It's a Small World

Aaron Smith - October 1, 2002

APCO needed an accounting system that could handle project realities in Beijing, Belgiumand a few other offices in between.

With a global clientele, including six of the Top 10 Fortune 500 companies, APCO Worldwide has won numerous awards for its targeted public relations programs. But the Washington, D.C.-based firm had an image problem of its own to repair when it came to project billing and budget tracking. A 1999 client survey gave APCO poor marks for late and inaccurate bills. A modest time-entry software package for  U.S. staff was falling short, and certainly was not up to the task of coordinating efforts across 23 offices spanning Europe and Asia.

    

At A Glance... Tool: Microsoft Business Solutions    Implemented: 2000 Cost: $70/user/month         Current users: 400

"When we do a project for a client, it involves labor and out-of-pocket expenses for purchases on behalf of the client," says Chrystal Kern, APCO's chief financial officer. "We were having difficulty pulling in out-of-pockets to correspond with the timeframe in which the project occurred. Back in 1999, our project managers would tell you that finance was a black hole where things vanished and never came back out; it was a problem with billing, collections and cash flow."

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