Here at SystemLink we are gearing up for Spring with new ways to bring you valuable information. We are excited about our newest resource, To The Point, an e-publication that addresses business issues today. To The Point brings bite sized articles about information you need to know. To view our most recent To The Point that talks about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – the Impact on small businesses go to our home page and open our blog.  

In this issue, we are thrilled to introduce our Executive Consultant, Stephen Hargreaves, an invaluable member of our team. We have also included information on the new SageCRM version 6.2, an excerpt from a great article regarding the hidden benefits of using a CRM system and a link to a pdf from Sage Software regarding their vision for the future of the Accpac product. 

As always, we hope the resources we send you bring value to your organization. If you have topics that you would like us to address or have feedback on how we can serve you better please let us know. 

Meet the Team: Stephen Hargreaves, Executive Consultant

Stephen Hargreaves is an Executive Consultant and has been working with SystemLink for 9 years. He provides a range of services to SystemLink clients including project management, new software installation, training and post engagement support.

Stephen has an MBA in International Finance and Accounting from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and is currently working to achieve the IMA’s CMA, (Certified Management Accountant) credential. He got his start working for a bank in Baltimore, doing commercial loans and financial analysis, hired later by Coopers & Lybrand and then took on a job as the Director of Finance for a US subsidiary of a French company located in Washington D.C.  “When the opportunity to work for SystemLink presented itself I was really excited. I had worked with them as a client, so I was familiar with their service, in addition to really liking the Sage ACCPAC product line.”

“When we first hired Stephen we were impressed with how he exemplifies the SystemLink value proposition,” states Dave Beck, President of SystemLink.” He came to us with a strong background in business processes and had the information technology experience that enables him to assist our clients to leverage technology to improve business operations. Stephen is my ‘go to guy’ when it comes to evaluating new software applications. As an out of the box thinker he’s really good at figuring out how new applications work and what their value will be for our clients.” Stephen’s biggest accomplishment to date was finding a way to customize the Sage Accpac ERP Project & Job Costing module to provide a DCAA Compliant solution.” Of the experience Stephen recalls, “It’s one of the things I’m the most proud of professionally, it gives us the opportunity to help businesses achieve DCAA compliance without sacrificing functionality.”

As a child, Stephen spent 2 years in Tokyo, Japan. Experiencing a different country at a young age gave him a valuable understanding of different people and cultures, and gave him a ‘global perspective’ which is extremely helpful in the work SystemLink does. Additionally, he spent his junior year of college abroad in Germany living with his Grandmother, and to this day speaks German like a native.

Outside the office Stephen enjoys photography and spending time with his family. He’s proud to say that he’s been married to his wife almost 19 years. Together they have two active sons, and regularly attend their sporting events.

Sage Accpac ERP Road Map

In 2010, the next generation of Sage Accpac ERP will be launched and will harness the power of Web 2.0 technology to deliver better user experience, lower total cost of ownership, and enhanced funtionality. Click here to read the white paper recently produced by Sage to find out where your solution is headed.

Have You Found Beck & Company Yet?

Beck and Company is a full service public accounting and consulting firm. In addition to providing you with a tax return, audit, bookkeeping service and annual report, Beck & Company will uncover ways of improving your operations and making your company more efficient, profitable, and financially secure.

To see a complete list of Beck & Company’s services or to learn more about this great resource visit their website at http://www.beckcpas.com/ , download their brochure or give them a call at (703) 834-0776.

Hidden Benefits Are Key to CRM

Adapted from Hidden Benefits are Key to CRM, published in CRM2day.com. Roger Cole, Business Software Specialist, CPiO

Improving customer information through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can result in surprising hidden benefits, but organizations need to target operational focus to leverage the opportunity. To date organizations have approached CRM with the single goal of improving customer knowledge to drive sales strategies. Understanding your customer has meant, in essence, easy access to consistent information about sales history. As a result, too many companies have been sold CRM as an extension to the ‘contact management’ concept, and have therefore focused on delivering customer information to sales people.

This information of course has value. However, this exclusive focus on sales not only constrains the scope of the project, it also significantly undermines the potential benefits and overall value that can be gained.

This is particularly relevant in the current challenging economic environment where making the business run as efficiently as possible can be as much an operational focus as retaining and increasing sales. For CRM provides a platform for information visibility across the organization. By pulling information from finance, sales, marketing, even support into a central, customer focused database, an organization can attain significant insight into business performance and attain attendant benefits including enhanced financial control; improved forecasting; and in depth business understanding.

The hidden benefits of CRM are demonstrated by design technology provider Stanford Marsh, which is using CRM to deliver a single, detailed customer view across its product sales, support, training and financial contracts businesses. In addition to boosting the effectiveness and efficiency of service and support engineers, this single view provides sales staff with both financial and stock information as well as up to date sales and support call history.

Credit risk is flagged in red to ensure awareness of problems and enforce credit limits, while immediate access to stock information enables them to place orders immediately for the customer and set delivery time expectation. This information has also significantly reduced internal calls, particularly to finance, further improving efficiency and effectiveness. The integration of CRM to its financial software has enabled Stanford Marsh to improve utilization of its engineering staff and enhance financial management, as well as providing excellent information to sales personnel. Customer service has improved and the company has expanded its service contracts by 60% in two years. Implementation and equipment sales have increased by 24 percent and debtor days have reduced by approximately 20%, releasing $500,000 back into the business.

It is clear that CRM offers so much more than the contact management systems of the past – but only for those organizations that can successfully embrace an open culture underpinned by access to the key business systems. Visibility across finance, sales, service and marketing provides an organization with the collective business understanding required to achieve a positive return on investment while supporting the CRM objective of enabling improved customer value.

To learn more about integrating your ERP solution with CRM click here.

SageCRM Breaks Down Language Barriers with Version 6.2!

In November, 2008 Sage launched the latest version of Sage CRM Software, version 6.2. We’re excited to tell you that it has many new features including an enhanced email editor, allowing users to spell check in multiple languages. Version 6.2 provides seamless Outlook integration improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the system, as well as the ability to customize the look and feel of your CRM using the new ‘Branding Toolkit’ capabilities.

The enhanced email editor allows users to preview emails before sending them to ensure they appear as intended. E-mails will maintain a professional tone with the new multiple language spell check feature. Enhancements include several formatting features on the editor toolbar such as bullet points & numbering; in window searching; format clearing; hyperlink and anchor editing; enhanced layout design and the ability to insert tables.

With the new Branding Toolkit, end-users can create a branding theme based on their corporate colors so that SageCRM matches their brand identity closely. With an improved graphical interface for greater ease-of-use, the updated Relationship Manager enables users to graphically represent complex relationships that exist between entities in their SageCRM. Using the related entities feature, sales executives can identify cross-selling opportunities that exist within your customer base.

In addition, there is a new address linking feature that allows users to manage addresses for companies and people which reduces potential duplicate address entries and minimized the amount of manual administration required for address maintenance.

If you’d like more information on this new and improved version of SageCRM please contact us today.