"Having an experienced team, composed of people from 360 Visibility and the group at Cossette, responsible for implementation was critical to successful installation. 360 Visibility led us through the phases of developing the business requirements and worked very well with our internal team."
Martin Faucher, CFO
Cossette Inc.
The Client
Cossette Inc. is an international communications firm with operations in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Its 1,400 employees serve clients locally, nationally and on a global scale, offering a full range of leading-edge communication services to more than 800 clients of all sizes, including some of the most prestigious brands in the world.
The Situation
Cossette found its proprietary legacy system incapable of handling the demands of required changes in Finance and Operations. The need for increased functionality and flexibility as well as access to financial and project information in a timely fashion were lacking, and the risk associated with a system maintained by a small supplier was simply too great.
In short, it was time to move to a more robust platform from an industry-leading supplier.
The Solution
Cossette found its business requirements best met by the 360 software solution for professional services organizations, choosing 360 Visibility to implement it.
Cossette’s cumbersome time and expense capture processes were streamlined by the 360 software solution, positioning us for faster billing cycles and lower working capital requirements. A decentralized operating structure was key to maintaining the local entrepreneurial spirit that is a core competitive advantage for Cossette. This meant that a multitude of inter-company and inter-discipline transactions needed to be efficiently dealt with, to properly record project time and costs, reduce administrative overheads, while generating the financial and management reporting required to successfully run the business at all levels. And finally, key utilization management and forecasting infrastructure needed to be put in place.
In total, some 900 employees now use the 360 software solution, whether they are billable resources engaged in project work, administrative personnel or management at all levels.
Key Business Benefits
To begin, Cossette realized some significant “quick wins”, including:
- A 1-person FTE reduction associated with a streamlined, electronic expense report approval process. In addition, the processing cycle for expense reports dropped from 40 days to 10 days, winning tremendous employee approval for the new solution.
- A significant reduction in time associated with inter-company and inter-discipline transaction reconciliation and related reporting.
Cossette now has the ability to profitably manage its most precious resource of all – the time and energy of its billable resources that works on scores of projects, making them a world-class business. But more importantly with this world-class ability, Cossette is positioned to attain a solid return on investment (ROI) leveraging 360 software.
“Expectations are high and we are adapting well to this new application. We are confident that we can leverage the capabilities of the 360 software to meet the stated ROI.”
Stephane Legault, Director of Shared Services
Cossette Inc.
Overview
