Connected foundation extends CSS’ life-changing impact

Bringing hope to people in need with humility, compassion and respect is the mission of Catholic Social Services (CSS). This faith-based organization has cared for vulnerable people in and around Alberta for 60-plus years.

As one of Canada’s largest social services providers, CSS affects more than 20,000 lives annually, including newcomers to Canada, people with disabilities and children, individuals and families. Through services like domestic abuse shelters, immigration settlement services and counselling, CSS enhances lives and strengthens families.

Since their communities’ needs are expanding, CSS sought ways to extend their life-changing impact and deliver new services. Their aging technology infrastructure, however, wasn’t up to the task. Disparate tools created data silos, manual work and other inefficiencies that inhibited their staff’s ability to focus on mission-critical work. To move forward, CSS needed to transform.

Connecting technology to reach more people in need

CSS faced two distinct challenges in their quest to transform digitally. First, they needed to infuse the right leading-edge, cloud-based tools into their tech stack. Second, they needed help with technology integration so that they could build a connected foundation that would move their mission forward. To achieve both goals, CSS chose to work with RSM.

To get started, RSM advisors evaluated CSS’ current tech landscape, which included Microsoft Dynamics GP for financial management along with other disparate and disconnected systems.

After the evaluation, RSM began upgrading CSS’ essential business tools, using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as the foundation. With Business Central, CSS benefited from a cloud-based enterprise resource management (ERP) system that included upgraded financial reporting capabilities.

RSM integrated Business Central into Dayforce (formerly Ceridian), CSS’ human capital management (HCM) system. Almost immediately, CSS accelerated their accounts payable (AP) cycle through smoother workflows and automated processes.

“General journals and expense calculations are easier to manage since we don’t need to type each entry anymore,” says Trevor Mireau, chief financial officer of CSS. “Dimensional accounting is also a great improvement, because it allows us to budget and report differently than we could before.”

Next, RSM advisors worked with CSS to also integrate Solver—a corporate performance management (CPM) solution for business planning and reporting—into CSS’ Dayforce instance. “With our Solver integration, our budget owners can analyze their reports at a granular level and understand financial statements all the way down to the transaction level,” Mireau says.

Finally, to help CSS optimize its services, RSM began implementing and integrating all these solutions with Salesforce and MuleSoft. CSS will leverage the Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) platform for case management while using MuleSoft for integration and API management.

The road ahead

By deploying and implementing a technologically advanced, holistic business management system, RSM enabled CSS to gain a complete view of their organization. Now, CSS has the tools they need to revolutionize AP, reduce overhead and drive efficiency.

“With Business Central, data entry is easier,” Mireau says. “The document attachment tool saves us time during audits, and check runs are smoother. Also, we can easily tweak working papers and push them into Business Central, giving us better reporting and internal controls while also saving us time on month-end processes.”

Even better, by gaining real-time insight into their programs, CSS can strengthen their existing services and even deliver new offerings to the thousands of Albertans who need their help the most.