DiUS case study

The DiUS story

DiUS is an Australian product development consultancy specializing in deploying emerging tech to solve difficult problems, get new ideas to market & disrupt business models. The 160 strong, growing team serves clients varying from Startups to Enterprises. DiUS also have their own startups with Datarock being one of them.

For the last 18 years, and across 1013 projects, DiUS has helped 235 happy clients create business impact with innovation and technology. Their capabilities extend across the whole product development lifecycle. From an idea to design and build.

The challenge: Finding an agile vendor with mature software for the mid-market

A major challenge over the years, according to Emma Crowl, CFO at DiUS, has been finding the right software solution that is designed for the middle market. When it comes to ERP and finance software there tended to be software designed for either small businesses or for large corporate enterprises with not much in the middle.

At the point, that a business is ready to scale up from being a small business the needs of the business change, mature and become more complex.

“It had been really hard to find software that will meet your needs, and give you advanced features out of the box but with the flexibility to customise some features to meet your requirements, while still allowing you to stay agile and not over-governed by controls and processes. And all without a large price tag.” – Emma Crowl

Everything Connected

For DiUS, one of the Key features to strive for was that every system should talk to each other so that there is a seamless flow of information throughout the whole business cycle.

Efficiencies now and in the future

“DiUS has been in operation for around 18 years and has experienced great growth over this period, to the point our systems could no longer support the size and need of the business.” Says Clency Coutet, Director and co-founder of DiUS.

So it was important that a new system would support the business now and into the future, ensuring efficiencies and more reliable timely data to help make decisions more easily. Not to mention saving many hours a month reconciling different data points from multiple systems.

Making better decisions faster

DiUS being a consulting business, primarily focused on delivering Time and Material based projects, meant that Professional Services Automation was the most important part of the operating system.

Coutet: “Being able to manage all our projects in a consistent manner, have up to date information at a touch of a button and enable transparent across each of our head office teams is invaluable to us and will ensure we are able to have great confidence in the information we have to make decisions for our business and ensure we continue to grow.”

Why VOGSY?

Having built their own PSA platform many years ago, DiUS was looking for a SaaS ‘off the shelf’ solution to replace their end of life homegrown solution.

“VOGSY is for companies that are in that middle ground of company sizes.” says Crowl, “They are the ones that want to scale up; they need more complexity and maturity from their business operations, and they are able to gain customisations in areas that they do need, but also, be able to take best of practice to be able to grow their businesses.”

Future proof technology

DiUS was looking for a product built in the cloud using modern technologies that can grow and scale with them. A product built on a modern technical stack.

Coutet: “There is a lot of maturity and experience in VOGSY, but without any of the legacy that is commonly found with traditional vendors.”

User Experience improves cash flow

One key feature DiUS had been looking to replicate from the existing system was a process that enabled clients to be sent weekly timesheet reports that could be approved straight from the email without the client having to log in to a portal. This was key for DiUS clients’ smooth User Experience of approvals and invoicing and that, in turn, upheld healthy cash flow.

Emma Crowl: “We had a discovery call, where we stepped the VOGSY team through our existing process and what we asked them to develop. What was delivered to us by VOGSY in a really short time period, exceeded our expectations and ensured we didn’t miss a beat with our clients when we changed over systems.”

Never stop improving – together

What was important to DiUS was to have a partner that was interested in working with them to both help their business while also taking in helpful insights to enable them to grow their product.

“VOGSY’s willingness to work with us to deliver on additional features was very important” says Coutet, "It always felt like ‘Nothing was off the table’. They always are really open to hearing about suggestions on what features and additions it would be great to have in the Platform.”

The results:

Crowl is delighted:

“Six months ago it had felt like we would never find a solution, we had spent 2 years trying to find the right solution via more traditional ERP providers its been a painful and disheartening process, but as soon as I had found VOGSY on a Google search the path forward became much clear and we have been able to turn around the new system implementation in record short time!”

A seamless transition

According to both Crowl and Coutet, VOGSY’s approach and very clear desire to make the best product possible for their clients come across in every conversation.

“VOGSY was able to draw on knowledge of what other clients had done to help us find the right path forward to set the platform up in the best way for our business.

The implementation process is one of my favorites that I’ve ever been through. I’ve put a few systems into a few different companies over my years. And I can honestly say I really enjoyed the onboarding experience with VOGSY.”

From Quote to Cash: everything connected

“VOGSY gave us the best of both worlds, It provided us with a System that would allow a CRM to be integrated into VOGSY, while still having the CRM features within VOGSY to support managing projects from the quote being raised through resourcing, project management, timesheet entry, expense claims right through to the invoice being sent. All in the one spot.

This all then integrated seamlessly into our accounting system ensuring a full end to end solution and best of all it is integrated with Google making file and document management so much easier.”

Continuity and streamlining from day 1

Dius was able to change over systems without missing a beat with their clients or too much disruption to the operation of the business. User adoption was a breeze. VOGSY enabled DiUS to streamline many processes and reduce the amount of double-entry that was required.

The future

“We look forward to years of cooperation; onwards and upwards, with many more discussions on what feature builds could come next!!” Says Crowl. “And without a doubt, it probably goes without saying but I recommend VOGSY to anyone looking for a PSA system for scaling or medium businesses.”

“In particular, if you are able to leverage the great integrations with a CRM, Jira and Accounting system it ensures you are getting the best in class in each area without having to compromise.”