Fusion5 (formerly Liberate I.T.) leapt at the chance to work with Finder and introduce NetSuite to their operations – a project that started with helping Finder’s finance division to get more powerful insights from their data.
Finder is a comparison tool trusted by millions of people worldwide to help them make better decisions. Finder is the brainchild of high school friends Fred and Frank, who launched it as a credit card comparison tool in 2006. The idea was simple, to help customers navigate the countless options and hundreds of possible bolt-ons and rates to find the credit card best suited to their needs. Finder’s subsequently grown to a full-on comparison website, across shopping, travel, loans, insurance, and even into the emerging world of cryptocurrency.
With 300 worldwide staff and around 300 freelancers across offices in the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Poland, and a support crew in the Philippines, Finder’s goals of ongoing expansion demanded a more powerful ERP than they’d become accustomed to.
Fusion5 (formerly Liberate I.T.) leapt at the chance to work with Finder and introduce NetSuite to their operations – a project that started with helping Finder’s finance division to get more powerful insights from their data.
Why Finder chose NetSuite ERP
The ability to scale was – and still is – critical to Finder. They had been using an alternative, popular ERP, but as Finder began to undergo strategic expansion, their ERP provider tapped out. They couldn’t manage the number of connections required for Finder to power forward without short-term solutions and endless patchwork.
Our previous tool was great for us in the early days,” explains Charlene Donga – Finder’s Programme Manager with Strategic Finance and Tech Transformation Lead. “But it’s not built for consolidations. We were only able to tag two categories on each transaction. We were pulling data and uploading it to Excel to get better insights. We were double handling.In the wider company, we wanted to automate partnerships and onboarding, to keep up to date with metrics and get real-time insights. We wanted a better quality of data. We needed a better ERP that could support that mandate."
The limited functionality was a big motivator to move toward something more powerful that could connect multiple data sources and get better analytics, and an open API platform that could feed into other databases and talk to other facilities.
Finder brought in Vittoria Anderson at Ironborn as a consultant who brought together every department to scope the project and what boxes needed ticking. Once they narrowed their options to include NetSuite, Finder invited Fusion5 to look at the project.
NetSuite met all our business requirements,” says Donga. “We’d considered Salesforce – which works well for marketing and sales – and Microsoft Dynamics, but it was NetSuite that could tick all the boxes.”“Our founders are always interested in flexibility and agility. Things change so much – and so quickly – at Finder. One of our values is ‘Go live’ – being the first to market with the most accurate information, so we have to move fast. NetSuite would enable us to do just that while meeting all our business requirements for the next five years."
The key business benefits of NetSuite
Finder is still in the first stages of the company-wide rollout of NetSuite, with finance being first out the gate, but with incredible momentum Donga sees the entire organisation, internationally, working with NetSuite before the end of 2022.
“The good thing is that I’ll have buy-in from everyone. As a project manager, that makes a huge difference, and because I’m in finance, I’m seeing the advantages first.”
One of the big bonuses, says Donga, is how the all-in-one nature of NetSuite offers “relief from consolidated reporting.” Around 20 subsidiaries would equate to as many profiles in their previous ERP; now, they’re composed together. “That’s a big win for the team – to bring everything into one platform.”
In addition, the drag-and-drop nature of NetSuite enabled the team to create custom reports – which helped some of the staff get over their “old favourite” reporting models from their earlier ERP.
It’s still early days for NetSuite and Finder. Although the project had been in the works for some time, they only went live in April 2021. As quarterly reporting becomes available, Donga will be able to see the output and the tangibles of their implementation and be able to quantify the gains from adopting NetSuite. But to date, the feedback has been great.
“There’s two years of global metrics and data pulled in. Finance loves reporting, so being able to get that in one place has been incredible.”
Seeing real-time bank transactions in Australia coming into the central hub has been a big win for Donga. That transparency removes the uncertainty of a 24/7, always-live organisation like Finder.
The Finder team is already excited about integrating a separate CRM project and syncing the roll-out. With more time now available, it means Finder has been able to bring in client teams sooner than expected.
From Finder to you: what you need to know if you’re considering NetSuite
Because it’s cloud-based, you can count on continuous improvement,” says Donga. “Don’t lean towards programmes that are static. We know when to expect a NetSuite update; it’s twice a year, and they’ll tell you what’s new.
That agility means Finder can evolve, and NetSuite will adapt alongside their operations. "
It’s a great UI platform, which is hard to achieve given the depth and complexity. I haven’t seen anything that compares with regards to finance modules.”
That partly comes from NetSuite’s power and Fusion5’s implementation process. As Donga points out, Fusion5 elected to have workshops with every key stakeholder for two weeks to best understand the implementation."
The consultants and project managers had a great understanding of the business and what we wanted to get out of it. They drove conversations back to the workshop and the goals we’d set out to achieve there."
One of our values at Finder is ‘Go live’ – being the first to market with the most accurate information, so we have to move fast. NetSuite would enable us to do just that while meeting all our business requirements for the next five years."
I’m a project manager, so I wanted to retain control of the implementation! But in the end, we were sure that the people we were partnering with would bring a lot to the table and deliver. Fusion5 did just that."
Partnering with Fusion5
Donga has become a firm advocate for Fusion5.
“Our experience from the beginning, even as we were figuring out that NetSuite was the right tool, was exceptional. Fusion5 understood our business needs; set realistic expectations, and what they said they’d get us, they delivered.”
Donga ran an agile approach, with a daily stand-up joined by the Fusion5 team. In addition, senior Fusion5 stakeholders were available for the monthly steering committee talks to guide the implementation.
“When we went go-live, it was surprisingly chill. There was no stress, no nervousness. I’m constantly asking, ‘What does success look like?,’ and here it was feeling the team were equipped and ready. We knew what to expect, and we were calm."
“I would say it was a success from an implementation perspective.”
By getting all the teams involved from the outset and investing time in selecting and defining what solutions would be best, user acceptance of NetSuite at Finder has been strong. But it doesn’t just stop there, says Donga.
“Fusion5 don’t just dump you on go-live day. They consider you successfully live after one month in, at which point you transition to support. They’re there to help you be successful, and they have similar values to us. When Finder partners with organisations, we need to know we’re working towards the same goals.”
