CST The Gate
CST The Gate is a £17m turnover full service 
creative agency located in St Katharine’s Dock in London. The business is part of MSQ Partners Ltd, with offices in Edinburgh, The Channel Islands, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
They support a number of high profile brands within the consumer, business to business and not-for-profit sectors and they employ over seventy staff.
Background
Financial Director Rebecca Wemyss, and her colleague Ameena Allen, Financial Controller, manage the accounting team at CST The Gate. Ameena explained that prior to considering Paprika they were experiencing some issues with their previous accounting system and this was effecting their management reporting processes.
‘We were using a system that was inflexible and failed to report when we needed extra information. We were having to rely upon manual management reporting…estimating and deferred/accrued income had to be done manually which caused duplication of work and unreliable information’.
‘Traffic was also an area we wanted to plan more efficiently. The timesheet system was not user friendly, so our records were incomplete. There were no controls to enforce this, so (the old system) didn’t show us a full picture of time spent which made reporting very difficult’.
Solution
Ameena and Rebecca considered the features they required for a replacement system. ‘A fully integrated alternative would benefit the agency hugely. We were looking for a flexible and user-friendly timesheet input, including remote access and a reminder service. We also needed an efficient and detailed resource planning solution for our traffic planning, with processes to link all our departments together’.
After a competitive pitch Paprika was selected, and the business team commenced the detailed implementation phase. The process of getting the information from the existing system into Paprika presented some challenges. ‘The job was bigger and more time consuming than we expected, but once this was achieved the remaining stages went well’.
Ameena is clear that Paprika has brought a number of benefits to the agency. ‘Over the last 7 months we have found Paprika works well for us. The implementation team made the transition as smooth as possible. Any teething problems with reporting and processes have been resolved or are being resolved satisfactorily’.
Results
‘The system has allowed us to analyse the performance of our business with much greater accuracy as well as ensuring improved agency integration. This is very useful for strategic decision-making. Everyone is able to use the system, so the billing process is managed much more efficiently, as is our response to client requests. Paprika allows us to integrate all the financial information ensuring high accuracy of monthly reporting and simplified month end processing.’