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Introduction: The Complex Reality of Growing Service Companies
Service companies —IT services companies, consulting firms, engineering firms, and umbrella companies—are, by their very nature, structurally adaptable. Whether through external growth, opening new offices, or specializing by business area or industry… They often expand by integrating or creating multiple legal or operational entities, each with its own specific characteristics.
But this multi-entity structure can quickly become an organizational headache. When the tools aren’t up to the task, your teams spend more time consolidating data than managing performance. The risks of duplication, noncompliance, or human error increase significantly.
In this context, choosing the right ERP system becomes a strategic decision. An ERP system designed from the outset to manage multiple entities within a single environment offers a genuine competitive advantage.
Why Not All ERP Systems Are Created Equal When It Comes to Multi-Company Capabilities
Many software vendors claim that their ERP system is capable of managing multiple entities on a single platform.
But in practice, the reality is often limited:
- The environments are siloed, which forces employees to log in to multiple interfaces. This is a potential source of errors, with risks associated with manually re-entering data.
- It is very difficult, if not impossible, to generate consolidated reports directly within the software. Manual restatement is often necessary to consolidate the data (that good old Excel file you love so much!).
- Access management isn’t very granular. You’d like to be able to assign different access rights to each employee, but this type of software doesn’t allow for that.
- Data synchronization is… manual! It’s yet another time-consuming task for your teams.
An SaaS ERP such as VSActivity or VSPortage, designed for service companies with a multi-company structure, enables a centralized, flexible, and automated approach to multi-entity management.
What should a high-performance multi-entity ERP system offer?
Even though it may seem obvious, it’s always good to review the basics. An ERP system that is truly designed for multi-company environments should allow you to:
- Centralize information while maintaining the separation between your entities.
- Consolidate key indicators at various levels (entity, group).
- Adapt the organization to business needs, not the other way around.
- Precisely manage access based on roles and entities.
- Automate cross-company workflows.
- Facilitate legal and regulatory compliance.
That’s exactly what our SaaS ERP solutions— VSActivity (for IT services companies, consulting firms, and engineering companies) and VSPortage (for umbrella companies)—offer.
7 Concrete Benefits of Veryswing ERP’s Multi-Entity Management
Let’s take a closer look at the key features that make VSActivity and VSPortage so powerful in a multi-entity environment:
1. Data Centralization: Reliability and Time Savings
In many multi-company structures, data is scattered: a customer registered with two entities may appear twice, with conflicting information. The result: duplicate entries, re-entry of data, and inconsistencies.
VSActivity and VSPortage enable you to consolidate data repositories (customers, employees, projects, resources) into a single database, with detailed access control rules to determine who can access what. The result: reliable, up-to-date, and shared information.
👉 Example: A consultant can work across multiple business units or companies without having to be re-entered into each database.
2. Comprehensive overview with consolidated view (and zoom capability)
One of the major advantages of our SaaS ERP systems is that they offer a dual perspective on business operations:
- A consolidated view of all key indicators at the group level: total turnover, consolidated profitability, average occupancy rate, etc.
- A detailed view by entity, with the ability to filter or compare performance.
This gives management a comprehensive strategic overview, while still keeping an eye on the specific characteristics of each unit.
👉 Example: A finance department can track consolidated margins while identifying the least profitable business units.
3. Ultra-flexible organization: tailor the ERP to your specific needs
Every company has its own organizational structure. Some groups organize their entities by:
- Geographic area (branches, countries, etc.)
- Business Unit (Consulting, IT, Engineering, etc.)
- Legal structure (subsidiaries, holding companies, etc.)
With VSActivity or VSPortage, you can freely define your entities, their hierarchy, and their relationships. You can create intermediate levels, combine different organizational structures (e.g., branch + business unit), and adapt them over time.
👉 Example: A company may decide to consolidate several business units into a single branch, or to spin off a business unit into a separate entity while retaining its historical data.
4. Granular Access Rights Management: Security & Privacy
Data security is a major concern. In a multi-entity environment, it is essential that each employee have access only to the information relevant to their scope of responsibility.
VSActivity and VSPortage allow you to assign permissions:
- By role (project manager, HR, CFO, etc.)
- By entity (e.g., a branch manager can only see projects within their entity)
- By data type (e.g., access to billing data but not to HR data)
👉 Example: A group management controller can view consolidated data, but not the specific HR details for each entity.
And, to ensure even greater data security, the VSActivity ERP system is ISO 27001 certified.
5. Shared but customizable processes
Billing, time tracking, recruitment, payroll, accounting… All of these processes can be centralized, but often require local adaptations.
Our SaaS ERP solutions offer a balanced approach:
- A Common Core of Processes
- Possible customizations by entity (billing rules, VAT rates, HR approvals, etc.)
👉 Example: Each company can have its own leave approval process while still being part of a shared HR database.
6. Automation of Cross-Company Workflows: Maximum Efficiency
Interactions between entities are often done manually: internal invoices, resource rebilling, cost transfers, etc.
The VSActivity and VSPortage software programs automate these operations:
- Inter-entity staff assignments with time tracking and automatic rebilling
- Inter-entity billing (e.g., when one business unit sells a project through another)
- Cost Transfers and Automatic Accruals
👉 Example: A consultant assigned to a project at another company within the group has their hours automatically billed and re-invoiced.
7. Legal Compliance: A Public Access Building That Stays Within the Rules
Last but not least: regulatory compliance. In a multi-company structure, each entity may have its own specific requirements:
- VAT varies by country
- Local Contract Templates
- Specific Payroll Rules
- Accounting Requirements
VSActivity and VSPortage make it possible to apply rules specific to each company while maintaining consistent governance across the group.
👉 Example: One French entity follows the intra-EU VAT regime, while another in Switzerland follows local tax rules.
Case Study: EFOR Group—20 companies, 2,500 employees… centralized management
The EFOR Group, a specialist in engineering consulting, currently manages 20 companies and more than 2,500 employees using VSActivity.
With our multi-company ERP system:
- All data is centralized
- Access is secured based on roles and entities
- Reports are available in real time
- HR and administrative processes are shared but tailored to each organization’s needs
The feedback from Efor Group’s operational staff is clear: “A tool that keeps pace with our growth without complicating our day-to-day work.”
Choose our ERP solutions that grow with you
Managing multiple entities doesn’t have to be an obstacle. With a solution like VSActivity or VSPortage, you can turn a constraint into a driver of performance.
✔ Centralized data management
✔ Multi-level management
✔ Process automation
✔ Security and compliance
Are you considering a new ERP system, or are you reaching the limits of your current system? Now is the perfect time to switch to a solution designed for your specific needs.
👉 Request your personalized demo to discover how our ERP solutions can simplify the management of your entities.
