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Customer Profile
NetWork Center, Inc. (“NCI”) ( www.netcenter.net ) has been specializing in providing industry specific products, service, support and expertise for banking, manufacturing, and educational clients since it was formed in 1985. NCI provides technical consulting, hardware and software installation, mainframe integration, branch office connectivity, break/fix service, training, web design, and on-going support to over 2000 customers in ten states. With their commitment to providing proactive service, responsible innovation and dedicated support,
NCI has become one of the largest computer networking companies in the Upper Midwest. Their relationships with hardware and software manufacturers, in conjunction with their experience and in-depth understanding of the technology environment, assure delivery of proven solutions and piece-of-mind.
Business Situation
Prior to implementing XL Reporter (XLR) NCI utilized a myriad of different reporting tools including; Access, Excel, Crystal Reports, and FRx. Like many organizations that experience rapid growth, with each product or service that was added, they adopted a separate means of reporting. They ended up with many different systems of reporting, that were based on the preferences and expertise of individual users rather than developing a uniform system for reporting.
NCI uses the Microsoft Dynamics GP Field Services module. Unfortunately, the built-in report writer could not handle the unique reporting requirements of NCI's customers. As a result, an Access database was created. On a weekly basis, the Access database would be updated with information from Dynamics GP. Much of that process was manual. That process worked moderately well when NCI had relatively few customers using NetSecure contracts (see below for a detailed description of a NetSecure contract). As NCI grew, the number of clients utilizing NetSecure contracts increased dramatically. They soon had over 150 customers using NetSecure contracts. Because much of the database maintenance was still manual, the Access database and Dynamics GP database contained material differences. Information being communicated to clients and management was riddled with discrepancies. NetSecure revenue was being sharply impacted. It reached a point where approximately 70% of all NetSecure contracts had some sort of material discrepancy. Because of the lack of a good reporting tool, their ability to synchronize the Access database and Dynamics GP database was severely limited. They needed a reporting tool that would allow them to extract unique customer information directly from Dynamics GP and organize it within a uniform framework that could then be used to synchronize both databases.
Solution
Within months of installing XLR, only 4% of NetSecure contracts contained material discrepancies. And now, there are virtually no known discrepancies between the two databases. Also, since NCI cleaned up the data within Dynamics GP, they have been able to create custom reports for their customers using XLR. They are now getting positive feedback from customers about both the quality and the accuracy of their reports.
“When I compare XLR to other reporting tools that I have used, the thing that really makes XLR stand out is the ability to bring in data from more than one Dynamics GP module into the same report. The inability to combine information from more than one source has always been a frustration of mine when using report writers such as FRx and Smartlist. From an analytical point of view, many times I need to be able to report on a variety of factors to present useful information to decision makers. XLR gives me the ability to do that.”
One of the things I like the most about XLR is the ability to query and organize information within the drag and drop user interface (Report Composer). I find that I can efficiently and effectively design the basic architecture of my reports directly within the Report Composer. It saves me an enormous amount of time. Prior to XLR, I would have to query my information in a very limited way with a Smartlist, export it to Excel and then spend more time sorting, subtotaling and applying other formatting. It was time consuming and frustrating.
I also like the ability to use Excel Templates with XLR to create my reports. I now have the ability to create very professional looking reports with very little effort. Prior to XLR, we were actually losing customers because of the inadequacies of our reporting. That is no longer an issue,” says Catherine.
A NetSecure contract gives clients access to a range of services such as Help Desk (remote support), Web Department, On-Site support, Training, and Monitoring. Customers contract for a predetermined number of hours of service annually. The customer is billed a flat rate each month for the entire length of the contract regardless of how many hours they use that month. Once they reach the maximum number of hours allowed in their contract, they are billed for any additional hours they use at a discounted rate until the expiration of their contract.
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