The Challenge
Hat Trick is one of the UK’s most successful independent production companies. However, like so many companies in the TV & Film sector, Hat Trick was using disparate systems throughout the group. There was a need, with the group growing, to put in place a system that would streamline the processes internally, enabling full reporting functionality from one set of data. The system had to be fully featured from a Financial and a Production Costing perspective and at minimum replace the functionality from the existing Sage Systems. The key requirement revolved around Production Costing. This required the provision of full services for each Production Accountant within the single unified system. The Production Accountant could then maintain and monitor accurate records of planned and projected expenditure. At the same time the information can be viewed as part of the overall finances for the Group. Additional requirements included generation of Rights Payments to the Sponsors of each Production together with the need to integrate with another product called Movie Magic (EP) which is used for Financial Planning of Productions.
The Solution
Creative had a clear understanding of the nature of the requirements at Hat Trick. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV software provides a great platform for the business solution at Hat Trick. The inbuilt flexibility allowed Creative to add the special security and processing required, whilst preserving the standard system for the normal accounts maintenance. Dynamics NAV is a true multi-currency, multi company system, and the reporting functionality via the dimensional analysis is second to none. As the product has the Microsoft ‘look & feel’, this speeds the internal uptake of the system within the Hat Trick Group. The ease with which we can import data into Microsoft Dynamics NAV made integration with the Movie Magic system particularly straight-forward.
The Benefits
There are three main criteria that most companies seek when looking for a new system. Risk, Timeframes (implementation and ‘internal take-up’) and Return on investment.
- Creative have a rigorous method for collecting and migrating data from legacy systems. This brings across as much data from the old system as is required. This gave peace of mind that important data from the past is not lost in the implementation of the new system. The structure of NAV adds to the confidence since most of the processing rules are supplied ‘out of the box’ are tried and trusted by a large and varied customer base.
- The timeframes for the initial implementation of the financial system have been met very well by Hat Trick and Creative in partnership. The ‘internal take-up’ of the new system has been pretty good due to shrewd project management internally at Hat Trick by Claire Snedker. She explained “Just-PRODUCE has allowed us to automate many of our day to day processes, which has enabled us to gain real time information quickly “.
- The return on investment has not been quantified yet; however Claire was quick to say “we are excited by the further enhancements that Just-PRODUCE has to offer to ensure that we constantly improve our processes”.
To summarise, Hat Trick Productions and Creative have partnered to provide a system that has streamlined processes, delivered strong reporting functionality and will be future-proof against changes in the business and changes in the technology. Control of spending on Productions really is imperative.
This has been achieved in a system that:-
- Gives Production Accountants a secure front end
- Delivers a strong financial back end
- Integrates with Movie Magic
Matthew Ash the Sales Manager at Creative explained that “Hat Trick Productions is a great customer to have in this sector. Their knowledge and skills in the industry made for an excellent project.”
