The Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) is a not-for-profit organization formed more than twenty years ago with the mission of preventing construction-related injuries in the province. Today, the organization offers training courses, certifications, and other resources to its 48,000 members and the larger construction community. ACSA is making a difference; over the past twenty years the number of construction industry fatalities and injuries in the province has dropped by more than 50 percent.
When the company sought to streamline its entire business process to drive efficiency and eliminate man- ual processing, it turned to its long-time business partner, Britec Computer Systems, for expert assistance.
Separate Systems Add Work
When Lori Necyk joined the organization as its new CFO, ACSA had been using Sage ERP Accpac for many years. “Sage ERP Accpac was our accounting software, there was a separate web commerce application, an Oracle database application, and finally an Access database,” she explains. “Noth- ing was integrated, and each application contained overlapping data, so we were constantly duplicating data entry to keep all the applications in sync.”
When someone called to register for a class, staff entered the registration information in the Oracle database, then entered the data into the web store for payment processing, and finally entered the receivable transaction into Sage ERP Accpac. “There was just too much manual effort involved,” says Necyk. “We knew there was an easier way to han- dle our operations, and we had support from the staff, management, and board of directors for a change. We turned to Britec to help us design an integrated solution.”
A Blueprint for Change
Britec Computer Systems developed a plan to tie the disparate systems together, form- ing an integrated and complete business management solution for ACSA. Sage ERP Accpac and SageCRM form the backbone of the system, with an eCommerce appli- cation from Iciniti Corporation, and custom programming to address the organization’s unique processing and workflow requirements. “Britec had the expertise to bring everything together,” Necyk says. “They were phenomenal.”
Building a Business Management
Solution
Britec Computer Systems converted the data in the Oracle application into SageCRM, implemented the new Iciniti eCommerce Web Store, added the Sage ERP Accpac Inventory Control module, and developed a new component to SageCRM to manage the organization courses. The result is an integrated solution that handles both front and back office operations for ACSA.
“All course registration phone orders are entered directly into SageCRM, and online orders come through our web store,” explains Brent Schneider, IT programmer for ACSA. “Credit card payments are processed automatically through Iciniti, which stream- lines our workflow and saves manual steps.”
Saving time and Increasing
Accuracy
“We have eliminated a tremendous amount of work,” Necyk says. “Now we are saving six to seven hours each day—the equivalent of one full time person just in course regis- tration handling. In addition, we are saving two and a half hours each day in payment reconciliation.”
Students comment on the friendly, easy- to-use registration process, Necyk notes. “It is a win for everyone —our students, our member companies, and for us.”
Necyk also says accuracy has improved. “When you are re-keying that much data, inevitably something gets missed,” she says. Customer service has improved, course transfers are quick to complete, and refunds are easier to process. Course confirmations and reminders are generated automatically by the software and sent by email to regis- trants to improve attendance rates.
Necyk says that the benefits of ACSA’s new business management solution extend to every department within the organization, “Now that we have an integrated system where everyone is working together and sharing the same information—we are much more efficient.”
