Population Services International (PSI) global satellite offices were required to report their financial data to PSI’s Washington D.C. headquarters each month. Transmitting this financial data required lengthy file transfers and frequent failures, especially in locations with only dial-up internet connectivity available. We were able to provide a cloud-hosted solution that would drastically improve their accounting process allowing staff to focus more time on fulfilling the organization’s mission.
Background
PSI is a global health organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like a lack of family planning, HIV/AIDS, barriers to maternal health, and the greatest threats to children under five, including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition.
Challenge
More than 8,000 staff at PSI affiliates work in 67 countries, many of them developing countries with varied technology and communications resources. Each month, these satellite offices were required to report their financials to PSI’s Washington D.C. headquarters. Transmitting this financial data required lengthy file transfers – sometimes days – and frequent failures, especially in locations with only dial-up internet connectivity available. Additionally, once the data reached the D.C. office, if any mistakes were discovered they needed to be corrected by that field office, only to begin the lengthy file transfer process all over again. Needless to say, the current reporting of financial data was inefficient and hindered smooth business operations on a regular basis.
Solution
PSI brought in AIS to build a solution that would change a painful accounting process to a robust, efficient and automated process which reduced time and promoted higher quality data. AIS recommended Microsoft Azure’s Cloud and Storage services. First, AIS developed a Smart Client application to extract and pre-process QuickBooks data at each PSI field office. This accounting data is then uploaded to local Azure data centers and stored in Azure Storage, reducing network latency issues. Next, AIS created an on-premise Windows AppFabric-hosted workflow application, located in PSI’s corporate data center, which retrieves the field office financials from Azure storage. The corporate workflow application also performs additional validation and pre-processing before delivering it to PSI’s corporate ERP system, improving the quality of data and reducing rounds of corrections.
Results
With the use of their new system, PSI’s field personnel saw a dramatic decrease in time spent on accounting each month, freeing up time to focus resources on the mission of the organization. With their previous process, uploading financial data and having it approved by PSI’s corporate headquarters took weeks. Now, with the click of a button, the process is reduced to a few hours or less. Business rules can be updated as needed, and the business process is automatic. Additionally, the multi-threaded application provides feedback during the information transfer process, sends alerts about business checks, and is language-specific to each individual PSI field office. Finally, security is controlled by PSI’s headquarters, and software updates are automatic. All of these robust features equal 100% user satisfaction and an efficient and accurate accounting process.
Business and Technical Advantages
The new system provided PSI with the following business-related advantages:
- Accurate accounting processes
- Efficient and timely financial reporting
- Automated business process
- Improved data quality
The technical advantages afforded with the use of the new application are as follows:
- Reduced network latency
- Windows-hosted workflow application
- Additional data validation and pre-processing
Technology
- Windows Azure
- Windows Azure Storage
- Microsoft .NET Framework
- Visual Studio
- Windows Server AppFabric
- Windows Workflow
- MVC
