Digital Transformation Consulting Calgary Business Case Study

Here’s a glance at the numbers:

Below are the implementations and full ROI breakdown.

This particular client was growing around 30% a year and had just acquired a competitor, but the back-office systems supporting that growth were built for a much smaller company. Multiple disconnected software tools, manual data entry between them, and financial reporting that took days to complete.

The combination of real growth and aging systems is exactly the situation where digital transformation consulting helps support growing businesses in Calgary.

For this client, the engagement covered five areas we uncovered. For this particular case study, we did not include marketing or advertising work, just the operational and technology side of the business:

1. Operating/manufacturing software optimization: comparing shortlisted platforms (including MRPEasy, Katana MRP, and ERPAG) against the client’s actual job-costing, inventory, and production-tracking needs
2. Financial software optimization: moving off a legacy accounting system that didn’t integrate with anything, toward QuickBooks Online Advanced
3. Software integration: connecting the new operating and financial systems so data only has to be entered once
4. Cybersecurity optimization: a full assessment against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
5. Cloud and Microsoft 365 optimization: cleaning up SharePoint, fixing backup gaps, and improving how the team collaborates day to day

Here’s the cost breakdown from this project, covering the software, integration, and security work only (excluding any marketing spend):

For this client, we modelled labour savings by department to calculate how many hours per week each role got back once manual, duplicate-entry work was eliminated by the new systems.

Labour Savings and ROI

Here is the projected labour savings for this case study:

Set against the $124,990 spent in year one on the IT-specific work above, there is a return of roughly 5.06x before factoring in adding back-office headcount.

When projected out six years, the cumulative labour savings from the IT transformation work came out to $2.74 million against the six-year technology investment of about $583,940.

Cybersecurity should always be a priority when integrating new technology into your business. When we ran this client’s environment against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, they passed 11 of 21 criteria and failed 10. That’s not unusual for a company that’s been growing quickly and hasn’t had time to formalize IT policy, but it is a real exposure that enhances online risks within your organization.

The recommendations that came out of that assessment were specific and immediately actionable:

• Password management software enforcing long, unique passwords per account
• Multi-factor authentication on every account
• Cloud-to-cloud backup for the Microsoft 365 tenant
• Anti-ransomware protection
• Monthly security awareness training
• Simulated phishing tests

These recommendations are foundational cybersecurity policies. But foundational policies are often skipped when a company is focused on growing.

For this client, Microsoft 365 was never set up properly. SharePoint had grown organically without structure, backup data was scattered across an inconsistent mix of local and cloud storage, and nobody had clear training on file permissions or group access.

The fixes included:

• A new, properly structured SharePoint site with a clear migration plan for old data
• Cloud-to-cloud backup so the entire tenant is actually recoverable
• Short training videos stored directly in SharePoint for staff onboarding
• A shift toward the web version of Office apps for real-time collaboration and lower data-loss risk

Digital transformation consulting is the strategic work that involves assessing your current systems, comparing software options, mapping out an integration and implementation plan, and calculating the expected return. It’s a project with a defined scope and endpoint.

Managed IT Services is the ongoing support that comes after and provides the day-to-day monitoring, help desk, and maintenance that keeps everything running once the transformation plan has been implemented.

Most companies need both, but they’re not the same engagement, and a good consulting partner should be upfront about which one you actually need first.

Because ERP and manufacturing software decisions are expensive to get wrong, this project involved a structured comparison rather than a single recommendation pulled from a vendor pitch. The shortlist for operating/manufacturing software included MRPEasy, Katana MRP, and ERPAG, each scored on user reviews, flexibility (API and marketplace integrations), feature depth, and price. On the financial side, the client’s legacy accounting software didn’t integrate with any of the shortlisted operating platforms, which made QuickBooks Online Advanced the clear recommendation once a Virtual CFO’s existing familiarity with the platform was factored in.

Digital transformation consulting allows organizations to free up time, increase efficiency and increase revenue.  In this case: $124,990 invested in year one against $548,900 in annual labour savings, plus a materially stronger cybersecurity posture and a cloud environment the team can actually trust.

If you’re a Calgary-area business trying to figure out whether a similar project makes sense for you, Tursa Group can walk through the same kind of assessment. From software, integrations, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions, we show you the numbers before you commit to anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tursa Group is an IT company specializing in consulting and digital transformation services in Calgary Alberta, and across Canada.