We recently had a discussion with Dave Rumer, VP Market Development at Sage and our client, John Hughes, CFO of Ventura Orthopedics Medical Group about digital transformation. We focused on what Ventura Ortho’s journey to modernization was like.
Ventura Ortho has been a client of North49 for several years and is one of the oldest group practices in California faithfully serving the people of Ventura County with 6 different locations since the 1930s. John Hughes is the Chief Financial Officer at Ventura Ortho and has been with the organization for the last 6 years. John is a true business leader who is passionate about organizational health and has given his time to various not for profit organizations throughout his career.
Our discussion with John was very interesting and brought a lot of insight about what finance leaders are facing with digital transformation today. Below are a few highlights of our discussion.
Dave: What would you say is the biggest change you’ve seen as a finance leader in recent years?
John: I’ve experienced in the last ten years, both in the Not-for-Profit and for-profit space, the evolution and demands on me to change and evolve my staff and the organizations we work with. Not just our roles as finance leaders, but also helping to navigate the organizations that we’re with through a modernization transformation. Whether we like it or not, change is happening and it’s really a matter of when we need to start adapting and how we will embrace these changes. If we’ve learned anything in the last 12 months, it’s that change is now the norm and we need to be adaptable to whatever is thrown our way. To be honest, I’m still trying to figure it out and survive every day and I don’t think that will ever change.
Dave: John, can you set the stage for us as to what things looked like at Ventura Ortho when you first started?
John: The last 6 years have been a whirlwind. When I started, our finance department consisted of really just myself and an accounts payable clerk. While we were small, we still were in the realm of 20 million dollars in our operations. We weren’t very sophisticated and I had my hands in many different things. So right out of the gate I quickly identified that we needed to take hold of the financial tools needed on a day-to-day basis and to bring an element of modernization to the organization, not just in technology but also in the philosophy and methodology of finance.
Dave: John, as an example, I know that the change from a conventional side of the chart of accounts, a segmented chart to a dimensional one, was interesting for you. Did you have to completely change your thought process, can you talk about that a little bit?
John: Sure, the chart of accounts structure is exactly what I mean with respect to changing that philosophy and methodology. I think when we talk about the modernization of the accounting
function, that shift from segmented to dimensional accounting is the most radical thing we as accountants go through, especially in the non-profit space. It’s extremely valuable because of the fund elements. So truly trying to find ways to perform effective fund accounting in a non-cumbersome way is the biggest challenge. Dimensional attributes in a ledger design is really what organizations need to consider in modernizing their processes and tools. The shift away from a segmented system was a migration I had to go through, in my head, years ago, and we have finally come to that model today at Ventura Ortho.
Dave: John, tell us a bit about the journey to modernization with respect to the software. What were you using, how did you come to decide on Sage Intacct?
John: When I started, we were using a Sage product and I’d spent a good portion of time identifying what we needed. I approached Sage looking for a more contemporary, more robust solution and they matched us up with the folks at North49 who helped us with the migration to Sage 300. Right out of the gate one of the first things we really needed to do was to take hold of the GL and the financial tools. It was really the first step in our journey of modernization. Working with North49 brought us to a place where we were finally taking a step up from where we were, to a new GL environment, new chart of accounts and a new accounting methodology. Within the last year, we started to recognize that we needed far more flexibility and different dynamic tools. We realized that we had some limitations with Sage 300. When North49 approached us with Sage Intacct it was an easy choice for me, since I’d had some exposure to it already, but I thought I needed to convince my team to make that jump. As soon as I presented Intacct to them, they were excited and pushed it over the edge so that it was a no brainer to implement Intacct. We could not be happier with that transition, especially with everything we have encountered in the last 12 months.
Dave: What was the implementation process of Sage Intacct and working with North49 like for you and your team?
John: You know, the thing that I appreciate the most about our relationship with North49 is that it’s not a transactional one – it’s a true partnership. We’ve had the privilege of working with the North49 team in a real collaborative spirit. North49 really made sure they understood our business needs and there was a constant conversation that had evolved to them truly understanding us and showing us how we can use the tools to solve our challenges. This was the third or fourth ledger implementation in my career and I have to say, it was incredibly smooth. Having the expertise of North49 on the back end, from a workflow, project management, implementation side, allowed us to really focus on the things we needed to think about and not worry about the transactions. Implementations are never perfect, but any challenges we came across, North49 was there the entire way. They always had check points with us to make sure that the quality of our data remained intact and they maintained an incredible amount of patience and perseverance with us. Quality was more important than quantity, and while it took some time, it was worth all the time it needed. We had many different layers to our implementation and North49 was there the entire way.
Our discussion covered more details about the journey, the role of the finance leader and modern solutions, and a way of thinking needed today. To see the full discussion, take a few minutes to watch and listen here. We’re confident you’ll be able to relate to the conversation and invite you to reach out to us to have your own conversation with one of our experts.
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