IN THE PRESS
Edition 95 – January 2012

Below are UNIT4’s UK press coverage highlights from December

Survey: ERP proves inflexible, expensive
Retail Technology

A new international research project, undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centres (TEC) and UNIT4, has found 55% of mid-market companies cannot make data and business process changes to their ERP software without costly IT consultants.

The findings were based on a survey of 307 senior managers from a range of industries about their ERP and enterprise applications’ ability to support business change, as well as its ability to interface with barcoding, scanning and warehousing processes. A similar survey conducted by analyst firm IDC in 2009 showeed substantial business disruption occurs to non-Agresso ERP solutions when any significant changes are required.

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NHS IT project is dead, but why do large IT projects fail? Part 18.
Computer Weekly

Following the news that the NHS National Project for IT was dropped I have been posting some of the views I have recently received for an unrelated feature I was working on, about why large IT projects are prone to fail.

I have had such a good response I am keeping the debate going in the blog.
Today, in part 18, I am featuring the opinion of Steve Haines, Health & Emergency Services Sector Manager at business software maker UNIT4. He left his comment in the blog.

Steve says: "Basically, the simple fact is the bigger something is, the longer it takes to build. Even if it gets built, it's then more difficult to evolve and less agile to change. We know that technology does not stand still for long, so I can't believe anyone truly believed that a programme of this scale (NHS project) would ever deliver. There are economies of scale that can deliver efficiencies and benefit, but there is a point at which organisations and solutions go beyond the economies of scale and hit the diseconomies of scale due to the loss of manageability. Our strategy at UNIT4 is to continue to support our NHS customers to grow "local" shared services and collaborations working in local health economies, while at the same time helping new hubs establish, underpinned by leading edge technology that embraces continued development and change. Local collaborations have over time proven to deliver benefits from collaboration while at the same time staying in touch and understanding local economies, priorities and demands. We are now working with a number of customers who are developing "hubs" for such service provision across the country. Additionally, our licence models enable organisations to retain the agility to move in or out of shared services, or indeed from one service to another, encouraging a competitive environment where good quality, efficient and cost effective services can continue to develop. National agenda's often stifle development and innovation to drive such efficiency.” Steve Haines Health & Emergency Services Sector Manager UNIT4 Business software Limited.

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Contracts/Deals: Cranfield uses UNIT4’s Agresso e-Recruiter
Recruiter

Specialist and postgraduate-only Cranfield University in Milton Keynes will use business software firm UNIT4’s Agresso e-Recruiter programme for its recruitment needs.

The software allows candidates to track their recruitment progress electronically and includes a job board integrated into the University’s website.

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Report Identifies Future Trends and Software Priorities for Regional and Local Governments - based on interviews with UNIT4 clients
IT Director

UNIT4 today published a market report undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) which outlines the current software priorities of regional and local governments worldwide. It finds that public sector organisations are under huge pressure to radically change their structures, the way they operate, their legislative compliance, their cost base and the services they deliver.

The report is based on TEC software selection project data and interviews with IT managers and C-level executives at government sector UNIT4 clients in Western Europe and the US. It highlights three key initiatives that public sector organisations should consider:

• Moving more of their software to an on-demand model
• Selecting business software that is architected specifically to support on-going structural and operational change
• Adopting new forms of collaboration with other public sector organisations.

The report reveals how public sector organisations are being forced to consider replacing their business software because of the inability of existing legacy ERP to support changes such as new reporting requirements. Legislation like mandatory publication of all county/city spending to the public and stricter private data and communication security standards are forcing local and municipal authorities to look for new technology solutions.

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A week of mixed fortunes for shared service ventures north-west
Kable

Wigan council is reported to be planning to host a new HR and payroll system to be shared with Trafford and Stockport. The priority is to save more the £2m over the first two years, but this is easier said than done. Venture 40 miles down the road and the news coming out of Cheshire is not as sanguine. The shared service initiative between Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East councils only last week announced it will be cutting 30% of its workforce, after its mid-year performance report stated that it had overspent by £2.45m. Suppliers looking to support shared service initiatives need to focus on the initial cost savings as this will impact the long term viability of the plans.

But this is only part of the story, as there is also the need to commercialise shared service ventures. As more academies are created, schools are an increasingly attractive prospect for shared service hubs, and suppliers with solutions that can bring in users will be in a strong position.

Also, the cost and speed of deployment will be increasingly important, which bodes well for those that can offer cloud based platforms and solutions. The venture between Wigan, Trafford and Stockport has already included cloud in its thinking, and Xentrall, a shared service between Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington, recently selected Unit4’s Shared Journey platform to offer cloud based finance and payroll services to academies.

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The fantastic benefits of Agresso Systems
PUBarticles

Agresso systems offer a whole host of enterprise resource planning solutions and software for companies in the professional services and public sector. Businesses all over the world have invested in Agresso systems to help them with strategic management and operational support to ensure their business runs as efficiently as possible. Most Agresso software will run via a web-based system and can provide solutions for many different business functions.

Agresso systems are designed to help control financial management, human resources and payroll including full employee payment software, procurement management to process invoices and purchasing, project costing and billing to maximise the success of a project and maximise the resources, reporting and analytics and business process automation. Agresso specialises in working with companies who are constantly going through change and need flexible systems to help them make these changes as easily and as efficiently as possible. Other leading brands of ERP software are not as good as dealing with constant change so this is why Agresso systems are a favoured choice.

All of the Agresso systems are designed to minimise the cost and maximise the speed of change in your organisation making things more manageable and controllable when changes need to be put into place. Agresso will work with individual companies to create Agresso systems that perfectly meet all their needs and business requirements.

Agresso works with many different business sectors including; local government, education establishments, financial services companies, professional services, retail businesses, transport and logistics and wholesale and distribution companies. The systems provide these types of businesses with long term business benefits that meet their exact needs to help them improve their operational efficiency and reduce costs.

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UNIT4’s SaaS recruitment solution selected by Cranfield University
Sales Transformation

Attracting and recruiting the best talent is key to Cranfield maintaining its global reputation for inspirational teaching, high quality research and renowned business connections.  Such is the importance that they have decided to implement UNIT4’s one-stop Software as a Service (SaaS) recruitment solution, Agresso e-Recruiter.
Agresso e-Recruiter is part of UNIT4’s Agresso Campus Platform, which is specifically designed for the Higher Education sector. It will be fully integrated with the organisation’s web site.

The solution will streamline internal recruiting operations, save time and money, and enhance the applicant experience.  Candidates will be able to track their applications electronically and recruiting managers will be able to access applications online.

Not only will Cranfield now be able to attract applicants it will also help the University’s recruitment team easily adapt its strategy and apply best practice recruitment processes. 

Ruth Gardener, HR Systems Manager at Cranfield University explained the decision, “We chose Agresso e-Recruiter because we felt that it is the most flexible solution available and offers the most cost effective long term investment”

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Getting closer CFOs and Supply Chains
AB magazine

The financial crash, an urgent need to control costs and creeping globalisation are all forcing CFOs to work more closely with procurement. The results can be impressive. With the financial crisis still resonating and the economy treading water, CFOs remain vigilant on cash and risk.

They are now turning their attention to supply chains, working closer than ever with their procurement teams to fashion holistic end-to-end processes that align goals and benefit the whole business.

Traditionally, finance and procurement have had an arm’s length relationship even when procurement reports directly to the finance chief. This relationship, argue experts, is made more difficult as operationally the two functions should be better aligned, but have different disciplines and outlooks that are not fully understood by the other. That, however, is gradually changing as economic events and the growing globalisation of business have put the CFO under pressure to gain control of third-party spend and not just manage it. From the finance perspective it’s about reducing the amount of money that goes out the door and enhancing value for money…

Tony Morris, principal business consultant and procurement expert at global business software provider UNIT4, says: ‘Measurement is key to the changing fortunes of the procurement function as it enables organisations to adopt a proactive approach and the people best placed to do this are the people in the procurement function.’