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 Welcome to our December
2007 Customer Newsletter
During 2007, we have had the opportunity
to work with many of you in reviewing your reporting
and planning processes. The role of the Finance Director
has changed dramatically over recent years, and there
is increased recognition that the internal customers
of the Finance Department need a much higher quality
of information, and much greater control over what happens
in their departments.
It’s a challenging role, made
all the more complex by increasing regulation and the
need to respond quicker to changing markets. Stakeholders
in the business demand a different service to the external
ones, who will expect the Finance Director to take full
ownership of the results.
Given this constant demand for information,
the Finance Manager must ensure that he has processes
that capture data accurately and quickly, and that his
reporting is timely and relevant to the business. Not
only that, he has to be able to look ahead and help
colleagues understand the implications of the decisions
that they make, or assess the impact of external events
on his business.
In this issue of I News, we look at
three key areas for you.
Controlling the Spend in an organisation
is a key function, but once the targets have been set,
it’s a function that properly sits within the
operation team. Proactis provides a robust and quickly
implemented solution to controlling Costs within the
business.
Managing the reporting and forecasting
function is often a cumbersome process, based on spreadsheets.
Here, we look at how Vision can be used to very quickly
gain control, and reduce the risk in that process.
Finally, we’d like to introduce
you to one of our partners, Intelligent Payment solutions.
Based on the well respected SalesForce.com, these solutions
provide cost effective and low risk solutions to simplifying
the payment and collection cycle, provide document management
workflow and full CRM type solutions.
We’ll be running seminars in January
and February around these topics, but in the meantime
if you would like any further information please do
contact either myself or James at the main office.
May I take the opportunity to thank
you for your continued support in 2007, and wish you
all the very best for Christmas and the New Year.
Chris Moran
Account Director
Quick Links - please click on
a link below to be taken straight to the feature:
News from Support
Spend & Reporting
Payment & Collection
Vision
Did you know
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News From Support
News from General Systems
• Recent months have seen a number
of exciting developments at General Systems, delivering
even greater support to our clients
• Infor have recently announced
that the INFOR CPM offering, which many of you have
under the SunSystems BI banner, has been recognised
as the market leader in the latest Gartner survey.
• Following the launch of INFOR
Expense management, General Systems have been appointed
as a key provider for this product, which also includes
employee timesheets. This is a key solution for services
and IT organisations who wish to monitor time and costs
against internal and external projects.
• General Systems have also launched
a comprehensive hosting service, delivering a complete
Disaster recovery, Business Continuity and DBA service
for a fixed monthly fee.
• In recent months, General Systems
have acquired some 20 new clients across a range of
sectors, making this one of our most successful periods,
and I would like to thank you for your confidence in
our team.
• We have also introduced
some new staff to the business, and in particular I’d
like to welcome Adrian Stores on board. Adrian has taken
on the role of Marketing Manager, and will be meeting
many of you at our events next year.
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Spend & Reporting
Focus on Proactis
“How can I control Spend”
This is a typical comment made by our
clients, who are struggling to manage constant change,
yet remain competitive and responsive.
Few Finance Executives can truly say
that they have expenditure under control. Few have visibility
of costs and few can confidently say that purchases
are properly organised.
The issues however is not just about
controlling spend. There is a broader concern. Organisations
that spend time and resources planning and budgeting,
particularly at this time of year, very often do not
have the controls in place to implement the budget.
All too often, we see the evidence of this.
If you are setting budgets this quarter,
how will you manage them next year?
Management reports are often published
which are a mixture of approved invoices and estimated
accruals, but which take no account of the committed
spend. Variance is calculated against the budget, but
in reality the reports are a “best estimate”
of the position. Decisions are therefore made on inaccurate
information.
If you are in a competitive market,
or are responsible for stakeholder funds, then this
is simply not good enough! Being competitive means having
accurate, timely information that helps you make proactive
decisions. Be assured, your competitors are achieving
this.
Over recent years, we have spent a lot
of time with our clients understanding how improvements
in processes and costs can help them become more competitive,
more efficient and more responsive.
As a result, we have forged new alliances
that help us enhance and improve the support we give
our clients.
One of our key partners is PROACTIS.
And we have been working with our colleagues there to
provide solutions for clients in these key areas, with
great success.
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Payment & Collection
Focus on IPS
General Systems, now has a strategic
partnership with Intelligent Payment Solutions…
The partnership offers organisations
solutions for automating the Accounts Payable functions,
delivering real cost savings into this key area of business.
Based on the hugely successful Salesforce.com
solution, modules developed by IPS will automate the
collection of Direct Debits, Credit Card payments and
invoice payments by BACS. The solutions offer considerable
savings for organisations in these areas, and represent
a significant improvement in the functionality that
is offered to the key payments functions.
Tony Russell, Managing Director of IPS,
said:
“I am delighted to announce this
partnership, which brings together two companies with
a wealth of experience in helping organisations achieve
real cost savings in their business processes.”
Frank Coyle, MD of General Systems commented:
“This addition to our portfolio
clearly demonstrates our commitment to create Best in
Class Companies here in the North West. On demand software
offers a clear, cost effective alternative to the high
capital costs of traditional systems and will be a key
driver for development in the future.”
Salesforce.com is a world leader in
on demand software and is providing the platform around
which these solutions are built.
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Vision
Focus on Vision
Vision Budget
Management is an innovative and intelligent budget management
tool designed to control the entire budget process from
your desktop. Vision Budget Management streamlines the
budgeting process, delivers control, reduces budget
iterations, improves planning, and optimizes the use
of financial data.
Budget Management through Excel
Vision Budget Management allows you to manage all aspects
of enterprise-wide budgeting, forecasting and planning.
The design of Vision Budget Management embodies an inherent
understanding of SunSystems and capitalizes on the powerful
functionality of Microsoft Excel, Vision Executive and
Vision XL. Individuals within an organization can control
their own area of accountability. Responsibility is
assigned by Budget, Budget Group and workbook. Budget
workbooks are allocated and dispatched to individuals
to complete then return to the person responsible for
collation, checking and approval.
Budget Management Data Warehouse
Vision Budget Management is used to first build then
retain the budget structure. This process includes the
identification and allocation of a budget ledger as
the Data Warehouse. Once the budget administrator has
received completed workbooks, Vision Budget Management
validates the contents and transfers the data to the
Data Warehouse. Status Codes can be used to manage the
stages of budget development and version control enables
iterative budget development. Version and Status information
is transferred to the Data Warehouse along with the
workbook data, allowing sophisticated budget analysis
through Vision Executive and Vision XL.
Powerful Analysis and Reporting
Budget outcomes can be reported using Vision Executive
or Vision XL. Vision Executive users have access to
Drilldown and Breakout functions that allow you to scrutinize
the consolidated budget in fine detail. You can also
utilize the Format Tables facility to highlight abnormalities
or inconsistencies in your data. Vision Alert can be
used for automatic exception reporting and distribution.
Forecasting
Vision Budget Management can help you create and manage
forecast data as part of your ongoing forecasting process
throughout the year.
Existing and New users of Vision can
now benefit from the latest release of Vision, Vision
6. This delivers increased functionality and ease of
use and is now provided as a suite of reporting tools.
including Vision Executive, Vision Xl and Vision Word
as standard, This allows the users to select the most
appropriate reporting tool for the task from a simple
drop down menu.
Vision delivers….
Integrated Analytics; helping you detect
and explain trends, problems and opportunities that
affect your business
Enterprise wide Distribution; Vision
Net Enterprise allows you to store share and distribute
reports around the business via the web.
Intuitive dashboards; transforms existing
reports into financial, operational or performance dashboards
Flexible documents; Vision Word provides
an optimal tool for creating monthly statutory or management
reports.
Secure Data Integrity; using the latest
Serduct technology, Vision is able to report over many
databases in your organisation, not just SunSystems.
This delivers secure meaningful reporting via easy to
use routes that help you make sense of your business.
Secure Access and control; as you would
expect, Vision provides security that safeguards sensitive
data and reports, regardless of the data source.
Upgrading to Vision 6 is a simple step
for most clients and is highly recommended. For details
of our cost effective upgrade route, and for more details
on how Vision can help your organisation, please contact
helen.parker@generalsystems.co.uk
or our support team on 0161 495 6702
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Did You Know? ...Sales
Invoicing
Are you invoicing regular charges,
such as Rent, Maintenance and service charges?
Regular charges are often rekeyed at
every invoice cycle, taking up time and resources at
a key time.
If you use Spreadsheets to do this,
they often contain errors and miscalculations that also
take up time and resources in correcting.
SunSystems Sales Invoicing, with Recurring
Invoicing, manages the enitire sales invoicing cycle,
including the management of Deferred income, and accrued
income. Full contract information, control of billing
cycles, discounting, and automatic posting to the Ledgers
is all handled easily and quickly.
Key Features
• Standard, Scheduled or Blanket/Contract
Invoicing
• Inventory or Non-Inventory Transaction
• User updateable Selling Prices
• Price Book hierarchy of up to 10 Levels for
Complex Requirements
• Scheduled Invoice payments based on Payment
Rules
• Enter all details of the contract once and the
Invoices will be generated automatically on the correct
basis. You decide the frequency of invoice generation.
• Full Accrued and Deferred Income calculations
For more information please contact
james.swinnertonr@generalsystems.co.uk
or our support desk on 0161 495 6702
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Key Contact details: Support
Desk: 0161 495 6700, Support@generalsystems.co.uk
Web Site: Generalsystems.co.uk
Chris Moran, Account
Director: 07747664181, Chris.moran@generalsystems.co.uk
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