Sento Technical Innovations: Managing Growth by Maximizing Technology

For any company, the prospect of going public is both exciting and daunting. For Stephanie Johnson, corporate controller for Sento Technical Innovations, the company's decision to become publicly-traded in April 1996 marked its phenomenal growth and success in the technology industry and its subsequent need to raise capital quickly and acquire additional businesses. Having been in operation since 1969, Utah-based Sento also wanted the ability to share ownership with its dedicated employees.

Sento Technical Innovations provides state of the art products, consultation, training, and support solutions in the rapidly growing information technology and computer networking markets. In the 1997 fiscal year, Sento's revenues were almost $18 million, an increase of 27 percent over the previous year. The company's services are delivered through four subsidiaries which span the globe: Spire Technologies, Inc., DewPoint Distributed Solutions Inc., Spire Systems, Inc., and Australian Software Innovations, Pty Ltd.

Going public also brought with it some unique challenges. "The reporting functions we had to comply with once going public were mind-boggling," said Johnson. "Every time I turned around, another government agency or industry analyst needed a different type of report containing different information. Our accounting system simply could not handle it."

Searching for a Solution

Sento needed a comprehensive accounting and business management software that could manipulate data from several different divisions and produce audit trails, specific financials and various management reports. Johnson initiated a search for the ideal software by hiring a consultant to narrow down her choices. From the choices presented to her, Johnson picked four software packages which she put through rigorous hands-on testing. One of the four packages she selected was Navision Financials, a 32-bit accounting and business management solution designed for Windows NT.

Johnson had three major questions in mind when evaluating accounting software. First, how scaleable is the system for coping with Sento's business growth and reporting functions? Second, how well does the system perform under a high- volume transaction load? Third, how adaptable will the system be to Sento's business processes?

Navision's capabilities immediately intrigued and impressed Johnson. Sento needed financial software that could be customized with great detail according to its diverse products and services including integrated software solutions, Internet and Intranet solutions, security systems, data storage and recovery systems configuration, installation and outsourcing. The fact that the products and services are delivered through five subsidiaries presents a unique financial reporting challenge.

Visionary Accounting

With responsibility for a large, publicly-traded company that is growing and acquiring new companies every year, Sento's accounting staff is an essential element in managing the company for continued success. Having prepared for the IPO and operated for six months as a public company with a low-level, off-the-shelf accounting software program, Sento was feeling the consequences of a lack of continuity, simplicity and maintainability.

"We really needed a software solution specifically tailored for us that could deal with the complexities of our situation as a wholesaler, retailer, distribution network and service provider in an international environment," said Johnson.

Navision's granular design provides exactly the kind of customization required by Sento. Most companies need to "reassemble" software functions around their business processes and deploy the software as a series of tightly coupled processes based on user-defined workflow and to-do lists. In other words, the software should fit the company not the other way around. Navision software's granular design accomplishes this by breaking the system functionality down into small enough pieces to allow a "re-composition" to take place according to the needs of the business. This translates into scalability, adaptability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Another benefit recognized by Sento was Navision Software's built in Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) capabilities. OLAP provides more flexibility in the ways financial data can be manipulated and viewed. Users can define automatically updated "FlowFields" that summarize information for specific accounting dimensions such as monetary or quantity balances for a combination of GL account and time period, for example. These fields are automatically drill-down enabled to allow navigation to the source transaction data and can display transaction balances based on user-defined filters.

Customization is Key

"Navision Financials immediately struck me as a powerful solution for Sento," said Johnson. "It had all the features we were looking for plus a few I hadn't expected, like the ability to 'drill down' with just a few keystrokes from a specific ledger entry into all the functions that contributed to it."

Jim Reid of PC Business Solutions in Upland, California, one of Navision's international network of Navision Solution Centers, says that Johnson's reaction to Navision Financials is typical for those who see the software in action. "Stephanie is right -- it is a powerful solution for any business because it can be easily modified to fit their needs," said Reid. "The software is designed to fit in with how a business works; the business doesn't have to fit in with the software."

The ability to tailor a user interface cinched the decision for Sento. With so many divisions and subsidiaries, the company needed a method to create custom screens for them without allowing access to the entire system.

"The flexibility to arrange a user interface just for our shipping department, for example, is a real asset," said Johnson. "It makes for ease of use – the shipping department shouldn't have to sort through the whole system to enter and utilize the information they need, and the accounting department shouldn't have to re-enter their information or figure out some convoluted way to import their data."

The Intelligent Choice

After using Navision Financials for almost one year, Johnson reports that the software is exceeding her expectations. "Navision Financials is the intelligent choice for Sento. It handles our immediate needs and allows us to add to and change the system as the company grows," said Johnson. "Navision's ability to customize the software to our needs and specifications really sets them apart from any other choice presented to me." Traditional manufacturers, Randcor, an ISO9002-certified contract manufacturer that develops cable harness and electromechanical assemblies and sub-assemblies, specializes in low-volume, high-mix business. As a result the company has some special needs not only in its manufacturing operations but also in its financial department.