XCL Education was first established through the acquisition of multiple existing schools, each of which had their own ways of managing their operations, as well as several greenfield sites.

As such, there was one issue to resolve right off the bat; with so many different schools using so many different financial software and charts of accounts, managing the group’s financials as a whole is a complex and messy process.

Financial reporting was especially complicated, as every school within XCL Education had different month-end reporting timelines; anywhere from two weeks, to up to a month.

The approvals process also differed between schools in the XCL Education group. One problem which stood out was purchase requisition. Not only did each school need to order different types and amounts of various school supplies, they also resorted to various ways of carrying it out ranging from the manual to the automated.

With so many ways of doing things, and with no easy way to carry out reconciliation of intercompany transactions, XCL Education faced immense difficulties in getting visibility into their financials and inventory.

To resolve this, the educational group needed to implement a common software solution across the board, in order to standardise the financial reporting and approval processes for every school.

This would help make financial reporting for XCL Education more efficient, and implement greater financial controls as well as transparency into the entire process.

To find a solution that would fit their needs, XCL Education went through a competitive review process of leading solution providers. Eventually, the group decided to go with Oracle NetSuite.

According to Todd Tilton, the Group Financial Controller for XCL Education, this was why the group eventually decided on the cloud ERP software;

“Oracle NetSuite is something I’ve been familiar with in my previous companies. I’ve worked with the software, and am aware of its good reputation in the market,” he shared with us.

“There are several reasons why it’s a solid choice. First of all, it’s a web-based, real-time system that provides a single source of truth. Secondly, it’s a standardised system, which means we could use it to standardise our approach to financial reporting and approvals across our many schools.”

As for the choice of implementation partner for NetSuite, XCL Education had to consider its options.

“We got recommendations from many people, and AFON was one of those. We didn’t know much about them at the beginning, but after meeting with them and doing our due diligence, we agreed that they would be a good partner for us,” Todd added.

With the deployment of Oracle NetSuite, XCL Education acquired a solution which standardised financial reporting and approval processes across all of their member schools, as well as greater transparency into these processes across the board.

“We gained much more control of our finance as a result, as well as greater confidence in our numbers thanks to NetSuite,” Todd shared with us about how the implementation of NetSuite has benefited XCL Education.

Although XCL Education began their working partnership with AFON from scratch, Todd was also happy with the choice of partner by the end of the project.

“What I found out was that the team from AFON was very committed to the project. When they said they would do something, they did it,” he said.

“They also communicated well and built trust with the user community at XCL Education. By the end of the project, AFON had built a good reputation and a lot of trust with our people, from everyone from the end users up to our country CEO.”