Streamlining Concur Integrations: How Cross MediaWorks Transformed Integrations
Cross MediaWorks’ Background
2 hours
Time it took to build new integrations
SmartConnect is so easy to use and has made our processing time extremely fast. I recommend Integration Manager users move to SmartConnect – they won’t regret it.
Braun Hari, Vice President of Operations at Cross MediaWorks
Cross MediaWorks is group of media and advertising companies focused on advancing the TV and video advertising marketplace. The 10-person finance team, who supports all the parent company’s subsidiaries, uses Microsoft Dynamics GP as their ERP solution, as well as Concur to track expenses and invoices.
Problems & Challenges
Having used Integration Manager for various integrations over the years, Cross MediaWorks began to look for a new solution that would fit their need to integrate Concur with Dynamics GP. Though they had a Concur integrations in place through Integration Manager already, they experienced major difficulties when their integrations only worked part of the time and began dropping their GL distributions for their AP transactions.
Rachel Braun Hari, Vice Present of Finance Operations commented: “We found we had a lot of problems with Integration Manager – sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. There was a huge time factor in trying to figure out why our integrations with IM were broken.”
She continued, “Especially with expense reports – we had a deadline to pay our employees. So, on a Friday at 4:00 pm, it was a waste of our manpower and hindrance to our productivity to drop everything and start hunting for which transactions had dropped GL distributions.”
The Solution
As a result, they reached out to their ERP partner, RSM, for assistance in finding a reliable and more robust solution. Steve Sieber, consultant for RSM, was tasked with finding the best fit for their needs. “I knew right away that they should be using SmartConnect by eOne. It was a perfect fit for their objectives.”
After a demo and strong recommendation from RSM, Cross MediaWorks selected SmartConnect. Within a few hours, they had SmartConnect installed, and Steve created the two maps needed. Just a few hours of mapping and Cross MediaWorks could successfully integrate from Concur to GP – without the dropped GL distributions – saving the team hours of time.
Leveraging SmartConnect
As SmartConnect had so easily replaced the two integrations with Concur, the Cross MediaWorks team began to find additional ways to leverage their investment.
“After we saw how successful the first two maps were and how fast SmartConnect is, I started to look at some of our other integrations (built with IM). I decided since it was so easy, I’d have the RSM team tackle two more integrations for us. Within a few hours, they had replaced two more maps to integrate txt files from two different business segments – 1 of those with intercompany transactions – into accounts payable,” commented Braun Hari.
Continuing, Braun Hari expressed her plans, “the speed alone is a factor with SmartConnect and makes it worth us spending a little time moving all our Integration Manager integrations to SmartConnect very soon.”
To sum it up, Braun Hari concluded, “SmartConnect is so easy to use and has made our processing time extremely fast. Beyond that, Steve and the RSM team recommended a product that was a success and gives us comfort working with them on future projects. This was a pain-free software implementation. I recommend Integration Managers users move to SmartConnect – they won’t regret it.”