UK Athletics Races Ahead With New Financial Management and HR & Payroll Systems
Posted: 12/19/2006 3:04:19 PM
UK Athletics, the national governing body for the sport of athletics in the UK, has gone live with CedarOpenAccounts’ SmartBusinessSuite to provide an integrated financial accounting, payroll and HR management system. The contract will also extend to UK Athletics’ sister organisations, England Athletics and Athletics Foundation.
Following an internal review of its legacy IT systems, the UK Athletics organisation decided to replace its Pegasus finance and Crystal reporting systems with CedarOpenAccount’s SmartBusinessSuite offering integrated financial accounting, procurement and project accounting capabilities, together with HR and payroll functionalities.
An integrated document management system is also be supplied by CedarOpenAccounts to allow the finance department to easily scan, archive and retrieve invoices.
By extending the fully integrated system across its network of Performance Centres, managers of the Centres can remotely manage internal processes via the web, such as, purchase requisitions, invoices and expenses etc. It also provide the Centres with on-line enquiry and reporting self service capabilities.
Helen Jacobs, UK Athletics Operations Director, commented, “With a network of Performance Centres across the UK, it was important that we chose a system with advanced web-functionality that is also fully integrated. CedarOpenAccounts’ SmartBusinessSuite offers us the best solution for our requirements, whilst enabling us to improve internal processes and operational efficiencies. The new systems will not only speed up our processes and reduce paper flows, but will also greatly improve efficiencies in the back-office. We also intend to extend the scope of the document management system to a wider range of documents which will help reduce paper storage and costs beyond the finance department.”
About UK Athletics
As the national governing body for the sport of athletics, UK Athletics is dedicated to raising standards in every event, every region and every age group. UK Athletics works closely together with over 1,400 clubs, hundreds of schools and local authorities across the UK,
COA Workflow Supports Efficiency Drive at London Development Agency
Posted: 12/19/2006 3:05:29 PM
Use of eBIS Exchange Workflow in conjunction with a CedarOpenAccounts financial management system is enabling the London Development Agency to automate order processing and achieve major efficiency gains.
The London Development Agency (LDA) is the Mayor of London’s agency for sustainable economic development. It prepares the Mayor’s business plan for London and works with partners to build a thriving economy for the city’s people, businesses and communities. The LDA is currently restructuring itself in anticipation of new challenges and opportunities stemming from the decision to site the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Restructuring will also support more flexible working practices.
In the past, the LDA used its financial management system purely for accounting purposes. However, the imminent expiry of the lease on this system prompted a search for a more sophisticated alternative that would support integration with other business areas. Support for electronic processes was also a priority, in line with UK e-government initiatives. At the end of a formal tendering process that saw four leading suppliers demonstrate their products, the LDA chose CedarOpenAccounts.
“The CedarOpenAccounts financial solution had all the functionality we needed in a reasonably priced package,” explained Charles Antwi, project development accountant. “Most importantly, CedarOpenAccounts was prepared to commit to a firm time scale for implementation and training, in line with our requirements.”
Working together, the LDA and CedarOpenAccounts teams completed the implementation within the space of just three months. The new system was instantly welcomed because of its user-friendliness, which made it accessible to people other than trained accountants. Accounts payable staff, for example, could process and pay invoices directly using the system, thus speeding up financial processes. At the same time, the system’s integration capabilities improved the flow of management information. Other systems integrated with CedarOpenAccounts include the LDA’s Artemis Portfolio Director project database and its ProClarity corporate management reporting system.
Antwi is impressed by CedarOpenAccounts’ strategy of continually improving its products in line with user needs. “CedarOpenAccounts works closely with its customers to identify areas where enhancements are required. It’s very encouraging to be able to contribute to the product development process,” he said.
Efficiency improvements
With the recent introduction of the eBIS Exchange Workflow web application, the LDA is now taking full advantage of CedarOpenAccounts’ support for efficient electronic processes. Initially, eBIS is being used to automate order processing, replacing a cumbersome manual system. The eBIS implementation, which coincides with the LDA’s restructuring and relocation, will ultimately see more than 200 users entering orders directly into the CedarOpenAccounts system.
“Where eBIS has already been rolled out, we are seeing big improvements in the throughput of payments. Orders are also being approved much more quickly, and users are very enthusiastic because they can use the system to monitor the progress of an order,” explained Sue Keary, IT project manager, who is responsible for the eBIS implementation.
Purchase orders are now typically raised in minutes or hours rather than days or weeks, and users can identify the codes they want using a look up search on the system rather than constantly having to look for the right codes. Integration with Microsoft Outlook is a widely appreciated feature: where an action such as authorisation is required, an email is automatically sent to the appropriate person’s mailbox. The LDA is now investigating the possibility of creating a link with its electronic document management system. This would permit relevant documents to be attached to a requisition.
According to Antwi, the improvements are supporting the LDA’s drive to achieve improved efficiency and meet key targets such as paying all invoices within 30 days. In the past, it was very difficult to keep track of orders, but the LDA is now able to monitor commitment closely. Use of eBIS will soon be extended to other areas such as expense claims. As a web-enabled system, eBIS also supports the agency’s multi site working.
“CedarOpenAccounts has immense potential to improve the efficiency of our organisation. So far we have only scratched the surface of this potential, but we plan to do a great deal more,” concluded Antwi.
CedarOpenAccounts wins 2006 Accountancy Age Award for Enterprise Software
Posted: 12/19/2006 3:09:08 PM
CedarOpenAccounts (COA) is the winner of the Enterprise Software of the Year award announced on 15th November 2006.
The judges took into account a broad range of criteria including company performance, product innovation, value for money and customer satisfaction. They described COA’s product as “comprehensive and well developed” with an approach that showed “vision and quality throughout”.
Mark Thompson, managing director of COA, picked up the award from William Hague at the Accountancy Age Awards event in London on November 15th.
Mark Thompson commented:
“We are absolutely delighted to win such an acclaimed award. This is the fourth win for us in six years for enterprise software of the year and demonstrates the strength of our broadening product portfolio and team across the business in a very competitive market. Together with our best ever sales performance in the first half of the year, this is further endorsement of our strategy to focus on key markets for sales, product development and acquisitions.”
For more information visit:
www.accountancyage.com/accontancyage/features/2168754/awards-2006-cedar-openaccounts
National Express Group Extends Corporate Financial Management System
Posted: 12/19/2006 3:10:06 PM
CedarOpenAccounts has won a £300,000 contract with Travel West Midlands, part of the National Express Group, to provide a new financial accounting, agency ticketing, e-procurement and management information system. The contract follows the successful implementation of CedarOpenAccounts’ extended financial management system for the coach and rail divisions of the National Express Group.
Following a review of its legacy financial system, Travel West Midlands chose to implement CedarOpenAccounts’ OpenAccounts product with its general ledger, core accounting and project accounting capabilities. The e-procurement solution will also be integrated into existing fleet rostering and garage maintenance ordering processes for Travel West Midlands’ garages and depots across the UK.
With an extensive purchasing requirement both from its head office and depots, Travel West Midlands has chosen CedarOpenAccount’s eFinancials solution to increase its workflow process with web-based accessible information on finance and purchase orders and links to e-procurement. Go-live is scheduled for Autumn 2006. CedarOpenAccounts will also provide a bespoke agency ticketing system to replace the point of sale system currently in use by over 300 Travel West Midlands’ agents. The solution will enable access to sales ledger data and integrate with the OpenAccounts’ management information system.
Paul Williams, IT Director, UK Bus Division of Travel West Midlands comments, “We chose CedarOpenAccounts because of its proven capabilities with the National Express Group’s rail and coach divisions and its scope of functionalities for our extensive requirements. Key factors were its cost effectiveness and ease of integration.”
Go-live of the agency ticket system is expected at the end of 2006.
About Travel West Midlands
Travel West Midlands runs the UK’s largest urban bus network outside London and is one of the region’s biggest employers with staff of over 5000, including 3,300 drivers. TWM carry nearly one million passengers a day on a modern fleet of 1,800 vehicles across nearly 600 routes throughout the West Midlands, London and Dundee.
LSH Signs CedarOpenAccounts To Support New Business Efficiency Plans
Posted: 12/19/2006 3:11:34 PM
CedarOpenAccounts (COA) has won a contract with Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), the UK commercial property consultancy, to provide a new financial management solution that will help the company to improve efficiencies and support its business reengineering process across its 27 offices in the UK. LSH is the first new customer to adopt the OpenAccounts V6 product, a major new release within COA’s SmartBusinessSuite software platform for service sector organisations.
LSH wanted to replace its legacy accounting system and chose COA’s OpenAccounts V6 because of its flexibility and enhanced forecasting and reporting functionalities. It also required a financial management solution that was easy to use by non-finance employees, and was impressed with COA’s eBis workflow tools which will enable over 500 of LSH’s surveyors to submit and review income forecasts, and allow greater visibility of performance for its senior managers across the country.
Andy Ewers, LSH finance director comments, “We chose OpenAccounts V6 because we needed a system that could achieve our overall objective of improving consistency of our business processes across the company. The solution will provide our surveyors with a uniform and easier way of forecasting income, job registration and invoicing clients - helping us to ultimately run a more efficient business. It will further improve efficiencies by closely integrating financial management across the business, avoiding duplication of information on the system and providing greater visibility of the business as a whole.”
“The COA team showed a real understanding of our requirements and the flexibility of the system to integrate with our core management processes was central to our choice,” comments Ewers.
Go-Live of OpenAccounts V6 is planned for February 2007, while the second phase for roll out of eBis workflow will take place by June 2007.
Launched in July 2006, OpenAccounts V6 offers improved productivity and ease of use, advanced reporting capabilities, more flexible project accounting, a business alerts solution, integrated Human Capital Management and new modules for cash management, planning, budgeting and forecasting.
