Trias has been fighting for equal opportunities for more than 50 years. ‘Whatever your name or origin, everyone has dreams and those dreams should be given a chance,’ is what this NGO stands for. With a team of 25 employees, they fight from Brussels against obstacles that block self-development of enterprising people.
For more than 20 years, Trias had been managing its accounting in a simple way with some limitations. Performing repetitive tasks correctly, streamlining the approval process, and gathering information from different branches—all created many opportunities for human error. (Fortunately, they could always rely on good employees.) Despite strong internal collaboration, the accounting system was due for an upgrade. Growth resulted in more work, but with the same team. It was therefore urgently time for a solution. Did someone say digital transformation? Scapta to the rescue!
But overseas, hundreds of colleagues are also fighting alongside them. In this global network of agri-agencies, called Agricord, Trias helps hundreds of farmer organizations in more than 50 countries across 3 continents. Thanks to the immense support of numerous generous donors, they have eleven million euros available to build dreams and talents for disadvantaged farmers.
GOODBYE TO TIME LOSS AND INACCURACIES
Supporting farmers is priority number one. That’s where Trias wants to invest. Even more reason to put things in order internally and optimize. Efficiency is key at Trias. Manual invoice entry, budget management in Excel, and consolidation from multiple source systems had to be permanently banished to the past. Time to build a global overview and effective follow-up. Time for one central, digital system. In Scapta, they found the ideal IT partner. And so the story begins…
GLOBAL IMPLEMENTATION
3, 2, 1, start! And start they did in Trias’ head office in Brussels. ‘Together with the IT specialists, we looked at various digitisation and automation options for our financial department. The Microsoft Dynamics financial management system met our needs and was implemented. Moreover, we went one step further and also opted for a BI system, as a solution for our internal and external reporting needs. For this we engaged Jet Analytics and PowerBI,’ says Eric Vanderwegen, Head of quality & resources department. So together we opted for a broad financial management system that strengthens and digitises the financial department and makes it future-proof.
We worked step by step, always in consultation with the financial experts on-site. The result was the automation and digitalization of:
• Purchase invoices with DocumentCapture
• Approval processes via the Web Approval Portal
• Bank transactions and donation registration
• Tax forms 281.50 and 281.71
• Budgets and reporting
• Consolidation and reporting
“Our financial department can now always rely on detailed budget tracking, saving them a great deal of time.”
Eric Vanderwegen, Head of Quality & Resources Department
The finish line of this project, however, was not in Brussels but overseas. The offices in countries such as Burkina Faso, Central America, Ecuador, Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda were also worked on by our consultants. From a distance, the same financial management system was rolled out there as well. Moreover, adoption and training were effectively managed through online coaching.