considerable time and resources.
Scruton added, “If I look at the monthly consolidated reporting process, historically I used to allocate a day to that task, now it’s 10 or 15 minutes — click of a button. So, that is significant.”
“Also, it is not just looking at the cost savings. I’m really looking at the opportunities that we’ve got in front of us now. I can now spend my time on more important and strategic projects.”
“Dynamics 365 allows us to make decisions that impact the business right then and there.”
Amie Scruton Chief Financial Officer, Art Processors
Digitally transforming the future
Art Processors is a creative technology company. Influencers in their field, they live and breathe the excitement of technology and what it can do for human experience. When looking at the future of their own business and business processes, technology and innovation will continue to play an integral role.
“If I look to the future, we’re the same as most businesses: the dream is to seamlessly integrate all of the different platforms that we use. We’re a people business, so we hold people as the most important asset. We want them to be doing exciting and creative things — the things that they want to be doing. We don’t want them to be doing boring processes or things that the technology can do. I would specifically be looking for developments that take away any of those sorts of tasks.
“Technology will continue to improve and as we have a Microsoft product, who have teams developing future releases, we’ll be working really closely with DXC as to how to implement those in the future,” Scruton said.
Working with DXC Technology
From the beginning of the partnership, the DXC Practice for Microsoft worked closely with Art Processors to understand their challenges and disruptions, ensuring the project was delivered to meet the customer’s expectations and business requirements.
Scruton discussed, “The advantages of working with DXC were: they took the time to get to know our business. So, when I came with questions, problems, potential solutions, they knew the context, which was significant.
“It was also really obvious that DXC had implemented this solution a million times, so they had learnings they brought to our implementation process that were very useful, especially when I would perhaps come up with a solution and they’d say ‘well, I’ve seen this before and that doesn’t work’.
“The implementation budget I came to DXC with came in under, and that was through good efficient work from both parties.”
Amie Scruton Chief Financial Officer, Art Processors
Art Processors also wanted a local partner with exceptional experience and a global footprint. Scruton said, “Although it wasn’t the top buying reason, DXC is a local business. Having people on the ground in Melbourne and Hobart, which is where our finance team and the majority of our processes team are located, was really important to me, because we could have the relationship that I feel is required for a good partnership.”
On a personal level, Scruton discussed working with DXC throughout the project.
She said, “The implementation of this solution has been probably a highlight of my career to date. The significance of the implementation and the capability that it’s introduced into the organisation, is so significant that we’ve got the CEO mentioning it, not once not twice, but on numerous occasions in public — so I think that’s a pretty good indicator.”