The Social Hub

Scaling without boundaries: one implementation for unlimited growth.

The highlights of this case:

4 new systems implemented simultaneously

Standardized processes to enable 4 times larger growth

More efficient reporting process for finance

The project

The Social Hub (formerly known as The Student Hotel) was founded in 2012 with the idea of helping students achieve their goals by providing quality spaces for learning, staying, working, and making connections. The current model has evolved into a community where people can live, work, meet, be inspired, and dine. The current 13 locations are spread across 6 countries. The goal is to double the number of hubs within 5 years and operate in at least 8 countries.

We started with the ERP system as the foundation of the IT landscape. Once the foundation was established, we implemented the other IT solutions gradually. Kyriba for treasury management, Tagetik for consolidation, and finally, Yooz for the procurement and invoice approval process.

The challenge

New IT systems were necessary for The Social Hub because the previous solutions couldn't scale to accommodate more countries with more hubs. There were multiple systems active in multiple countries, and it became impossible to consolidate and maintain them.

TSH chose a new IT landscape for the future, ensuring that the systems would not be a bottleneck for future growth.

The biggest challenge was implementing more than 50 entities in 6 countries with 4 systems simultaneously. Designing multiple processes that work for all countries and entities, conducting extensive data conversion, and getting users accustomed to multiple new systems and processes at once.

The TSH organization is young, operates in multiple countries, and employees have little to no experience with implementations. We started with the ERP as the foundation of the IT landscape. Once the foundation was in place, we gradually implemented the other IT solutions: Kyriba for treasury management, Tagetik for consolidation, and Yooz for the procurement and invoice approval process.

The approach

Together with multiple process owners, we created a plan for which systems and processes would be implemented in the first phase.

Our role in this project was mainly to challenge TSH to think about whether something was necessary at that moment and if it could be simplified. By staying as close to the standard as possible and breaking the implementation down into smaller parts, the project became manageable.

An important success factor for this project was providing users with access to the (test) systems as soon as possible. This brought the processes to life and allowed project members to make better decisions and take control of the system earlier.

The foundation of this IT landscape is the ERP system, NetSuite. Throughout the project, all possible improvements have been identified and prioritized with the management, and they are now being addressed step by step.