Testimonials - Fort Mojave Indian Tribe
The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe controls over 33,000 acres in the Mojave Valley located in California, Arizona and Nevada. The Fort Mojave Indian Reservation is a tourist and retirement Mecca because of its recreational opportunities, affordable housing and outstanding desert scenery and climate. The foremost regional attraction is the Colorado River, which flows for 17 miles through the reservation and offers fishing, water skiing, boating and other water sports.
The tribe's location along the most important river in the Southwest placed the Mojave Indians at the crossroads of western American history. The shallow river afforded safe crossing for military wagon trains and American migrants that followed the California Trail through the rugged southern deserts. Historically, the Mojave Indians were prosperous farmers with well-established villages and trade networks with tribes as far away as the Pacific Ocean when the Spaniards first encountered them in the 18th century.
While the Mojave Indians have enjoyed their region for centuries, today the area is embraced by visitors and those wanting to make it their home. The tribe has many businesses and a great need for reliable financial management software.
The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe is a federally recognized sovereign Indian nation and stable tribal government that serves 750 adults and 700 children. As sovereign governments, tribes may pass legislation, set policy, levy taxes, enter into contracts, form corporations, issue bonds, control land use and provide social services. Tribal governments wear two hats, acting as both governing body and business enterprise.
Jim Robinett, controller for the tribe, says they must cope with many specific financial and project management reporting requirements, including dealing with various grants and 638 contracts with the federal government.
They needed Sage MIP Fund Accounting because they were struggling with up to 10 users on their system. Robinett said their main motive was to gain speed in processing transactions. Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage has done this for them.
"One of the things that we were looking for was a stable product operating in a network environment. Our main motive was trying to speed up the network system," Robinett said. "It has made a huge difference, sped up the processing of reports and inputting of transactions considerably-we have no downtime and reports are in formats that we want.
"One thing I can do more readily now is access the system remotely and process transactions-I can now process them fast."
The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, with its 250 tribal government employees, needs high-performance accounting software to meet their challenges. "We have a tribal government so we operate a number of tribal departments including health, social services, building department and law enforcement. In addition to those, we have various enterprises, including convenience markets, power, utility, water and sewer. All information needs to be put together for annual reports and monthly reports for directors," Robinett said.
They also have 650 employees associated with their Avi Casino and hotel in Laughlin, Nevada. In Nevada, Laughlin is second only to Las Vegas in gaming revenues. In the planning stages is a master-planned community beside the river that will offer casinos with an entertainment-oriented family environment. Tribal economic development includes large-scale master-planned communities. A 4,000-acre project has 11 riverside casino-resorts, 20,000 houses, a town center, schools, parks and other facilities. In addition, two new bridges across the Colorado River will connect the new town to regional roadways, including a new expressway to the Bullhead City Airport.
"One of our goals was to become more efficient in various tasks here. Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage has increased the efficiency of our office. We have improved our reporting capability. We are able to get reports out on a timely basis, improve the accuracy of our reports, and we know the transactions are making it into the system on a timely basis," Robinett said.
They expect Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage to help them grow. "Our accounting functions were very segregated on some of the enterprises. We have talked about bringing some of the convenience markets into the system; we expect Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage to be able to accommodate growth and bring new systems online," Robinett said.
Sage Software Authorized Business Partner, Technology's Edge, completed the implementation on a late Friday afternoon and Saturday. "Technology's Edge was very good, very efficient. They took down our old system and converted our old file server to Windows 2000. Everything was ready to go when everybody came in to work Monday morning. It was a very smooth transition. Everyone just logged-in and went to work," Robinett said.
"Sage Software's Client Services has always been very quick to respond. I like the policy to call back within two hours. That has always worked really well," Robinett said. "At one point we had a corrupted database and Sage Software's Client Services did a quick turn-around on the repair for us. It only took a few days."
Robinett says he expects his organization to realize long-term monetary savings with Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage. "The money spent on the system allows us to become better, more efficient, more effective, and in the long run we will be able to reduce money spent through efficiency," Robinett said. "I would recommend Sage MIP Fund Accounting Advantage to other organizations-absolutely-it is very good product for the price and its capability."
