‘Smart’ operational management

The new breed of operations management is now aligned with faster-paced global, remote and hybrid ways of working. With digital checklists, live video, inventory management and field audits, organisations are able to manage operations anytime, anywhere while also ensuring that standard operating procedures are followed across locations.

Companies can validate site visitations, attach live photos and videos, discover issues and monitor resolution in real-time. Interactive dashboards allow management to review and analyse what is happening in their real time. Businesses can quickly identify red flags, note issues that have to be resolved immediately and highlight cost-saving opportunities.

Businesses like KFC, Kopi Kenangan, 7-Eleven, Wilmar, Cargill and Under Armour are amongst the 200+ organisations around the world already seeing the benefits of this new smarter way of operations management. In fact, to date, Nimbly has helped save businesses over 57,000 hours in operational efficiency, 59% in inspection costs and helped drive 86% in business productivity.

“It ties up to excellence in our offering, especially empowering the dashboard with real-time relevant information, quickly and accurately.”

AI-powered operations

Recently, Nimbly announced it had selected Sisense, an AI-driven analytics cloud platform that infuses analytics anywhere to provide a new customisable, visual dashboard to its customers.

Prior to engaging with Sisense, Nimbly’s dashboard was not fully agile or customisable, and a self-service model was not enabled for the customer.

Earlier this year, Nimbly decided to enhance its platform with robust data analytics and visualisation capabilities. Nimbly evaluated multiple tools based on the needs of their customers and ultimately chose Sisense due to its powerful, easy to visualise and interactive dashboards. Nimbly also needed a solution that enabled their end-users to build customised dashboards with minimal training, both of which Sisense offered.

“Sisense’s self-service model is intuitive and easy to manage. This along with AI capabilities made it a compelling option for the company,” Girish Mysore, CTO of Nimbly said. “With Sisense, Nimbly can leverage its analytic and visualisation engine to its customisation and instrumentation capabilities. This ensures that Nimbly’s analytics are not only the most advanced, easy to use and highly flexible on the market but that it fully meets our clients’ needs.”

“We use Sisense dashboards to enhance what we deliver to customers. It ties up to excellence in our offering, especially empowering the dashboard with real-time relevant information, quickly and accurately.”

Eyal Mekler, Regional VP APAC at Sisense said embedding an interactive, customisable tool with Nimbly’s solution opens up exciting opportunities for businesses globally to become further streamlined, enjoy operational efficiencies while leveraging data to grow their businesses and minimise risk.

“Data visualisation helps unlock the value of data for organisational efficiency and is critical in today’s fast-moving business landscape that demands access to essential information quickly and in real-time. Sisense provides our clients with an easy low/no-code solution that is customisable and interactive, that helps drive even further innovation for businesses at scale,” Mekler said.

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E-invoicing is gaining traction in Australia and New Zealand, so what stages are the big cloud accounting firms at? We dive into the current state of play of e-invoicing for six key cloud accounting platforms used by small businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

(It should be noted that this is only small business accounting providers. The parties they invoice, and are invoiced by, are likely to be larger entities running ERP systems, and for e-invoicing to work, both ends need to invest in making PEPPOL standards easy to use – Editor)

Xero
Xero have shown their support for e-invoicing by buying Swedish e-invoicing provider Tickstar. They are currently going through the process of making it work within their normal process. Sending e-invoices has been enabled for customers, and the receiving of e-invoices is still being refined but should be ready for early adopters soon.

Xero has added an e-invoicing option to their invoice creation page. This puts the onus back on the business to know if their recipient is ready for e-invoicing or not. We expect this will change soon to offer a better user experience for their customers.

MYOB
MYOB are being very cautious about e-invoicing. They know they need to be a part of it, but they haven’t worked out what they want to do yet. They are hedging their bets and allowing three providers to operate from within their system.

MYOB AccountRight and Essentials users are shown a list of three e-invoicing providers and need to pick which one they want to work with. Once they’ve signed up, MYOB  users will be able to see a new ‘send as e-invoice button’ when they create an invoice.

QBO – QuickBooks Online
You may have noticed some events and marketing by Intuit in recent times. They have taken the angle to help inform and educate the market about e-invoicing. Their parent company is Intuit have two accredited e-invoicing access point providers within their app store to support e-invoicing in QBO.

Reckon
Reckon have been supporters of e-invoicing for some time and recommend one service provider to their users – and yes, that would be us here at Link4.

Saasu
Saasu have a loyal customer base who advocate their solution to other business people. Several of their users have been doing e-invoicing for more than three years. Saasu provide the name of one supplier, Link4, on their e-invoicing add – on page, and this works well for their users.

Money Works
MoneyWorks have done it the best that we’ve seen so far. E-invoicing comes standard with its latest release.

They partnered with Link4 and embedded the e-invoicing service within their solution and made it easy for the end user. I am sure we will see more of this type of approach as users demand a better experience.

So where are we heading?
When all of the software companies provide e-invoicing capabilities within their accounting packages, will there be a need for specialist e-invoicing providers?

Consider the services provided by the cloud accounting systems as ‘vanilla e-invoicing’. That is, they will provide the basics and cover the needs of 40 percent of the market.

The niche e-invoicing providers are independent and will continue to develop their solutions based on end user feedback. These providers will include things like approval processes (for sending and receiving invoices), reminders, invoice financing options, additional fields, other document types, etc.

These same independent providers are often providing a vanilla aspect of their services through accounting solutions, but you can also get far more functionality to meet your business needs if you go direct.

No matter how you look at it, e-invoicing has benefits for every business. It is good to see the cloud accounting companies getting on board to make it easier for more to join the growing e-invoicing network.

Written by Robin Sands, CEO of Australian e-invoicing Access Point Link4.

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We recommend that business leaders begin with a clear, actionable strategy for business intelligence (BI). BI has rapidly grown in popularity among small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in recent years, largely because technology has advanced to the point at which powerful analytics have become affordable for virtually any sized organisation. In fact, when you consider the tangible business benefits that powerful reporting can provide, an investment in BI tools delivers a very strong ROI.

BI can be something that effectively ‘turns the light on’ in any organisation.

Unfortunately, BI is still a confusing and fragmented concept to many people. Definitions vary, largely because BI is a multifaceted domain that touches on everything from internal business processes, key performance metrics, and data manipulation to integration among various business information systems and more.

BI is about how your organisation engages with data, how you measure and communicate key objectives, and how you draw insights from your data that help you manage your business more successfully. Every organisation is different, so there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Ultimately, it comes down to understanding where your business is today, where you want it to be in the future, and how you can forge a path to get there. Gaining that level of understanding requires an intentional approach.

Stock reporting tools just aren’t good enough
Most organisations are already using multiple different reporting tools, and they may not even be aware of just how fragmented those systems are. Think about the various software platforms your organisation uses. Most companies have an ERP system for managing day-to-day financial and operational functions. Some have a separate CRM system, which may or may not integrate with the ERP. Others run a digital marketing automation platform to develop and nurture leads, deepen engagement with existing customers, and cultivate awareness and goodwill.

Each of those systems comes with its own dedicated reporting functions. Sadly, those tools are often designed to be “just good enough.” They address the fundamental requirement for reporting, but they lack flexibility and sophistication. In many cases, those tools lack the capacity for custom reports. Very often, you cannot even modify existing reports to support the organisation’s unique, specific business processes.

In cases in which customisation is possible, it usually isn’t easily accomplished. ERP software, in particular, is notorious for the extent to which report development and customisation require highly specialized IT skills. That means allocating scarce IT resources to the task or paying expensive outside consultants to do the job. For frontline workers in finance and accounting, it means waiting days or weeks to get the needed information.

Then there is the problem of integration, or the lack thereof. When companies rely on the off-the-shelf reporting tools that come with their various software systems, they end up with a collection of reports that tell them about each of the specific domains managed by those systems.

The ERP reports can only deliver information about accounting, inventory, sales, and purchasing. There is some customer information there, but it may be limited. The CRM system contains more detailed customer information, but it may not integrate well with the transactional information in ERP. Digital marketing automation, likewise, is restricted to its own limited view of the world.

Integration can mitigate this problem of information silos to some extent, but it can only go so far. Unfortunately, many organisations have come to accept tedious workarounds as a necessary evil. The process usually goes something like this: First, you run reports from two or three different systems. Then, you export the resulting information to Excel, consolidating those into a single spreadsheet. Finally, you filter, format, and add formulas to bring it all together.

That process is incredibly time-consuming, so it precludes the possibility of running those kinds of reports frequently. The resulting information is out of date as soon as you produce the report because it came from a static copy of data that has since become stale. The manual copy/paste process also tends to introduce errors, which can ultimately result in poor business decisions.

For truly effective reporting that provides a unified view of the business, BI systems must bridge the gaps between all of the software systems that business leaders rely on to manage their organisations. A good BI platform must deliver information in real time, and it needs to be easy enough to use that anyone in the organisation can design and modify reports without specialised skills.

As You Migrate to Cloud ERP…
As organisations start down the path toward cloud ERP, it is imperative that they give careful consideration to the implications for reporting and analytics. As software vendors have transitioned to a cloud-first approach, most have taken the necessary steps of changing the way you access data. For security reasons, companies running a cloud ERP system can no longer make direct database queries using structured query language (SQL). That is a technical change, but it has profound implications for BI.

Companies that currently run Microsoft Dynamics AX, for example, will face a multitude of choices about how to access data and run reports when they migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Companies running other ERPs will find themselves in a similar situation. Each of those choices has its unique disadvantages and brings with it some unique considerations as to system architecture, cost, performance, and long-term IT staffing requirements.

In other words, ERP customers who migrate to the cloud risk being blindsided by a relatively simple (but extremely important) technical change to the way they access ERP data. Many of the proposed new approaches to data access are driven by new technology that has not yet reached maturity. For companies seeking a reliable BI platform with a low total cost of ownership, a better approach is to seek a stable, proven reporting and analytics product designed for high performance and ease of use.

An Intentional Approach Is Critical
BI can be something that effectively “turns the light on” in any organisation. When the entire team is working from the same playbook with access to a single source of truth, everyone can focus on the same targets, working with the same KPIs to drive action and improve processes.

While technology is ultimately part of the conversation about BI, it should not be the starting point. An effective approach to BI must serve the needs of the tactical and strategic decision-makers in the organisation. It should address financial and operational reporting requirements with powerful and flexible tools that make it possible for anyone in the organisation to design and modify ad hoc reports, without needing specialized training or IT skills.

At insightsoftware, we recommend that company leaders carefully consider some key questions that impact their long-term strategy for BI:

• What are the systems of record for your critical business data? These usually comprise the starting point for developing a unified approach toward reporting, bringing together information that gives business leaders a holistic, unified view of what is happening in the business. Typically, such systems include ERP and CRM, but they often include specialized industry-specific software as well.
• How are people throughout your organisation currently using reporting? Which reports are decision-makers relying upon every day, every week, or every month? What happens when you need an ad hoc report?
• Do your current financial reporting systems support rapid and efficient period-end closing?
  Could the period-end process benefit from greater efficiency and automation? Do reconciliations and supporting worksheets automatically link to numbers that come directly from the general ledger and subledgers in the ERP system?
• How timely is the information that stakeholders are getting today? Have there ever been times when you needed information on very short notice, but it was unavailable? What were the implications of that delay?
• How accurate is the information that stakeholders are getting today? Are errors and inaccuracies frequently discovered after the fact? Have they resulted in meaningful costs to the company? Are there multiple versions of the truth? Does the organisation frequently struggle with arguments over ‘which number is correct?’
• Is your organisation planning a migration to cloud ERP and/or cloud CRM at some point in the future? If so, it is important that you partner with a vendor that can support your needs today and in the future as you transition to the cloud.

Answering these questions will help you identify what you want to achieve with BI in the near future, and what types of benefits your organisation can achieve, both in the short term and the long term.

At insightsoftware, we focus on serving the needs of finance and accounting teams. Often, when organisations are developing a BI strategy, the unique reporting needs of the finance department are overlooked. That does not have to be the case, however. As you develop your BI and reporting strategy, there are some key factors to consider to ensure that finance’s voice is heard. Learn more about those factors now by downloading our guide entitled Five Key Factors to Consider When Evaluating Financial Reporting Software.

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Accounts Payable automation is among the cloud technologies which have delivered a real benefit. There’s a useful overview at pymnts.com explaining what AP is and how it provides advantages including mobility, efficiency and visibility of a key process.

Be part of our team of five million
Now more than ever small suppliers need their invoices processed rapidly and payments made without delays or difficulties. Your business continuity with AP could well influence their business continuity with sustainable cashflow.

You don’t want unmanaged risk in the payments department.

But for many, this has proven challenging: if your AP system is set up for the office, and the office only, or if your AP process relies on paper invoices, the lockdown probably stopped the process altogether as Forbes explains here.

The problems with AP (and the solutions)
Research from Ardent Partners shows that most companies have three problems with AP: Exceptions, approvals taking too long, and excessive paper. Sound familiar? This was a problem for Ruralco, a company we worked with for the delivery of Esker automated AP.

It (Esker) just works. It has an app, it has delegation of authority, it has complete visibility. I can log-in with my phone and find any invoice, see where it is in the process, and even approve it, in seconds. Read the full case study from Ruralco.

Manual processes also mean risk – and you don’t want unmanaged risk in the payments department. When we delivered Esker for Property Brokers, it found that automation meant error-elimination and tighter controls. That’s confirmed by Financial Controller Lee Waller: “We have tighter restraints on what’s being put through. Everyone is paying very close attention to what they’re signing, and they’re far more accountable. It’s made our managers very happy as they have visibility and control of their costs.” Here’s the case study.

Know more, with ease
With automated AP, your process is entirely digital. Esker AP software doesn’t just give you the power of mobility and secure anywhere access, it also gives you the power of analysis and reporting. Combined with complete visibility, this means not only seeing where invoices are in the process, but also gaining insights which help optimise operations and better manage growth. It’s point 5 in this overview of ‘Five best practices for optimising your accounts payable workflow’.

There’s a lot to be gained from supercharging your AP with intelligent automation. Best of all, by gaining efficiency, people are relieved from error-prone manual work and can instead focus on other value-added activities.

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Suckling is a director and chair of several New Zealand-based tech companies including Jade Software, and was previously chair of Callaghan Innovation for six years.

Zag says she brings extensive experience in strategy, governance and leadership to the role at a time when the company is experiencing strong growth in its SAP services and is set to target new markets.

“The international experience she brings to the board is of strategic importance to us as we look to both Australia and North America for growth opportunities.”

Zag CEO Nick Mulcahy says Suckling brings crucial experience to Zag (previously Soltius) at a time when the company is seeking to expand its offerings and grow its presence overseas.

“Sue has a wealth of experience in tech companies and knows the challenges of taking New Zealand companies offshore. The international experience she brings to the board is of strategic importance to us as we look to both Australia and North America for growth opportunities.”

Mulcahy says Zag is experiencing strong growth driven in part by companies making the shift to S/4HANA before SAP phases out support for older ERPs in 2027. It’s a trend that’s likely to continue with Gartner’s latest Quarterly Spending Forecast predicting software spend in Australia to grow 12.0% to hit AU$18 billion, with 12.1 percent growth in New Zealand taking it to NZ$2.4 billion.

“We had record sales across the board in the last quarter of 2019 and are looking to add more than 60 people this year,” Mulcahy says.

“We’ve established new management roles in the past 12 months to better position us to service demand for our traditional SAP business. It’s very important to us that growth doesn’t change the core culture of the company which is vital to attracting and keeping the right people. Sue is not just a great fit for the company, but she understands how important maintaining a great culture is to help us successfully navigate growth.”

Suckling says she looks forward to helping Zag achieve its growth goals.

“For New Zealand companies expanding into Australia it’s never an easy proposition and only companies with strong offerings, good strategy and experienced leadership can make that jump successfully. Zag has all of that and more in place and I’m looking forward to being involved in what is going to be an exciting phase in the company’s story.”

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Geoff Hamer, Fuji Xerox New Zealand marking manager, enterprise document solutions, says the new product series  –  named the ‘ApeosPort-VII/DocuCentre-VII’ – provides an experience more consistent with what users are familiar with – their own mobile devices – incorporating large touch screens and icons instead of hard keys; plus allows printing, scanning from iOS or Android mobile devices. Cloud storage is now embedded allowing functions such as transferring pictures and web pages from the mobile to the printers or downloading files from the cloud.

Security has also been enhanced to comply with new international standards for data privacy and device protection, with each printer able to be connected to two un-associated networks in order to enable separate communications.

In one of the biggest security advances, a new Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides enhanced encryption, with the system’s root password stored on the TPM side, and the customer not needing a complex and separate password for hard disk encryption.

Internal and external access rights can be set, and potential backup mechanisms established for all scanned files.

The large 25.7cm (that’s 10.1 inches in screen size lingo) colour touch panel, which Fuji Xerox says is as simple to use as a smart phone, can also be used as a corporate announcement screen, displaying either static images or GIF videos.

When it comes to printer management, Fuji Xerox is harnessing machine learning and forecasting functions for administrators to provide predictive support for system management, usage, consumables notification and troubleshooting through data analysis to help assist in mitigating downtime, maximising productivity and so increasing operating margin.

Connect on Demand
Coinciding with the launch, Fuji Xerox has expanded its software and cloud services.

Cloud print on demand has been updated with Azure Active Directory authentication now enabling interfacing with the Microsoft cloud services OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, while the mobile app has also been updated with a new look and feel and a new introduced text print feature.

The Cloud Service Hub, which connects multifunction printers with cloud storage services from various vendors using a single interface, enables easy searching of scanned documents in cloud storage from a single interface, using optical character recognition.

Also on the cloud front is the Device Log Service which aggregates data about printer usage, across up to 1,500 MFDs, with the information automatically imported on LDAP/ActiveDirectory users.

The devices also include document workflow designed to promote the use of digital documents, with DocuWorks Tray 2 enabling documents to be delivered to a document tray – an icon which looks like an ‘in tray’ on the user’s desktop computer, while Working Folder enables unregistered users to send documents, making the exchange of documents with external business partners more efficient.

Peter Thomas, Fuji Xerox New Zealand managing director, says New Zealand market is undergoing a rapid transformation to digital-first products.

Thomas says the ‘powerful’ security and technology features of the new offerings will ‘deliver significant improvements to business efficiencies’ for Kiwi businesses.

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There was really only one option for potential customers: Do you or do you not want to buy a car? But people got picky fast. They wanted any colour but black; engine choices; and different transmissions, entertainment systems, premium interior finishes and the rest. As my car-selling friend says, “They want all the toys!”

Today, advanced manufacturing brings the possibility of unlimited options, pure customisation and the ability to fill orders for almost anything. Until now, products to be sold already existed – they had been designed, tested, priced and put on the market.

But advanced manufacturing promises even higher variability and product diversity. Much of this is reflected within the very depths of the products offered in the form of one-off enhancements and modifications made possible by additive manufacturing and other technologies.

A part is needed that looks like this, performs like that and is fabricated from this. The next logical question is, do we build it or buy it? This decision will be driven by all manner of variable conditions, and the answer to the question will frequently change based upon those conditions. This month we buy it, next month we build it.

The supply chain will need to include options for building items instead of merely supplying them, and the entire arena of contract manufacturing or manufacturing as a service will need to step up in this role.

What is the difference between manufacturers and makers? Here is my personal, short definition: Manufacturers build discrete products out of parts and assemblies. Makers build discrete products out of goo (fabrication material) that is assembled together to make fully configured products. Perhaps I’m oversimplifying things.

Makers as a “movement” see the manufacturing capacity as a community resource; a sort of centralised facility that offers all manner of advanced fabrication tools including 3D printers, laser and high-pressure water cutters and more. Anyone can use it or employ it to make anything they want to make. Individuals can make parts for busted appliances; companies can make parts or finished products.

Another vision would have a company like Amazon building maker centers in or around its distribution centers. Certain types of products could be built on-demand.

All of this changes CPQ (configure, price, quote), since it now needs to know how to handle products that aren’t even products yet.

The whole concept of CPQ is based on having total knowledge about the product to be sold and then a complete understanding of the customer’s needs. The scripted interview is a guided-selling process that brings sellers and buyers together to explore and evaluate needs, requirements and possible options. As the conversation evolves, it becomes more and more focused, and a solution in the form of configured products begins to emerge.

All of this is driven by language. The seller and buyer converse, and CPQ communicates with back-office systems, inventory, supply-chain and production systems to get the product built and delivered.

CPQ must become polyglot in terms of communicating with all elements within the manufacturing process.  With AI and robotics, humans, hardware and software share the same shop floor. What languages does CPQ need to speak to communicate effectively with all elements at work within this environment?

CPQ is at home communicating proposal, order-entry, supply, inventory and production triggers. This capability will need to be augmented to include the inputs necessary to instruct robotic or other advanced manufacturing assets if not directly, then through the manufacturing execution systems that drive them.

The closer we get to on-demand, mass-customised manufacturing, the more we will require these technologies and their integration with our existing tools.

This is an abridged version of an article from Cincom. Read the full article, with more details about the impact of advanced manufacturing on CPQ.

Check out our webinar Advanced Manufacturing: Why Henry Ford got it wrong

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“Automation of document processing has become a necessity rather than an afterthought within the life sciences industry.”

Esker recognizes the uniqueness and variability of operations in terms of process complexity and formality across organisations and their impact on multiple departments, end users, and third parties. By leveraging AI, machine learning, deep learning, robotic process automation to fax and email, IDoc EDI/XML, data capture, validation, formatting, archiving, and delivery, Esker empowers its clients with the choice to customize automation according to their requirements. “What makes Esker unique from other point-to-point solutions is that it houses all of the necessary functionality needed for the efficient flow and compliant management of customer and supplier communications in a single automated platform,” states Bérard.

Esker’s automation capability brings to the table lower processing costs, full regulatory compliance, faster processing times, flexible deployment options, and complete process visibility. “The end result being Esker satisfies all the criteria that pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device manufacturing companies seek in a comprehensive solution-cost-efficiency, increased visibility, and document security in a unified and integrated platform,” says Bérard. Moreover, Esker’s solution spans procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles and seamlessly integrates with multiple ERPs.

As per Bérard, Esker utilizes the agile methodology so that their customers, business partners, and key stakeholders are able to achieve maximum value throughout every phase of solution delivery. The hands-on approach that customers experience from Esker early in the process, results in faster ROI, value-added features, reduced risks, and lower overall implementation costs. Esker provides context to decisions and modifications, features that are ready to be tested and used in a short amount of time, along with greater process insight. With more than 5000 SaaS customers and 600,000+ SaaS users worldwide, Esker provides Cloud services, which represent approx 85 percent of its revenue.

Bérard shares a client interaction, where MEDRAD Inc., an affiliate of Bayer Medical Care, had to process 12,000+ orders to satisfy the demands of its 4500 strong customer base and struggled with the time-consuming task of manually feeding the order faxes and emails within its systems. With Esker’s order processing automation system, the orders are now automatically captured and populated, resulting in 75 percent faster processing times than previous manual methods. Moreover, Esker was able to reduce the processing time of each order from eight minutes to 1.35 minutes and provide 99.6 percent success in order entry through the AI recognition engine. MEDRAD is also leveraging Esker’s Accounts Payable automation solution to streamline the processing of vendor invoices and purchase requisitions.

With its global footprint in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific, Esker is all set to expand their AI capabilities to predictive analytics with deep learning and empower sales reps and customers with mobile ordering features and tracking capabilities. On the voyage to create a market disruption, Esker is looking forward to improving user experience with new report and dashboard systems as well as enhanced customer information management.

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The recognition is the fifth time in six years that Intergen has been a member of the exclusive group, which recognises the top one percent of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide, while Empired achieved Inner Circle status in 2015.

As part of the inner circle, Empired will receive executive sponsorship and support from the Microsoft Dynamics team and will attend the Inner Circle Summit later this year, where it will get access to Microsoft Dynamics executives and hear about business practices, upcoming product features and strategies to implement better solutions.

Simon Bright, Empired Group COO and Intergen CEO, says the recognition is validation of Empired Group’s focus on delivering customer centric solutions designed to help clients achieve ‘tomorrow’s advantage today’,  while also building a strong Dynamics team across Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

“We’re extremely proud to have one of the very best teams of Microsoft Dynamics professionals globally, delivering world-leading solutions to forward looking organisations across Australasia,” Bright says.

The win is also, he says, an endorsement of Empired’s commitment to Microsoft.

“It is an incredibly exciting time in the world of Microsoft Dynamics, not to mention right across the Microsoft ecosystem, and we’re honoured to be a partner on this journey,” he says.

Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft’s One commercial partner business applications business lead, says the membership places Empired and Intergen in ‘an elite group of our most strategic partners from across the globe’.

This year’s inclusion in the Inner Circle follows Intergen taking out Microsoft’s top award for New Zealand – the 2018 Microsoft New Zealand Country Partner of the Year – and winning four ERP Project of the Year awards in the last six years.

Last year the company’s Dynamics deals included one with SkyCity Entertainment Group to deliver Dynamics 365 to 6,000 users across Australia and New Zealand, with Genetics Technologies and Public Trust also among the companies using Dynamics 365  courtesy of Intergen.

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In fact, the bees and their pollen were from China. The judge in the case said “the untrue statements are blatant fabrications and lies.”

This case is among several featured in the Commission’s new video, providing guidance to traders on false, misleading and unsubstantiated representations, and how to avoid making them.

The Commission’s new video is called ‘If you can’t back it up, don’t say it’, and it is intended to help traders avoid making claims that will land them in the courts.

“Consumers must rely on what the trader says when it comes to product composition, or claims such as ‘organic’, ‘free range’ and ‘Made in NZ’. Traders have to be able to back up such claims, so the key message of the new video is ‘if you can’t back it up, don’t say it’”, said Commissioner Anna Rawlings.

“Every day consumers are hit with countless claims like ‘Made in NZ’, ‘free range’ or ‘organic’ and asked to take them at face value because they have no way to verify that sort of claim,” said Commissioner Anna Rawlings.

“If those claims are misleading, they are harmful to consumers because consumers may pay a price premium for characteristics of a product that do not exist. They’re also harmful to competition because they give an unfair advantage to dishonest traders. Finally, they can have an impact on New Zealand’s reputation with tourists and in export markets,” she said. One of the Commission’s current priorities is representations about food products and nutritional supplements.

“If it’s difficult for consumers to verify claims made about a product, it’s easy for them to be misled. In particular, we will be paying attention to food products and country of origin claims,” said Ms Rawlings.

The new video is part of its effort to help traders avoid making claims that may fall foul of the Fair Trading Act.

“As we say in the video, all the claims businesses make must be accurate, and they must be able to back them up. That’s especially true if they are claims that consumers can’t check for themselves,” said Ms Rawlings.

The video begins by explaining “unsubstantiated representations”. They are claims a trader doesn’t have reasonable grounds to make at the time they make them – they can’t be backed up. Unsubstantiated representations are prohibited under the Fair Trading Act with effect from 2014.

“For example, if you’re selling free range eggs or organic chicken, or making similar claims, don’t just use those words. Make sure you can back them up with facts from credible sources, such as from an independent certifier. The best proof might be to track the product back to the factory, but at least, retain records to show what you ordered and were promised,” said Ms Rawlings.

In 2017 the Commission took its first prosecution for unsubstantiated representations. A heat pump supplier made claims about the efficiency of some of its heat pumps, but the court found it couldn’t back them up. It was fined $125,000 for unsubstantiated representations, and $185,000 more for other misleading claims.

“Traders must be able to back up their claim when it is made. Figuring it out later won’t get them out of trouble,” said Ms Rawlings.

The ‘if you can’t back it up, don’t say it’ rule of thumb also applies to false or misleading representations. They are prohibited under the Fair Trading Act and the Commerce Commission has taken plenty of prosecutions for such claims.

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The news follows a successful expansion of FinancialForce into the Australia/New Zealand region in 2015. The company’s reach across the globe has been growing, most recently achieving more than US$100 million subscription annual recurring revenue for end of fiscal year, January 2018.

FinancialForce says that the A/NZ has been quick to embrace cloud tech, as evidenced by the group’s payroll solution tech in the region. Their growth in A/NZ is marked with the addition of major customer wins including Grant Thornton, Ansarada, and Snowden.

“Collaborating with Agilyx presents great opportunity for the joint growth of FinancialForce and Agilyx in Australia and New Zealand,” says FinancialForce A/NZ Managing Director Simon Peterson.

“Getting Agilyx involved with FinancialForce will help us offer our customers more products, and better serve them post-implementation.”

Services-based consultancy Agilyx is known for its service stack which includes implementation, support, custom development and a managed services approach to system administration.

The company says that its ability to create custom development and integrations “opens the door for FinancialForce customers wanting a bespoke solution tailored to them, rather than an out-of-the-box product”.

“This collaboration will expand Agilyx’s product and service offering with more options to best suit the needs of our current and future customers,” says John Catarinich, Agilyx’s CEO.

“As pioneers in the field of agile technology solutions, Agilyx is excited to offer customers more options to become more efficient and reduce costs.”

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For decades, manufacturers have opted to cut costs in order to achieve growth, but today digital technologies are playing a vital role. When effectively integrated throughout every part of a business’ operations, digital transformation positions companies for sustained growth by connecting their extended ecosystem of partners, suppliers, and customers.

These capabilities are no longer experimental innovations or proofs of concept. They are in production, proven and are quickly becoming a necessary ingredient for growth, and for many, survival.

Understanding digital transformation
Digital transformation does not exist in its own discrete context. It is a response to burgeoning issues within a global economy that is faster, more connected, and aggressively competitive. It is not an end destination or state of being, but a combination of applied digital technologies and processes that accelerate your business toward its strategic objectives and push it further along the Industry 4.0 track.

Start with strategy
The velocity and scale of technological change can feel as overwhelming and risky as leaping onto a high-speed train. Leaders may wonder how it’s even possible to harness the power of digital transformation when technology seems to become obsolete almost as soon as it arrives.

Instead of focusing on all the risks, possibilities, and benefits of new technologies all at once, first define your overall business goals. What do you hope to achieve in the next one to three years? What factors will you use to measure business success and growth?

Once your business goals are defined, the digital tools that offer the greatest opportunity to achieve them will emerge. Those technologies can then become part of your growth strategy – steps you’ll take on your journey.

Successful digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight, and it looks different for each company. Deploying new technology for technology’s sake can short-circuit your digital aspirations. Instead, your company’s overall growth strategy can guide and lead your digital transformation.

“Deploying new technology for technology’s sake can short-circuit your digital aspirations.”

The research, conducted by Morar Consulting on behalf of Epicor, questioned 2,450 business decision makers and employees in businesses in 12 countries across the globe, about their growth performance in the last 12 months. For further information on the research, click here.

Many competing technologies profess to drive digital transformation – however, the utility of any given digital solution depends almost exclusively on context. You need to understand where you are in your digital transformation journey and how specific technologies can add value to your business. Against a backdrop of fierce competition and rapid evolution, this means identifying the areas in which you can make the smallest change for the maximum ROI. The starting point in getting fit for growth is to understand your market and business inside out.

Define your growth objectives
To get started, you need to establish what works, what requires immediate attention, and where digital transformation can add real value. With your clearly defined growth vision, you are ready to set investment priorities for digital transformation.

For manufacturers, defining these priorities might mean a trade-off between operational efficiency and improving the customer experience. The risks of holding excess inventory or missing order delivery deadlines are costly to the business. You must take an honest look at which areas are your biggest hindrance to growth – and which areas offer the greatest opportunity for lasting success.

Source: “What Does Digitalisation in Manufacturing Mean Now?” Greg Cline, Aberdeen Group, 2017

Derive new operational efficiencies
For some, digital transformation will mean investing in Industry 4.0 technologies that connect, integrate, and automate production – introducing AI, sensors, actuators, and drivers that facilitate the autonomous exchange of information. IoT technologies such as smart sensors can predict equipment failure and send alerts that trigger automated responses, while automation can optimise supply-chain shipment logistics and inventory management.

Differentiate the customer experience
For some manufacturers, digital transformation will come as a response to increased pressure from customers to produce shorter, customised runs on products, and a more personalised experience – at the same cost. Manufacturers must track and understand customer data and invest in systems that give them the insight they need to provide the tailored, transparent, and positive experience that buyers now demand.

Visibility and insight are key
The key to successful digital transformation is having the visibility and insight to understand where technology can add the most value for your business. Manufacturers have more data than ever before, but few possess the technology to derive real value from that data. IDC estimates that less than 10 percent of data held by manufacturers is used effectively.

To effectively use this data, companies can invest in technologies that add value by providing business-critical insights. Manufacturers need an industry-specific enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that delivers real-time, in-depth data to transform their operations and enable them to seize growth opportunities.

Better visibility into all areas of your business enables smarter and faster decisions, brings new operational efficiencies, and enhances the customer experience. Whatever digital transformation looks like for your business, applying the right tools can mean the difference between merely competing and thriving.

Invest in the right technologies
Investing in new and innovative technologies is important, but the key is investing in technology that adds strategic value for your business. As many as 88 percent of manufacturers plan to invest significantly in technology in the next year, but high-growth companies invest where it counts.

According to the MORAR study, the top investment priorities for manufacturers include inventory management, cloud, big data, CRM, and mobile. This highlights a clear move toward digital technologies that will provide the level of visibility and insight required to define a data-driven strategic vision, as well as those that enable the collaboration necessary to realise that strategy.

Further resources
For manufacturers wishing to explore digital transformation further the eBook, “Building a Better Tomorrow”, will help you understand how digital transformation can help get your manufacturing business set for growth.

Read the eBook now to find out why it’s important to:

• Embrace the latest technologies, align to changing customer expectations, and adapt to the digital world
• Leverage ERP solutions to see the most benefits and add the most value
• Invest in integrated solutions for real-time decision making

Register to download the ebook:  Building a better tomorrow with ERP

This eBook is part of a complete resource library for manufacturers. This includes video, infographic, and white papers that can help you inform your digital transformation journey and Industry 4.0 initiatives.

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“We are proud to congratulate Empired for its double win of the Dynamics Ecosystem Partner of the Year and Digital Experience Cloud Partner of the Year Asia Pacific,” said James Norwood, Executive Vice President of Strategy and CMO at Episerver.

“The two awards highlights Empired’s broad range of capabilities and are testament to Empired’s commitment to our mutual customers, delivering experiences that are both valuable to businesses and their users.

“With two 2017 awards, Empired is a valuable partner to Episerver, continuing to lead through technology. We look forward to continuing this strong partnership and sharing the incredible customer journeys this relationship creates for consumers who crave better online interactions with brands and reward the companies that provide them.”

The Dynamics Ecosystem award recognises the top-performing partners for their success in driving joint opportunities and their strategic contributions to the delivery of Episerver solutions in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to solve customer business scenarios.

The Digital Experience Cloud award recognises the top-performing partners for their success in driving joint opportunities and their strategic contributions to the delivery of Episerver Digital Experience Cloud, enabling customers with a single platform for CMS, ecommerce and digital marketing in the cloud.

Empired was honoured for these awards at the annual Episerver Ascend conference, which was held this week in Las Vegas.

To identify the partner recipients of its annual awards, Episerver looked at its network of qualified regional partners and considered the business value generated for customers by each and their success in implementing best practices for guiding digital strategy. Empired stood out for these reasons as well as its commitment to cloud business applications and its proven ability to help clients transform their businesses through Episerver.

Darren Christophersen, General Manager, Enterprise Solutions, Empired, said, “We are delighted to receive this recognition from Episerver. At Empired we are at our best when we work in close partnership with our customers as they move along their digital transformation journey. Episerver is a key platform for us in making this transformation a reality. Episerver allows us to provide engaging, personalised, experiences for customers, citizens, employees and business partners and also help organisations to fully realise the often latent information and capability within enterprise systems like Microsoft Dynamics and the potential of emerging technologies such as AI.

“Empired made some big bets a few years ago and set a goal to be A/NZ’s leading expert in Microsoft Azure cloud solutions because we knew that it would be critical in securely providing our customers the agility and productivity that they needed to succeed. Episerver’s Digital Experience Cloud solution is a critical piece the modern enterprise landscape letting customers provide engaging experiences to their customers by leveraging the flexibility and capability of Microsoft Azure.”

Empired is a certified Episerver Premium Partner & Inner Circle Member. The company has also received a number of industry accolades including 5th in the leadership category and 38th overall in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2016.

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The office was opened with the help of Silver Ferns Jane Watson and Temalisi Fakahokotau who handed over a signed netball dress to thank MYOB for its sponsorship of the national team. Back in 2015, MYOB opened a second office in the city and had a total of 170 staff members across two locations; the new premises, located at 17 Sir William Pickering Drive in Burnside, brings together both locations.

“We’re hugely excited about this space, all 2,700 square meters of it,” said MYOB New Zealand GM Carolyn Luey.

“We’re proudly committed to Christchurch and it gives me great satisfaction to see this investment in the community here.”

The open-plan design features a variety of formal and informal workspaces with comfortable breakout areas and amenities designed to bring people together.

“We often talk about the future of work, about how workplace habits and relationships are changing, often through technological transformation. We want this space to be an ‘office of innovation’ to reflect that philosophy; we believe our offices should be enjoyable places where our team members can do their best work and have fun in open, friendly environments designed for easy collaboration,” said Luey.

The co-working space for MYOB’s start-up customers provides access to specialised technology and advice to help them grow. “Opening up a part of our building to entrepreneurial businesses is an exciting innovation and demonstrates how MYOB is invested in supporting the start-up community here in Christchurch,” said Luey.

“We’re also opening the space to Christchurch-based teams from Kōkiri, the start-up incubator programme launched by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. MYOB is proud to be a founding sponsor of this initiative which plays an important role in growing and supporting Māori-based businesses,” she added.

The building features a wellness room, energy (fitness) room, library, gaming room, IT Genius Bar, internal training room with Microsoft Surface Hub and utilises the latest collaboration technology such as Polycom-enabled Skype for Business communications.

“MYOB remains committed to New Zealand, and to Christchurch in particular. We’ve had a 25-year history in New Zealand and we’re excited about the next chapter of our business here. We’ll keep investing in the technology, people and office spaces needed to keep simplifying success for our customers,” Luey concluded.

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That’s according to MYOB New Zealand GM Carolyn Luey, who said this is having a major impact on the accounting profession.

“The growing prevalence of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and mobility improvements are driving huge on-farm improvements. We’re incorporating these tech trends into our cloud accounting and practice management software to give farmers and their advisors deeper insights and more control over their operations,” she said in a statement.

“Farmers want easy-to-use solutions that capture information quickly and easily. They want to collaborate with their teams, suppliers and advisers in real-time to help drive profitability.”

Luey said the emergence of cloud-based software has eliminated much of the basic bookkeeping work, and accountants are equipped to perform higher-level value-adding tasks. “Technology doesn’t do everything; you need a human being to provide judgement and analysis. Accountants are now focusing on critical thinking and problem solving.”

Nick Hoogeveen, of accounting firm Nick Hoogeveen and Associates in Paeroa, said his business is in a better position than some other rural firms because he’s mindful of the technological shifts on farms. “We’ve changed a lot in the past few years to provide our farming clients all-round business advice rather than just GST compliance and EOFY reporting.”

Hoogeveen said he’s positioned the business as a “virtual CFO”, offering in-depth and tailored advice to small-to-medium sized enterprises.

The Waikato-based practice provides management reports and updates tracking the performance of its clients’ businesses and advising how business outcomes can be improved.

“We place ourselves as business advisers rather than just the end-of-year ‘taxman’. It’s all about giving our rural clients better insights into their operations and future-proofing our profession,” he confirmed.

Farmers William and Kylie Brunt in the Hauraki Plains are seeing first-hand the benefits technologies can provide on-farm in terms of increasing efficiency, productivity and sustainability.

The Turua couple say they can now run much of their 420-cow farm from their mobile devices.

“We can access our key milk production and quality information and receive important business updates all from our mobile device, which is particularly useful given the nature of farming means we’re often away from our computers,” said Brunt.

“Having real-time information on-the-go means we can make decisions faster than we have before, making it easier for us to run our business.”

Luey said technological enablement makes for an exciting outlook for the accounting industry – and its customers. “New Zealand has always been a great place to farm, but we can only stay ahead of the game by ensuring our farmers have the latest accounting solutions to help them be more productive. These days farming is truly a technology business,” she concluded.

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The new company, to be known as Agilyx UK, expands the Agilyx Group’s reach to the United Kingdom and Ireland markets, following expansions in North America (2016) and Asia (2017), adding to the company’s founding core markets down under.

Following completion of the acquisition, approximately 25 of Williams Woodward’s employees are expected to join the Agilyx Group UK business.

Williams Woodward’s consulting workforce is based in the United Kingdom, Africa and Asia. The acquisition will expand Agilyx Group to a team of 120 professionals in 7 countries, with capabilities in delivering strategy, services, software implementation and program management for Unit4 customers.

In a statement, Agilyx Group CEO John Catarinich said, “I am delighted to announce our acquisition of Williams Woodward. With a more than 10-year history delivering unrivalled knowledge and expertise to their customers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa, the firm has dedicated itself to helping customers execute transformational change in their businesses using agile technologies. Williams Woodward places primacy on expertise, quality and sustainability in their work to design, implement and optimise new technology and business systems in several key markets. I am excited that we can bring this pedigree to the Agilyx Group in another exciting development for our company.”

Williams Woodward MD Andrea Williams added, “I am looking forward to becoming a part of the Agilyx Group. The Group’s scale and broad service offer provide many new opportunities for our customers in the UK and elsewhere.”

The acquisition of Williams Woodward represents the next strategic step for the Group with a scalable, credentialed UK-based team, established customers, commitment to Unit4 software and people-centric approach. The acquisition delivers a further piece of the Group’s objective to create a truly technology practice providing ‘one-stop shop’ services to Unit4’s enterprise customers.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in October 2017 with integration activities commencing immediately.

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In a statement, Stuart Dickinson, Oxygen Director, said digital transformation and data readiness have rapidly emerged as top priorities for large enterprises looking for agile business models based on data transparency, data standardisation, predictive analytics and high-quality data.

“The ability to consolidate and centrally govern data to ensure its quality and consistency across the organisation is a fundamental requirement of any transformation, and it is key to leveraging the advanced capabilities of S/4HANA, SAP’s intelligent cloud ERP solution,” he explained.

DATUM is a specialist information management company focused on solving business data complexity which is recognised as a leader by Forrester and Gartner. Dickinson said based on decades of experience and proven practices, DATUM has developed a data value management platform to help organisations define, manage and sustain a data operating model for ongoing information success.

“This partnership will enable customers to better identify what data is important to them, and enable them to improve processes in finance, customer service, procurement and across other critical business areas.”

Paul Wedeking, DATUM channel SVP said he sees Oxygen as a key partner to address customer success within the SAP community in both Australia and New Zealand.

“By joining forces, we can provide SAP enterprises with the strategy and implementation teams required to execute any data/information governance initiative. This includes a full portfolio of software and professional services that deliver an overall data strategy, data cleansing and quality initiatives, data governance and stewardship, data migration and ongoing efforts to ensure a smooth and accelerated digital transformation across the enterprise.”

The companies’ statement said analyst firms have highlighted DATUM’s Information Value Management platform within key reports and research, including naming them as a Leader in both The Forrester Wave: Data Governance Stewardship and Discovery Providers, Q2 2017 and the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions.

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The report evaluated vendors on the capabilities of their core financial management apps, taking into account their ability to sell and support their products, and their ability to “provide a general set of access management functionalities across multiple use cases, geographies and industries” (by which, we assume, they mean measure whether the product is actually ‘cloud ERP’).

The cloud aspect is a new measure in Gartner’s stable, the reason being that this sub-segment of the ERP market is where the growth is, exceeding 25 percent per annum over the last five years, and now with three cloud-native providers among the top 10 in ERP market share.

“The market for core financial management suites has been static for many years,” said the report. “However, over the last 12 to 18 months, cloud core financial management suites have matured to such an extent that they have disrupted this static market.”

“By 2018, at least 25 percent of new core FMS deployments in large enterprises will be public cloud,” the report predicts. “By 2020, more than half of large enterprises with systems up for replacement will switch from traditional on-premises licenses to SaaS or subscription licenses.”

“This new Magic Quadrant represents the current market reality.”

Leaders

Oracle ERP Cloud
Oracle ERP Cloud was positioned highest on both axes, ‘Completeness of Vision’ and ‘Ability to Execute’.

Magic Quadrant
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large and Global Enterprises

Source: Gartner (June 2017)

“Oracle is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant due to its broad and deep financial management capabilities, its international capabilities, and its strategic focus on selling and marketing the solution in all geographies”, said the report.

Oracle ERP Cloud “is receiving significant investment” said the report, commenting that customers scored Oracle ERP Cloud above average for functional capabilities and customer satisfaction. Survey respondents also scored the breadth and depth of functionality highly, and several cited its embedded reporting and analytics capabilities.

“Oracle has a strong vision for financial functionality, is well-known among financial professionals and has messaging for finance that does not get lost in a broader suite story. It is increasingly effective at leveraging its PaaS offering to extend the core capabilities of Oracle ERP Cloud.”

The report also complimented Oracle’s “strong partner ecosystem” and “relationships with service providers that are well-known to CFOs and provide finance transformation services linked to deploying Oracle ERP Cloud”.

The report added that Oracle is still in the process of transitioning from an on-premises vendor to a cloud service provider, with some survey respondents reporting “issues with performance and the complexity of support processes (such as upgrades)”.

“Some clients have told Gartner that involvement from Oracle’s R&D team was required at times to address support issues, so it can be important to have the right lines of communication with Oracle R&D in place.”

Workday
Perhaps a surprise inclusion for many in the list, let alone the top quadrant, is Workday.

The cloud-native HCM solution has enjoyed significant growth, and has only recently added a core financial module into the broader HR offering.

“Workday has a proven and robust cloud platform” said the report, making “innovative use of in-memory computing to combine core financial management applications with planning and performance management capabilities in real time.”

“Workday Financial Management scored above average for functional capabilities. Survey respondents praised the flexibility of the GL architecture — especially Worktags, which allow users to easily aggregate, report and analyze financial information. Several stated that the platform had been key in enabling the transformation of their finance function.”

The report cautioned however that some survey respondents reported challenges with partners and the availability of resources.

Visionaries

Intacct
Intacct achieved leading ‘Visionary’ status in the report due to its “cloud commitment”, focus on functionality and “marketing initiatives for finance”.

The report complemented Intacct’s “scalable and functional core financial system with good flexibility and functionality in GL and analytics” but warned that some survey respondents felt that “Intacct’s fixed-asset functionality lagged the other capabilities in the suite”.

Microsoft
“Dynamics 365 for Operations Financials scored above average with Microsoft reference customers in overall functional capabilities, with flexible GL coding/analysis capabilities, good multicompany features and strong project accounting,” the report said.

Microsoft received below-average customer feedback however, with issues cited by survey respondents mainly related to being early adopters of a new cloud solution that is early in its life cycle.

FinancialForce
“FinancialForce Financial Management has strong project accounting functionality” the report said, and commented that the product’s native Salesforce architecture makes it a good option for clients already using cloud services from Salesforce.

Customer satisfaction was however below average, with some survey respondents citing “difficulty obtaining skilled resources and some issues with support”.

Acumatica
The report raised Acumatica for its “wide range of APIs…coupled with the flexibility of the xRP platform and range of partner apps”. “Acumatica Financial Management Suite is well-aligned to Gartner’s vision of postmodern ERP”.

Some Acumatica customers however cited “issues with the quality of the partner supporting their implementation.”

Acuamatica is represented in this region by MYOB Advanced, a localised version licensed to MYOB and being rapidly picked up by the MYOB enterprise partner network.

Niche Players

Epicor and SAP being listed as niche players is a little baffling. Epicor has created a web accessible version of its core solution, but it has not been optimised for use across multiple devices.

The SAP listing on the other hand refers to the Business-by-Design solution, which, while a web native solution, is somewhat lost in the investment and partner focus behind its big brother SAP S/4HANA.

Epicor Software
Gartner’s report complemented Epicor ERP for its good financial functionality for midsize organisations, including multi-company accounting, consolidation and allocations, as well as the flexibility of Epicor ERP, with customers citing “the ease with which the solution can be configured to meet their own workflow and process needs”, but criticised a client user experience “that lags the usability of some competitor solutions”.

SAP
The report congratulated SAP for Business ByDesign’s “wide range of financial functionality, good international capabilities and strength in professional services”. It also highlighted its suitability for deployment as a two-tier solution in large organisations that use SAP ERP on-premises.

“SAP Business ByDesign risks being overshadowed by SAP S/4HANA Cloud, to which SAP is devoting significant strategic effort and investment. The vendor will need to ensure that it maintains enough separation in go-to-market strategies to allow both products to grow.”

Ramco Systems
According to the report Ramco offers good functionality in all areas of financial management for midsize organisations. Reference survey respondents scored functionality above average in most areas, however there is limited awareness of the Ramco brand outside the Asia/Pacific region “and it will face strong competition from other vendors as it expands”.

Deltek
The report cited Deltek Vision’s “strong core financials and project accounting functionality for midsize, project-centric organisations” but cautioned that the usability, reporting and analytics capabilities of the product received lower survey scores from reference customers than the rest of the functionality.

Challengers

Oracle (NetSuite)
“NetSuite is a proven and established provider of cloud services,” said the report, “with a broad partner ecosystem. Reference customer survey respondents cited the maturity of the cloud platform and robustness of the NetSuite cloud service.”

The report mentioned that there is currently some confusion in the Oracle sales channel “especially in the U.S. Gartner is seeing NetSuite excluded from some financials-led deals by Oracle sales in cases where NetSuite may be a better fit than Oracle ERP Cloud”.

“Oracle is putting in place policies to address this challenge”.

NOTE: This report was produced by Gartner and is licensed for distribution complements of Oracle Corporation. Click here to download the full Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large and Global Enterprises

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It was a busy couple of days in Auckland talking with clients and prospects on the Intergen stand at New Zealand’s biggest tech trade show, the CIO Summit. In between plenary sessions, roundtables and seminars, our friends at iStart interviewed King, along with the CTO at The Comfort Group, Richard Horton.

They both told iStart’s Hayden McCall that running their operations in a cloud environment has enabled them to envision a new future.

“We’re putting all our eggs in one basket and saying yes we can run our whole business on someone else’s infrastructure,” King says, explaining Jucy’s project to migrate five separate booking systems onto one core, cloud-based platform. As a relatively young 16 year old, the company has grown up in a digital world, and that brings some advantages over others.

[CONTINUED BELOW]

In contrast, Horton’s company, The Comfort Group – counting Dunlop Foams, Sleepmaker and Sleepyhead among its brands, is an 80+ year old manufacturing and distribution business with 1,200 staff working in plants across Australasia. Its ERP systems are as embedded as the tooling on the automated manufacturing plants they help run.

“We have our own private cloud. We have just about complete virtualisation across the stack, we have very good failover, we’ve got redundancy in all of the layers of the infrastructure,” Horton told us.

And all of those good things were enabled by having the right cloud technologies in place.

So what does that future look like now?

For King, that future is all about the customer journey. “With a robust core system as the hub, we can use spokes – we can attach little additions to that system – [and be] a lot more innovative, a lot more cutting edge.”

Horton is focused on embedding the disciplines of managing cloud systems into his team.

“There’s a lot more to it than just lift and shift,” he cautions.

It’s that type of agile vision that was the ambition of most CIOs at the Summit – in a business world that is hungry to experience the gains that using technology can bring.

Source: This article was originally sourced from Intergen

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“Following a year of strong growth for our Cloud Services team, it was great to get recognised for the work we’ve been delivering,” noted Nick Mulcahy, CEO of Soltius. “We see our growing cloud capability as crucial to our success going forward, delivering the kind of flexibility and agility our clients are looking for.”

With a strong 20-year record of success in New Zealand SAP implementations, the company said its board and management team have spent the last few years positioning for continued growth and success into the future.

Stefan Jansen, AWS Head of Channels and Alliances, said there was no doubting Soltius’ position as a market leader in New Zealand. “It’s been a joint journey for both sides and we’re continuing to innovate in equal measure. Our partner programs are updated in response to the experience we have in the field and the foresight of a partner such as Soltius to get on that journey with SAP is a great example of this.”

Soltius achieved Advanced Partner status in July 2016, going on to achieve reseller status in September. In November, this was further bolstered by receiving the SAP Competency accreditation, becoming only the second AWS partner in ANZ to achieve the milestone, and one of just 17 partners with this recognition worldwide.

Last year, Soltius also distinguished itself by delivering the first SAP S/4 HANA ERP implementation, delivering a successful project for Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

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