Corrotherm

Why did you choose iplicit over the other systems being considered and did you have any key criteria?

We had already looked at several other systems before seeing iplicit. In fact, at one stage, we actually installed Sage in the hope that it would solve our problems but it turned out that this was no better than Exchequer so we went back to the system we knew. After that debacle, we committed ourselves to living with the pain of how we had to extract data – after all, the old system worked but it just seemed to take an eternity.

Then we came across iplicit, and the people we spoke to were really helpful. When we saw the system, we realised that it would do exactly what we needed.

Since going live with the system, how has your general experience been with both the software and iplicit staff?

The staff at iplicit are very knowledgeable and they had the system up and running for us in a very short timeframe. It was clear from the start that they not only understood our business but importantly, they understood the system that we were changing from.

This meant that they were quickly able to implement familiar structures and processes into the new system.

With the new system, it’s a real delight; you click a button and the report comes out instantly, not 10 minutes later like the way we used to work.

Do you have a favourite feature within iplicit?

From my point of view, it’s probably the project costing elements of the system, which is a great aid to me when I’m reviewing where we are, at month-end. Previously, to get the report it used to take an age just to extract the data; for getting the spreadsheets ready. In total, the whole process of producing a report with our old system would take me around a week, whereas now, with iplicit, it’s half a day to do the whole thing.

This means we can close the month off within a week of it ending, as opposed to it taking most of the following month with Exchequer.

Changing Finance systems can be quite a daunting prospect; having been through the process, what advice would you give other Heads of Finance who are contemplating upgrading their system?

Looking back, our upgrade to your cloud system was pretty much pain-free. We’ve had four accounting systems over the past 30 years and no migration was ever as smooth or as quick as the experience we had with iplicit.

I suppose if I was to really look for something I would do differently, or advice I’d give to others – I’d say that we thought we were being clever in terms of timing – aiming to make the switch at the end of our third quarter. The idea was to facilitate a clean set of accounts coming into the
financial year-end. In hindsight, maybe we’d have been better off going for year-end. Though the time of year was also a factor, so maybe that was more of an issue; we started the project over Christmas, which constrained the amount of time we had because of staff being on holiday. I suppose there are always pros and cons to however you do it and whenever you choose, overall though, we’ve been really pleased with how smoothly it went and it’s certainly nothing to be intimidated by.