Accounting Software & Financial Reporting Software
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Halcrow/UNIT4 Business Software
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With a turnover in
excess of £400 million (2010), Halcrow specialises in the provision of planning, design and management services for
infrastructure development worldwide. With interests in transportation, water, maritime and property, the company
undertakes commissions across virtually all continents. Halcrow, like many organisations, has experienced periods of extensive growth and substantial change. The Group has
looked to its IT systems and applications to help facilitate that growth and adapt as the needs of the business change.
By upgrading to Agresso Business World’s Route 66 release, Halcrow believes it has a financial and business
management solution that is agile and forms a solid platform for growth both now and in the future.
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Specsavers Opticians/Advanced Business Solutions
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Founded with a single store in Guernsey in 1984, a staggering growth of 40% per annum on average has today
propelled Specsavers Opticians to a high street presence in more than 370 locations, through a joint venture
partnership that has transformed the spectacles market in the UK and Ireland. Specsavers Opticians is now market
leader in the UK and has recently begun its expansion into mainland Europe, with several successful stores now open
in Holland.
Specsavers has management offices in Guernsey, an IT centre in Eastleigh, Hants and a total of 6,000 employees
throughout the UK.
As part of an initial £350,000 project, Specsavers Optical Group selected Advanced Business Solutions to provide it
with an enterprise class accounting solution to meet its long-term requirements beyond the year 2000.
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Glasgow Caledonian University/UNIT4 Business Software
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Glasgow Caledonian University is one of the largest universities in
Scotland with nearly 17,000 students. It consists of three academic
schools covering business, health, technology and computing,
science and engineering. It realised that students from
low income backgrounds would find it increasingly difficult to take up
tertiary study and devised a
strategy to fund the ongoing provision of high quality and widely available education. This involved maximising revenue by increasing the intake of fee paying international students and
taking full advantage of other funding opportunities, while also reducing costs by improving internal administration, multi-disciplinary
collaboration and standardising processes. Technology could assist in supporting these areas and it selected Student
Management and Curriculum Management Systems from UNIT4’s Agresso Campus Platform.
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Countess of Chester Hospital/Advanced Business Solutions
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Advanced Business Solutions’ (ABS) e-procurement system is enabling the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust to achieve efficiencies and cost savings, increase the use of electronic requisitions by nearly 500%,
enhance the role of its procurement department and improve supplier relationships.
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of acute services, operates 570 beds and
has achieved the Top 40 Hospitals Award for seven consecutive years, one of only seven trusts in the country to do so.
As a public sector organisation, the trust has a duty to ensure that public money is being spent on goods and services
in a fair and transparent manner. Procurement in a hospital focuses on getting the right supplies to the right place at the
right time.
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Eversholt Rail Group/UNIT4 Business Software
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Headquartered in London, UK, Eversholt Rail Group owns
approximately one-third of the UK’s passenger rolling stock,
ranging from high-speed rolling stock for long-distance routes to
electric and diesel multiple units for commuter services. Eversholt
Rail Group also owns freight locomotives and wagons which are
leased to the UK market. Eversholt was formed in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British
Rail. In 1997 it was bought by HSBC Group and renamed to HSBC
Rail (UK) Limited. In February 2010 the company was rebranded to Eversholt Rail Group and in December 2010 it was purchased by
Eversholt Investment Group, which is a consortium consisting of 3i Infrastructure plc, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure
Partners and STAR Capital Partners. The old legacy IT systems did not provide Eversholt with the flexibility to extract
the wide range of financial and management information needed to enhance and grow the business. The company embarked on a market evaluation and ultimately selected Agresso Business World from UNIT4.
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Parasol Ltd/Access – exclusive interview
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Parasol was founded by former IT contractor Rob Crossland and formally launched in 2000. It rapidly built a healthy base of
contractor employees, largely by developing partnerships with the recruitment agencies that place them. Now in its 11th
year, it has looked after the needs of some 35,000 contractors and this figure continues to increase as the company
expands into new market sectors across the UK. The company employs
over 100 staff at its head office in Warrington, Cheshire and has recently established a regional sales office in London with
a further regional sales presence in Scotland. After going through a management buyout in 2006, Parasol had reached a point where it wanted to take the company to the next
level but was unable to do so with its current systems. After evaluating a number of companies it selected Access as offering the best all-round solution for its requirements based
on functionality, cost and speed of implementation.
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Crew Gold/Sapphire Systems
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Crew Gold Corporation is a UK-based gold mining company, listed on the Toronto and Oslo stock exchanges, holding
major assets in Guinea, West Africa. Crew Gold completed a divestment programme of its non-core interests in 2009 to
focus on the maximisation of the performance of its gold mining operations and exploration projects in West Africa; the
Crew Gold mine – LEFA – has a targeted annual production of upwards of 250,000 ounces of gold. The team at Crew Gold wanted to be able to efficiently pull data directly from its enterprise asset management system, Mainpac, into Infor FMS SunSystems. Although there
was an interface in place, it wasn’t working very well and had a lot of errors. A member of the Crew Gold team had previously held a position at a company that had worked with Sapphire and was
familiar with its MaxiSun interface. A test environment was set up and proved to be successful.
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Venn Group/Safe Computing
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The credit control team at Venn Group have been recognised for their success
at the recent Credit Today awards. Finalists in the Commercial Credit Team of
the Year category, the team were highly commended for their customer
service skills, whilst driving down their debtor days to the lowest in their sector.
The Safe Financials and Safe Credit Control software solutions have played a key role in Venn’s successful mission to
deliver exemplary levels of customer service whilst effectively managing cash/credit. Venn Group is well established as a leading provider of temporary and interim staff across the UK and Ireland with a
network of 11 offices. It supplies temporary and contract candidates to the accountancy, C&I, financial services,
technology, legal, human resources and public sector markets. Safe Computing’s unique approach is centred on changing the perception of the credit control function from a series of
reactive processes to proactive ones.
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Deafblind UK/Sapphire Systems
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Deafblind UK is a national charity offering specialist services and human support to deafblind people and those who
have progressive sight and hearing loss acquired throughout their lives. The aim of the organisation is to enable people
living with this unique disability to maintain their independence and quality of life, and to reduce the isolation that
deafblindness creates.
Deafblind UK had been using a system that had been in place for over 10 years and which it had outgrown; the quality
of data output was lacking. In order to ensure that the business could continue to develop and expand, Deafblind UK
needed to invest in the organisation’s infrastructure. It conducted a
tendering process and shortlisted four systems, and chose SAP Business One from Sapphire.
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Hakkasan/Sapphire Systems
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Hakkasan is recognised as the pioneering concept that single-handedly changed the face of Chinese cuisine within the
United Kingdom. Since 2003, the Michelin-starred London location has set the standard for Chinese cuisine and haute
Chinois interior design. The name ‘Hakkasan’ pays homage to the ‘Hakka’ people from the New Territories of Hong
Kong while ‘san’ is the respectful Japanese form of address. Although Hakkasan is rooted in the culinary traditions of
China, the restaurant’s philosophy and cuisine are not chained by convention. Hakkasan needed a complete ERP solution that
could be used by the whole team to manage the business, with a proper purchasing process and comprehensive
reporting functionality included.
SAP Business One was considered as a potential solution on a recommendation to Alan Yau, owner of Hakkasan, by
the Kuwaiti Food Group. SAP subsequently put the management team at Hakkasan in touch with Sapphire.
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The Competition Commission/Access
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The Competition Commission is one of the independent public bodies which help ensure healthy competition between
companies within the UK for the benefit of companies, customers and the economy. Each inquiry is led by a decisionmaking
body drawn from a wide panel of highly skilled government-appointed members. After deciding not to upgrade their existing system, the Competition Commission did some internet
research and made an appointment to view Access Dimensions at the London City office. After seeing the web-enabled
FocalPoint modules in action, the organisation agreed it had found the system it was looking for. For benchmarking
purposes, the Government raised several questions about the system’s functionality and price. The purchase fitted
neatly into the CC’s capital expenditure so the deal went through smoothly. After a similarly straightforward
implementation, involving some detailed planning, the system was ready to go live.
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The Hoseasons Group/Sapphire Systems
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The Hoseasons Group is a subsidiary of the US-based Wyndham Worldwide Corporation – one of the foremost
providers of travel and real estate services in the world. The Hoseasons Group is made up of a number of well
established brands, all of which focus their attentions on the needs of the holiday maker. A firm believer in the old
fashioned values of service and courtesy, the company takes pride in operating to high standards of quality, innovation
and customer care. Hoseasons was bought by Wyndham Worldwide in January 2010 to operate alongside its existing UK rentals business
The Holiday Cottages Group, renamed The Hoseasons Group. Both organisations were using Infor FMS SunSystems
for accounting, albeit different versions from different providers, so following the acquisition it was good practice to
move onto the same, latest version. It made sense to take advantage of economies of scale and deal with one provider. Sapphire already supported Hoseasons’ SunSystems application and was invited to present a proposal for the migration
and continued support.
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BWG Foods/UNIT4
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BWG Foods has been operating since 1963 with its headquarters in Walkinstown, Dublin 12. BWG owns and operates
the SPAR and MACE retail franchises in Ireland which have an annual retail turnover in excess of €2 billion. The
company also operates a nationwide network of 22 wholesale cash and carrys that trade under the Value Centre and
BWG Foodservice business names.
In 2006 BWG Foods merged the accounting departments of its wholesale grocery business and its property division.
Until then its respective finance departments had run separate financial systems. Both systems struggled to equip
senior management with the reports and visibility they required to operate the business efficiently. Creating reports was
a difficult and frustrating process. Two systems had to be interrogated and making changes to either existing accounting
application was not an option. The BWG finance team embarked upon a rigorous three-month evaluation process, searching for a single replacement
system. Two suppliers were shortlisted and after further rigorous consideration CODA
Financials from UNIT4 was the clear winner.
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Birmingham International Airport/Access
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Birmingham International Airport (BIA) is the UK’s fifth largest airport, third largest for charter traffic and has the highest
proportion of business traffic second only to London Heathrow. In 2005, it handled over 9 million passengers through its
two terminals. Back in March 2005, BIA was using a major US ERP system, which had been in place for nine years with 30 concurrent
users and 140 users on the web front end. BIA needed a new ERP system with user-friendly, web-based procurement. In addition it
needed to be able to track projects – eg, extensions to terminal buildings. Project managers also needed to be able to
access this information. BIA also wanted to introduce a workflow element into the software to reduce manual procedures. Access’ solution was evaluated against a number of other systems and Access Dimensions and FocalPoint came out on top.
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HiB/SAP – exclusive interview
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HiB is a major supplier to UK bathroom retailers with a number of years’ experience in designing and producing bathroom
products.
Its range of products covers mirrors, cabinets, lighting, bathroom furniture, taps and basins. Many of the products are
unique to the company as they are created by its inhouse designers specifically for the UK market. With an increase in the
range of products HiB provides, has come an increase in supplier demand.
The company has been established for 18 years and is based in New Barnet, Hertfordshire. It has a purpose-built
distribution and warehouse complex in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and its fleet of specially designed vehicles deliver to its
customers and ensure goods arrive undamaged. Since its formation HiB has seen its turnover grow steadily, even during
the recession, to £9.3 million. The accounting system HiB had was limited in its scope and capabilities and it was obvious the company needed a new system, one that could run the whole business and not just look after the accounts. HiB decided that SAP Business One would be the preferred solution.
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Fin Machine Company/Sage
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The Fin Machine Company is a market-leading manufacturer of special-purpose capital equipment used within the
global automotive industry. According to current estimations, two out of three car radiators are built on the company’s
machines.
The business has developed an innovative and highly reliable range of equipment which is consistently ahead of
industry requirements. Based in Seaham, County Durham, the business employs 200 people and also has a multinational agent network.
Turnover has reached the £20 million mark. For several years, The Fin Machine Company ran a Sage Line 100 system with a specialist manufacturing package.
However, the point was reached where the system could no longer offer the flexibility needed by an ambitious company
facing international competition, so it purchased Sage 200 Commercials running under
Windows 2003 and using a SQL Server database.
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BSAVA/COA Solutions – exclusive interview
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The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) exists to promote high scientific and educational standards within
small-animal medicine, surgery, teaching and research. The association was founded in 1957 as a professional body to
serve veterinary surgeons and now has over 6,000 members. Most of these work in practice, and represent over a third of
the working vets in the UK.
There are 13 BSAVA regional groups around the UK and the association is largely run by volunteers from within the
veterinary profession who sit on committees to develop professional scientific manuals and organise the largest small
animal Congress in Europe. The charity had grown from a turnover of £1 million and a few staff, to over a £3 million organisation with in excess of 20
employees. The IT systems had not really kept pace with this growth. For the
financial system it chose COA Solutions’ Open Accounts as it met all its business requirements and also the software model
it had defined.
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World Vision/Infor
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World Vision is a Christian relief organisation dedicated to
improving the well-being of people around the world,
particularly children. The group began its mission of caring for
orphans and other children in need in South Korea, and
eventually expanded to more than 70 countries. Headquartered in Monrovia, California, World Vision has partnership offices around the world that co-ordinate the
organisation’s strategic operations and represent World Vision in the international arena. Its revenue comes from private
sources – individuals, World Vision clubs in schools, corporations and foundations – as well as governments, aid
agencies, and other World Vision programmes and non-profit organisations such as Gift in Kind. World Vision began exploring software options to enable global reporting, particularly web-based solutions for access to
real-time data. The organisation explored numerous vendors and packages, but it quickly focused on Infor Performance
Management (PM) 10.
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London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority/Infor
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London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) is
part of a family of organisations under the Greater London
Authority umbrella. LFEPA protects people and property from
fire and other emergencies within the 1,587-square-kilometre
area of London, which has a resident population of over 7
million, which increases by over 1 million more during working
hours. As a public sector organisation, LFEPA must meet a key performance indicator that demands bills be paid within the
contracted terms, usually 30 days. In addition, an e-Government initiative requires that all interactions (including
procurement) be conducted electronically, which prompted LFEPA to implement a financial solution from Infor at a very
early stage.
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