BLUEPRINT: AMEGY BANK OF TEXAS

THE EFFICIENCY EQUATION
The Building Partner
Amegy Bank of Texas is one of the largest and fastest growing regional banking institutions in Texas.

+ Surveying the Project
As Amegy Bank experienced exponential growth, their need for a flexible and efficient purchasing system was critical to position them for future growth and maximize efficiency in the organization. Amegy Bank was already utilizing Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains combined with Microsoft's integrated web-based electronic requisition system for internal procurement throughout the organization. The system was deployed by an out-of-state partner but Amegy did not feel that the system was configured to meet their needs. The Rand Group (TRG) began by perforing a complete review of the business processes to identify specific requirements, and assisted Amegy in prioritizing the deployment based on return on investment.

+ Drafting the Blueprint
The Rand Group carefully reviewed the business process interactions between the Purchasing and Accounting departments and identified several key requirements. First the requirement to distribute taxes and freight charges across multiple cost centers. Second, the allocation of tax and freight for internal assets purchased was not automatically entered in the Fixed Asset tracking module. The third requirement identified the need customize the web-based integrated requisition system and Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains to track internal project information from the point of requisition to the final invoice of the expense.

+The Microsoft Building Blocks
The Rand Group, using Amegy Bank's existing Microsoft Business Solutions system, developed and deployed automation and functionality that streamlined the business system to match the business processes of the Purchasing and Accounting departments.

+ The Rand Group Expertise
The Rand Group's enhancements provided added efficiency to the high volume transaction flow facilitating faster processing time per transaction and resulting in substantial productivity gains by Amegy Bank personnel. Amegy can easily capture and leverage expense information related to internal projects to improve budgeting capabilities.

= Measurable Results
The efficiency improvements at Amegy carried over into a greater return on investment. With the time spent manually distributing costs across cost-centers eliminated, Amegy personnel were able to reduce the transaction entry process by 30% while gaining the financial accuracy of an automated process. With the automation of tax and freight charges added, the actual landed cost of the internal assets could be tracked more accurately. The ability to capture specific expenses related to internal bank projects has enabled Amegy to achieve greater budgetary accountability across our departments.