Introductory Client Call Transcript: Nexus Corp - Project Financial Tracking Module Discovery
Date: June 17, 2025
Participants:


Alex Turner (Account Executive, Finelyte Solutions)


Maria Santos (Senior Consultant, Finelyte Solutionsp)


Sanjay Patel  (Technical Architect, Finelyte Solutions)


David Kim (Head of Project Management, Nexus Corp)


Emily Chen (Finance Director, Nexus Corp)


[09:30 AM]
AT: Good morning, David, Emily, Robert. Thanks for joining us today. We're really excited to discuss your needs around project financial tracking. Maria and Sanjay are here from our solutions and technical teams to ensure we capture everything accurately.
[09:31 AM]
DK: Good morning, Alex, Maria, Sanjay. Thanks for setting this up. We're eager to explore potential solutions. As Alex knows, our current approach to project financial management is... let's just say, highly manual and challenging.
[09:32 AM]
MS: Understood, David. To start, could you perhaps walk us through your biggest pain points or frustrations with the current process? What does an ideal state look like for you?
[09:33 AM]
DK: Absolutely. Our biggest pain point right now is simply knowing where we stand financially on our large-scale projects. We're constantly behind on tracking actual spend against our approved budgets. It's all manual, in spreadsheets, and by the time we compile it, the data's already stale. This makes it impossible to react quickly if a project is overrunning costs. We often don't realize we're significantly over budget until it's too late in a project phase.
[09:35 AM]
EC: Exactly. From Finance's side, we need real-time visibility. I'm talking about actuals, commitments (like purchase orders that haven't been invoiced yet), and forecasts, all in one place, tied to specific project codes. And it's crucial that this data can be easily reconciled with our existing Oracle ERP system. Manual data entry is not an option for integration; we process thousands of transactions daily. We also need to be able to generate summary reports for our executive board on a monthly basis, clearly showing variances, and we need drill-down capabilities into the underlying data.
[09:38 AM]
RD: From a PM's perspective, I need simplicity. I don't want to become an accountant. I just need to quickly see my project's current burn rate and how much budget is remaining for each task, and easily log my time or forecast future expenses for my team directly into the system without complex workflows. A simple dashboard would be ideal.
[09:40 AM]
MS: Thank you, that's very clear. So, if I'm understanding correctly, project managers need an intuitive way to input or see project costs flowing in, track them against budget, and finance needs robust reporting and seamless, automated integration with Oracle, correct? What about alerts for budget thresholds? Would that be valuable?
[09:41 AM]
DK: Yes, alerts would be fantastic! If we hit 80% of a budget for a task, or if our forecasted spend indicates we'll exceed the overall project budget, I'd want an automated notification. It helps us take proactive measures rather than reactive ones.
[09:42 AM]
EC: And security is paramount. Project managers should only see their projects' financials, perhaps a roll-up of other projects they oversee, but certainly not the granular financial details of unrelated projects. Finance, on the other hand, needs a broader, consolidated view across all projects, possibly with audit trails for changes.
[09:45 AM]
SP: Just to confirm on the Oracle integration, Emily. Are we talking about specific modules within Oracle, like GL, AP, and PO? And do you have preferences for integration methods, like APIs, SFTP for flat files, or direct database connections?
[09:46 AM]
EC: Primarily GL, AP, and PO. Ideally, a robust API would be our preference for real-time or near real-time data flow. We're looking for something that minimizes custom development on our side for ongoing maintenance.
[09:48 AM]
MS: Excellent. This gives us a really solid foundation. We'll take all this back and start drafting some preliminary user stories and solution concepts. Alex, are there any other general objectives or strategic goals Nexus Corp has for this type of system?
[09:49 AM]
DK: Ultimately, it's about reducing project overruns, improving our forecasting accuracy, and empowering our project managers with better tools. If we can achieve that, it significantly impacts our bottom line and operational efficiency. We're aiming for a pilot phase by the end of Q4 this year, if feasible.
[09:50 AM]
AT: That's a clear objective, David. We'll work to align with that timeline. We'll reconvene next week with some initial thoughts and a proposed high-level architecture. Thank you all for your time and feedback.
[10:00 AM]
DK: Thank you, Finelyte Solutions team. Looking forward to it.
[10:00 AM]
EC: Yes, thank you.
[10:01 AM]
RD: Cheers.
[10:01 AM]
Call Ends.