The Client
Headquartered in northern Michigan, this nonprofit agency provides diagnostic and ongoing emotional and psychological health services. With a patient base residing in 10 of the state’s 83 counties, the agency obtains patients through the federal government’s Medicaid program.
In addition to mental health, the firm also offers services for the elderly as well as those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Challenge
The agency’s mission is straightforward: improving the mental and emotional health and well-being of the people who come in for treatment. The services rendered depend on the patient, but may include assessment, behavior treatment, occupational therapy or medication review. Determining the right course is a function of gathering and reviewing information from patients.
However, the client’s processes needed a makeover, having spent years relying on a labor-intensive, antiquated filing and data collection system. This made it difficult not only to gather data from patients but to make sense of it in an actionable way. For example, much of their data was inputted via Microsoft Excel. When combined with the other day-to-day tasks that come with running a mental health authority, what would normally take a few hours to put reports together, wound up lasting weeks. This ultimately led to reduced productivity and a misallocation of resources.
The Solution
After learning about the situation that this particular client was facing, The TM Group suggested the enterprise resource planning software – Sage Intacct. An ERP developed with nonprofits in mind, Sage Intacct automates a litany of work processes to improve research, data entry and other back-office tasks. What was taking one and a half to two weeks to gather data, interpret it and turn into a report was cut in half, thanks to built-in intelligence capabilities and customized automation solutions found in the Sage Intacct architecture.
Much of what the nonprofit does to improve lives and health wouldn’t be possible without local businesses’ financial support, which often comes in the form of grants. Sage Intacct helped in this regard as well by better keeping track of grants after leveraging the ERP’s next-generation dimensional accounting and integration utilities.
Accruals also proved to be a problematic accounting process for the agency. Prior to using Sage Intacct, revenue and expense reporting was tedious, time-consuming and inefficient. Sage Intacct changed that by providing real-time visibility, tracking and reporting features that streamlined what was previously a piece-meal process.
What’s next?
The back-office improvements were so substantive, the agency says it fully intends to see what software add-ons can be complemented with Sage Intacct. Such features may be able to boost production and enhance efficiency, thereby enabling the agency to fulfill its mission of “improving the overall health, wellness and quality of life” for Michiganders whenever they’re in need.
No matter what work process you’re trying to optimize, we here at The TM Group are confident that we can provide you with the right solution. Please contact us today and take the first step to improving workflows. We can help you put your business on the fast track to achieving lasting results.
