Navigator Global Investments and Solver

“The benefits of moving to Solver are immense.”

Sean Edwards, Financial Controller, Navigator Global Investments.

The Organisation:

Navigator Global Investments Limited (NGI) is a holding company engaged in the provision of investment management products and services to investors globally. With their head office in Brisbane, the ASX-listed company has a global presence and a diverse board of directors situated across the world.

The Need:

NGI have been partnering with Professional Advantage (PA) for more than 15 years for their ERP solution, and recently upgraded this system to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

They had been utilising a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tool that fulfilled their basic reporting needs. However, its manual operation posed limitations in terms of efficiency and productivity, and did not provide them with budgeting and forecasting features. Therefore, during the analysis and design stages of their Business Central implementation, the team voiced to PA that they desired a more comprehensive and user-friendly solution that would allow them to optimise their financial processes.

You can read our case study about Navigator Global Investment and Business Central here.

You can also learn about their use of add-ons within Business Central in this Continia case study.

The Solution:

Solver Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software is a cloud-based solution that automates reporting, consolidations, budgeting, and forecasting processes. Solver’s out-of-the-box pre-built integrations allow organisations to connect with their business systems such as the Microsoft suite including Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Power BI.

NGI initially became acquainted with Solver through webinars run by PA that were aimed at introducing the product to their clients. Subsequently, during their Business Central workshops, their consultant highlighted Solver as a potential solution and a Solver consultant was brought in to provide a comprehensive demo.
“We were immediately impressed with Solver, especially its obvious ability to streamline the reporting process and utilise categories and dimensions across the platform and throughout our data.”

Sean Edwards, Financial Controller, Navigator Global Investments.

The Results:

“You simply cannot compare Solver to our previous system.”

Solver has made a significant impression on the team at NGI, far surpassing what they were used to with their previous system. They have identified specific time savings in areas including:

• Reporting.
  When jobs are run within Solver, the system picks up new accounts automatically, rather than needing to be added line by line.
• Month end process.
  “We used to run 7 different reports which used to take 20 minutes. Now we only run 2 which takes us less than 5 minutes. This considerably adds up over time.”
• Integration with other systems.
  The integration of Solver with tools including Microsoft applications has dramatically increased the speed of transferring data and files, making a significant difference within the organisation.

Everyone that is using Business Central is using Solver, with a few select team members identified as the main users, and it is these members that have taken the lead on designing reports.
“Whilst we can design reports as needed, we can also utilise the large catalogue of reports already available within Solver.”

The seamless integration between Solver and Business Central has enhanced operational efficiency. The automated data transfer between the two platforms has streamlined financial processes, minimised manual intervention, and reduced the risk of errors.
“The transition from manual email notifications to a streamlined process within Solver has been transformative, with tasks now initiated effortlessly with a simple click.”
Accessibility to all necessary information has been vastly improved, providing the organisation with the agility to adapt to information updates, additions, or amendments.

The Future:

As time progresses, NGI are looking forward to leveraging the full potential of Solver. Whilst they have made strides in incorporating it into their financial management processes, there remains untapped functionality waiting to be explored.
“We anticipate enhancing our budgeting and forecasting capabilities, which aligns with the broader trend towards automation with reporting, forecasting, and management accounting.”

NGI dedicated considerable time and thought into the cleanup and reorganisation of their data prior to the upgrade of their financial management system (you can read more about this in their Business Central case study). This investment has given them data that is conducive to easy customisation and adaptation within Solver.
“In the near future, we are excited about incorporating Solver more extensively into our next budgeting process.”
Beyond their Solver exploration, NGI also have interest in investigating what Microsoft Power BI may bring to their organisation.

You can learn about the relationship between Navigator Global Investments and PA in this client story.