The Tank Museum in Bovington has decided to move from Sage 50 to iplicit. It selected iplicit because of the powerful features for non-profits. Other customers in the sector include the Scottish Ballet and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Iplicit was selected for several reasons. These included features such as its flexible financial reporting for different stakeholders, the ability to track grants and funds and the automated application of partial VAT. It also has a team of experts that have helped the Tank Museum through the process. The second big reason was cost. Clearly the Tank Museum felt that it delivered the functionality it needed within a cost it could afford.
The Tank Museum is located in Bovington. It is home to over 300 military machines from the earliest armoured fighting vehicles that fought in WW1, from across the world in WW2 and as modern as the Iraq war. Its vehicles include the oldest surviving tank, Little Willie. With other vehicles that have appeared in films such as War Horse, Fury, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The museum is one of the most popular attractions in the UK. Consumer insights consultancy BVA BDRC graded the Tank Museum as the best attraction in England. Where it scored 97.9%, with the attraction described as “excellent” and the staff “amazing”. It also won silver awards in the South West Tourism Awards for TANKFEST and as a business events venue earlier this year.
Paul Dolan, Head of Finance at the Tank Museum for the last 19 years, commented, “We have been a Sage 50 user for over 20 years but wanted to modernise our accounting systems and reporting. We carried out an extensive appraisal of accounting systems and found iplicit to be the best in terms of functionality and cost. The fact that a number of the team are based nearby in Poole is a real bonus.”
Award-winning Solution and Museum
The Tank Museum has also selected an award-winning accounting solution. At the Accounting Excellence awards, iplicit won the best midmarket and Enterprise software awards. It also won the Enterprise Accounting/ERP System of the Year at the AccountingWEB Best Products Awards. And FinTech of the Year at the Tech South West Awards.
Matt Lewns, Partner Manager at iplicit, commented, “To add such a prestigious attraction and famous name to iplicit’s constantly growing list of non-profit customers is a proud moment. A number of the iplicit team are Dorset-based and have grown up knowing the Tank Museum as a favourite destination, so this customer is particularly close to their hearts.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a significant win for iplicit in the non-profit market. It is likely to have been a competitive tender with solutions such as Sage Intacct and NetSuite considered. The hard work of migrating to iplicit is just beginning. It will be interesting to see whether The Tank Museum helps iplicit by supporting the creation of a case study to identify the difference that the accounting solution has delivered to the museum. If iplicit can prove that it has delivered an ROI quickly and also improved the efficiency and capabilities of the finance function in Bovington, other charities may follow. Thus helping the firm to continue its rapid growth.
