2015 Innovation Award Nominee: Centage Corporation – Analytics Maestro for Microsoft Dynamics

Perhaps no one is more aware of the critical impact data has on the business than accounting professionals. Each and every day they use their Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP) application to help their organization make major business decisions.

Through their handiwork the business can determine what the right steps should be: Do we buy that company? Do we infuse additional dollars into a professional development budget? Do we restrict travel for Q4?

But getting the answers to those questions is often a real challenge as much of the data is locked inside Dynamics GP and takes an IT specialist to remove it! Accounting professionals, who are already strapped for time, simply cannot afford to rely on others to give them access to the data they need to do their jobs effectively and productively.

Analytics Maestro for Microsoft Dynamics GP integrates directly with Microsoft Dynamics GP to give accounting and other financial professionals simple, seamless, self serve reports from GL and sales order processing data without IT involvement. Analytics Maestro for Microsoft Dynamics GP gives accountants the power and flexibility they need to building engaging reports and real-time dashboards from the data locked in Dynamics GP GL and sales order processing data right down to the transaction level. With no need for cryptic code, macros, or long complex Excel formulas, users have access to accurate business information whenever they need it.

The software’s self-serve analysis and reporting capabilities make report building easy and efficient. Accounting professionals can analyze, visualize and present information any way they’d like. Instead of viewing static, tabular data from pre-programmed reports, Analytics Maestro for GP is based on interactive and intuitive visualization. Through an easy to use reporting interface, users build reports by themselves which immediately contributes to better understanding of information as well as better and quicker decision making.

In less than one hour accountants can build their own reports – they just think it and see it! Analytics Maestro for Microsoft Dynamics GP also enables accounting professionals to analyze data more accurately, including drilldowns to underlying transaction detail data, trend analysis, filters and multi-dimensional hierarchies. The visualization component also allows for clear graphic representation of gaps between budget and actual data.

In addition, analysis of KPI’s such as gross margin, cost per unit, and average price are also more efficient and accurate thanks to the software’s seamless integration. This allows decision makers to better align strategy with performance enabling them to link corporate financials with operational analytics.

This empowers CPAs and other financial professionals to deliver more accurate insight decision makers need to confidently monitor their companies’ performance on a proactive basis. As customer Scott Lazenby, Senior Financial Analyst at Helm Corporation, noted, “By automating the process and centralizing all the financial data, across departments, managers now have the insight necessary to track costs and sales.”

Click here to see all of the other nominees for the 2015 Innovation Awards.