BIAS turns to Oracle Cloud applications for cost and time savings

BIAS Corporation, which specializes in integrating Oracle technologies, walked more than a few miles in its clients’ shoes when it embarked on a major modernization of its own processes and operations. Business was booming for the Atlanta-based company, as is the case for many of its customers, but its rapid growth was pushing its own applications to the breaking point.

Because the company’s financial systems were siloed, its financial reporting staff spent too much time on manual processes, from extracting data and reporting to rolling information up to senior management.

Field consultants were also feeling the pain. They had to log into the company’s network from their laptops to enter their time and expenses for client projects, which meant they typically left that task to nights at the hotel and weekends at home. Expenses would then usually take four to six weeks to get reimbursed. By the time that information was submitted, consolidated, and reported to the BIAS practice leaders and senior executives, it was no longer current—and not having an up-to-date view of project financials was risky.

Before moving to an integrated cloud, the BIAS practice leaders would get P&L statements monthly and then “run blind” until the next report came out. Now BIAS project managers can view time entries, expenses, and project metrics in one place to see when a project is nearing the budget cap in a specific area, its profit margin, and its estimated time to completion, and they can work with the customer to make decisions before that budget is depleted or deadlines are passed.

BIAS can now set up projects, approve payables batches, and get accurate invoices out the door 20% faster. Its month-end close used to take 10 days; it now takes only 3—giving back to the company’s accounting and financial reporting teams seven days a month to work on initiatives that will help improve and expand the business.

Traveling BIAS consultants can now save time and enjoy automated expense reporting simply by taking a picture of receipts within an app on their phone. It’s also easy for consultants to enter their time card information and see their tasks and projects on their phone—no going to multiple, disjointed applications, no keeping track of endless receipts, no manual processes. And no late nights and weekends doing mind-numbing administrative work.

Meanwhile, BIAS’s new Oracle Cloud HCM system has automated what were very complex compensation packages, with bonuses based on a range of KPIs. Calculations that used to take months can now be approved and completed in a week because the data needed for those calculations is already in the system, Fisher says. These wide-ranging benefits have come because BIAS treated its move to the cloud not as a technology implementation, but as an opportunity to redesign and streamline the company’s operations.

Since its original implementation in the US, BIAS has continued to incorporate a continuous stream of innovation by taking advantage of Oracle’s quarterly updates. Of note, BIAS has seen enhancements to areas such as the user interface as well as within expenses and time and labor.

The company’s exceptional Oracle Cloud experience with its US operations led it to expand its Oracle subscription to roll out financials and project management capabilities to its India operations. Since implementing, the BIAS operations team has seen vital improvements to processing, such as with simplified consolidations, improved visibility of global transactions, access to multiple currencies, and automatic tax calculations and statutory reporting.