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Case
Study: Corix (formerly Terasen Utility Services)
In April 2002, Terasen Inc. separated its water utility
services division and waterworks supply division into
two separate operating companies.
The water utility services division, Terasen Utility
Services, needed a financial system that would accommodate
the company's expected rapid growth. Key business objectives
were to improve management reporting and financial accountability,
address remote systems access across BC and Alberta
branches, and adapt to the terms and conditions of new
projects.
The Solution
Infrastructure manager Carol Vorster and her team considered
various financial software systems and, after consultation
with The RSC Group, chose Microsoft Business Solutions'
Navision.
Navision's wide range of integrated modules, including
Service Call and Project functionality, made the decision
easier. “Integrating third party products from
multiple vendors is always an issue, especially when
it comes to maintenance and troubleshooting,”
Carol said. “So Navision, being a tightly integrated
single vendor solution, was seen as a huge benefit from
a cost control, performance and maintenance perspective.”
Management could create performance reports using
Navision's unique Analysis by Dimensions capability.
RSC also installed Crystal Reports and Portal 2, allowing Terasen Utility Services to create
a customized reports library that can be accessed by
remote branches. Remote access was addressed using Citrix's
Thin Client technology.
Success Factors
Carol credits RSC's vice-president Brad Bushell and
senior consultant Bill Palmer with guiding her company
to a solution that successfully met both current and
future growth needs.
Terasen Utility Services' implementation team, and
the project leadership shown by Carol, ensured the project's
success. “Client participation, which we refer
to as ‘ownership,' is a key success factor in
all implementations. This was a strength for Terasen
Utility Services,” Brad said.
Carol offered this advice for organizations undergoing
an implementation:
- Allocate enough time for end-user training
- Appoint an internal project manager and maintain
a project plan with goals, responsibilities and timeframes.
- Designate internal product experts. “I think
if a company doesn't have someone who understands
a product, it's tough to use it to its full potential.”
- Keep modifications to those with the greatest benefit,
and keep a log of all changes made so future modifications
and upgrades are easily managed.
Benefits
Carol is quick to point out the many benefits of Navision:
- Ability to manage assets and quickly calculate
depreciation
- “We set up the fixed asset module for
much tighter control of our assets and it takes
us 30 seconds to run depreciation. It used to
take weeks.”
- Improved budget accountability at the department
level
- “Our president and senior executives can
quickly get a financial status summary of the
company. If something does not seem right, they
can drill down to see the details right from their
online analysis.”
- Introduced a new focus on costs
- “Before, we focused on revenue, but paid
less attention to costs as there was no reporting.
This is a culture change as we've learned to focus
on both and gain tighter financial control for
our organization.
- Adaptability as the company evolves
- “Navision has a multi-dimensional aspect
that's not available in a lot of systems. We've
added so many departments and new projects over
the last year, and it's been effortless.”
The Company
Part of the Terasen Inc. group of companies, Terasen
Utility Services Inc. (formerly BCG Services) develops
customized water, wastewater and energy programs for
customers across Canada . Clients include municipalities,
resort properties, housing subdivisions and institutions.
Next Phase
In Phase II of the implementation, the waterworks supply
side of the business will migrate onto Navision from
its legacy mainframe systems. This will add an additional
150 users to the existing Navision implementation.
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Manufacturing
