FloQast has announced that WP Engine, the leading WordPress digital experience platform, has implemented and seen benefits from FloQast Close Management Software. WP Engine has grown significantly over the last few years, both organically and through acquisition.
Last year it acquired StudioPress. It also announced $250 million in a funding round led by Silverlake. It now has more than $132 million in recurring revenue, more than 90,000 customers and a growth of 30%.
Leveraging NetSuite ERP
As the company first started to grow, it found that it needed to implement a more mature ERP solution. WP Engine selected NetSuite to modernise its operations and financial processes and enable it to scale. Bridgepoint Consulting, a NetSuite Alliance partner, assisted with the implementation. Jeremy Bagley Technical Project Manager WP Engine commented in 2016: “Bridgepoint was crucial in helping us translate our technology and our business model into the NetSuite platform.”
There were clear benefits from adopting NetSuite. April Downing, CFO WP Engine commented then: “Things that used to take days and were very manual are now in a closed loop process that don’t require my team to sit there and tick and tie every single number. So we close faster, our numbers are better, we have the comfort with the numbers we are reporting on and we have the partnership with Bridgepoint to make it happen.”
When you don’t have to outgrow your ERP solution
Since then the company has grown even more. NetSuite continues to deliver the operational efficiency but some issues have arisen. For example, following acquisitions and global expansion, the month end process was taking ten days to complete. It turned to FloQast to solve some of these issues.
Eric Domagalski, WP Engine’s corporate controller needed to supplement NetSuite accounting that worked both with the platform and the WP Engine collaborative culture. He commented: “We were looking for two things: operational efficiency and accuracy, both of which FloQast provides. We’re building a sustainable, repeatable model to close the books and build high quality financials. We also need to be positive that we have everything and that it’s accurate.”
After implementing FloQast the team is able to work together to close the books in half the time. Rather than rely on reports, the FloQast solution provides a real time view of the status of different processes. As tasks are completed new tasks could be assigned, delivering an efficiency that is often lacking. It helps removes the imbalance of work loads between individuals.
Domagalski added: “Operationally, having a collaborative place to complete the whole close process was optimal. We can look at an outstanding task and identify whether someone was working on it or if there were any issues that made the deadline unrealistic. It got to the point where we got rid of most of our close meetings until the very tail end of the process. FloQast helps drive accountability.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
As companies grow they often overlook the need to replace their existing systems with newer more powerful ones. In the past this may have meant a migration to a larger ERP such as SAP or Oracle. Instead, modern cloud ERP solutions have an ecosystem around them that enable companies to remove specific pain points in their operation.
These add-on applications, such as FloQast, are delivered at a lower cost and compliment existing ERP solutions such as NetSuite. WP Engine might have opted for the more comprehensive Oracle NetSuite Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services. Instead they chose the simpler but effective FloQast Close Management Software that delivers exactly what they were looking for. One does not rule out the other, in fact, they could be seen as complimentary.
As organisations select their next ERP solution this demonstrates how important it is to look at not just the software they are purchasing but that wider ISV ecosystem. While the chosen ERP will solve the business problems of today the future requirements may change. Growth, a new venture or an acquisition, can present an unforeseen challenge that a rich diversity of add on applications might solve. Besides NetSuite, FloQast also intergrates with Sage Intacct and it recently signed a partnership with Host Analytics to deliver a more powerful combination of solutions.
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