Windward Consulting
Customer Success Story
Windward Consulting unifies 500+ clients globally and gains 24/7 visibility with Certinia
By deploying Certinia on Salesforce, Windward Consulting connected cross-functional teams to optimize long-term revenue forecasting and centralize global IT services operations.
Summary
Windward Consulting partnered with Certinia to support organizational growth without expanding lengthy manual tasks. By deploying Certinia Professional Services (PS) Cloud alongside Certinia Accounting and Revenue Recognition & Forecasting, the firm successfully replaced isolated information divisions with a unified system. As a result, Windward established a system that allows leadership to perform tasks with total confidence.
Bio
Windward Consulting helps the world's largest companies manage operational risks and drive successful business outcomes. They deliver high-quality professional and IT services, focusing on technological integration and operational excellence.
Industry
Company Size
Small (250+ employees)
Results
Standardizing operations with Certinia solutions helped Windward Consulting build an integrated, highly transparent business management system.
The challenge for Windward Consulting
Breaking down operational visibility gaps
As a fast-growing professional services business, Windward Consulting faced operational friction from localized technology systems. Having multiple business units made it difficult for leadership to identify risks and manage financial performance.
Their primary pain points were:
- Disjointed accounting software: Having separate financial tools isolated transaction history from active project workflows.
- Organizational silos: Valuable business information was trapped across distinct finance, sales, and delivery departments.
- Unreliable forecasting: Distributed data pools made it highly difficult to confidently predict opportunities and risks over coming quarters.
- Threatened cash flow: Leadership required a reliable method to manage collections efficiently and minimize day sales outstanding (DSO).
- Misaligned growth metrics: The organization struggled to align all employees around standardized targets for profitability and business growth.
- Heavy manual tax: Extracting business insights from disparate data sources required hiring additional IT and back-office staff.
To solve these issues, Windward Consulting required an end-to-end system capable of delivering complete data transparency leading them to Certinia.
Revenue forecasting is one of the biggest things that we do. Pulling data from our opportunities in sales and analyzing what the forecast is going to look like for revenue over the next 12 months is hugely critical for us.
How Certinia helps Windward Consulting
Unifying critical front- and back-office functions
Windward Consulting integrated its business operations by using Salesforce CRM alongside Certinia ERP and PS Cloud. This unified platform cleared cross-functional teams from wasting hours of manual data entry by automating workflows. In turn, Windward gained a view of its operations, providing leadership with the visibility required to drive predictable growth.
Eliminating silos
By standardizing on one business application with Salesforce CRM, Certinia ERP Cloud, and Professional Services (PS) Cloud, Windward has reduced IT costs and gained a complete picture of the business. This links core opportunities to downstream execution, entirely removing data sync errors.
Enforcing truth
Windward's CEO implemented a strict "no Microsoft Excel" policy across operations. Though initially controversial with staff, the policy encourages the use of dynamic, live reports and actionable analytics.
Maximizing project profitability
Digital transformation at Windward has allowed the business to more easily improve project profitability. Access to precise parameters ensures that project managers can execute effective adjustments to keep margins secure.
Driving data accessibility
Sean McDermott, CEO, sees Windward's digital transformation as a success in large part because he achieved his goal of integrating technologies across the business and opening up access to the data residing in those systems.
Certinia's impact on Windward Consulting
- Certinia unified the entire organization around business growth and profitability targets that drive leadership decisions.
- Achieved a complete 360-degree view across live sales opportunities, project backlogs, and detailed contract terms.
- Maximized client satisfaction while protecting cash flow and minimizing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).
Unify resources, projects, and financials on a Salesforce-native PSA platform
Create high-impact results with data-driven insights. To see Certinia PSA in action, schedule a demo today.
