Evolve Azure Services is a young, dynamic technology company, providing services that help businesses manage IT using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, it specialises in migrating, building and maintaining IT systems in Microsoft Azure in order to reduce costs and improve IT efficiency for its customers.
Recently appointed as Financial Controller, Jack Hazell was tasked with implementing a more robust financial system that would support the business as it grows. “We are predominantly using Excel and various web based tools to create timesheets, generate invoices, manage our accounts and run management information reporting. This involves having to manually enter data onto various places, resulting in a significant amount of effort and duplication.”
Given the pace at which the business is growing the current approach is becoming increasingly unsustainable and it is having an overall negative effect on the finance function, who at the beginning of every month spend several days generating invoices, and consolidating accounts. Jack continues: “Because none of the tools speak to each other, it takes a long time to pull everything together, taking up valuable time that could be spent elsewhere.”
With Jack’s appointment, Evolve Azure Services was able to assign a dedicated individual to manage a project to investigate and select an alternative solution. This included carefully considering the company’s requirements, selecting an appropriate solution and driving the project to deliver and prioritise requirements accordingly.
After examining various solutions including Xero and Microsoft Dynamics 365, Jack recommended to his board Sage 200cloud, as he felt it was robust and had the power and flexibility to keep up with the growth plans of the company. “Sage 200cloud is an industrial strength tool, it is simple to use and we are really excited to see how it can work for our business” comments Jack. “We didn’t just want an out of the box solution, we know with Sage 200cloud we will be gaining a platform to build on, all built and stored in our hosted environment in Microsoft Azure that we can manage.”
The Evolve Azure Services board endorsed Jack’s recommendation and is now not only looking forward to working with Sage 200cloud but also using third party add-ons such as Sicon WAP for timesheets, staff holiday management and Sicon Job Costing to improve the management of project cycles for both its employees and contractors. Sage 200cloud also gives the company the opportunity to explore the integrated Business Intelligence and CRM functionality further down the line and understand how it can maximise time in all areas of the business, alongside finance.
An important decision for Evolve Azure Services, it was not only a matter of selecting the right product but also selecting the right partner to support them. Based in Birmingham and not far from Evolve Azure Services offices in Coventry, CPiO was selected to assist with the implementation. Evolve Azure Services appreciated CPiO’s consultancy led approach and frequent, informative communication at every stage of the process. “CPiO is a well-established company and we felt they had the right expertise and knowledge of the Sage product to support us.”
Jack was also impressed with CPiO’s professionalism and great work ethic: “CPiO put our needs and requirements at the forefront and worked with us to produce a solution that is right for our business and will be cost effective in the long run. This was a really refreshing approach. We appreciated that CPiO wanted to help us, rather than sell us something that simply wouldn’t fit.”
With Sage 200cloud, Evolve Azure Services gains a powerful management tool to transform its financial processes, improving overall efficiency and driving the company’s growth plans.
Katie Mansell
