Velosio

Can you give a little background on what your company does?

Actually, we are a non-profit trade association. We have two nonprofits and we have a new for-profit company we just started 15 months ago. BroadPoint has been with our company for probably more than a decade, before I even got here. They handle all of our accounting for both the two nonprofits and the one for-profit. We are a membership-based company on one side, and then an educational institute on the other side for the two nonprofits. The for-profit is a publication company. We actually have a magazine that we produce on a bimonthly basis.

Could you tell me about the work that they do for you?

They are our consultants. They do a lot of the formatting of our financials. When I had to start up the new company 15 months ago, they basically came in-house. We had to discuss the nature of the company, that it had to be a for-profit. It had to be set up a little bit different. They helped us design our financial statements, helped us set up the chart of accounts, and link up everything that we’re going to be doing using credit cards. Every company is different in how they want to operate. They helped us from the ground up to create everything that we needed for budgeting purposes, for financial formatting, setting up the chart of accounts, and getting us started. So that’s what they did for the for-profit.

For the nonprofit, they do maintenance behind the scenes every year. BroadPoint is always cleaning up. They always recommend when we need new versions, when stuff is starting to expire, and inform us about the new version that are coming out. We have to do it every couple of years. When needed, we actually have them come out sometimes and do work with us on-site. However, they often are able to dial in remotely and take over our system. If there’s a little error that we can’t fix, I can call them. They’ll dial in and they will take over the computer and go behind the scenes to correct the issue. Then we’re back up and running again.

Do you know which version of Microsoft Dynamics they’ve installed for you?

It was Great Plains.

How happy are you with the results so far?

I love Great Plains, but I love BroadPoint. I’ve been with them for so long. It’s just a small world because when I came here, they were already in place. I knew four of the guys who were consultants. This world is small because I had worked with them before. It was really nice to know that the company I came to were a client of theirs. I had a nice comfort level.

When working with BroadPoint, is there anything that you find unique or special compared to other vendors that you’ve worked with?

Well, they’re very responsive. We’ve been loyal to them and they’ve very loyal to us. For example, our BroadPoint rep has taken a lot more responsibility such as overseeing more than thirty people. So we’re one of the few clients that he still will come to onsite because of the relationship. It’s all about relationships.

We’ve been with them for so long and we have just a very good rapport. If we really need him to come on-site, he will carve some time out and schedule an appointment and come out. If he can’t come out, which he normally can, he’ll send his assistant who we have gotten to know during the last seven years. That person is excellent. Sometimes he’ll send the other guy out just because it’s a cheaper hourly rate. He’s trying to save us money. But, we don’t mind paying.

They’re very hands on. They respond immediately. When you send out an email, such as when I go through an audit, there’s certain things that auditors need. They always have to write these special reports for me. They get it done. Like I’ll say, “Guys, my audit starts in two weeks. I’m going to need these reports. This is what they’re requesting for this year.” They will customize reports. They’ll put it in a version that my auditors need because our auditors are paperless. They do everything electronically. They’ll put it in a format where I can just send it to him by email, it’s done. So, they save me a lot of time and money. The auditors love them, too because they make their job easier. The way they send it, it’s imported in their existing software. Nobody has to do anything manual, which is real nice.

Is there anything that you think they could improve upon?

No, because we’re pretty needy. We’re needy every now and then. They’re just very accommodating to us, so I can’t say anything negative because we’re kind of spoiled by them. They really take care of us. It’s because of the relationship built during the years. We’ve grown a lot with them.

They’ve made our life a lot easier because of their experience. They have a lot of other clients similar to us, so they will share with us some of their ideas or ways that we can import stuff instead of doing it all manually and doing duplicate work. We trust them. So, we go with what they say. They have made life much easier. We work definitely smarter, not harder, just because of the intelligence behind the scenes and the way they can make things work. You still get the information you need. It can be shared with different parties. They can get what they need as well like the auditors. That’s a great thing.