White Amber Integrates its Back Office and Front Office
to Lower Cost and Speed Processes

Company Profile

White Amber is a leading provider of Web-enabled solutions for Human Capital Management (HCM) in the Global 2000 marketplace.  Its online end-to-end solutions replace the costly and paper intensive traditional processes found in the contingent labor market with a highly robust, fully automated workflow engine.  Client companies can hire and manage temporary and contract workers over the Internet, while lowering costs and significantly improving service, quality, and productivity.  

Project Background and Goals

White Amber's customers depend on it for convenience, speed and cost savings.  To solidify its market leading position, White Amber decided to further automate its business process through a tight integration of its back office financial system and its front office Web-enabled staffing management system.  Their goal was to automate transaction processes with customers and vendors -- and to eliminate human interaction and paperwork from thousands of daily time sheet approvals, customer invoices, vendor payments, and the like.  Consistent with their other Web-enabled services, White Amber also wanted to provide online inquiry and reconciliation for customers and vendors.  

Solution Implementation

Working closely with White Amber, Business Solutions Partners installed a financial accounting system and seamlessly integrated it with the Web-based front office HCM application.   Business Solution Partners also wrote custom programs and reports to accommodate some of White Amber's unique business processes.  Timesheets and invoices from the front office application are now automatically recorded in the financial system and are available for receivables tracking and supplier inquiry.  Shortly, electronic payments from customers and to suppliers will be automated.  All customer and supplier data are now available online.

Application and Modules Selected - White Amber selected Microsoft Great Plains eEnterprise for the back office financial system to be integrated with their front office HCM system.  Modules implemented include:

· System Manager     · Receivables Management     · Sales Order Processing

· Crystal Reports     · Payables Management     · FRx          

· General Ledger     · Purchase Order Processing     · Integration Manager

· Fixed Assets     · Bank Reconciliation     · Visual Basic Apps Modifier

Database Integrated - The database selected for the system was Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Integration Tools Applied - Integration tools that were used during the project included Visual Basic, Integration Manager, Modifier with VBA, and Dexterity.

Benefits Realized

The White Amber project met all its goals.   The financial accounting system was installed and tightly integrated with the front office application -- and both were customized to be compatible with business processes unique to White Amber.   Specific benefits realized by White Amber include:

·  Significantly reduced workforce through systems automation

·  Significantly reduced paperwork and manual customer/supplier reconciliation

·  Faster and more accurate invoicing and reconciliation.  

·  Real-time data available online for customers and suppliers

· Accurate and comprehensive financial reporting and business information

· Improved employee and customer satisfaction

Testimonials

· "Microsoft Great Plains and Business Solution Partners have helped us further automate our business processes and thereby saved us time and money." - Lawrence Helft, President, White Amber.

· "With Microsoft Great Plains and Business Solutions Partners, our systems work closely together and give our customers the real-time online data that they need." - Andy Ghibaudi, Director/Controller, White Amber.