Signal Ventures Streamlines Managing 12 Business Entities in One ERP System by Migrating to the Cloud
If you own or manage multiple businesses, balancing the need to dive deeply into the finances of each entity with the need to assess what’s going on across all your interests involves a lot of juggling. Hopping around from one accounting application to another wastes time, and it’s difficult to do side-by-side comparisons. If you’re dealing with 10 or more operations, the task is next to impossible.
That’s the challenge Signal Ventures faced. Based in Oregon, the company operates 12 data-driven businesses to optimize real estate assets. The company’s various LLCs include Alterra Development, which anticipates investments that can profit from trends in real estate, Flying Frog Car Wash, and Anytime Self Storage. Other entities under the Signal Ventures umbrella provide real estate development services as well as management services for residential and commercial rental properties.
The Need for Easy Access for All Users
Signal Ventures was also planning to migrate its legacy ERP system to a modern platform in order to give the staff easy access to the finances of each entity. In addition, they wanted to eliminate the need for the internal team to manage on-premises servers. A key attribute of the new solution would naturally be the ability to manage multiple business entities through a single ERP platform.
To take on the challenge of moving ERP to the cloud, Signal Ventures turned to Western Computer. We migrated the ERP data from the on-premises Microsoft Dynamics NAV system to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. We then set up the Signal Ventures team to manage the various businesses in the cloud by integrating Business Central with Binary Stream—which offers multi-entity management capabilities that provide full visibility into transactions across all the businesses.
Immediate Responses to Customer Inquiries
By moving ERP to the cloud, Signal Ventures no longer has to worry about managing servers and the IT infrastructure supporting the system. The internal IT team can focus all of its resources on engineering the data analytics services provided to customers. The company also doesn’t have to worry about the system hardware and software aging—Microsoft automatically upgrades and patches them as needed.
When Signal Ventures relied on the on-premises Dynamics NAV system, all data inputs and access to customer and vendor activity went through the accounting team. But with Business Central in the cloud, a primary benefit is access to information.
The entire company has access to Business Central. Whether the staff is in the office or on the road, they can submit purchase orders and invoices, or see account information. If a customer or vendor asks for information, everyone on the entire team can respond right away—rather than waiting on accounting to get back to them.
Accelerated Invoices and Purchase Orders
The improved access also speeds up the process of transacting invoices and purchase orders while enhancing the transaction documentation provided to customers and vendors. Management can also tap into real-time data to see how each of the businesses is performing. This helps drive faster decision-making that allows each entity to operate more efficiently.
Cody Smith, the Vice President of Finance at Signal Ventures, has enjoyed working closely with Western Computer since 2017 for ERP implementation and support help. “The ability of Western Computer to receive input from our end-users and apply that to the solutions they offer is a big reason why we have continued our partnership for so long,” says Smith. “They always provide what is best for us by understanding our needs and how we operate—they take the time to make sure everything is working as it should so our daily business routines don’t get interrupted.”
To learn more about how Western Computer helped Signal Ventures migrate ERP to the cloud and manage multiple entities in one system, check out the complete case study. And to find out how we can deliver the same benefits to your company, contact us today.
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