Customer Case: Intermax

How Intermax dramatically accelerated the monthly consolidation of 10 entities and gained a stronger grip on reliable financial insights.

Customer profile

Intermax is one of the few IT organizations in the Netherlands still fully owned by its founder — independent and authentic for over 30 years. The company helps organizations for whom the security and availability of data and applications are mission-critical to safeguard their digital continuity, using robust, proven technology. In addition, Intermax is part of a seven-party consortium working on the development of a sovereign Dutch cloud infrastructure.

Challenge

Intermax uses Exact Globe as its accounting package and has ten entities that need to be consolidated and reported to the management team every month.

Karel van den Bos and his six finance colleagues faced the same task each month: producing a reliable monthly report that gave management the right information and insights. At the same time, day-to-day financial processes had to run in a well-structured way, and ad-hoc questions needed quick and accurate answers.

With their existing mix of systems and Excel sheets, this was a time-consuming and error-prone process. Intermax was looking for a modern, efficient solution that would structurally improve the way they worked.

The solution with Smartbooks

Intermax chose Smartbooks for its simplicity and fast implementation. Karel describes it as “a no-brainer” after seeing the demo, in which 80–90% of his requirements were covered out of the box. The system was fully operational within two weeks, with only a minimal time investment from the Intermax team.

The flexibility of Smartbooks allowed the team to quickly integrate their existing chart of accounts into the platform. Standard reports were easily tailored to the company's specific needs, resulting in a user-friendly and efficient solution that delivered value from day one.

Improved insight

The monthly consolidation and reporting of ten entities is now significantly faster and simpler. Reports are more reliable and richer in insights, leaving more room for analysis and interpretation. As an added benefit, the team is far less dependent on Excel.

Efficiency gains

Producing the monthly reports goes considerably faster and requires less manual work. Thanks to built-in logic and controls, manual error-checking is no longer needed. The result: several days of time saved every month.

Confidence in the numbers

With standardized reports that are always up to date and directly accessible to the management team, confidence in both the numbers and the finance team itself has grown substantially.

Feedback from Intermax

The implementation went smoothly and without fuss. Karel was positively surprised by how quickly the system was set up and how independently his team was able to work with it.

“Don't turn the implementation into a big project, because it goes very fast. During the free trial month the entire setup is already completed and everything is ready to use,” says Karel van den Bos.

Recommendation

Karel wholeheartedly recommends Smartbooks to organizations that work with multiple entities and want to get a grip on their monthly consolidation and reporting. The combination of fast implementation, ease of use, and immediate time savings makes it a logical choice for any finance team ready to leave Excel behind.

Conclusion

Intermax shows how a smart, user-friendly solution like Smartbooks enables a finance team of seven to do more with less effort. With more reliable reports, a shorter lead time, and more time for analysis, Intermax has built a solid foundation for further growth — built on insight rather than spreadsheets.