In The Press April 2011
28 April 2011
UNIT4 shows strong results
Accountancy Age
Financial IT business UNIT4 has revealed double digit increase of revenues for the first quarter of 2011, following significant contract wins in the UK, including the House of Commons.
UNIT4's total revenues increased nearly 16% to €112.1m (£98.6m) in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period last year.
The parent company of financial software provider Coda and online accountancy software FinancialForce.com said the UK had achieved "above average growth".
Anwen Robinson, UK Managing Director at UNIT4, said: "I am pleased to report that Q1 2011 has proved successful for UNIT4 in the UK, both financially and operationally.
"In spite of the much debated spending cuts and resulting cautiousness in the economy and business environment, the UK operations have made solid progress in Q1.
"During the quarter we secured a significant new opportunity with the House of Commons which is an existing customer and have signed an agreement with Hampshire County Council to deliver UK wide shared services."
Survey indicates gradual move to the Cloud for back-office enterprise
FSN
A survey to determine attitudes to cloud computing for core back office functions revealed that cloud adoption rates will remain steady in 2011; that cloud adoption among public sector organisations will grow in line with the commercial sector and that enterprise applications will move to the cloud gradually over the next 10 years.
The survey, carried out by UNIT4, was based on responses from 700 medium to large organisations based in 12 countries worldwide, 377 in the UK. The survey revealed that companies are starting to invest more in cloud technology for core back-office functions, but that growth will remain steady this year. 32 percent of all respondents believe they will spend more on cloud computing this year, and 32 percent believe they will spend at the same rate as in 2010. Only four percent expect to spend less and 31 percent expect to spend nothing on cloud computing.
Practice tips from a legal FD
AccountingWEB
At the UNIT4 Customer Conference, Marks & Clerk LLP Finance Director Mark Hancock offered insights on how enhanced reporting helped him to run the firm more profitably.
For Marks & Clerk, a firm specialising in intellectual property law, a move to unify its accounting and practice management systems has paid dividends in driving profitability and harmonising operations within the firm.
Key performance indicators
As a professional practice, Marks & Clerk bases key performance indicators (KPIs) on fee-earners’ activity levels. Key questions include: what did they record in their time?; and how can it get better use out of that time?
Finance Director Mark Hancock explains that utilisation and recovery form a large part of these measures: “Having just come through the downturn, we’re starting to see recovery – our budgets are starting to show an upturn.
“We’ve seen this through our figures too, so literally our professional fee billing is the biggest part to it. To us it’s managing work in progress, looking at the number of hours that the attorneys are billing. That’s our real driver.”
That’s all basic stuff to any practice manager. Nevertheless, Hancock has been overseeing a new model populated with regular numbers to show profitability levels. “We now need to start looking a lot deeper at our business intelligence, to really be able to forecast with more certainty of what’s going to be happening in the next two-to-three-year window, not just 12 or 18 months,” he says.
East Kent NHS Finance Consortium
Kabledirect.com
East Kent NHS Finance Consortium has selected UNIT4 Business Software’s Agresso Managed Services (AMS) for another five years.
As per the new agreement, the consortium will continue AMS which will help expand the shared services it provides and meet the challenges its clients face in the sector, as general practitioners (GPs) replace primary care trusts (PCTs).
DJ EDB ErgoGroup, UNIT4 Agresso Enter Strategic Collaboration
Morningstar
Norwegian IT company EDB Ergo Group ASA (EDBASA.OS) has said it has entered into a six-year strategic collaboration on administrative support systems (ERP) for the public sector in Norway and Sweden with UNIT4 Agresso AS, a Scandinavian subsidiary of Dutch IT company UNIT4 NV (U4AGR.AE).
The agreement between EDB ErgoGroup and UNIT4 covers sales and delivery of ERP systems to public sector customers in Norway and Sweden.
Deliveries will be based on the Agresso Business World ERP suite and EDB ErgoGroup's specialist public sector unit, which currently comprises about 180 employees. The agreement envisages that the parties will establish closer collaboration on maintenance and support.
"We anticipate strong growth in demand for these kinds of solutions, and as a result of new contracts based on solutions from UNIT4 Agresso we will strengthen our delivery organisation by adding up to 30 more people than we had in this area in 2010", said EDB ErgoGroup Executive Vice President Havard Larsen.
Oxford and Cambridge to develop research pricing tool
PublicTechnology.net
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are working with a business software provider to develop a research costing and pricing software solution.
Together with UNIT4, the universities will use the solution to enable them to engage in more accurate costing estimations, as well as speed up agreements on appropriate prices for research applications.
It will also ensure that data input and output is dealt with consistently through the use of a single, shared system, and it is hoped that communication between departments at the universities will be improved, and access to information will be faster. In addition, the solution will enable the universities to meet financial reporting requirements as well as ensure compliance with the government’s Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC).
Dr Glenn Swafford, Director of Research Services at Oxford, said: “Accurately and efficiently calculating the Full Economic Cost and the price of research is an essential component in bidding for external funding and building collaborations. This partnership with UNIT4 and the University of Cambridge will leverage each party’s skills and experiences to develop a cost-effective, world-class tool for researchers and research administrators.”
UNIT4 hopes to offer the solution to other higher education institutions, once completed, either as part of its Agresso Campus Platform, or as a standalone solution.
UNIT4 partners with Albany Software to facilitate fast, accurate bank payments
TMCNet
Albany Software, a pioneering developer of electronic payment solutions, has today announced a strategic partnership with UNIT4 Business Software Ltd, the UK division of UNIT4, the world's leading provider of business software for fast changing organisations, to provide Agresso Business World (ABW) users with the secure and accredited web-based bank account validation tool; Albany eVERIFY.
