CASE STUDY: Genus PLC
Genus plc is a British-based business selling elite genetics and other products using biotechnology to cattle and pig farmers. The international company operates in 32 countries and employs over 3700 people worldwide with an annual revenue of 593.4 million GDP (2022).
Genus is currently LIVE with the SKG Treasury Automation Suite accounting for 66% of the global revenue in 8 of the 32 operating countries (Chile, UK, France, Spain, South Africa, USA, Canada and New Zealand).
"Our customers are big organizations. It should be a consistent experience whether you deal with us in Germany, France or Chile."
As a large multinational company Genus has many subsidiaries working with local banks in their respective countries, which sometimes results in a complex project from a coordination perspective – for Genus, it has been smooth.
“Since the early planning stages Genus had a quite good overview of their existing banking relationships, the types of connections that were in place, and the various file types that they were receiving from each bank across all countries. In that regard Genus has been great to work with. Any given project gets much less complicated when the customer is as well organized and well prepared as Genus is” – Jonas Andersen, Sales Director, SKG Services Europe.
While the project is ongoing, SKG Services Europe (SKGSE) and Genus has so far covered Genus’ banking integrations across different markets such as USA, Canada, Spain, Chile, United Kingdom, France, South Africa and New Zealand, and with different banks such as JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Barclays, Santander Bank, ABSA bank, to mention some.
Today the SKG TAS banking library covers more than 800 unique bank formats, and over 2500 local payment types – a library that is being expanded daily and is maintained by SKG.
“The experience that we have gained over the years connecting with banks is vital for our customers. While our TAS solution is easily installed and configured in D365, there is no such thing as “plug and play” when it comes to running test phases with the individual bank, each local bank operates differently” – Jonas Andersen, Sales Director, SKG Services Europe.
1
Challenge
Before Microsoft Dynamics 365 was implemented, Genus had 15 different ERP systems. Every country was dealing with local banks with unique requirements which would require tons of custom development if to be automated. With only one-to-few key finance employees in each country, there was also a single point of failure – a too big of a risk.
“We needed our finance operations to run smoother, streamlined and without ad-hoc services in each country”
2
Solution
Genus decided to get all systems on to the same platform. They chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 with the strategy to run as much as possible on Standard Dynamics. When it came apparent that the standard solution was inadequate to run finances as efficiently and smart as they aimed for, they searched for a global ISV solution to partner with.
Genus was therefore looking for a global banking partner to avoid the old scenario: Custom solutions for each country.
Genus opted for SKG’s Treasury Automation Suite for D365 which improves and automates processes across their Vendor Payments, Positive Pay, Bank Statement importing, Settlements across AP and AR, Account Reconciliation, and direct Host2Host communication with each of their local banks. All the above, as an embedded standard solution within their D365 ERP system.
3
Results
Using the SKG solution gives Genus a common platform for consistent processes across all businesses. With a global process to roll out, they can implement faster and support centrally, reducing costs, errors, and risk.
“We have implemented 66% of our global revenue so far and there hasn't been custom development yet”
As SKG handles all the banks worldwide for D365, it was just a matter of installation and configuration before Genus could start reducing the number of banking solutions from 32 to 1. With the TAS solution, Genus is now benefitting from enhanced processes covering Bank Statement Automation, Vendor Payments Automation, Automated transaction settlements, to mention a few.
