Softworld Special Issue

In This Issue:

Online Accounting Industry Forum

We are delighted to be sponsoring the Online Accounting Industry Forum.  This event brings together representatives from a range of different online providers to answer questions put by the audience.

The event will be chaired by Dennis Keeling, a founder and former CEO of BASDA, who has been a Business Software Analyst for over 25 years. He has advised some of the largest organisations in the world on business software selection. His first book - The Thesaurus of Business Software was published jointly with the ICAEW in 1988. He went on to write his top-selling detailed reports for Ovum until 2001.

Participating in the forum are:

Hugh Scantlebury from Aqilla
Alan Wright from Liberty Accounts
Rob Lambden from Online50
Steven Tucker from The Payroll Site

Dennis Keeling will pose questions to the panel about online accounting, what the current state of the market is, the drivers for change and the challenges that remain.  Questions can be submitted in advance, or posed on the day.

11:15 to 12:00 on Wednesday 14^th October

We look forward to seeing you there!

Ambition Accounting Launch

The Ambition Accounting software has been available on the Online50 platform for some time.  At Softworld we will be launching the product to a wider audience.  We will be demonstrating the product, presenting a the product with a detailed seminar and also one of our accounting partners, Peter Guinn of Alliotts, will be making a presentation about his experience with the product.

Ambition Accounting is available in three standard levels.  As your business grows you can easily go up to the next level adding the features that you need.  Each level can be hosted on the Online50 platform, either as a hosted Windows application or as a Web application.  The same code and data is used for each version and so users are free to mix and match between Windows and web users however they need.

Ambition Accounts is an entry level system providing a sales, purchase and nominal ledgers, a cash book and Invoicing. Ambition Financials adds multi currency capability, including the ability to keep the nominal ledger reconciled in two currencies at the same time.  More powerful reporting is made available with departmental analysis, and project accounting.  The fixed assets is also included. Ambition Commercials extends the system with a powerful multi location stock control system.  There is support for case factoring (stock in cases but sell in singles) with extensive support for stock traceability via serial number and/or batch tracking with support for sell by dates.  Assembly processes and costs are supported and there is a complete sales order and purchase order processing system.  Users that sell repeat orders over the telephone will benefit from the useful 'Telesales' order entry screen.

Additional modules are also available to further extend the system including: Job Costing, EPOS, Quality Assurance and Landed Costs.

To implement traditional software with the features of Ambition could cost tens of thousands of pounds fo the software with the at least the same again for implementation and services.  The simple per user per month cost for Ambition Accounting and the hosted implementation as a managed system makes powerful and flexible accounting software a practical option for growing companies.

12:30 to 13:15 on Tuesday 13^th October 2009
12:15 to 13:00 on Wednesday 14^th October 2009

Security of Online Services Seminar

The Online50 service is the only UK Online Accounting system certified to the international standard ISO 27001 for Information Security.  Rob Lambden, founder and Chief Executive, presents a seminar on Information Security with particular reference on online information security.

How can users of online services be sure that their information is safe?  What is meant by the terms "Information Security"?  How does the international standard for information security, ISO 27001, apply?  What reassurance does it give?  In this seminar Rob Lambden explains the basics of designing a system to be secure, what responsibilities fall to users, service providers and software authors, and what users can do to help ensure their information remains secure.

10:30 to 11:00 on Tuesday 13^th October 2009
10:30 to 11:00 on Wednesday 14^th October 2009

Tenon Masterclass

The Softworld Masterclass program is a series of seminars giving real world examples of how technology has been adopted.  They are designed to give an objective view.

In this Masterclass Richard Fifield, head of outsoucing for Tenon, and Grant Sayer, Tenon's head of IT will explain how the use of Online Accounting enables Tenon to offer fast start finance functions to allow owner managers to free up time, reduce risk and get timely quality information to make better decisions.  Tenon can provide a full back-office finance function, just a part of it or a specific financial process.  They bring proven solutions, clarity of pricing and the experience to execute on agreed plans.

Effective outsourcing allows Tenon clients access to the right skills and technology when their business needs it … allowing them to free up their time to focus on core objectives – such as winning new business or client care.

Tenon offer a range of solutions to their clients according to their clients need.  They have been using the Online50 platform for four years.

14:00 to 14:45 on Wednesday 14th October 2009

Alliotts Masterclass

Alliotts is a medium sized firm of accountants with three offices in the south east and links throughout the UK and globally as part of the Alliott Group.  Peter Guinn, an Alliotts partner with a Corporate Finance background, heads up the Management Accounting and Online services for Alliotts.  In this masterclass Peter explains some of the challenges that have faced him and his clients, and how they have adopted Ambition Accounting.

This seminar will cover the reasons for adopting Ambition Accounting, the process of implementation, how the product has been used and how users have taken to it.  Peter will give an open appraisal of how Ambition compares with other software that Alliotts have used and include a video interview with client users.

Aliotts have been using the Online50 service for nearly four years.

13:30 to 14:15 on Tuesday 13^th October 2009