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Source Media
Source Media: Creating a Business Management Infrastructure
to Support Complex, International Operations
Source Media, previously known as ThomsonMedia is a leading
provider of information and software tools for professionals
in the financial services and related technologies market
segment. More than 750,000 clients worldwide use SourceMedia’s
offerings, which include American Banker and The Bond Buyer
publications as well as payment and risk management software
products. The company is headquartered in New York and has
offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and London.
Similar to several other InterDyn AKA clients, SourceMedia
needed to acquire its own business management system after
it became an independent entity through a spin-off by its
former parent company, The Thomson Corporation. Thomson
used PeopleSoft, and SourceMedia reviewed PeopleSoft, MAS
500, and Microsoft Dynamics GP as strong candidates for
an ERP system. The company looked for a solution that would
deliver efficient, dependable financial management, including
multi-currency capability and inter-company processing.
At the onset of their divesture there was a required need
to separate SourceMedia from their parent company in all
areas including infrastructure support as well as shared
services provided in human resources and accounts payable/general
ledger system. The Thomson PeopleSoft system was heavily
customized and a PeopleSoft to PeopleSoft transition plan
was not a feasible option since the necessary functional
requirements were supported by the parent system and the
user licenses. In addition, implementation, services and
annual maintenance fees were not proportional to the revenue
and human resource size of SourceMedia. SourceMedia also
faced a very aggressive deliverable due to the transition
and their core financials needed to be live in just 4 months.
In order to meet SourceMedia’s functional requirements
and aggressive timeline, InterDyn AKA leveraged their expertise
in the media and publishing sector and their extensive experience
in Tier 1 replacements including several PeopleSoft migration
projects. InterDyn AKA’s demonstrated knowledge and proficiency
in these two areas allowed the SourceMedia selection team
to quickly gain confidence in the fact that their needs
would be fully addressed with the newly proposed solution.
A key success factor for a successful implementation was
the fact that the InterDyn AKA consulting team had the dedication
to understand the business, the responsiveness to recommend
the appropriate solutions and ultimately the ability and
experience to implement a product that was a much better
fit for the size of the organization. InterDyn AKA utilized
an implementation methodology specifically for these types
of projects. The process involved extensive planning sessions
with SourceMedia that resulted in a detailed project plan
and roadmap that was mutually reviewed and agreed to.
As a result, SourceMedia now runs a solution appropriate
to the size of their business and has not lost any needed
functionality. They achieved their objective of total independence
from Thomson Corporate for shared services, business systems
and infrastructure support and realizing an upfront cost
savings of more than $600,000 from switching off of the
corporate PeopleSoft system and now have automated processes,
workflows and controls that fit the best practices and business
requirements necessary to run their business efficiently.
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