Gatesway Foundation Makes Leap to Cloud Hosted ERP
Using TierPoint’s Multitenant Cloud, Anchor provides their Microsoft Dynamics ERP business solution to Gatesway Foundation.
Introduction
The Gatesway Foundation, founded in 1963 in Tulsa, OK, provides housing, job training, and other services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Like many nonprofits, it struggled to keep IT infrastructure up to date. After an organizational reboot in 2018, it became clear that outdated technology was a barrier to growth. Partnering with Dallas-based Anchor Group, a boutique business consulting firm specializing in ERP solutions, the Gatesway Foundation has moved from a patchwork of legacy IT infrastructure to cloud-based ERP applications. In the process, The Anchor Group has expanded its services to include technology solutions based on TierPoint’s multitenant cloud.
Challenges
In many nonprofits, mission-critical spending comes first and investments in technology often come last. That pattern came to a head for the Gatesway Foundation when a long-feared server crash occurred, and data was lost. Gatesway turned to a trusted partner, The Anchor Group, to reimagine their IT infrastructure and business processes.
The Anchor Group, founded in 2007, offers managed services for the Small Business Market. As a Microsoft Dynamics GP reseller, they use the platform to offer a variety of ERP services, from financial reporting and budgeting to planning and business development. “More and more of our clients were asking for cloud-based solutions, for better reliability, more uptime, and less involvement in the day-to-day management of IT on-premise. Implementing and managing data centers isn’t our strong suit. We wanted a trusted technology partner to expand our services and we found that in TierPoint,” said Geoff Detrich, managing partner at The Anchor Group.
Solutions
Rather than continuing to invest in a patchwork of unstable legacy systems, Gatesway Foundation decided to make the leap to cloud-based services.
The Anchor Group, with TierPoint’s assistance, mapped out a cloud migration strategy for each of the Gatesway Foundation’s applications. This was a complex task, due to the mix of legacy systems that had been acquired and updated over many years. Gatesway Foundation operates three distinct divisions – Community Services, Residential Services, and Business Administration – each with different needs and processes.
In addition to taking inventory of the legacy systems, the migration process included analyzing how all the applications and systems interacted with each other. Moving to a cloud-hosted solution offered new opportunities for integration, which became part of the strategy.
Results
By moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud, Gatesway Foundation has significantly reduced its reliance on local legacy systems. Worries about maintaining IT equipment, ensuring system reliability and keeping data secure are a thing of the past. With TierPoint’s redundant infrastructure and dedicated personnel, Gatesway Foundation can depend on 24/7/365 availability of its applications and 99.9% uptime.
Operationally, moving to the cloud has helped Gatesway deliver its financial information much more rapidly, improving month-end reporting and overall financial management. Cloud-based applications have enabled better access by employees, who can now work remotely, and smoother collaborations because everyone is working with the same applications and versions. Gatesway Foundation also has a high confidence level in their data’s security and recovery in case of disaster.
TierPoint’s multitenant cloud solution enables the Anchor Group to take advantage of future business opportunities as companies increase their reliance on computing in the cloud. Having TierPoint as a technology partner allows Anchor Group to focus on its core ERP business while adding depth with technology services.
For both Gatesway Foundation and Anchor Group, investing in cloud solutions is a strategic decision that positions the organizations for future growth.
At A Glance
Industry
Nonprofit/Human Services
Technology
Multitenant Cloud
Challenge
Outdated IT infrastructure threatened data security and limited efficiency throughout the organization.
Solution
Based on TierPoint’s multitenant cloud solution, The Anchor Group designed and implemented a migration to a cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics GP platform.
Results
Cloud-hosted services enable Gatesway to work more effectively and efficiently, both on-site and remotely. The new system allows timely updates, better integration across all enterprise resource planning applications, more uptime, and better data security.
Website
anchorgrp.com
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