Khameleon Processes and Workbenches to manage the challenges of rapid growth

Apex Facility Resources, Inc.
Seattle, WA
Employees: 75
Founded: 1997

Apex Facility Resources, founded in 1997, provides its clients with a full range of office services, from space design to disposition of old office furniture. When the company grew from 30 employees to 75 in the course of two years, Controller Sandy DeNune knew Apex needed a more powerful system if it was to keep growing. A fast-lane company, after all, requires continued profitability and tight cost control to free up the money that fuels future growth. Sandy felt the company's system didn't have the strong accounting features it needed, and its old technology slowed the company down.

Because the old system lacked strong financial capability, the company tracked project costs on a manual, case-by-case basis. As a result, it could track only the biggest jobs, so there was a troubling information gap when it came to understanding business performance. Sandy wanted insight into each project and its profitability, and she knew analytics could help the company allocate resources better and improve processes.

Armed with a rigorous set of integrated project and accounting requirements, Sandy investigated four different products before selecting Khameleon. She found that although there are other office furniture business systems, their accounting functionality was not as strong as Khameleon's. She was impressed by Khameleon's strength in taking care of the important accounting details, like check reconciliation and supporting multiple billing scenarios. Likewise, although the Apex sales commission system is extremely complicated, Sandy found she could set up Khameleon's order process and reporting to accommodate it.

Khameleon's Workbenches are "one of the things that drew me to Khameleon," Sandy said, because "the Workbenches put all the critical information into one place so owners and sales managers can see status easily and quickly." As a result, Sandy "came up with a whole new service listing so we can track costs down to each employee." Khameleon uses that information to present project status and financial results to the Workbenches so project managers know where and when to adjust project resources.

Sandy said she "definitely recommends Khameleon." The Khameleon team is "great to work with," and she said they are very responsive to needs. She also says they jump on issues right away, like taking extra care during implementation to make sure everyone is trained and on board. With Khameleon in place, Apex Facilities Resources is ready for the future and poised to continue its impressive growth.