Mother of mining
Chief Financial Officer Priy Jayasuriya describes mining resources company DGR Global as a mother who cares for her dozens of little companies, all needing help to grow.
The metaphor is apt. DGR Global builds resource companies from ideas to fully-fledged businesses. That involves raising capital, proof-of-concept activities and initially, supplying back-office and management functions.
Under DGR Global there are five listed subsidiary companies, with upwards of 70 additional entities, all at various stages of growth.
Each of these entities needed its own software, but DGR Global was lacking easy access to a group-wide view.
“Ludicrous” complexity and admin hours
While their previous software, AccountRight, had served them well, it was beginning to be unwieldy, meaning the team was “spending inordinate amounts of time just producing month-end reports.”
“We had all these companies on individual AccountRight files, and to do the month-end and consolidation, we had to extract the data into Excel and then run various macros to condense it into reportable balance sheets,” says Priy.
The audits that go hand-in-hand with managing listed companies also created huge workloads. “It came to a point where we said, 'There has to be a better way.'"
MYOB AccoutRight to MYOB Advanced Business
MYOB Advanced Business would let them access easier, more timely reporting so they could step off their “hamster wheel” and actually analyse data.
DGR rejected Pronto and Dynamics because they “weren’t as intuitive to use.” The larger ERPs — Oracle and SAP — were too expensive, with overly complicated functionality for this “cash-burn entity.”
MYOB Advanced Business delivered the right functionality, usability and cost-benefit ratio. Moving from another MYOB product was also a plus.
“It meant the move didn’t seem as daunting. We were just going from MYOB to MYOB.”
- Priy Jayasuriya, Chief Financial Officer, DGR Global
The system is also scalable — crucial given a young company might start with only 10 transactions a month.
30 workdays saved on month-end reporting
MYOB Advanced Business has given the DGR Global finance team time back. What used to take 320 hours is now done in 80.
“We were looking in the rear view mirror. Now we can look forward. I can run a report and ask questions right at the start of the month.”
The tool has changed their lives come audit time too. “We’re not burning the midnight oil prepping,” enthuses Priy.
Additional integration and automation has had ripple effects throughout the business.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re in an admin nightmare,” he says. “I’ve been singing the praises of the conversion we’ve gone through.”
Before MYOB Advanced Business | After MYOB Advanced Business |
|---|---|
Manual month-end reporting taking a full calendar month to complete Company data always out of date Audit requirements creating additional workload Manual processing meant controls were missed Currency conversion a slow, manual process. | Month-end reporting reduced to just 80 hours a month One-click reporting delivers timely business data Audit requirement compliance as BAU Water-tight implementation of controls Automatic currency conversion saves hours. |
