“The impact of the pandemic has reinforced the need to mitigate risk through efficient digital systems wherever possible.”
- Pip Abercromby (West Midlands Growth Company)
The West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) is on its journey to the Cloud with Advanced. WMGC is the economic development agency for the West Midlands, charged with attracting new jobs, investment, and visitors to the area.
With a number of major milestones on the region’s horizon, including a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bolster the West Midlands global standing through the Commonwealth Games WMGC is pivoting its operations to accommodate increased demand and efficiency from its services. The pandemic has forced many organisations like WMGC to reflect on their existing systems and processes to ensure agility and robustness is embedded across the business. After realising that the Cloud is the optimal solution to ensure the business can work securely anytime and anywhere, WMGC has chosen to migrate from Exchequer to Advanced Financials.
Advanced’s Exchequer software solution is designed to remove barriers for finance teams and boasts flexible cashbook and reconciliation functionality as well as multi-dimensional analysis. WMGC has relied on Exchequer since its conception, valuing its adaptability and capability to segment data as required.
Pip Abercromby, Director of Finance at WMGC, acknowledged that during the pandemic the organisation recognised the inevitability of the need to house its software in the Cloud. WMGC’s positive experience with Exchequer led the business to explore the transition to Advanced Financials, with the help of Advanced. In the initial discussion with Advanced, WMGC highlighted the importance of retaining the ability to manage detailed funding streams and its request for thorough dashboards.
Advanced Financials offers this and more; it provides powerful functionality including financial and purchasing management as well as comprehensive dashboard and reporting options. Its dashboard and reporting features will enable WMGC to easily analyse data and understand business performance with over 1,000 customisable reports. WMGC can design reports and dashboards to tailor information and obtain an instant view of high-level numbers, saving time and costs on creating lengthy manual reports. The rich financial accounts mean analysis is almost limitless, enabling customers like WMGC to apply this data to lead its business strategy as it continues to grow.
WMGC also seized the opportunity to receive its share of Advanced’s Technology Adoption Grant. This was a new initiative introduced last year by Advanced to support organisations during the pandemic and beyond. Advanced pledged £1 million in implementation costs towards helping customers in migrating to the Cloud. Amid a challenging year for all businesses, the Technology Adoption Grant aims to help mobilise industries with Cloud technology, accelerating business survival and success, enabling organisations to continue doing what they do best.
Pip Abercromby, commented: ”Migrating to the Cloud made perfect sense to ensure our organisation has an agile IT infrastructure in place. It was essential for the business to find a software solution that enabled us to both segment data efficiently and produce financial dashboards to help managers make informed business decisions. The fact Advanced was also able to offer free implementation was an additional welcome benefit for us as a non-profit organisation.”
Mark Dewell, Managing Director at Advanced added: “Our PACE programme provides customers with a clear view of what their route to the future with the Cloud can look like, and we’re excited to support the West Midlands Growth Company in its next chapter.”
