Peter Berry Consultancy + Scoro
Pinpointing a single source of truth for meaningful data
Peter Berry Consultancy (PBC) is a multidisciplinary consulting firm specialising in leadership, assessment, people and strategy. With offices in Sydney and Melbourne, they work with a wide range of private and public organisations, including multinational corporations, government bodies and small businesses. PBC is the Australian distributor for Hogan Assessment Systems and has seen year-on-year growth in excess of 25% in recent years.
The challenge
With strong growth comes added complexity in any business, and PBC was no exception. As the business expanded, Operations Manager Jane Stevens and the broader team found it increasingly challenging to manage essential business operations and extract meaningful data using multiple systems.
“We were using various systems including Salesforce, Xero and various spreadsheets to manage, track and report on business activities,” says Jane. “We wanted to find a solution that combined our organisation’s business development, projects and finance functions to enable greater streamlining between departments.”
PBC’s detailed structure and international client base meant the solution would need to be able to manage numerous working parts and multiple currencies.
“We were looking for more meaningful data about the performance of the field-based psychologists and operational team, the depth of the projects being managed, and investment being made in the development of our own special diagnostic tools and research. We also wanted to centrally manage the various billing processes with multi currencies and align these with our project management practices.”
“We only made the switch (to Scoro) a few months ago but there are already a lot of advantages that have come up. The finance team is cutting down on their invoicing time and all our data is in the one spot.”
Meeting with Business Continuum
After creating an internal steering committee to define PBC’s needs, Jane and the team met with Business Continuum for a two-day workshop to flesh out the proof of concept for the project.
“We’d engaged Deloitte to identify some of the needs we had in terms of our business processes and they recommended Business Continuum,” says Jane. “That’s how we ended up connecting with Matthew and Greg.
“I asked our team questions about what people were using Salesforce for, what their biggest challenges were, and what they wanted to achieve out of a new system. We collated all that information for Business Continuum, and that’s when Matthew presented the Scoro idea to us.”
The solution: Scoro
Cloud-based business management software Scoro provides an end-to-end solution with the right capabilities to meet PBC’s needs.
“We have a very complex business with lots of moving parts, which meant all our data points needed to be consistent and mapped from our clients and contacts, with everything from service quotations to delivery evidenced on the invoice,” says Jane.
“The customisability of Scoro means we’re able to cater for both our historical data and processes and develop newer methods of control. It enables us to manage our growing products and services lists for our clients and partners, integrate calendar bookings tied into our project budgets and monthly billing, and integrate with other external business tools and services via the API.
“We only made the switch a few months ago but there are already a lot of advantages that have come up. The finance team is cutting down on their invoicing time and all our data is in the one spot.”
Business Continuum Director Matthew agrees that Scoro’s robust functionality provides the ideal platform for streamlined workflows and greater efficiency.
”We found Scoro to be a great step up from how PBC were using Salesforce, giving them added project management and billing functionality within the same software,” says Matthew. “This meant that their weekly WIP meetings were more efficient and meaningful to the team, with one source of truth to update and custom dashboards that provided end-to-end visibility by management.
“Being mobile-friendly and integrating with Outlook calendars enables accurate and timely timesheet records and diary management for the entire team, whether they’re in the office or on the go.”
“Business Continuum’s ability to communicate and manage the project was excellent. We will continue to utilise them to refine our business processes.”
Praise from PBC
“I’d definitely recommend Business Continuum to other businesses,” says Jane. “They were great to work with. We have a lot of different processes and Business Continuum was very responsive, going the extra mile to help us achieve a suitable solution.
“The team listened and managed the process professionally and in a timely manner. Clear project plans were set and needs-based workshops were conducted to ensure the complex nature of the business was captured. The implementation and testing phase was challenging, and Business Continuum were always on hand to refine and find solutions as required.
“Business Continuum’s ability to communicate and manage the project was excellent. We will continue to utilise them to refine our business processes.”
For other businesses considering switching to a new system, Jane says collaboration and testing are the keys to achieving the best outcomes.
“Be open to the possibility of change and a different approach to doing things,” she says. “Dedicate as much time as possible to the testing of the solution, so that any kinks or bugs in the process are ironed out before the rest of the organisation is trained.
“Remember to communicate the change to your team and include them in the design process, as they are all ultimately stakeholders in the success of the software and its application in their day-to-day roles.”
Is your company in need of a smarter business management solution? To arrange a consultation, get in touch with the Business Continuum team.
