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"Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes
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Source : Microsoft Dynamics
Business Case - Orezone
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Evaluating Microsoft Great Plains Business Solution,
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Situation
Companies in the gold exploration industry
are accustomed to risk. Only one in every
1,000 start-ups combing the world for gold
deposits at any given time will see revenue
from successful mining. Orezone Resources
Inc. is one of the industry's successes stories.
In just two years Orezone has grown from a
small company operated out of its president's
basement to one with a market capitalization
of nearly $150 million, and its goal is to make
the transition from exploration to gold
development by 2006.
Orezone's exploration efforts are centred on
Burkina Faso, a West African country
strategically located between Ghana and
Mali, which are now the second- and thirdlargest
gold producing countries in Africa.
Together they have made West Africa one of
the fastest-growing gold producing regions in
the world, and Burkina Faso is poised to be
the region's next gold-producing country.
Connecting its widely dispersed workforce is
crucial to Orezone's success. Field employees
and contractors in Burkina Faso, who spend
upwards of US$1 million a month, are
responsible for inputting data in accounting
records at the company's Ottawa
headquarters. Until recently, they entered
their data into Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets
and uploaded them via e-mail to Ottawa. The
data was then re-entered into Orezone's
accounting system.
"This was becoming a problem," says Doug
Perkins, chief financial officer, Orezone. "The
data we got from our field workers had to be
entered and handled multiple times. Worse,
Orezone was using accounting software
better suited to personal income taxes than
running a business. We couldn't use it for
anything sophisticated."
In an industry where agility is key to
remaining competitive, Orezone found itself
with an increasingly cumbersome accounting
workflow based on weak software. Although
its workers travel widely and conduct
transactions in multiple currencies, Orezone
had no way to automate the currency
exchange process for reporting. Also,
generally accepted accounting principles
employed in North America differ from those
practiced in Burkina Faso, so incoming data
had to be restructured to suit local
accounting norms.
A 25-year veteran of the gold exploration
industry, Perkins knew Orezone needed a
more powerful and scalable accounting
solution. He met François Paré, one of the
two partners at Groupe Conseil LVMB, a
leading Microsoft Business Solutions partner,
who presented Microsoft Business Solutions-
Great Plains® software to him. He quickly
realized he had found the right solution and
the right partner to address Orezone's needs.
Solution
Orezone needed a flexible, scalable solution
that would serve its needs well into the future
when in production. It also had to be easy to
use - Orezone's rapid growth meant it could
not afford extensive training periods, which
some solutions require. The company
evaluated several software packages, but
Microsoft Business Solutions provided
Orezone with the best functionality and price,
and the simplicity it required.
Several things made Microsoft Business
Solutions - Great Plains stand out from the
pack. Microsoft Business Solutions for
Financial Management required little up-front
investment, an important factor for a
company that had yet to record any goldrelated
revenue, and whose funds were
generated entirely by raising capital on the
Toronto Stock Exchange. "The Microsoft
Business Solutions-Great Plains price point is
very attractive for start-up companies. It cost
little to get it going, and although they might
not need all the functionality of a full
business software suite today, it is already
there waiting for them to turn it on when
needed," says Paré.
The right integrator is also key to the success
of this project. Not only does LVMB have
certification on the software, but it also
provided the accounting knowledge needed
for such a complex operation, the technical
skills to deploy the solution over two
continents, and the integration capabilities to
ensure all the pieces worked together.
Orezone stressed the need for quick
turnaround, low cost and ease-of-use -
requirements that were easily met by the
Microsoft Business Solutions software
application. "Exploration companies create a
lot of financial reports. As they grow, the
reporting demands placed on them come
very quickly, and they soon find that Excel
alone isn't able to meet their needs. This was
the case with Orezone," says Eric Richer,
team leader, Groupe Conseil LVMB.
It took Groupe Conseil LVMB less than three
weeks to install the Microsoft Financial
Management solution, conduct a pilot, and
train Orezone's staff, who then trained the
African-based employees. Groupe Conseil
LVMB also installed Windows ServerTM 2003
operating system to provide a reliable
foundation. Microsoft Business Solutions-
Great Plains pulls information from a SQL
Server™TM 2000 database, which Orezone had
used previously to store geographic data.
Orezone staff continues to use Microsoft
Excel for daily needs.
"In my past I've seen accounting software
installation projects become disasters," says
Perkins. "That's why I liked Microsoft
Business Solutions-Great Plains. It was ready
to go out of the box. Microsoft has done lots
of these installations around the world and it
shows."
Benefits
Orezone activated Microsoft Business
Solutions for Analytics - FRx, an integrated
reporting tool that enabled the company to
create and distribute powerful and
sophisticated financial reports. Today
Orezone logs nearly 4,000 transactions a
month in Microsoft Business Solutions-Great
Plains, all of them governed by complex
accounting requirements. Microsoft Business
Solutions for Financial Management has
helped make the job of tracking those
transactions much simpler, and offers the
scalability to handle the demands of a
growing company that will soon need the full
business software solution, including
purchasing, inventory and maintenance
modes.
Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics -
FRx also enables Orezone to automatically
exchange reporting currencies and to
produce financial reports in multiple
currencies freeing up valuable time and
resources. In fact, had Orezone not migrated
to Microsoft Business Solutions, the company
would have likely hired a finance manager to
manage its Burkina Faso operations, a move
that might have cost the company an
additional US$150,000 per year - money
better used for gold exploration.
Made to handle growth
Orezone was impressed by the scalability of
Microsoft Business Solutions. Like other
successful gold exploration companies, it
must be prepared for sudden and rapid
growth. Now adding field staff or projects
doesn't lead to more data entry work at
Orezone's offices. Now, African staff are
connected via satellite link and work directly
in Great Plains. The Excel spreadsheets
prepared by geologists and technicians to
track costs are automatically imported into
the Microsoft Business Solutions application,
and the resulting data can be pulled instantly
into dynamic, pre-defined multi-currency
reports and viewed anywhere. Users can also
use the extensive Smart Lists to query for
specific, one-time requirements.
Technical staff in Canada and Burkina Faso
were able to continue working in the familiar
Excel environment, and as a result the need
for training was minimized. "If a worker
knows how to use Excel, then they can work
with Microsoft Business Solutions-Great
Plains. You get easier user buy-in, and the
staff doesn't have to spend much time
learning new applications," says Perkins.
Instamt compatibility
The tight integration between Excel and
Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains
helped ensure that Orezone did not have to
re-build any of its custom financial
applications. For example, Orezone employs a
large exploration staff in Burkina Faso, and
the company has built an Excel-based payroll
application to help it navigate Burkina Faso's
labour laws. Using the Microsoft Business
Solutions application, Orezone can quickly
and easily incorporate that payroll data into
its system.
"The activity-based costing we use is similar
to that being done by large, multinational
mining companies. We can only handle
activities on this scale as a result of the
power and flexibility of Microsoft Business
Solutions-Great Plains," says Perkins.
Smoother road to compliance
Like many companies listed in United States,
Orezone now faces an onerous Sarbanes-
Oxley Act compliance effort. The company's
previous accounting system would have
made it next to impossible to meet regulation
requirements, particularly those that
mandate more detailed transaction tracking
and review of process controls.
"Sarbanes-Oxley regulations require that we
verify our internal controls each and every
quarter," says Perkins. "We also have to show
there are controls in place that allow us to
track all of our financial data back to the
source, and to generate reports validating the
internal controls over the whole financial
reporting process."
Using Microsoft Business Solutions for
Financial Management, Orezone staff can
quickly drill down into accounting data and
track individual expenses back to the source,
helping Orezone in its bid to become
compliant.
"I'm now able to automatically drill down to
the original source transaction. If an external
auditor asks us about a particular charge
incurred on a project, we can show him the
required documents two minutes later,
whether it's filed in Africa or Ottawa," says
Perkins.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-
2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Groupe Conseil
LVMB Inc. products and services, call (450)
668-6664 or visit the Web site at:
www.lvmb.com
For more information about Orezone
Resources Inc. products and services, call
(613) 241-3699 or visit the Web site at:
www.orezone.com
Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions offers
integrated business applications and services
that allow small and mid-sized organizations
and divisions of large enterprises to connect
employees, customers, and suppliers for
improved efficiency. The financial
management, customer relationship
management, supply chain management,
and analytics applications work with
Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office
and Windows to streamline processes across
an entire organization, giving businesses
insight to respond rapidly, plan strategically,
and execute quickly. Microsoft Business
Solutions are delivered through a worldwide
network of channel partners that provide
specialized services and local support
tailored to a company's needs.
For more information about Microsoft
Business Solutions, go to:
www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/
Overview
Country: Canada
Industry: Gold Exploration/Mining
Customer Profile
Orezone Resources Inc. is an Ottawa-based
gold exploration and development
company focused on the development of
gold deposits in West Africa
Business Situation
Orezone's accounting software required
time-consuming data re-entry, and lacked
the sophistication required by a fastgrowing
public company facing Sarbanes-
Oxley compliance
Solution
Using Microsoft Business Solutions-Great
Plains, accounting data is automatically
entered into Orezone's accounting
systems, and the stage is set to test for
Sarbanes-Oxley compliancy
Benefits
- Eliminated data re-entry
- Data easier to track
- Automated currency exchange
- Prepared for rapid growth
- Assists in regulation compliance
"In my past I've seen accounting software installation
projects become disasters. That's why I liked
Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains. It was
ready to go out of the box."
Doug Perkins, CFO, Orezone
Orezone Resources Inc., listed on the Toronto and AMEX Stock
Exchanges, is a gold exploration and development company
focused on locating gold deposits in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger,
West Africa. Its goal is to make the transition from an exploration to
a gold production company within three years. Quick and efficient
communication between staff in Africa and its Canadian head
office is crucial for Orezone to achieve that goal. Until recently,
workers in Africa entered their accounting data into Microsoft®
Excel spreadsheets and sent them to Orezone's offices via e-mail.
Staff in Ottawa then re-entered the data into Orezone's accounting
system, which lacked the sophistication required by a rapidly
growing company. Upgrading to Microsoft Business Solutions -
Great Plains® enabled the automated import of e-mailed Excel
spreadsheets into Orezone's accounting system, boosting
efficiency.