GLE Group selects TechnologyOne to improve budgetary control and financial accountability Diverse organisation to implement advanced budget planning and business intelligence to generate timely and fully audited management reports
GLE Group – a leading provider of business finance, accommodation, enterprise development and consulting services and wholly owned by the 33 London boroughs – will implement new software solutions to help streamline its business processes and improve its financial accountability.
After meeting with six potential budgeting software suppliers and visiting four-reference sites, GLE Group selected TechnologyOne Enterprise Budgeting and Business Intelligence to replace the organisation’s reliance on Excel spreadsheets.
Commercially and constitutionally independent and receiving no public subsidies, GLE Group provides services, products and investment in finance for business, enterprise development, business accommodation and consultancy services.
For at least 12 years, GLE Group has used Sun Accounts but an upcoming group-wide upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 prompted a re-evaluation of its core financial systems.
GLE Group Business Finance Controller, London, Joanne Baker had flagged a requirement for improved financial planning tools to replace the cumbersome Excel spreadsheets the firm has relied on to manage its complex budgeting and reporting. Although the GLE Group team is proficient in Excel, the complexity of many of the Group’s activities made this a less than ideal platform for its budgeting and reporting needs. Additionally, the lack of audit trail around changes and approvals needed by different parts of the Group made the existing process “challenging” in Ms Baker’s view. “The TechnologyOne solution scored highly in our evaluation especially in terms of its process management and its flexibility to interface with our existing systems,” explained Ms Baker. “Our expectation is that TechnologyOne will help us cut down the time it takes us to produce management accounts.
“Another key benefit is the software’s work flow driven approvals process with a full audit trail.” Ms Baker said the variety of operations undertaken by the GLE Group made it a challenging environment to manage accounting, budgeting and reporting. “The range of activities undertaken by GLE is incredibly diverse, ranging from managing loans, through to property development and even organising training courses,” she said. “Our sources of funding include the London Boroughs and European grants as well as the parts of the business that are profitable.
“However, much of our work just recovers costs as our overall aim is to work for the public good.
“A large part of the GLE Group remit is in what it can give back to the community and many aspects of the organisation are effectively not for profit.”
GLE Group will initially deploy the TechnologyOne Enterprise Budgeting and Business Intelligence software at its London and Leeds sites in October.
Other parts of the Group are also in discussions to switch to the TechnologyOne platform.
About GLE Group
GLE Group is a leading provider of services, products and investment in finance for business, enterprise development, business accommodation and consultancy services. Bringing innovative and commercial approaches to economic growth we successfully unlock the potential of people and growing businesses. GLE Group is wholly owned by the 33 London boroughs, yet is commercially and constitutionally independent and receives no public subsidy.
For further information please visit www.gle.co.uk
About TechnologyOne
TechnologyOne (ASX: TNE) is a leading enterprise software solutions provider. For 25 years we have been providing deeply integrated software solutions for business, government, financial services, health and community, education and the utilities sectors. Tens of thousands of people each day use our world class solutions which we develop, implement and support, and include, Financials, Human Resource & Payroll, Supply Chain, Business Intelligence, Budgeting, Performance Planning, Property & Rating, Customer Relationship Management, Student Management, Asset Management and Enterprise Content Management. Our organisation wide solution suite, integration solutions and custom designed solutions provide world class services which are based on leading edge technology and are backed up by a substantial R&D program providing our customers with a long term, secure and valuable partnership. TechnologyOne employs more than 800 people and has offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia.
For further information please visit www.TechnologyOneCorp.co.uk Media Contact Details: For more information, please contact: Marsha Parry-Morris, TechnologyOne, Phone + 44 (0) 1628 591160.
Forex focus: summit leaders want to save euro, but how? - Daily Telegraph
As World First’s chief economist Jeremy Cook points out, it was vital that EU loans to Spain didn’t have seniority over other debts so bondholders did not “flee Spanish debt for fear of haircuts”. What are really needed are eurobonds, rather than bonds issued by individual countries within the region, but Germany’s Angela Merkel had made it clear that would only happen over her dead body.
So it’s back to short-term patches for a long-term crisis. As David Kerns of Moneycorp says: “The best bet for a longer-lasting solution is to mutualise some of the debt by issuing eurobonds.
“But Chancellor Merkel is adamant that she will block any such move, and with most Germans sharing this tough stance, she has left herself no room to manoeuvre.”
If the interest rate on the southern European countries’ debts come down as a result, there can be moves towards a closer union.
“A banking union will help soothe the internal issue of flight to quality,” says Chris Towner of HiFX, “as Germany soaks up all the cash deposits within the eurozone adding to the pressures faced by the peripheral banks, and would certainly restore confidence.”
The problem has always been balancing liabilities taken on by the whole eurozone with controls over national budgets. Naturally, euro countries are nervous of handing over financial control, although summit leaders did agree to a joint banking supervisory body for the eurozone. They unveiled proposals for a European treasury, to have powers over national budgets, as part of a 10-year plan to prevent future crises in the eurozone.
Long-term, structural solutions are needed to keep the euro alive. Michael Derks of FxPro believes: “If the euro is to survive, Spain and Italy must undertake huge structural reform, and Germany and international creditors need to provide the sovereigns with large, very long-term zero interest rate loans to give them time to restructure… even this might not be enough. All of this will continue to help sterling vis-à-vis the euro… we could see the euro worth 75p before year-end, despite the rancid state of the economy.”
Cook thinks sterling is likely to see gains against not only the euro but also the “weakened commodity and risk currencies” of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Canada. But he thinks it will fall against the US dollar and the yen. And Cotton believes the pound will stay up as long as investors avoid euro debt.
But not everyone agrees. Stephen Hughes, of Currencies.co.uk, thinks our close trade ties with Europe will “ultimately impact negatively on sterling’s long- term prospects”, while Josh Ferry Woodard, of TorFX, thinks the pound could take a knock soon.
“The imminent increase in the Bank of England’s quantitative easing target, plus the added threat of a rate cut could prove to be just what markets need to punish the pound,” he says.
Forex focus is sponsored by
FOREX-Euro steady as Fed easing bets offset euro woes - Reuters UK
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment