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Sapphire
SunSystems Customer Newsletter
Ian Caswell - Managing Director |
Welcome to the first
Sapphire SunSystems newsletter of 2009. I hope that you enjoyed the
Christmas period and that the year has got off to a good start for
you.
I
would like to start by thanking everyone that took part in our
annual customer survey. At Sapphire we consider our customers
especially important and so pride ourselves in providing you with
the best service we can. Therefore, we greatly appreciate
you taking the time to complete our annual customer survey as your
valuable feedback and suggestions make this possible.
Comments we received this year:
“Each time I contact
Sapphire with a problem they have been extremely polite and helpful.
They have been able to resolve my problem within a reasonable time”.
Damyanti Bhudia, Schneider Trading Associates
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Carry on with the
excellent work!!
Chris Carpenter, Community
“Extremely
satisfied with the assistance and support provided in 2008. Looking
forward to the challenges ahead in 2009.” Paul
Robinson, Capita Business Services
I am pleased to announce
that the winners of the prize draw are:
1. Daniele Lionetti
– National Geographic Channel
2. Mark Allison – Integrated Asset Management plc
3. Arshad Lakhani – Hidd Power Company
In addition you helped to raise over £500 for Children with
Leukaemia, so thank you very much.
The prizes this year
certainly attracted some interest especially that of 2 tickets to
see a premier football match from our box at White Hart lane. For
those of you who are not aware, Sapphire hold an executive box at
the famous Tottenham Hotspur grounds. Guests can expect to enjoy
luxuries such as their own bar and TV, private dining facilities,
free car parking and their own waiter or waitress to cater to their
every need; team this with the amazing location above the half way
line and I’m sure you’ll agree that it truly is an experience not to
be missed - and one that would usually cost a spectator an amazing
£300 per seat! With that in mind, we have decided that the top prize
winner in our draw may choose from the Football tickets, the Amazon
vouchers or the Magnum of Champagne. The second place winner may
then pick from the remaining two prizes and the runner up will
receive whichever is left. I hope that you agree this fair and
apologise if any offence or confusion were caused.
Carrying on in the vein
that the customer comes first, we realise that times are hard with
the current economic downturn and so throughout the year, we will be
running a number of seminars focusing on system pain points and
suggesting solutions and ways in which you can improve your cash
flow management. We are also offering site audits to ensure that you
are using your system efficiently and getting value for your money –
please speak to your account manager for further details.
I am always keen find out what you think of the Sapphire newsletter,
as well as any feedback you may have on Sapphire’s service to you as
a whole, so please email me your thoughts at
ian.caswell@sapphiresystems.co.uk.
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Tony Martin - Client Service Director |
Welcome to the first
Sapphire newsletter of 2009. If you are a new Sapphire client I
would like to introduce myself. If you are an old Sapphire hand
please bear with me. My role as Client Service Director is varied
but largely consists of acting as a point of reference and
escalation for Sapphire’s clients. If you feel there is something
that needs the attention of a senior member of the Sapphire team
then please feel free to contact me. I am always interested to hear
from clients so if you have any thoughts on how we work with you and
indeed if you have any suggestions on how we can improve our service
to you, please call me on 020 7648 2000 or email me directly at
tony.martin@sapphiresystems.co.uk.
We are still analysing all
of the feedback from our customer survey but, from a quick glance,
the results look very positive and we will publish them in due
course. Because of the high level of product knowledge and
experience within Sapphire I would expect the feedback on support
and consultancy to be very positive. What I always find doubly
encouraging is when we get praised for having a good, client focused
attitude and a personable and professional manner. I pulled out the
following comments from the feedback that has arrived so far:
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“… is good at his
work and customer centric.”
“The person I spoke with was very helpful & personable. “
““My dealings are always dealt with on a professional and friendly
manner. I could want no more from them.”
“I really appreciate the way in which Sapphire employees relate to
their clients and value the business that clients bring to
Sapphire.”
That final comment about
how much we value the business that clients bring to us is very
pleasing to read. On the day that they join the company, Sapphire
staff are told that it is you, our clients who pay our salaries and
it is a point that we never lose sight of.
Some news that will be of interest to those of you that make use of
our SunSystems support desk is that Sue Haggett is now back from
maternity leave and that Marion Brady will also be back from
maternity leave on 4th March. Welcome back to both of them.
As I mentioned earlier, we are always ready to examine ways of
improving the service that we offer. I would be interested to know
how you think we can improve the service offered to you by our team
of Account Managers. Do you see your Account Manager often enough?
Do you prefer to communicate by phone or email or do you prefer a
face to face meeting? Does he or she keep you up to date with
matters of interest? Your comments on any of the above and your
general ideas on what you want from our account management team
would be much appreciated.
If we don’t speak in the meanwhile, I look forward to meeting you at
one of our 2009 client events.
We are
interested in finding out if this is of concern for any of our
clients and would appreciate your feedback on this issue. Please let
me have your thoughts at
tony.martin@sapphiresystems.co.uk
or on
020 7648 2000.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Here at
Sapphire, we are acutely aware of the tough times that the UK
economy is going through and suspect that many of our customers will
have the same thoughts and concerns. We therefore hope that you will
take comfort in the fact that Sapphire is an organisation that
represents low risk, best value for money and a customer first ethos
that is second to none in our industry. We firmly believe that
measure of an organisation is in what it’s clients and staff have to
say, please take a few minutes and watch the following video clip
which shows both our customers and staff sharing their experiences
of Sapphire.
Remember you’re in safe hands with Sapphire
Click here to watch our video.
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We are
pleased to announce the date for our annual customer User Day.
At Sapphire we have a very simple business ethos: Customer first. We
want our customers to get the most out of their system and our
annual User Days offer them a chance to learn more about the major
new functions and services available. They are also a great
opportunity to network and share similar experiences with each other
and to provide us with valuable feedback on how we can improve our
service.
We had a fantastic turnout at our London event last year; feedback
was excellent:
"Very informative and enjoyable day. Well structured, 30 min
sessions are ideal for providing a quick overview."
Andrew Warren - Rathbones
"My colleagues and I got and get a lot out of this day. It is
a good opportunity to network too and share experiences or
solutions. The event is excellent. Thank you."
Robert Stewart - Amicus Horizon
"On the whole presentations well presented. Generally a good
use of a working day."
Simon Stubbs - Wren
The
venue was also popular and so we have decided to hold this years
User Day at One Great George Street, Westminster, once again.
As always, there will be keynote sessions from both Sapphire and
Infor in which you can learn more about the future of SunSystems.
Add to this the chance to meet with many of Sapphire’s support,
consulting and services staff … together with many other SunSystems
Users and I am sure you will agree that this event is one not to
miss!
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The program is
designed to give you an introductory overview to the solutions
detailed below in a format that offers you and your colleagues a
time-efficient (and carbon-neutral) learning environment. The web
seminars are designed to help you understand how Sapphire's range of
solutions can help improve productivity, increase user satisfaction
and foster better internal controls across a variety of areas within
your organisation.
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Date: |
Tuesday 10th February 2009 |
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Title: |
Bank
Reconciliation |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
This process automation module facilitates easy daily bank
reconciliation, an important control over the most important
asset of any business - cash. Bank Reconciliation imports
electronic bank statements for multiple bank accounts, it
automates the reconciliation task with user defined matching
criteria and the auto creation of bank generated journals
(e.g. bank fees, interest etc). It is a flexible and
powerful addition to your organisations financial
management, allowing you to identify, track and resolve
non-reconciled items at a glance. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 17th February 2009 |
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Title: |
expense@work |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
Enrol on this webinar and find out how our solution will
save you time, effort and money. expense@work is a highly
functional and robust expense management system for any
organisation wishing to streamline their employee expense
claims process. A browser based solution; expense@work is
designed to provide users with the tools, processes and
information necessary to run their businesses efficiently
and save costs. It operates in a distributed multi-location
environment and its strong multi-currency and multi-company
credentials provide the options for future expansion as
required. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 24th February 2009 |
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Title: |
Workflow for
Infor SunSystems |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
Workflow for Infor SunSystems joins the dots between your
people and your processes. It directs and controls many of
the tasks that fall outside the traditional life-cycle of an
Infor SunSystems transaction.
A major challenge for all companies is ensuring people
comply with the business rules defined around how things
"should be done". The many and varied ways that are
currently used to perform people-orientated tasks are
frequently unstructured, un-auditable and administratively
costly. Whilst most organisations acknowledge that
discipline is required to ensure the consistent and timely
performance of tasks, in reality they struggle to enforce
the necessary control throughout the enterprise.
Workflow for Infor SunSystems encourages consistent human
behaviour by implementing approved process rules across the
workforce in a friendly and appealing way. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 25th February
2009 |
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Title: |
SunSystems Hints
& Tips Webinar – Vision Macros |
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Suitable for: |
Vision 6 for SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:30 - 11:15) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
An introduction to the use of macros in Vision 6. Examples
will include macros enabling a Journal Reversal process in
Sun 5. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 10th March 2009 |
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Title: |
Advanced Inquiry |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
Advanced Inquiry for Infor SunSystems offers the most
powerful adhoc inquiry functionality for interrogating
SunSystems vrs 4 and 5 Ledgers.
Many Finance departments spend too much time handling adhoc
inquiries - especially those of a non recurring nature.
Advanced Inquiry can be used by anyone to get a quick answer
to both simple and complex queries in a summary or detailed
format. Common analyses can be saved for regular usage
direct from a desktop shortcut or email.
The drill down and around features give users unparallel
flexibility with the additional capability to drill out from
any Infor SunSystems transaction to an alternative
application database containing supporting source
transactions. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 18th March |
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Title: |
SunSystems Hints & Tips Webinar – Process Manager in
SunSystems 4 |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems 4 Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:30 - 11:15) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
An introduction into business rules and how these can be
used to ease data entry, validate analysis combinations and
display messages and errors and use Transfer Manager to
export data easily based on different criteria. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 24th March 2009 |
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Title: |
iPOS eProcurement |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
eProcurement is one of the top areas where businesses can
drive savings directly to the bottom line whilst also
improving their operating efficiencies and auditability. Two
birds with one stone. eProcurement gives you proven savings
through efficiency and purchasing compliance and delivers
auditability through delegated approvals and commitment
accounting.
iPOS is the eProcurement solution of choice for Infor
SunSystems. Our unparalleled native integration to the
SunSystems reference data, ledgers and budgets is the only
system to give you a single source of truth.
Come and look at the latest release of iPOS – version 5.6. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 7th April 2009 |
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Title: |
Consolidations |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
Consolidations for Infor SunSystems is purpose built to
automate the consolidation process for multi company
enterprises. Consolidations handles extensive ownership
models and will fit your corporate structure. It supports
multi currency conversions, provides for inter company
eliminations and produces a detailed audit trail on
completion. Additionally, the flexibility of Consolidations
allows for:
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Selection of specific source transactions.
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Assigning/transposing of selected values to target
fields.
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Use
of different chart of accounts between companies.
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One
step re-run facility.
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Creation of multi level sequential consolidation to
cater for
- subsidiary consolidation
- joint venture consolidation
- data repository consolidation
Consolidations is compatible with both Infor SunSystems v5
and v4.2.6 databases, or a combination of both and can
accommodate those companies with their databases located on
different/decentralised servers (this option for MS SQL
only). |
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Date: |
Thursday 23rd April 2009 |
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Title: |
Contract Service
Billing (CSB) |
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Suitable for: |
SunSystems Users |
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Location: |
WEBINAR (10:00 - 11:00) |
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Enrol: |
click here |
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Overview: |
Contract & Service Billing (CSB) for Infor SunSystems is
designed for recurring contract invoicing, service invoices
and ad-hoc invoices. It delivers advanced functionality that
works together with your business processes to remove manual
tasks and increase data accuracy and speed.
If you have a need for repeat billing, automatic generation
of invoices, pre-payments, contract invoice roll back,
future dated charges cancelled or contract refunds, then CSB
is the module for you. Contract & Service Billing for Infor
SunSystems will give you improved cash flow, internal
control just when you need it. |
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To all users of Earnie Payroll
If you require
more envelopes or payslips simply download an order form or
call Kristine Kyle on 020 7648 2000 or email her direct at
kristine.kyle@sapphiresystems.co.uk.
Furthermore, if
you are thinking of changing the style of your payslips, do
not hesitate to get in contact for more information on the
various styles we can offer. We are able to provide samples
as required so that you can see which style and layout suits
you.
To enable you to
stock up for longer on payslips we have a special bulk
pricing scheme which many of our customers are already
benefiting from – please contact Kristine for more details.
Please be advised
that P60s are now available to order at the following
prices:
NB. Orders can be delivered within 48 hours of receiving
payment.
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Form |
No. of Forms |
Price (Ex Vat) |
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P14/P60 |
1000 |
£715 |
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P14/P60 |
500 |
£407 |
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P14/P60 |
100 |
£132 |
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P60 Mailer |
2000 |
£1,375 |
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P60 Mailer |
1500 |
£1,144 |
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P60 Mailer |
1000 |
£792 |
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P60 Mailer |
500 |
£451 |
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P60 Mailer |
100 |
£132 |
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P60 Z Fold |
2000 |
£1,067 |
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P60 Z Fold |
1500 |
£869 |
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P60 Z Fold |
1000 |
£660 |
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P60 Z Fold |
500 |
£407 |
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Ensuring Compliance
with Corporate & Inland Revenue Requirements
In today's tightening economy, managing and controlling costs and
employee expenses is of paramount importance, add to that the ever
present threat of a HMRC audit and penalties, then you have a real
problem. Businesses are under increased pressure to strengthen the
effectiveness of their cost control activities and to reduce
unnecessary administration time. This includes their employee
expense management processes.
Most organisations have hundreds or thousands of personal expense
claims to process every month, plus, dealing with company credit
cards, petty cash claims and expense returns.
The cost of completing, authorising, reconciling, re-checking,
adjusting VAT and re-keying the data is both tedious and
inefficient.
In fact, we have calculated that the time and cost of a single
expense claim with fifteen entries is over £150.
With expense@work you can take control of your employee’s expenses,
enforcing best practice procedures so that data is entered correctly
and in full, leaving little room for human error.
By installing an electronic expense management solution, not only
can you improve productivity, but you can produce comprehensive
expense reports that are required by Management and also by external
organisations such as the Inland Revenue or Customs and Excise.
expense@work automates and increases visibility of the entire
employee expense management process, ensuring claims comply with
both internal policies and also Inland Revenue and HMCE guidelines.
Errors such as missing VAT receipts can be picked up quickly so that
you can identify how much money you are potentially losing as a
result of mislaid receipts. You only enter data once, it is
validated, authorised using powerful workflow and integrates
seamlessly with SunSystems.
"Organisations that
automate their expense claim process reduce out of policy expenses
by 40% and reduce reimbursement cycle times by two thirds" -
The Aberdeen Group
Click here to find
out more on how expense@work can ensure your company complies with
corporate and Inland Revenue requirements.
Or for more information, please do not hesitate to contact our
Product Advisory Team on 020 7468 2000 or speak with your Account
Manager.
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How efficient is your paper based filing system? Can you find
documents quickly and easily?
How long does it take to get purchase invoices authorised?
Do you know where purchase invoices are in your organisation?
Do you wish there was a better way of controlling the process?
"Yes!" Then enrol for Sapphire's Document Management and Delivery
Seminar on 26th February '08 and find out how you can...
In today’s
challenging environment, many organisations are facing growing
pressures to maximise resources, improve efficiency and reduce
costs. As organisations increasingly seek to introduce process
efficiencies and cost reductions, the continued reliance on paper
based and people heavy systems and processes inhibits organisations
in achieving their goals.
Do you recognise some of these issues?
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High
dependency on paper
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Often late
in paying suppliers causing frustration
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Lack of or
no authorisation for purchase invoices
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High
administration costs
Add to the
above the additional pressures put on your businesses such as:
regulation, compliance, auditability, transparency and today's
ever-changing economic climate;
How
confident are you that your manual procedures can cope?
If you are interested in an alternative approach, then I would like
to take this opportunity to invite you to Sapphire's Document
Management and Delivery Seminar on 26th February 09 at our City of
London offices. We will be featuring live demonstrations of Kollecta
/ Konducta and eConnect.
These solutions
span multiple business processes and functions to help organisations
improve efficiency and performance. They provide best practice
business and financial process automation for Accounts Payable and
Procurement, delivering control, visibility and compliance.
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Users can
benefit from:
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Seamless
integration to SunSystems
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Ease of use
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Ability to
automate distribution of sales invoices, purchase orders, debtor
letters, statements, and remittance advices
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Improved
visibility
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Significant
reduction in administration time and cost
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Improved
security
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I hope you can join us at
our offices in the City of London on the 26th February in order to
find out more and see live demonstrations of these easy to use
solutions.
Enrol at or view the full agenda at:
www.sapphiresystems.com/training_events/customer.htm
Or, alternatively if you would like more information, please do not
hesitate to contact me on 020 7468 2000 or email me at
jenna.roberts@sapphiresystems.co.uk.
I look forward to seeing you there.
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When was the last time you reviewed
your SunSystems structure?
Are you taking full advantage of all the functionality
available to you?
Are you interested in achieving greater efficiency within
your existing SunSystems implementation?
"Yes!" Then it could be time for a
health check.
In today's
tightening economy, businesses are under increased pressure
to strengthen the effectiveness of their internal processes
and reduce unnecessary administration time. Additional
pressures put on your businesses such as: regulation,
compliance, auditability, transparency and today's
ever-changing economic climate often mean that systems are
not properly managed, and over time a reduced amount of
knowledge results in only a small percentage of the systems
capabilities being utilised.
How confident are you that you are using your system to
the best of its abilities?
If you are interested in fully understanding your current
system set-up, and what efficiencies may be available to you
within your existing SunSystems and Vision versions, then I
would like to take this opportunity to invite you to take up
a site audit review with our professional services team.
The scope of the site audit review is to provide an overview
of your current SunSystems structure, and to advise on
potential improvements, whether this be through existing
components or new functionality available in later releases,
making you eligible for an upgrade. It is also an
opportunity to discuss any day-to-day queries around the
fundamental use of SunSystems, or any specific issues
centred around a particular process.
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Databases / Business Unit structure |
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Security |
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Budget Ledgers (if applicable) |
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Bank Reconciliation |
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Chart of Accounts set-up |
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Fixed Assets (if applicable) |
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Analysis code structure (Transaction and
Account) |
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Corporate Allocations (if applicable) |
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Currency |
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Vision reports (XL, Executive) |
For Sun Business
users, a further 2 days will be required to cover:
Omni Moving took
advantage of this great offer and were extremely happy with
the results; now knowing they are using their SunSystems and
Vision software more efficiently and therefore getting the
most out of their money.
"Sapphire
has given us some very practical advice and highlighted
several ways that we can very quickly make significant
improves to the way we mange our accounting functions"
- Ian Waters, Omni Moving
For more
information on our System Health Checks including a typical
agenda
Click here
AND if you sign up before January 31st 2009
28th February ’08 you can benefit from a special package
price of £1700.
If you would like more information or would like to take up
a site audit review with us, please do not hesitate to
contact me or your account manager on 020 7648 2000 or email
me directly at
tony.martin@sapphiresystems.co.uk.
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Sapphire’s Training Services - how
can Sapphire help you get the maximum return from your
investment in SunSystems?
Training Needs Analysis Service
Do your users have knowledge gaps? Need training but not
sure how to go about it? Unsure of what training you
require?
These questions could be answered by our Training Needs
Analysis (TNA) service.
This service, delivered by a member of our experienced
consultancy team, is designed to:
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Explore the
reasons for the current knowledge gaps
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Review
existing SunSystems related skill sets and knowledge levels
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Define
training sessions based on the findings of the TNA
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Create a
training plan based on the training sessions recommended
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Identify
the best approach to, and location for, training session
delivery
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Identify
the need for bespoke documentation if applicable
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Deliver a
TNA report documenting all findings and recommendations
As well as this
service Sapphire offer a number of training options including public
and private courses. We can also deliver training at your offices,
tailoring the session contents to meet your requirements and using
your own SunSystems data. That way you are getting the most out of
the day and best value for your money. Our public courses however,
are held at either our offices in London or Manchester so you can
chose which is more convenient to you – click here for the all
NEW training schedule for 2009.
This month we are offering a last minute booking discount of 10%
for individual bookings
Or
A group discount of 25% for booking 3 delegates or more on the
same course.
RRP for all courses is £345 + VAT (you must book by February 28th
2009)
We still have places on the following courses so please book
soon to avoid disappointment:
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Sun 4.2.6
System Admin – 6th February
-
Q & A 10 XL
for Sun 5 Users – 10th February
-
Q & A 10
Executive for Sun 5 users – 11th February
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Vision 6 XL
for Sun 4 users - 18th February
-
Q & A 10 XL
for Sun 4 Users – 19th February
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Sun 5
Ledger Accounting – 24th February
-
Vision 6
Executive for Sun 5 Users – 25th February
For
further information on any of our training courses or
services, please do not hesitate to call our training
advisor Sharon Steven on 020 7648 2000 or email
training@sapphiresystems.co.uk
alternatively click here to be directed to our training
site.
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Sapphire to deliver
business management solutions locally in Scotland
EDINBURGH, UK – Feb 2009. Sapphire Systems today announced that it
is expanding UK operations with a new office in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Headquartered in City of London, Sapphire already has a presence in
Manchester and the Isle of Man and in 2008 opened offices in New
York and Los Angeles, USA.
Sapphire is the worlds
leading reseller of SunSystems, an SAP Gold partner – number one for
SAP Business One in Europe - and a leading Proactis partner. Since
1986, Sapphire has offered customers wide-ranging practical
expertise in selecting and implementing advanced financial
accounting and business management solutions. Today the team at
Sapphire provide software, services and support for 600 customers
worldwide from offices in the UK and the USA.
Ian Caswell, Managing
Director at Sapphire, remarked “We are pleased to continue our
growth with a local presence in Scotland. We already work with
organisations based in Scotland and Northern England; having members
of the Sapphire team based nearby means we are able to offer them an
even better service.” He went on to say “At Sapphire we pride
ourselves on providing experience and stability with best-in-class
solutions for all our customers. Growing our business and
marketshare in new territories presents the opportunity to increase
revenues, which will enable us to further invest in support and
implementation services that all our customers can benefit from.”
- ENDS -
About Sapphire Systems plc
Sapphire is the UK’s leading reseller of SAP Business One and is an
SAP Gold Partner. Since 1986, Sapphire has offered clients
wide-ranging practical expertise in selecting and implementing
advanced financial accounting and business management solutions and
today provides software, services and support for over 600 customers
worldwide from their offices in London, Manchester and Edinburgh
(UK); New York and Los Angeles(USA), Sapphire is a founder member of
the British Application Software Developers Association.
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School Food Trust selects financial accounting
solution from Sapphire Systems
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Independent
body tasked with transforming school food and food skills to
implement Infor FMS SunSystems from Sapphire
LONDON, UK – 17 November 2008. Sapphire today announced that
it is to supply and implement the SunSystems financial
accounting solution at the School Food Trust.
The School Food Trust was established by the Department for
Education and Skills in September 2005. Its unique remit is
to transform school food and food skills, promote the
education and health of children and young people and
improve the quality of food in schools.
Garry Bell, Director of Corporate Services, said “We needed
to find a new accounting solution as we had been using the
system used by the Department for Children, Schools and
Families which wasn’t really suitable for our requirements.
It was an old cash-based system, whereas we had a need for
an accruals based system.”
The finance team at the Trust conducted a formal tender
process and looked at several solutions before short listing
two candidates: SunSystems and IBS OPENFinancials. Following
the robust tendering process SunSystems was the best fit for
the Trust’s organisational needs. Sage was also considered,
during the initial phase, but failed to make the shortlist.
On the decision to implement SunSystems Garry said “We drew
up a specification and ultimately SunSystems was the best
fit for the interrogation we need to do on our data. With
SunSystems we are also able to set up flexible reporting
systems which are key to our department.” He went on to say
of Sapphire “I have worked with Sapphire in the past. We
went out to tender and looked at different solutions, but I
had no hesitation in contacting Sapphire regarding
SunSystems.”
Looking ahead Garry says “Once SunSystems is live we are
looking forward to working with a fully functioning purchase
ledger system. The team will be able to produce management
accounts in just a third of the time taken with the previous
system. We will really benefit from the time saved.”
Ian Caswell, Sapphire’s Managing Director, added “We aim to
provide the best service possible to our customers and it is
always rewarding when someone that has moved on to another
organisation looks us up again. The SunSystems Team at
Sapphire is delighted to be working with the School Food
Trust to improve the efficiency of their financial
accounting – the fact that they will save so much time in
putting together the management accounts they need is
testament to what an effective solution SunSystems is.”
- ENDS –
About Sapphire Systems plc Sapphire is the worlds leading
reseller of SunSystems, an SAP Gold partner and a leading
Proactis partner. Since 1986, Sapphire have offered their
customers wide-ranging practical expertise in selecting and
implementing advanced financial accounting and business
management solutions and today provides software, services
and support for hundreds of customers worldwide from their
offices in London and the USA. Sapphire is a founder member
of the British Application Software Developers Association
and is featured in the Deloitte & Touche Fast 500 Technology
2006 rankings. www.sapphiresystems.com
About School Food Trust The School Food Trust was
established by the Department for Education and Skills in
September 2005. Its remit is to transform school food and
food skills, promote the education and health of children
and young people and improve the quality of food in schools.
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
For further comment, or to arrange interviews with a School
Food Trust spokesperson, please contact Lauren Connors on:
020 7340 7562 or Lauren.connors@sft.gsi.gov.uk
About Infor FMS SunSystems – version 5 Infor FMS SunSystems
v5 is a richly featured global financial management
solution. Its unique single-ledger design, with strong
multi-currency and analysis capabilities, provides an ideal
basis for financial reporting, and is complemented by
integrated business process functionality for purchasing,
sales, and inventory management. Available in a range of
languages and configurable to meet varying accounting
requirements, Infor FMS SunSystems v5 provides a common
accounting solution that can be deployed globally to meet
local requirements at the lowest total cost of ownership.
www.infor.com
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Infor still on track says Jim Schaper Infor’s
CEO
26th January 2009
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Despite being one of the world’s largest software vendors
people are often unaware of the scale of the Infor
organisation and what it does. The brands it owns, such as,
System 21, SunSystems, SSA , Baan, Maapics, GEAC, Extensity
and Pegasus are instantly recognisable as some of the most
popular ‘workhorses’ of the manufacturing, accounting and
business information systems markets. Jim Schaper, Infor’s
CEO takes time out to discuss the current condition of the
marketplace with Gary Simon, FSN’s managing editor.
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The timing of our
interview coincides with a turn in fortunes for the software
industry. Buffered by long term projects that have only recently
begun to wind down the information technology sector has been one of
the last segments of the US and European economy to head into
recession.
“We are not unlike our competitors and are obviously seeing across
the board weakness but we may be less affected than some,” says
Schaper. “A software company has to look at performance in three
broad areas, [namely] licence revenues, professional services and
maintenance income and typically during a recession one expects net
new customers and licences to be hardest hit. But our mid-market
focus and concentration around high volume/low value transactions
means we are less affected than many of our competitors such as
SAP.”
“So far this recession has been consistently inconsistent! Net new
customers in recent periods have been up and so have licence
transactions overall but we have definitely seen a 50 percent
decline in larger transactions above $0.5 million. Larger deals are
slowing down faster than smaller deals.” But as Shaper points out,
Infor, which is privately held, is less dependent on larger deals.
Although Infor’s very rapid acquisition strategy caused raised
eyebrows at the time it is clear that its broadly crafted customer
base has protected it from the most chilling effects of recession.
Although professional services are “flat”, maintenance revenues are
not exhibiting any weakness as customers make a flight to safety in
more difficult trading conditions. “Customers want to make sure that
the systems on which they depend are stable, properly maintained and
supported,” adds Schaper, pointing to high customer retention and
other customers returning to the fold after a period of absence.
Anecdotally there are signs that companies are adopting a more
conservative approach. “They are looking to add additional
functionality to existing systems where possible. Projects with
tangible return on investment and with reasonable payback or
demonstrable reductions in operating costs are winning favour.” As a
result Infor’s performance management and asset management business
lines, which provide better visibility of trading and hard dollar
returns, are doing well.
Inevitably these are tough times. Rapid consolidation in certain
industries such as financial services together with headcount
reductions across the board directly affects technology spending.
But this time around Schaper sees a permanent change in the business
landscape.
“The last downturn in technology was as a direct consequence of the
bursting of the dot com bubble and the IT sector led us into
recession. This time around the IT sector is a lagging indicator and
the recession is much more consumer driven. I think we could be in
for a much longer downturn.”
“There has been massive consolidation in the financial services
market and we are going to see a permanent dislodging of jobs. Where
these jobs turn up again I don’t know. What is clear is that the
technology market continues to mature; there is reduced technology
spending and smaller markets. I think we are going to see a second
round of serious market consolidation, a smaller number of companies
and higher unemployment.”
Schaper points out that Infor is not unlike its customers when it
comes to making economies. “We have had to look critically at our
internal systems. After the acquisitions we had around 100 back
office systems which we will have reduced to just one in March. So
we can do a lot more with much less and the associated jobs are not
coming back. Technology is merely an enabler, it didn’t force out
the jobs.”
According to Schaper most of the U.S. public companies in the IT
sector have announced redundancies of around 10 percent or cost
reductions at around the same level, but Infor has made relatively
minimal reductions. “Most of the larger technology companies have
taken action but it’s tough to say whether this is the last.”
So who are going to be the technology winners and losers coming out
of this recession? Schaper believes that business scale is vital to
giving sufficient geographic and product diversity. “You can never
make up for lack of scale. The bigger guys get bigger and the
smaller guys go away,” he says. “Acquiring and integrating is key,
as well as retaining customers if you are to continue to make
adequate returns for shareholders – whether you are private or
public. The smaller you are the more difficult it is to invest in
infrastructure and offer customers the integration and choice of
applications. Although the big will get bigger I think the days of
growth in excess of 10 percent are behind us. SAP is beginning to
make successful acquisitions and Oracle has performed well. They are
both great companies, but the mid-market is still underserved. Infor
will thrive and so will Sage and Microsoft – the rest are
consolidation targets.”
Against this backcloth Infor’s strategy has not changed and, says
Schaper, its operating model remains resilient and flexible. “We
have around $1.1 billion in maintenance receipts and therefore
significant income from recurring revenue streams which gives us
stability. We also generate significant profit margins and operate
without the burden of being a public company. We are still investing
in our componentised functionality and SOA (Services Oriented
Architecture) and absolutely on track to deliver both. We’ve tweaked
our cost structures and looked at accelerating certain projects but
we are not slowing down at all.”
Infor’s strategy is on track but is Apple a lesson in how easily an
organisation can be blown off course? “I ‘m not an expert on Apple
but it is a bit surprising that one person’s departure could cause
such a change in share price. Apple is Jobs [Steve Jobs] and Jobs is
Apple – it’s a unique situation I can’t imagine any other IT
business that size being similarly affected. The closest would have
to be Bill Gates at Microsoft but he’s been out of it for some time
and if Larry Ellison left Oracle one might see some effect. I think
people may be underestimating the management team at Apple. It’s
typical American over-reaction – we either go hard left or hard
right. If I go tomorrow the business will carry on I’m quite sure.
Infor has a good management team that makes most of the decisions.
It’s not down to one man!” says Schaper.
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IPOS –
How to tell if an order has been emailed to a supplier?
When IPOS has submitted an email, no record is kept of the
email. However, the email can be found in the Email system
itself. The mailbox will be the mailbox that is specified in
the IPOS Admin, System Profile in the Corporate Email field.
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Time@Work – How to
delete a user or employee in Time@Work:
It is recommended that users are inactive and not deleted.
This is because there are transactions in the system related
to the users. Even though the user may no longer be with the
Company, if you delete the user you will be prevented from
running any enquires related to them. |
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Vision
6/Q&A 10 – In the event that the error “Access Denied, Sorry
your Serialisation does not allow this application to be
used” is displayed:
If this error is displayed in Vision or Q&A but your
serialisation is valid and entered correctly, it could be
occurring because the users have not been allocated to the
Vision products in Setup.
For Clients running Vision 6 to access Setup select the
Start button, All Programs, Vision, Setup. For clients
running Q&A to access Setup select Start, All Programs,
Infor Performance Management, Query & Analysis, Setup. Log
in as the System user. In Setup from the Users menu select
User Allocation. Then Select the Product and Vision
Application move the users from the unallocated section to
the Allocated section, select Ok. Log out of Vision and back
in to re run your report. |
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ProActis
– In ProActis
you can create a “Stand In” or “Temp” Authoriser:
To set up the “Stand In” authoriser details below
1. Log into the ProActis Management Console and then expand
users and select Users Maintenance.
2. Select the user which requires the “Stand In” authoriser
to authorised their transactions
3. Click on edit on the right hand side of Company Specific
User Details
4. Within Company Specific User Details there is a section
on Stand-in Authorisers. Here you can either select a Pool
of users or you can click on the select button you will be
able to select an individual user. |
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Sun 5 – How to create
additional ledgers in SunSystems 5:
Go to the function Optional Ledger Table (OLT)
Enter the Business Unit Code for the Business Unit you wish
to have additional ledgers for.
Enter No for the Ledger Balance and for the Journal Hold
file and when you hit OK at this point the Budget field will
become enabled.
You can then select the budget file you wish to create from
the drop down list
Click OK and then Create. You will need to do this for each
additional ledger you wish to create. Once complete you will
see 'Budget n created' (where “n “is the budget letter you
have created).
Go to Budget Label Setup (In Sun 5.2.1 SP1 BUL, In Sun 5.3.1
BLB) and select the Budget code and select Amend to rename
the Budget as you wish and click OK. |
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