The Artesis College decided at the end of last year to make an evaluation of the existing software within the organization with the aim of reaching a better management of the facilities services, prevention and financial administration. A first point of interest concerned contract management. The lack of an active, structured management is costing enormous amounts of money to companies. Negotiating and concluding agreements takes unnecessarily long, contracts are tacitly renewed without updating of agreements, discounts are missed, etc.

For Artesis contract management is therefore a first logical step in developing a revamped Management Information System. The existing solution, developed in MS access, was not sufficient for the challenges the organization was facing. Also the existing software for work order management didn’t produce enough added value according to the customer and needed replacement.

Artesis selected MCS because of its comprehensive features related to financial processing and contract management, with a focus on real estate-related agreements. There is also much appreciation that with myMCS departments can’t consult contracts of other departments.

Some of the other points important to Artesis:

• Artesis employees are able to establish themselves the configuration and future modifications in the standard software
• Powerful reporting based on tree structures related to cost category, location, organization, ...
• Access to future upgrades without costs for adapting or testing the software.
• Short implementation period

Today already ten Artesis users have started using myMCS Contract Management and myMCS Financials. The intention is to manage both external and internal contracts (i.e. between the colleges). These data are transferred by means of an interface to the accounting system for additional ease of use.

In a 2nd stage, as from 2010, the aim is to enlarge the user group to 20 employees. Furthermore myMCS WorkOrders will be integrated to automate the work order management and to make it more efficient.