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ARCTIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYCUSTOMER SOLUTION CASE STUDYNon-Profit Organization Improves ReportingProcesses by Switching to Microsoft DynamicsCustomer: Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc.Web Site: www.citci.comEmployees: 300 Constituents: 12,000Location: Anchorage, AlaskaIndustry: Social ServicesPartner: Arctic Information Technology- Amy Fredeen, Chief Financial Officer, CITCCustomer ProfileCook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc. (CITC) providessocial, educational and employment servicesto Alaska Natives and Native Americans livingin the Cook Inlet region. Established in 1983by Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) as a nonprofitsocial services organization, CITC administers35 culturally appropriate programs designedto assist individuals and families achieve theirendless potential. These programs serve anaverage of 12,000 Alaska Natives and NativeAmericans annually.Product Solutions “We have very stringent reporting requirements due tothe receipt of government stimulus funds, and weneeded a complete system that enabled us to complywith those requirements. We also needed a partnerwho understood how grants and accounting work in anon-profit agency.”Microsoft Dynamics GP Financials - 26 usersMicrosoft Dynamics Purchase OrderMicrosoft Dynamics PayrollMicrosoft FRxArctic IT Grant Revenue ReceivablesArctic IT Indirect Revenue RecoveryIntegrity Data Payroll EnhancementsMekorma MICRBusiness NeedsCook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc. (CITC) provides social, educationaland employment services to Alaska Natives and Native Americansliving in the Cook Inlet region and needed an integrated, industryleading software solution to quickly and accurately process theirpayroll, provide daily company financial reports, and monthlycompliance reports they could submit to the governmentalagencies. CITC engaged with Arctic IT, a Microsoft Gold CertifiedPartner, to quickly replace their outdated accounting system.With an aggressive timeline of just 4 months, Arctic ITimplemented and trained CITC on Microsoft Dynamics GP givingthem the control and oversight that they needed to grow theirorganization’s capabilities, allowing them to better serve their12,000 constituents.www.arcticit.com 907.261.9500

“We needed a company whounderstood how grants andaccounting work in a non-profitagency.”By the Numbers:BudgetEmployees# of Companies# of Grants# of Users19974.5M15-201504200943M30056526“One of the strengths ofthe entire process was thatArctic IT mapped out ourimplementation processreally well. They did notmiss a thing.”SituationSolutionEstablished in 1983, CITC administers35 culturally appropriate programsdesigned to assist individuals andfamilies achieve their endlesspotential. Offering a variety of socialservices under five main divisions ofchild and family services, communityshared services, educational servicessystem, employment and trainingservices, and recovery services, CITCserves an average of 12,000 AlaskaNative and Native Americans annually.Eager to grow and expand, CITC metand engaged with Arctic IT toimplement Microsoft Dynamics GP.CITC was initially referred to Arctic ITby their auditor. Arctic IT then invitedCITC to a conference where CITC wasable to speak with another Arctic ITcustomer that had previously usedFundware and was now usingMicrosoft Dynamics GP. Thisconversation helped to confirm thatMicrosoft Dynamics GP and Arctic ITwere the right combination for CITC.The implementation plan was mappedout in December 2008 and the workstarted on January 1st. CITC was live byMay 1st.CITC had been operating withFundware software since 1997, butfound that the softwarecould not handle the necessarycapacity. On any given day the systemwould break down, not allowing themto cut checks for example. Also,Fundware kept getting sold to a newowner (now BlackBaud InternetSolutions), which created a lack oflocal customer support and consistenttechnical support. CITC could not getthe assistance needed when thesystem was down or get the upgradesto install properly.Given the constraints of Fundware,CITC filled the gaps by using Excelspreadsheets and other internallycreated manual processes which was atime consuming and frustratingsystem. With the volume of customersthat they were providing services to,CITC realized that in order for them tocontinue to grow and service theircommunity, they needed not only areliable and robust system, but areliable and knowledgeable partnerthat they could work with.2www.arcticit.com 907.261.9500Although it was four months of hardwork, the extensive preparation upfront to map out the implementationplan was well worth it. Melissa Wolfe,Director of Accounting for CITCcommented that “Jackson Lum,Project Manager for Arctic IT, was a“slave driver” at times, which ensuredthat the entire project was on timeand on budget. There was a big sigh ofrelief and joy when the first payroll ranand the first AP checks were issuedwithout a hitch.”The CITC solution fromMicrosoft Dynamics, Arctic ITand its ISV partners include: Microsoft Dynamics GP financials,purchase order and payroll to replacethe antiquated Fundware solution. Microsoft FRx for financialstatements, reporting on budget vs.actual expenses, and encumbrancereporting.

Like most non-profitagencies, CITC maintains alarge database of clientsand employees and mustbe able to provide accuratecompliance and financialreports quickly.“We were so used toworking outside ofFundware, it did not occurto us all the ways we coulduse Microsoft DynamicsGP, giving us a completesolution.”Grant Revenue Receivables is asoftware tool created by Arctic IT thatautomates the creation of revenueand receivables entries based off theclient’s expenses. The tool allows CITCto forgo manually inputting extensivegrant data for each of their 65 grants. Indirect Revenue Recovery is asoftware tool for non-profitorganizations created by Arctic IT thatautomatically generates financialentries based upon CITC’s differentindirect cost recovery rates. Integrity Data Payroll ExpenseSplits and PTO Manager providesunlimited flexibility to track andmanage leave time benefits. Thesoftware allows CITC to savesignificant time with mass updating,balance sharing and transfers. CITCalso uses Employee Accounts andSplits from Integrity Data which allowsCITC to split an employee’s expensesacross multiple departments andgrants. Mekorma MICR enables CITC tomanage multiple checking accounts ina secure manner, add sorting andconfigurations capabilities, and toincrease security around the checkprinting function.BenefitsRobust core financial capabilitieswith automated processesThe differences between the formerFundware solution and MicrosoftDynamics GP were evident from thebeginning. “We were so used toworking outside of Fundware it didnot occur to us all the ways we coulduse Microsoft Dynamics GP, giving us acomplete solution”, states Melissa3www.arcticit.com 907.261.9500Wolfe. CITC was able to dispense withthe manual processes and automatethe core accounting and businessmanagement functions, as well asintegrate some functions with theappropriate ISV solutions. The ISVsolutions were specifically selected tohelp CITC establish routine proceduresthat didn’t consume precious time andto streamline their standard daily/weekly/monthly processes.Improved reporting processesWith Microsoft FRx, financial reportingdata is pulled directly from the generalledger and reduces error-pronedouble entry. CITC uses dimensionalreporting to report on differentdepartments without having torewrite the financial report. By usingthe security in Microsoft FRx, CITC canemail departmental reports toappropriate mangers. This enablesthem to make well informed decisionsto positively impact CITC as a whole.Reports can be scheduled or createdon an ad-hoc basis.For non-financial reporting, CITC usesSQL Reporting Services to expand itsoperational reporting. CITC is able tochoose from over 60 reports and 13report models that are built on SQLServer Reporting Services. SQL ServerReporting Services (SRS) pulls the datadirectly from Microsoft Dynamics GP10.0. These reports are published on atimely basis so all appropriate staff cananalyze specific projects and tasksagainst business goals. SRS is flexible,so as CITC grows and their reportingneeds change they still have areporting solution that will work.

“Arctic IT’s training is soorganized, they made it soeasy for us to learn. Veryimpressive.”As a non-profit, CITC is dependentupon grants and other similar sourcesof revenue. They are now able to beprepared for stimulus funds from thegovernment by having the reportingcapabilities through MicrosoftDynamics GP. With more control andoversight they can also be eligible foradditional funds as they becomeavailable.“Matt Borkowski, Sr. Consultant forArctic IT, has sped up our processesand our ability to generate reports byassisting us in creating reports usingMicrosoft FRx.” Melissa Wolfe.Process improvement with customdevelopment software“We chose Arctic ITbecause they understoodboth accounting and ITrequirements.”As with many non-profits, CITC hasspecific compliance requirements, andspecific accounting processes thatmust be followed. Arctic IT pulledtogether their team of experienceddevelopers to produce tailoredsoftware to meet the needs of thisnon-profit. With Grant RevenueReceivables and Indirect RevenueRecovery, the development team wasable to add significant value to theexisting capabilities of the softwaresolutions to meet the needs of CITC.Improved collaboration betweenHR and PayrollA great benefit of the MicrosoftDynamics solution is that CITC nolonger worries about the systemcrashing and consequently, the needto write payroll checks manually. With300 employees, any system downtimewas a significant (and stressful)4www.arcticit.com 907.261.9500problem. They can now handle theinflux of staff and complete the payrollruns with speed and accuracy. Underthe Fundware system, processing wastime consuming and prone to systemerrors. Now, with Microsoft DynamicsGP, the processing is morestreamlined with the detailedreporting, GL posting capability, andability to easily create an export filesuch as a 401K file for upload usingSmartList is easily done. CITC isplanning on implementing a time andattendance software application aspart of Phase II of the project whichwill further streamline collection oftime and erase the need to enterhours into Microsoft Dynamics GP toprocess payroll.Common interface of MicrosoftproductsMicrosoft Dynamics GP has a tightintegration to other Microsoftproducts such as Office 2007 andMicrosoft SQL Server 2008. Whenprinting reports to the screen, theycan be emailed in PDF format toothers at CITC. CITC is now able tomanage information from withinOutlook. Using SmartTagsfunctionality, an employee can drillback to the account and see thecurrent balance right from an email.Reporting, budgeting, and forecastingis no longer exhaustive and timeconsuming. SmartList allows users tocreate ad-hoc reports on the fly andthen export to Excel with one click ofa button. Now, CITC can shareMicrosoft Dynamics data with nonsystem users by using Excel andOutlook. It is also noteworthy to