What FDs say about visibility

If you ask an FD why they chose Synergist, they talk about order, financial control and the visibility it brings to them.

It can be a revelation to be able to see, perhaps even for the first time, every aspect of your business summarised into one place.

What's happening right now?

It's not just visibility, it's live visibility

How can you safely run a complex entity such as a creative agency or a project-based business if you can’t see what’s going on?

At any moment a project might start to slip. Or a large cost might be being added to a job, or an essential resource for a key project might not be now available on time, even though you’re about to commit it to a client.

We asked Steven Clark, Financial & Commercial Manager for Tayburn, for his assessment of the Synergist effect.

"With Synergist I know what’s going on in every job, and the great thing about it is that I know it as it’s happening. Costs are captured real-time. So there are no surprises."

Employees not being in the dark

‘After all, if you can’t see what’s working and what isn’t, it’s pretty hard to fix it. Without a clear and constant understanding of key company metrics, businesses and their employees are effectively driving in the dark without the headlights on’.

[2016 survey of UK small businesses]

Your team wants to work smarter, not longer

In a published employee survey of UK small businesses, 81 per cent of employees said they want their bosses to share more information.

Only 9 per cent said they were able to access data in real-time. The article says that the stats go some way to explaining why UK productivity is at a 15-year low.

'Everything'

Fragments of data aren't enough

You don't want to view your business through a keyhole. You need to see it as one entirety. No silos.

When you see a job with Synergist you can drill down to see how it relates to all the individual team members who have participated in it, all the stages, the resources still needed, the costs incurred so far, the projected profitability a

Visibility to help growth

Sara Blannin, Finance Director of 54-strong environmental consultancy ECUS, told us:

"We have a growth culture here."

"Before Synergist, the drive for growth would mostly come from the top, but now it’s more a part of the culture across the company."

"It’s having the data to make better decisions that, in turn, help growth happen."

"We couldn’t have made such a shift without having the infrastructure in place."

Key to Sara's role when she joined ECUS as Finance Director were

profitability
continued growth.

For her, making the right data visible to the team helped them work smarter and was an important component in solving profitability.

Visibility from a Group Finance Director's view

Steve Laird is Group Finance Director of the On Line Group. On Line Design & Engineering are a 250-strong engineering consultancy.

Steve told us:

“The best thing about Synergist is the visibility it brings. It shows where the costs are, where the profits are on individual projects, and where the losses are – all giving you time to do something about it."

“It gives us great visibility of our clients, projects, estimating, everything."

"It gives us efficiencies. It reduces costs on jobs. And it gives us control."