Leo Burnett, an advertising agency, implemented the Maconomy ERP system to manage its rapid growth. The system streamlined processes, provided improved visibility and control over finances and projects. This allowed Leo Burnett to manage more work with fewer resources, improve cash flow through faster invoicing, and increase understanding of project costs and profitability.
1. case study
Leo Burnett
Geared for growth at low Total Cost of Ownership
With the Maconomy Agency Solution, Leo Burnett has achieved better
control of its fast-changing, complex communications business and has
started to reap the rewards from having streamlined its operations.
2. We will be able to manage more work with existing
resources because we will spend less time on
administration.
Louis Trad, Regional Finance Director, Leo Burnett MENA
Geared for growth Maconomy for agencies
Leo Burnett Middle East and North Maconomy quickly became an
Africa (MENA) is part of the world- obvious option since Leo Burnett
About Leo Burnett
wide Leo Burnett organization and in Scandinavia and the United MENA
owned by the Publicis Groupe. Kingdom already used Maconomy.
Dubai is the location of Leo Burnett Leo Burnett Middle East and North
MENA’s head office and the center “Our decision to go with Macono-
Africa (MENA) is part of the worldwide
for activities in the region. my was actually quite easy to make
Leo Burnett organization..
because the Maconomy Agency
During the past five years, Leo Solution is clearly geared towards
Burnett MENA has experienced advertising agencies and offers Leo Burnett MENA is headquartered in
tremendous growth.The number of rich functionality for our business. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with addi-
staff in Dubai alone has tripled to In addition, implementation took tional offices in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon,
180 and offices have been added less time than a traditional busi- Kuwait, Egypt, and Morocco.
in other countries. The office in ness solution due to minimal time
Dubai has expanded from one to consuming customization,” says
seven business units covering ad- Bassem Aboukhater, Head of IT at
vertising, PR, digital services, CRM Leo Burnett MENA.
and TV editing and dubbing.
Due to this rapid growth Leo Ensuring buy-in from the
Burnett MENA set out to look for a
organization
suitable enterprise resources plan-
Leo Burnett’s Maconomy system
ning (ERP) solution to help in the
went live in March 2004 across all
following areas:
business units in Dubai and with a
business model geared towards
• Accommodate and manage
getting more countries on board in
growth
the future..
• Streamline processes across very
different types of businesses
• Increase understanding of the
business for staff outside the
Finance group to facilitate im
proved job and client profitability
• Enhance the control tools for the
whole organization
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3. As we grow, having a scalable solution where you can quickly
set up a new business unit and adopt the business
infrastructure already in place will be a huge benefit.
Bassem Aboukhater, Head of IT, Leo Burnett MENA
“It was important for us to obtain Adopting best practices
the trust and acceptance of our Leo Burnett wanted the best inno-
staff for the changes that were vations from specific client teams
Benefits Achieved
ahead, so all the departments to be deployed companywide. Benefits achieved from Maconomy
were represented in the implemen- Maconomy made it possible to
tation team,” explains Aboukhater. implement this idea. Now there is • Less admin time spent on quotation
and invoicing through elimination of
only one way to submit time sheets
double entries and manual work
“It also meant that we covered all and expenses and get them reim-
the requirements from our very dif- bursed. Standard procedures for • Improved cash flow thanks to faster
ferent business areas up front.” how you invoice, how you address invoicing
This kept the final system outstanding payment and how
customization to a minimum. to gain approvals at different job • A reduction of client write-offs due
to faster invoicing and better
stages are now in place to ensure
documentation of activities
Accommodate and manage successful job execution, a positive
cash flow, internal control, etc. • Support for upcoming regional roll-
growth
out thanks to the system’s scalable
Leo Burnett MENA now has the
infrastructure
right foundation for managing Invoicing process improvements
organic growth as well as growth The invoicing process was a • A reduction of time spent on
through acquisitions. particular focus for improvement. management reports and group
Leo Burnett wanted to reduce reporting
Aboukhater explains, “As we grow, time related to getting the invoices
prepared and to eliminate invoicing • Alignment of processes across
having a scalable solution where
business units
you can quickly set up a new busi- delays that at times made it dif-
ness unit and adopt the business ficult to collect payments. Today, all • Basis for higher job profitability
infrastructure already in place will jobs are billed as soon as they are
be a huge benefit.” closed or on a monthly schedule. • Better client service with less effort
If a job has not been billed for a involved
Louis Trad, Regional Finance while, the account director can see
• Better internal control on the
Director for Leo Burnett MENA it and ask why.
different processes of an advertising
adds, “We will be able to manage agency
more work with existing resources The new invoicing process has
because we will spend less time also eliminated double entries and
on administration. This is mainly manual work. Account managers
due to having all relevant client and used to type in lots of text when
job information in one place, and a providing a quote, which was then
system of online approvals.” reentered at the point of invoicing.
And project managers submit-
ted the basis for invoicing to the
finance department on paper
and this paperwork could easily
go back and forth between the
project managers and finance staff
several times.
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4. Management reports that used to
take half a day to produce now take
me 10 minutes and of course it’s
also quicker to answer any follow-up
questions
Bassel Kakish, Financial Director, Leo Burnett MENA
Now, project managers prepare Improved client profitability and Better, faster reporting
invoice drafts directly within the service Today Leo Burnett can drill into de-
system. Finance only verifies that Leo Burnett MENA now has full tails at the brand and product level
there are supplier invoices to justify insight into how time is spent – not as well as into details on contract
client invoices and then sends just at the client level but also on specifications, purchases, vendor
them out. specific client jobs and non-billable invoices received, budgets, and the
activities. actual cost of specific jobs.
“We save many administrative
hours every month, get our money Aboukhater explains, “Not only In the same way, management
from clients much faster, and have does this help determine if we reports have become much easier
less write-offs on clients due to the have the right level of capacity to produce because the numbers
improvements made to our invoic- and use our resources optimally, for all business units are in the
ing process,” concludes Trad. it also allows us to understand same system and are founded on
what repeatable or similar projects a consistent data model.
Better understanding of cost us. This can help us justify an
the business increase in billings for example.” “Management reports that used
Today, management but also ac- to take half a day to produce now
count managers and other staff Account managers can now pro- take me 10 minutes and of course
have a much better understanding actively address potential budget it’s also quicker to answer any
of the business and the positive overruns and will be given the follow-up questions, says Financial
impact they can make. power to refuse hours if they are Director, Bassel Kakish.
“Our client-facing staff now actu- not justified. Before, it was impossi-
ally have some control over job ble to dig into details as to whether Short payback time
profitability and client profitability hours posted for work on a brand As at any other company, IT invest-
and our idea of which clients are were reasonable. ments of a certain size need be
profitable and which ones are not justified.
is now based on facts and not Aboukhater explains, “Account
just perception. We now under- managers can provide better “We expect a payback time of
stand where money is made – service to clients – if they want to about two years and that
which industry, region, market and reorder they can see what supplier includes our investment in prepar-
client,” says Trad. was used, what they paid and what ing our Maconomy solution for
was ordered.” deployment in several other coun-
tries,” concludes Aboukhater.
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