CASE STUDY
Gunnison
With Appficiency Enabling Its NetSuite System, Gunnison Faces Increased Efficiency And Scalability
Get the Full Story
Download the Gunnison Story and Explore NetSuite’s Impact!
Location
Georgia, United States
Industries
Construction and Allied Services
Specialization
Tree Services
Gunnison Overview
Gunnison is an industry-leading provider of tree and vegetation management services. Their companies serve a growing list of sectors including utility, industrial, government/DOT, residential and commercial. Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and techniques, Gunnison ensures that their clients receive the highest quality of care, maintaining the beauty and safety of their properties. With a commitment to safety, excellence and customer satisfaction, Gunnison continues to lead the industry in vegetation management.
“We struggled with our financial reporting and closing the books in a timely manner every month. It was taking over three weeks to close the books and the consolidation of 11 different financial statements in Excel only compounded the problem.”
Marc Picardo, CIO
Gunnison
Challenges - Gunnison
Complex Corporate Structure
Gunnison’s aggressive acquisition strategy resulted in a complicated corporate structure with 11 different accounting systems used by their operating entities. This fragmentation hindered operational efficiency and created significant challenges in financial reporting, ultimately delaying the financial closing process.
Inefficient Financial Reporting
Gunnison legacy financial systems led to inefficiencies in financial reporting and consolidation, with the process taking up to three weeks. This lack of unified systems made real-time financial oversight nearly impossible, causing frustration among the finance team and impairing decision-making capabilities.
Need for Scalable Solutions
As a fast-growing company, Gunnison recognized the urgent need for scalable solutions that could support their expansion and integrate future acquisitions. The existing manual processes were not sustainable, prompting the search for a robust ERP system that could streamline operations and facilitate growth effectively.
Choosing Appficiency, the NetSuite Partner for Construction
Appficiency was chosen as the implementation partner due to their specialized experience in the construction industry and their suite of tailored NetSuite applications. Appficiency’s expertise facilitated a smooth and efficient implementation process, setting the stage for significant operational improvements. As Marc noted, “The implementation was very smooth. We have our books closed by like the sixth business day right now, which is a big improvement.”
Simple Corporate Structure: Gunnison was able to unify all 11 different accounting systems into a single ERP platform, reducing the time required for monthly financial closings from three weeks to six business days. Marc stated, “It was taking us two to three days to consolidate the financial statements once we closed the books in the old accounting systems. Now with a click of a button, we have real-time consolidated financial statements for all of our businesses.”
Efficient Financial Reporting: Gunnison standardized financial and operational processes across all acquisitions, improving consistency and reducing errors. This transition moved Gunnison from a “lengthy error-prone financial closing and consolidation” to having “consistent processes, consistent data that streamlined our closing process and provided insight into our business that we didn’t have before.”
Scalable Growth: NetSuite provided the perfect scalable solution for Gunnison that could easily integrate additional acquisitions and support expanding business operations. Marc emphasized, “With their acquisition strategy, it was about scalability. They need a system and processes that you could scale.”
Transforming Financial Reporting and Preparing for the Future
When the project started, Gunnison operated as 6 different business units with different processes across all the business units. The project team members, which were spread across all the functional areas of the different businesses all had the same goals, define common processes that would be considered best practice for Netsuite and could scale with the business. The Appficiency/Gunnison project team worked tirelessly together with these goals in mind. One of the most notable outcomes of the NetSuite implementation was the transformation in financial reporting.
The new system not only streamlined the consolidation process but also provided robust tools for real-time financial analysis, enabling more informed decision-making and strategic planning. “The implementation was split into two phases to minimize the risk with the migration of 11 accounting systems and process changes that went with this ERP project. Phase one dealt with migrating GL activities and financial reporting into NetSuite, and the second phase will focus on utility billing, along with Appficiency’s CE2P and MJC modules,” explained Marc.
The partnership between Gunnison and Appficiency in deploying NetSuite has revolutionized Gunnison’s operational capabilities, aligning various business processes into a cohesive, efficient system that is prepared for future growth. Marc shares, “The success of this project was due to the partnership between Gunnison and Appficiency. The communication and coordination between both parties was extraordinary and was one of many success factors to the project.
The resources and expertise that Appficiency was able to bring to the project was a huge value-add. This included functional and technical experts in NetSuite, integration specialists and subject matter experts in the construction industry. Appficiency has been a partner in helping us through this transformation journey and we continue to look forward to enhancing our partnership with them.”
Discover Other Customer Success Stories
NVE Experience Agency
NVE is a brand experience agency that offers integrated marketing campaigns, experiential, virtual, live, content, interactive, and communications marketing. After implementing NetSuite to improve optimization of data flow within the business and keep the expansion and rapidly growing business decisions have become more efficient and effective.
Lenny & Larry’s
Lenny & Larry’s are leading producers of vegan, plant-based protein cookies in chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and double chocolate. With thousands of orders each month, fast inventory production, and multiple sales channels, real-time inventory and financial reporting is crucial.
e.l.f Cosmetics Inc.
e.l.f. Cosmetics, Inc., is a health & Beauty company with over 300 skin-care products, tools, glosses, bronzers, and more. After implementing NetSuite to improve scalability, e.l.f. has become a true omni-channel enterprise including retail stores, e-commerce sales, and big-box retailers.
Gunnison
Gunnison is a specialized company that offers a comprehensive range of tree care services tailored to residential properties. Their expertise includes tree trimming, removal, stump grinding, and emergency storm services, ensuring that homes are safe and aesthetically pleasing.
Novus Media.
Appficiency implemented NetSuite to address Novus Media’s financial reconciliation issues, reducing financial close cycles from 25 to 5 days, accelerating AR invoicing by 45%, and resolving AR and AP disparities with a “pay when paid” policy, improving cash flow alignment.
S&S Worldwide
S&S, a leading company in designing and fabricating amusement rides, faced significant challenges with their legacy systems, Encompix and self-built QuickBase. S&S turned to NetSuite, implemented by Appficiency, to modernize their operations and integrate various systems into a unified ERP solution.