The Learning Lab

Company executives talked about possible ERP solutions with several solution providers, examined the strengths and weaknesses of several, narrowing their list of options. In the end, the team selected Acumatica ERP with partner Info Cloud Asia to implement the new business solution.

“Acumatica is a well-developed solution that takes the best accounting practices and requirements into consideration while also incorporating what users and customers actually need.” Shirley Lim, then Finance Director, added, “Acumatica’s interface is easy for end users to adapt to, and its ease of integration with our existing platform was another plus.”

Acumatica’s unlimited user pricing made the software affordable; she added. Other ERPs charge by the user, which, with more than 500 employees, made other software much more costly in comparison.

Sergey Vereshchagin at Info Cloud Asia led the implementation and successful go live on Acumatica. “Sergey’s response is fast, and he worked through many late nights to support us,” Shirley Lim said. In addition to his thorough knowledge of Acumatica’s many features and workflows “he never fails to think out-of-the-box on how to best fit in our unique business requirements.”

More Effective Educational Operation

The Learning Lab eliminated several positions previously devoted solely to manual data entry between its different financial systems. Every employee can access Acumatica at the appropriate security level. This has given time back to the finance team who previously handled a wide variety of tasks due to the limited access controls in the old system. Each employee now enters their own expense claims into the system, for example, rather than relying on one person to handle all claims and data entry.

“An approval hierarchy is in place in Acumatica that empowers managers to have visibility and autonomy,” Mr. Chan says. “With Acumatica being cloud-based, it definitely enables us to work anywhere, at any time, and this is the direction that everything is headed.”

The Learning Lab has greater visibility into the organization’s operations, and, for the first time, has real-time AR and AP visibility.

“Previously we had to (manually) enter most transactions into the billing system but we can now batch upload bulk information in an efficient manner,” he says. “Acumatica has also reduced the volume of transactional work so now our team is doing more value-added tasks.”

Acumatica’s flexible architecture integrates well with Microsoft Dynamics 365, which The Learning Lab uses for customer management and as a Student Information System, as well as Unit 4, its HR system making the entire operation more efficient.

In the future, The Learning Lab plans to create a simple user interface between Acumatica and its Front Desk application, which will allow users to quickly search customer invoicing/payment history, for example.

There are also plans to implement Procurement Functionality to replace manual purchasing processes and integrate it with Financials. Linking to their bank feeds will also further reduce data entry work and provide ease of reconciliation.

A Flexible Solution that is Easy-to-Use

Ms. Lim praised Acumatica’s easy-to-learn and use interface, which “is simple and clear, which allows users who have no previous exposure to ERP software to be able to pick it up quickly.”

The organization improved communication with its customers. They now receive invoices with classroom dates, locations, and center information, which reduced parent calls and emails seeking that information and improves the customer satisfaction they deliver.

Reliable, Modern Business Platform for Growth

Most importantly, The Learning Lab now has a single version of the truth and a financial system it can trust. “Finance has always aimed to account for that one version of truth so having information in Acumatica accessible to the rest of our stakeholders will allow them to work together with Finance to ensure information is properly recognized and accounted for,” Ms. Lim said.

Implementing Acumatica is part of The Learning Lab’s move to be data-driven and to remain competitive. “Putting in a solution like Acumatica with efficient business processes ensures that we have good financial governance and controls in place,” Mr. Chan says. “We’ve helped tens of thousands of students to achieve their personal best and fostered a love of learning over the years. Having a reliable ERP solution like Acumatica in place gives customers even more confidence in what we do, preparing students to achieve success now and into the future.”