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Orbism
time@work Case Study
Orbism is a rapidly expanding
Enterprise Integration Consultancy with offices in Ireland,
Switzerland, The UK and The United States. With clients such
as HSBC, Credit Suisse and Chrysler, Orbism has established
itself as a leading provider of J2EE consulting and training
services. As their client base expanded and the complexities
of their business evolved, Orbism chose time@work to manage
the delivery and administration of their professional
services business.
Introduction
Orbism is a rapidly growing
Enterprise Integration Consultancy with over 100 employees and
contractors based throughout the UK, Europe and the United States.
As the business expanded rapidly
through the 1990’s the directors recognised the need to introduce a
scalable and robust PSA solution capable of managing the evolving
complexities of their business.
“We found ourselves in the
situation where we needed to get access to WIP details and project
profitability reports in real time. Our existing manual systems were
just not able to cope with the growing demands of our business”
commented John Fleming CEO.
Selection
"With the exception of time@work,
there was nothing available to meet our requirements for
functionality and stability. We were left with a choice of
developing something in house, going to another software developer
or going with time@work. What made us decide on time@work in the end
was the open architecture of the application, the sophistication of
the reporting engine and the ability for time@work to scale as the
needs of our business evolved."
Solution
Together with consultants from
systems@work, Orbism implemented time@work’s time recording, expense
management and invoicing modules in 16 days, with a further two days
spent by systems@work consultants defining additional reports and
tuning the system.
Because Orbism uses a combination
of employees and external contractors on projects it was vital that
their chosen system facilitated remote access and also enabled the
matching of costs and revenues by project and employee (or
contractor).
Using time@work, consultants and
programmers enter timesheets and expenses online, selecting from an
automatically generated list of current projects. Online validation
means that only correctly entered timesheets are accepted by the
system and using the time@work Status Inquiry Tool, managers can see
which timesheets are outstanding.
Once timesheets and expenses have
been validated they are processed by the central server, which
carries out fee, cost and other calculations.
time@work’s invoicing module is
used to generate invoices. Eighty percent of Orbism’s customers pay
for projects on a fixed-fee basis and time@work allocates the time
spent against the invoice so managers can see what level of discount
they are offering against standard rates. For "time & materials"
projects, time@work automatically seeks out unbilled work in
progress and presents it to the finance department for approval and
modification.
time@work then supports the
management team by giving them access to accurate, up to date
reports on key data such as utilisation, profitability by project,
and project progress reports.
“A key business planning benefit
is the ability to see a GM report by a variety of discrete criteria”
- John Fleming CEO.
The easy to use online interface
meant that no training was required for users entering timesheets.
Orbism’s time@work implementation
has provided the company with benefits in 6 key areas:
Reporting: Better, quicker
and more accurate reports.
Accuracy: Timesheets are
now 100% accurate and are recorded in the central database.
Reduced Risk: Visibility of
time costs and expenses incurred by external consultants is now far
greater.
Efficiency: Project
managers save on average six to eight hours a month.
Management Bandwidth: Directors
are now able to see a much clearer picture of the project status.
Advance Planning: The
senior management team are able to see at a glance what the cash
position of the company looks like, track project progress and spot
potential issues before they arise.
About Orbism
Orbism was founded in 1992, and
has over 100 staff based in Europe and The United States. Further
information on Orbism can be found at
http://www.orbism.com
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