Microsoft Dynamics
Customer Solution Case Study
Sports and Leisure Management Transforms
its Business by Using an Integrated Solution
Technologies
Overview
Country or Region: United Kingdom
Industry: Entertainment and Recreation
Customer Profile
Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) is a
specialist contractor providing managed
services in local government leisure since
1987.
Business Situation
SLM wanted to gain control of its
purchasing processes, as well as have a
real time view of the company's financial
information, to make more informed
business decisions.
Solution
SLM migrated from a Multisoft solution to
Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great
Plains® running on an integrated Microsoft
environment.
Benefits
 Significant cost savings
 Improved business decisions
 Faster reporting
 Improved staff motivation
 Supports SLM's growth vision
"Bottom-line, the change has been that we are back in
control. There has been a ripple effect of benefits
across the business."
Jane Jebb, Finance Manager, Sports and Leisure Management
Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) is a specialist contractor
providing managed services to local government since 1987;
currently managing 32 sports and leisure centres in Leicestershire,
it employs 1,700 people. Following years of local success, SLM
wanted to become the leading contractor in the United Kingdom
and felt that a more strategic use of technology could help achieve
and manage its growth plans. A combination of technologies,
including Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains® (now part of
Microsoft Dynamics™) at the heart of the solution, has subsequently
helped SLM overhaul the financial management of its company,
and resulted in a transformation of its culture.
Situation
Following several years of successful, rapid
growth, Sports and Leisure Management
(SLM) decided it was necessary to review
financial processes across the company. It
was apparent that its purchasing and
budgeting systems were not effectively
supporting the business, and in some
instances they were causing significant
problems and inefficiencies.
The first issue to be resolved was the
company's purchasing process. Each leisure
site was managed by a branch manager,
responsible for buying and receiving all
goods. Suppliers sent invoices direct to the
site, which were checked and signed off by
the branch manager. The information was put
into Multisoft, the current IT system, and
linked to the head office, which paid the
invoice. However the technology did not
provide a real-time, integrated view of the
process, which meant that head office
couldn't deal with supplier queries, as no one
had visibility of where the invoice was in the
purchasing process. Time was being wasted
with head office chasing branch managers on
queries that should have been automated,
visible and actionable in the IT system.
Additionally, if invoices were sent directly to
head office, the problem of how branch
managers check and sign off invoices would
be left unresolved and SLM wanted them to
retain responsibility for buying and delivery of
goods.
The second major issue was getting the
branch managers to take responsibility for
their budgets. The current IT system made it
difficult to manage budgets – people couldn't
manipulate or extract the information they
needed, and by the time they could get a
report generated, the information was too out
of date to influence business decisions.
There was little comeback for over-spending
on budgets, no reward for successfully hitting
targets and ultimately, therefore, little
motivation for taking responsibility for
budgets.
At the same time, the Multisoft system was
felt to be unstable. It kept crashing, requiring
four back ups every day to ensure
information wasn't lost. To compound
matters, SLM found out that Sage was
withdrawing support for its Multisoft system.
Says David Bibby, Finance Director at SLM:
“Our current IT system was not giving us the
information we needed across the business,
when we needed it. It was too difficult to get
an up-to-date view of finances, with both
targets and budgets proving meaningless. It
became clear that we needed an IT solution
that would simplify and automate our
financial processes. We wanted to stop firefighting and start making strategic decisions
about the business.”
Solution
After reviewing several alternatives, such as
Systems Unions' Sun Systems and Sage's
Line 200 (the natural upgrade path from its
current Sage dealer) it was clear that the
Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains®
software put forward by partner Sytation, a
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, met its
business requirements most closely.
Microsoft Great Plains provided an integrated
financial management solution for SLM,
sitting on a Microsoft environment. This
included Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003
as the operating system, Microsoft SQL
Server 2000 as its database, Microsoft
Exchange Server 2003 for e-mail, and
Microsoft Office XP for the leisure centres’
front end. In addition, Sytation introduced
Microsoft Business Solutions for AnalyticsForecaster, a planning, budgeting and
forecasting tool, which links directly into the
Microsoft Great Plains solution.
Nick Richards, Head of Sales and Marketing
at Sytation, says: “SLM had specific
challenges which needed a unique IT
solution. Microsoft Great Plains system was
at the heart of the accounting solution,
integrating the core financial data and
automating the financial processes. To fully
meet SLM's needs, we brought in additional
partners to plug the gaps. It was a complex
process to bring together all the different
components of the solution, but the results
have more than made up for the challenges.”
Sytation brought in its sister company,
Software Index, to supply a specific
programme to address the invoice
registration and approvals process, as well as
VersionOne, which supplied its scanning and
document management solution. To reduce
the management burden of this unique
solution, Sytation brought in XKO, also a
Microsoft Gold Certified partner, to host each
leisure site. Now, each scanned invoice sits
at the hosting centre, with each site having
access to the relevant information. The
hosted Microsoft Great Plains solution runs
across each of the 32 managed leisure sites.
Bibby comments: “It's not often possible to be
so positive about an IT project so
complicated. Sytation understood our
business very quickly, and the solution not
only addresses our current requirements, it
has room for expansion. If we'd invested in
getting more skilled and trained on the
system, it would have been even easier.
Despite this, Sytation showed great project
management skills, which meant the system
was up and running in four months from the
actual placing of the order, delivered on time
and within budget.”
through to the head office, which has
resulted in an immediate improvement in
efficiency.
With Microsoft Great Plains at the foundation
of the IT solution, it has been possible to
revolutionise SLM's purchasing process.
Using Software Index’s Invoice Approvals and
Accruals program, a clerk at head office
simply enters each invoice into Microsoft
Great Plains, which automatically sends an email to the local branch manager using the
Microsoft Outlook® messaging and
collaboration client. With a hyperlink to a web
server using Internet Information Services,
managers can then log in to see the actual
invoice that needs approving. This is done
using VersionOne's document imaging and
scanning solution. Each invoice has a
barcode from which the scanner picks up the
relevant information and automatically links
the scanned data into Microsoft Great Plains.
This gives branch managers the option to
check the invoice before final approval.
Introducing an automated technology system
for the purchasing process closes the loop
between head office and branch manager,
greatly reducing the room for error.
In addition, when branch managers raise an
order using the Microsoft Great Plains eRequisition module, head office is
automatically informed. This provides head
office with visibility of future invoices,
meaning that they can deal with most
supplier queries.
Benefits
With purchasing invoices now centrally
controlled, access to information is no longer
a timely process and less time i s s p e n t
s o l v i n g p r o b l e m s with suppliers and
deliveries. Branch managers are freed up
and their jobs transformed.
Just one year on from going live, the project
has been a phenomenal success. Financial
information across the business is now
visible and real-time—across each branch
For the first time, effective budget
management and forecasting is becoming a
reality. Using Microsoft Forecaster, budget
holders are able to build up a total picture
across the business of its finances. They can
get access to the information they need, such
as the current status of budgets. This is all
real-time and automated, resulting in
considerable time savings. For example, it
used to be a cumbersome process to
produce monthly accounts, usually taking 10
days to get to a draft status and 17 days to
get to a final version. Now, developing draft
reports takes only 5 days with final reports
produced within 10 days.
Jane Jebb, Finance Manager at SLM, says:
“Bottom-line, the change has been that we
are back in control. There has been a ripple
effect of benefits across the business.
Accounts can be produced easily. The
information I get access to now means we
can react and address problems quickly.
We're helping managers manage the
business better. We're looking at providing
more detailed information, such as sales
against each square foot of the gyms—KPIs
for each manager that we never imagined
before.”
The company is now confident that the
financial data is accurate, up-to-date, and
meaningful. Employees are motivated
because forecasts are now more realistic and
achievable, with budgets more accurate. The
savings that the new IT solution has delivered
bring this to life. In the opening of four new
sites, the company saved between £15,000
and £20,000. There was no requirement to
hire more staff because Microsoft Great
Plains is so intuitive and flexible. The newly
managed centres quickly turned around from
a loss-making situation to becoming
profitable very quickly, each making £10,000
in profit. This is obviously a highly
sustainable business model.
Bibby comments: “It's fair to say that the
management of the company has been
transformed as a result of this IT project.
We've moved from a position of fire-fighting to
being able to make informed, forwarding
looking decisions about the business. Our
staff are motivated because when targets are
achieved now, we're able to reward this—and
quickly. At the same time we've made
incredible savings and are more profitable.
The business is in better shape than it's ever
been—we're delighted.”
For More Information
Microsoft Dynamics
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
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Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated,
adaptable business management solutions
that enables you and your people to make
business decisions with greater confidence.
Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar
Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office,
which means less of a learning curve for your
people, so they can get up and running
quickly and focus on what’s most important.
And because it is from Microsoft, it easily
works with the systems your company already
has implemented. By automating and
streamlining financial, customer relationship
and supply chain processes, Microsoft
Dynamics brings together people, processes
and technologies, increasing the productivity
and effectiveness of your business, and
helping you drive business success.
For more information about Sytation
products and services, call 01509 505777
or visit the Web site at:
www.sytation.com
For more information about Sports and
Leisure Management products and
services, call 01455 890508 or visit the
Web site at:
www.slm-ltd.co.uk
For more information about Microsoft
Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Software and Services

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Great Plains, Microsoft Dynamics, Outlook, and
Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective
owners.
Document published January 2006
Products
− Microsoft Exchange Server
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
− Microsoft Windows Server 2003
− Microsoft Business Solutions for
Analytics-Forecaster

Microsoft Dynamics
− Microsoft Business Solutions–Great
Plains