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Background
The American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial County (ARC) is a humanitarian organization that provides disaster relief, emergency services, and health and safety education. The organization operates five service centers in San Diego, employs 450 people and directs thousands of volunteers. In 2004 the organization's assets totaled 9.7 million.
Situation
ARC performed a system audit to define key issues and needs for its IT system. The current system did not enable the organization to meet its goals of financial reporting, fundraising analysis and human resource management. The key strategic driver was integration.
When ARC initially contacted SCG, it was experiencing challenges with its existing implementation of Great Plains. The organization was also using older hardware, which included pervasive SQL dynamics.
Specific issues for ARC were:
- ARC's current posting system took 20 minutes to post transactions, regardless of the number of transactions to be processed.
- ARC had difficulty reconciling its daily electronic pc charges due to inconsistent transaction reporting and periodic errors ranging from server timeouts to double billings.
- ARC's current human resources system, ABRA, did not integrate well with Great Plains.
Key Goals
- Improve system performance.
- Reduce bottlenecks.
- Enable robust financial reporting.
- Ensure accuracy of posting financial transactions.
- Provide fundraising project analysis.
Solution
SCG took a comprehensive approach to the project and addressed system hardware, software upgrades, and resources already existing at ARC. Building on our relationship as trusted advisors, SCG conducted a thorough financial analysis led by our in-house CPA resource. SCG recommended a complete solution based on software and hardware upgrades, and redesigned system architecture to ensure accuracy in transacting daily posting and robust financial reporting. SCG then trained ARC employees on the new system to ensure the organization could use the upgraded system to its fullest potential
without hiring outsides assistance.
Results
The new system enabled ARC to better track financials and determine the most profitable fundraising efforts by project. The redesigned system architecture provided stability in posting transactions, which reduced banking transaction and billing errors. American Red Cross San Diego Chapter can now publish robust financial reports to assist it in making better informed decisions, track financials, determine the most profitable fundraising efforts by project, and ensure stability and consistency of its electronic posting transactions.
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| challenges |
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inefficient posting |
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billing and banking errors |
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ABRA vs. Great Plains |
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| technologies |
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Reporting Services |
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Great Plains |
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| results |
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accurate fundraising analysis |
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robust financial reports |
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stable posting system |
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