Enterprise Systems Integration
Scaling shared services: Integrated systems for surging, multi-entity operations
The Challenge: The Silo Paradox
The Client’s Operations, Finance, and Program teams possessed a strong collaborative culture, unified under a shared services model across four distinct legal entities and who were achieving milestones, week after week. However, their original operations system design - made up of several disparate software packages - forced these otherwise cohesive teams into operational silos. While the people worked well together, their tools did not.
This technical disconnection created a "visibility blackout." Reconciliation between the CRM, ERP, and expense platforms was being executed 100% manually. This manual friction made it nearly impossible to gain real-time insight into program outcomes or grant status; Simple questions required effortful responses. A seamless flow & structure of data integrity was needed—one that would allow the org to report to management and donors with absolute confidence, while meeting the rigorous standards of IRS regulations and AICPA audits.
The Objective: Architecting a Unified Data Backbone
The objective was to transform a set of "off-the-shelf" tools into a fully integrated ecosystem where data flowed invisibly between functions. We engineered a solution that bridged the gap between operational workflows and financial compliance.
The Build: Unified Systems Architecture
We integrated NetSuite, Salesforce (SFDC), Ramp (Spend Management), and Charted (AP Automation) into a single, communicative stack.
The "Front Door" Strategy: To bridge the silo between Program and Finance, we customized Salesforce to handle the genesis of purchasing and contracting. Legal and Program staff could draft and approve contracts in their native environment, which then triggered automated vendor record creation in NetSuite.
Automated Reconciliation: We eliminated the manual drag by implementing OCR technology for 2-way matching on invoices. Data now passed back and forth automatically: contract execution in SFDC created financial records in NetSuite, and payment data in NetSuite fed status updates back to SFDC.
Regulatory Compliance: We hard-coded internal controls directly into the integration logic. Workflows were designed to ensure that records were created, approved, and amended in a precise order, with only the minimal & necessary person intervention to preserve segregation of duties and pass audit scrutiny.
The Result: Confidence & Clarity
The integration took the org from Manual Friction to Strategic Insight. Manual reconciliation was replaced with automated certainty, delivering the structural integrity the organization needed to scale.
Stakeholder Confidence: Program teams gained real-time visibility into the financial status of their grants directly within Salesforce, allowing them to quantify impact for donors without needing continuous answers from Finance.
Audit-Ready Rigor: The system ensured that every transaction—from PO to Payment—adhered to strict internal controls, satisfying the requirements for public filings and Single Audits.
Operational Harmony: By removing the technical barriers, the systems finally matched the collaborative spirit of the teams. Finance maintained control over the General Ledger, while Program teams operated with autonomy and speed.
