As a leading cloud-based human capital technology and services provider, Alight provides its clients with the resources to enhance their employees¡¯ health, wealth, and well-being.
Alight is a thriving business and serves companies in more than 100 countries and 70 percent of the Fortune 100. To better support its expanding global operations, leaders sought a cost-effective solution to meet varying requirements such as invoices, accounting, and revenue recognition inside and outside of the U.S.
Michael Hemingway, director of finance at Alight, says staff uses ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ Professional Services Automation (PSA) to manage the entire lifecycle of client-facing billable projects. ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA provides Alight¡¯s resource managers, project managers, and finance teams with a single source of truth on all data types. Managers also leverage ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA to match the right people with the right projects.
What challenges did ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA help Alight overcome?
¡°Number one was making the billing process faster,¡± says Matt Simon, Alight¡¯s senior finance manager. ¡°Before, billing involved batch loading, which meant that even if we needed to get an invoice out quickly, it was a 24- to 48-hour process. Now that bill is out within hours.¡± Simon adds that tasks such as setting up a charge, booking revenue, and invoicing are performed almost instantaneously in one standardized system. ¡°Before, we had many customized systems that were challenging to use.¡±
The ability to manage all of our projects, financials, and HCM in one system has been a critical part of our success.
Senior Finance Manager
What does Alight accomplish with ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA?
Hemingway says Alight employees can create rate sheets and time-and-materials billing with different rules and exceptions by country. ¡°We can accommodate those requirements without much manual effort to compile costs, generate an invoice, and recognize the revenue,¡± Hemingway says. Alight can also more efficiently address varied tax regulations. ¡°One of the things we¡¯ve been happy with is that for just about every country we operate in, we can accommodate those complex tax rules.¡±
Why did you choose ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA?
¡°One of the most compelling reasons for choosing ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA was knowing that this product would improve and grow and support our business as we expanded,¡± Hemingway says. Alight also found ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA to be the right choice because it¡¯s a single platform that can support a global business. ¡°We needed to support all requirements in the U.S. and other parts of the world¡ªparticularly on the professional services aspect of it,¡± Hemingway says. ¡°We¡¯re a diverse business with a lot of different requirements. The ability to meet those accounting requirements, revenue recognition obligations, or different pricing engagements were key factors in choosing ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA.¡±
We¡¯re invoicing faster and getting cash in the door quicker with a system that¡¯s easy to use for everyone.
Senior Finance Manager
What advice would you give industry peers?
¡°Be bullish about how fast you can move and adapt to technological advancements, especially with ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA,¡± Hemingway says. ¡°As ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ PSA continues to evolve and improve, be in it for the long-term and don¡¯t just look at that initial implementation. There are constant enhancements, so be ready to adopt and take advantage of them because there¡¯s a lot of continued benefit to unleash from the system.¡±
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