kCura develops web-based, e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations. The company’s rapid growth meant it needed to find an alternative to QuickBooks and spreadsheets. Armanino deployed cloud-based Sage Intacct in less than four months to eliminate manual efforts, improve efficiency, and enable the accounting and finance team to deliver greater value to the company.
kCura’s software—Relativity—helps corporations, law firms, and government agencies meet the challenges of managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations. The company has more than 100,000 active users worldwide including the U.S. Department of Justice and 195 of the AM Law 200. kCura has more than 400 employees in Chicago, Portland, and London and was ranked the 175th fastest-growing technology company in North America on Deloitte's 2014 Technology Fast 500 list, making its fourth consecutive appearance on the list.
While an excellent problem to have, rapid growth at kCura has meant exponentially increasing volume and complexity of transactions for the accounting and finance team. Todd Bailey, controller at kCura, estimates that year-over-year transaction volume growth is approximately 30 to 40 percent. “Whether it was payables, expense reporting, billing, or reporting, we faced a critical point where we either needed to further automate the accounting system or hire more people to continue to scale to support the business,” says Bailey.
Previously, Bailey’s team manually created invoices in QuickBooks using data from Salesforce.com and spreadsheets. Expense reporting was equally labor intensive. “While the Concur software automated the front-end expense report processing, we had no link to QuickBooks to automate transaction booking,” says Bailey. The month-end close was another area ripe for automation, as kCura’s process was highly dependent on spreadsheets to track revenue recognition. “We wanted to eliminate as much manual effort as possible so that we could not only continue to support the business as it grows, but have time to be analysts of the data as well,” says Bailey. “This meant fully integrating our best-of-breed approach.”
The time had come for kCura to move to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Bailey’s organization began the process of seeking out a solution that would:
From the beginning, Bailey knew that a cloud-based solution was a firm requirement. “We want to control all of the applications we use on a daily basis, yet not create an IT burden” says Bailey. “We get that self-sufficiency with the cloud.”
After narrowing down the choices to two solutions, kCura chose Sage Intacct, deployed and supported by Armanino, one of the largest independent accounting and business and technology consulting firms in the U.S., with deep finance and accounting expertise. “Armanino made a significant upfront investment in educating us about Sage Intacct and why the firm was well-positioned to implement it successfully,” says Bailey. “We were very confident in both the choice for Sage Intacct and for Armanino.”
The deployment of kCura’s new ERP system was completed in just over three months, including integration with Salesforce.com and Concur. The integration with Adaptive Insights was completed shortly thereafter, freeing up more time for month-end analysis and setting the stage for providing decision makers with mid-month revenue snapshots.
“The Sage Intacct deployment was done on time despite our aggressive timeline,” says Bailey. “It was smooth and efficient because Armanino’s processes are time-tested. I can’t say enough about the quality of their methodology and the expertise of their people. Armanino and Sage Intacct are the real deal.”
While still early in the post-implementation phase, kCura is already starting to reap the benefits. “For revenue recognition, we went from handling thousands of lines in a spreadsheet to a matter of a few clicks,” says Bailey. “That saves us approximately two days of work for one fulltime employee each month.” Better yet, month-end close is a less stressful situation at kCura. Bailey adds: “When you see smiling faces at the end of the month, you know it’s working well.”
The new ERP is also living up to the promise of enabling the accounting and finance department to stay lean and efficient while supporting the greater volumes and complexity inherent in the company’s sustained growth. “With the Sage Intacct solution, we now have more automated processes and are doing more with less,” says Bailey.
Perhaps the most important benefit is the most challenging one to quantify: the added value Bailey’s team can now bring to the business. With manual efforts now automated, Bailey’s team finally has time to analyze the data rather than providing just the figures to business decision makers. “The quality of our team’s products is enhanced with Sage Intacct because we have more time to add explanations and analytic insight that influence business decisions,” says Bailey.
With the new ERP in place, Bailey’s team plans to next turn its attention to optimizing mission critical workflows and in the longer term addressing challenges with sales tax processing. “We want to make sure that we’re making the most of the applications we now have in place,” says Bailey. “Armanino has a deep understanding of our business and our technologies, making them the perfect resource to turn to for help.”
January 09, 2015
