Prepare for Intacct

Sage Intacct Partner of the Year defines the seven core stages of project success when implementing Sage Intacct.

A successful deployment is integral to driving value and performance and instilling confidence in the business. But what makes a successful project, and what should the customer journey look like when the project goes live?

Why Work with a Partner?

Selecting new systems to support business goals or digital transformation projects can be daunting. Without the right skills, experience, and knowledge, it can feel impossible. Working with a partner who brings these attributes to the table and guides the best route forward adds real value to project success and long-term business performance.

Even if you already have your next system in mind, or the business has already made that decision, working directly with a vendor isn’t always the right approach. A direct model often means an increased reliance on internal resources and, depending on the available accompanying services and support, can fall short of optimising the overall value of a deployment.

A partner model can address this resourcing gap, but selecting the right partner is vital. A common mistake in partner selection is choosing a consultancy that knows the software but lacks the industry and vertical sector experience needed to fully understand the brief and scope. The best partner will know the software, have empathy through industry experience in finance and accounting roles, and understand the dynamics and nuances of the relevant vertical sectors.

The Percipient Way

Percipient’s ethos is built upon these core areas, and we apply this to every single customer interaction using the following methodology:

• Listening
  We spend early sessions exploring our customers’ challenges, priorities, and nuances in depth to ensure we can act as a true extension of their team.
• Understanding
  We apply what we learn to inform our perspective on where we can bring value, support goals, and exceed expectations.
• Experience
  We use what we learned from similar projects to scope a methodology and align it with our customers’ parameters and prerequisites.
• Creativity
  We design and scope the project around these elements, recommend process improvements, address bottlenecks, and ensure we leverage all available capabilities to improve operational performance.
• Diligence
  We set realistic, pragmatic project milestones and define regular check-in points to keep time, budget, and deliverables on track.
• Commitment
  We are not just there to manage the project; we are a long-term partner, supporting and enhancing value as your business scales and pursues growth.

Percipient’s Implementation Roadmap & Methodology

We ensure a seamless transition to modern, intelligent and scalable accounting capabilities via our seven-stage methodology:

1. Scoping Phase

The scoping phase is arguably the most important part of a project. Rather than holding on to how things have traditionally been done and relying on outdated processes, it’s important to take a fresh approach. While it may feel like a leap of faith, it’s important to trust the process and embrace a new way of working designed to save time and improve outcomes.

While we recognise that it can feel uncomfortable, letting go of how things have always been done can be incredibly liberating. Embracing a new way of thinking about financial management opens new avenues and opportunities.

2. Build Phase

This stage brings all the design ideas and planning from the scoping phase to fruition. Our highly experienced industry and technical consultants will build your solution and prepare any user acceptance testing (UAT) scripts to ensure it’s ready to be put through its paces.

3. Cleanse, Organise & Categorise Data

Any project should prioritise data cleansing as part of the export process. This is crucial for maximising data quality and, subsequently, the reports in Sage Intacct, and it also gives you a chance to scope categories and evaluate suppliers to ensure you get the most out of the system. While it can be tempting to cut corners to complete the project faster, the importance of allowing sufficient time in this phase cannot be overstated.

4. Testing

This phase is critical in instilling rigour. It ensures that all system elements work effectively from a functionality, data, user experience, and regulatory perspective. Once the team confirms everything is operating correctly, migration can occur.

5. Deployment

A successful deployment is built on experience, intuition, organisation, clear communication, and transparency. We believe that combining these principles is the best way to open up conversations, encourage questions, and ensure a smooth go-live.

6. Tailored Training

Training is often a blanket term for imparting information on how a system works.

Our approach at Percipient is different. We listen and engage with the whole team from the outset, picking up on cues, learning styles, and personalities so we can tailor training appropriately. Some people have more finance knowledge than others. Some learn better through visual walkthroughs and screen sharing, while others prefer to go away, play with the system, and come back with questions.

Aligning training accordingly is hugely important in ensuring each team member is confident they can hit the ground running with Sage Intacct. We don’t promote a one-size-fits-all model because we want everyone to succeed.

7. Support

Our approach is highly flexible, and we cover every aspect of your support requirements. From technical enquiries to managing third-party applications, we’ll tailor the right package to your needs and adjust it as they evolve.

Our support is world-class, and it includes a dedicated customer success manager, an online helpdesk, how-to videos, yearly reviews, and community engagement.

What Our Customers Say

Percipient’s in-depth knowledge and experience of both hospitality and the not-for-profit (NFP) sector meant that they really understood our organisation’s dynamics, challenges and financial management requirements. The value they added from the outset was truly impressive. There was no hard sell; there was just a friendly, open, transparent, knowledgeable, and well-prepared team from day one. They had clearly taken time to learn about us and understood our business straight away, so we didn’t need to spend time explaining what we did at the start. Because of that shared understanding, we could scope the project robustly, instilling diligence and reducing the risk of the project being derailed at any point.

A very focused, robust methodology meant that we ensured the right amount of time was spent on the right areas and complexities. The Percipient team challenged some of our processes, which, because of their strong grounding in finance, was hugely valuable as they encouraged us to look beyond what we thought we needed to get to precisely what we needed. It was a genuine pleasure working with them, and we got so much more than a software deployment – it was true consultancy of the highest level.

Percipient undoubtedly delivered more than we expected, and in tandem with Sage Intacct, this project has been an enormous success. The wider team couldn’t believe how smooth it was, and the fact that it took a matter of weeks to go live was a bonus.

Aberdeen Performing Arts

I have extensive experience managing comparable deployments, and in my previous role, I managed a large finance team of 70+ people. I honestly feel the relatively short deployment timeframe was a testament to Percipient spending so much time learning and understanding our diverse business upfront. They were brilliant.

If further evidence was needed, one of our non-executive directors was genuinely taken aback when we reported a three-month deployment. I believe this timeframe was because the team put in so much time and commitment at the outset.

Holkham Estate

The Perfect Blend of Experience, Empathy & Energy

These accolades are a result of our dedicated implementation methodology, amazing people, and the extensive and deep-rooted industry experience of our consultants, who bring empathy and energy to the projects we manage.

In a world where digital is intrinsic to success and change is the only constant, choosing the right partner is paramount. We also serve as a flexible extension of your team, providing access to the expertise and resources you need when you need them, and delivering real business value to help drive performance and achieve your goals throughout your digital transformation and beyond.

If you’d like to discuss the benefits of working with Percipient, get in touch or call the team today on 01606 871332.