The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is a national, not-for-profit organisation committed to developing a sustainable property industry for Australia by encouraging the adoption of green building practices. It offers education, technical manuals and certification programs with the aim of integrating green initiatives into mainstream design, construction and operation of buildings.
Established in 2002 in the middle of an economic boom and at a time of growing green-consciousness, GBCA had to grow up quickly. Property industry interest in sustainability information saw GBCA’s turnover grow from just $450,000 in its first year to approximately $9.5 million in 2011. The company’s financial needs were becoming much more complex than the existing financial management software could cope with. The number of transactions was stretching the system’s capabilities. Functionality to report and analyse individual cost centres was limited, leading to a heavy reliance on Microsoft Excel. Worse, the lack of integration to core business applications meant staff were continually re-keying or duplicating data across different systems.
GBCA realised that the software would have to be replaced, but with the world’s economies on the verge of a global financial crisis, it was another two years before they could act. After evaluating half a dozen different financial software, GBCA selected Microsoft Dynamics GP. To deploy the software, GBCA turned to Professional Advantage because of their strong reputation and presence in the major capital cities.
