PROFESSIONAL ADVANTAGE NEWS
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October 2008 - e-Cocoon win Partner of the Year Award for 2008.
Professional Advantage has presented e-Cocoon with the Partner of the Year Award for 2008. The Award acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by e-Cocoon over the past financial year.
"e-Cocoon has had a fantastic year. Their passion for customer service combined with their specialist knowledge has earned them many new satisfied customers. They have continued to work very closely with Professional Advantage and have made significant investments in their team", says Steve Howcroft, joint MD Professional Advantage. "It is a pleasure working with such a professional team.’
Mr Chris Wootton accepted the award on behalf of e-Cocoon. "This is possible because of the dedication of the e-Cocoon team and our ability to very closely work with the Professional Advantage teams. We expect even better results next year."
e-Cocoon, as a Professional Advantage reseller, provides solutions to a wide range of companies across many industries. The company's success is founded on providing digital process solutions in procurement and business process management to organisations in the hospitality, not for profit, financial and public sectors. "Our customers tell us we add significant value, this delights us," says Wootton. |
October 2008 - Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE (BRIT)
BRIT is a Victorian based TAFE, committed to providing training and education to the community & business industry, with over 400 courses offered annually to some 14,000 students. BRIT recently upgraded to the latest version of iPOS – iPOS.net, a web based purchasing and requisitioning system. “This upgrade will deliver even greater internal control, auditability and ease of use, which were key requirements for BRIT,” said their account manager at PA, Mark Williamson.
October 2008 - United Utilities Australia
United Utilities Australia (UUA) provides cost-efficient management and operation of water and wastewater systems. UUA have now implemented iPOS, a web based purchasing and requisitioning system. “The main driver for implementing iPOS is to complete the full procure-to-pay cycle with seamless and automated integration with their SunSystems finance solution. UUA can now more accurately control and report on procurement activities, quickly and easily,” said Mark Williamson, their account manager at Professional Advantage.
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October 2008 - Professional Advantage’s Client Conference
The second PA Client Conference took place at the RSA on Thursday 9 October 2008 and once again, was oversubscribed.
In a change from last year’s agenda, the entire event was wrapped around client case studies.
SunGard International provided an insightful background to the horrors that they had before implementing PA Consolidations worldwide, together with EV (Executive Viewer from IBM) through us.
"Professional Advantage's Consolidations has completely automated our consolidation process saving at least 75 work days a year and almost eradicated manual errors. The flexibility and configuration is extremely well thought out. The ability to report errors on import, fix and then re-run is superb. We have the consolidation running on an automated script every 4 hours allowing us the most up to date information we require for our business requirements."
Catlin Insurance gave an up beat presentation around their implementation of B4B. They are now preparing to roll this out with PA worldwide.
There was quite a lot of interest particularly around Workflow for SunSystems. The Reed Exhibitions (Australia) Video Case Study is now available for viewing on our website www.profad.co.uk/casestudies. Reed is exceptionally enthusiastic about the product and the video gets the message across extremely well.
We look forward to our next client event at the Institute of Directors on Thursday 12th March 2009 which will be purely iPOS focussed.
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October 2008 - Professional Advantage’s Annual Client Conference
Professional Advantage’s Annual Client Conference takes place on Thursday 9th October at the RSA, London. This year, our client’s will be
presenting their thoughts on how they solved a particular business pain with PA product. There will also be a video case study by Reed
Exhibitions around Workflow for SunSystems. Visit our Events page to register now. Spaces are limited.
July 2008 - Professional Advantage Named to 2008 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle
In acknowledgment of exceptional service and sales performance, Professional Advantage has been named to the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics
Inner Circle for the 10th consecutive year, achievement only ever attained by three other partners worldwide. Read more.
July 2008 - Professional Advantage Client Conference 2008
Invitations will be sent out at the end of the Summer, giving full details of the event and agenda.
This year we have invited clients to tell their own stories around particular pains they have had in their business and how PA software has helped make their lives easier. There will also be an update session from Steve Howcroft, Managing Director.
The event will be held at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), near Charing Cross in London.
The RSA is a famous centre for enlightenment thinking and the building has been the intellectual and social home of some of the greatest
thinkers over the past 200 years.
June 2008 - Professional Advantage presented with award for outstanding performance in Australia/New Zealand for 2008
Infor, one of the world’s leading providers of business software & authors of Infor SunSystems, has presented Professional Advantage
with the Outstanding Performance in Australia / New Zealand Award for 2008. Professional Advantage received this award during the
Infor Asia Pacific Conference 2008, held in Shanghai, China.
The award acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by partners, around the world, to the ongoing success of their customers.
It celebrates and acknowledges those partners who deliver service and solution excellence across the Group’s portfolio.
April 2008 - Professional Advantage signs distribution agreement with global software company Infor
Professional Advantage has signed a global reseller agreement with international enterprise software company Infor for Infor FMS SunSystems extension products. Under the terms of the deal, Infor will continue to be the exclusive global distributor of the Professional Advantage module
known as Infor SunSystems Collect, for debtor management. Read more.
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Professional Advantage had an overwhelming response to the first iPOS User Day held in the UK. The event was so popular that registrations had to be closed off the week beforehand.
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Our iPOS training course for our business partners is run on an annual basis. It is an intensive accreditation course covering a mini implementation of iPOS eProcurement from installation to Systems Design.
This March's course was full from an early stage and we thank our Business Partners for their support. |
Photo from left to right:
Pat Mountain (Professional Advantage), Paula Kirby (Touchstone), Rita Mistry (Touchstone) Anne-Marie McCarthy (Intuitive), Pauline Coan (Touchstone), German Galarce (Professional Advantage), Steve Smith (Touchstone), Tom Hovell (Sapphire), Terence Benson (Sapphire).
Jan 2008 - SEPA (Single European Payments Area)
In accordance with the SEPA (Single European Payments Area) initiative, pan-European payment instruments for credit transfers, were made available from January 2008, in addition to national ones. Read more.
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Congratulations to Ian Randall from Trinity Mirror who won the iPOD and an Apple Soundsystem in the summer at the inaugural client conference. Steve Howcroft Joint Managing director of PA presents Ian Randall of Trinity Mirror with the prize. |
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PA UK Inaugral Client Conference 27th November 2007
The event was well attended. Client feedback on the day was that the event was useful, honest and not sales orientated. Steve Howcroft presented our product roadmap going forward and introduced some of the new products we are bringing to the UK, such as Workflow for SunSystems and iPOS Analytics which was well received.
A huge thank you as well to Czarnikow Sugar for an illumating and well thought out Client Case Study on Consolidations. Following the success of the event, we aim to run the event again towards the end of 2008 as well as a possible iPOS User Day. Watch this space! |
Professional Advantage release BankLinks for Business for Microsoft Dynamics GP v10.0
Sydney, Australia – 3rd September 2007 –The leading electronic bank payments software, BankLinks for Business (B4B) from Professional Advantage, was released today for Microsoft Dynamics GP v10.0. "Professional Advantage increases our commitment to adding real value to Microsoft Dynamics software by continuing to invest in the national and international electronic payments software B4B" says Steve Howcroft, joint Managing Director.
B4B is a sophisticated payment management tool that automates and streamlines accounts payable processes. Focused on bank payment systems for the EU market B4B also caters for global banking requirements including the complexities associated with international electronic funds transfer.
For further details on the electronic payments software, B4B for Microsoft Dynamics GP visit http://www.tasc.co.uk and for details on Microsoft Dynamics GP go to http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/gp.
Professional Advantage acquires TASC Software product suite.
Purchase of TASC Software in UK continues international growth of Professional Advantage
Sydney, Australia – 1 June 2007 – Professional Advantage, a leading provider of business solutions and a developer of enhancement modules for the INFOR SunSystems and Microsoft Dynamics financial management systems, today announced it is expanding its presence in the UK with the acquisition of the TASC Software product suite and customer base. Read more.
April 2007 - Companion Products for Infor SunSystems will make you green-er. 
Are you thinking "green"? Are you searching for ways to reduce the ecological footprint of your business? One of the quickest ways to achieve this is to wean yourself off paper wherever possible.
- How many debtor statements do you print and post? Use Collect to email them? It will also drive down your outstanding accounts receivables.
- How many creditor remittances? Use ePay to settle electronically through the bank and eRemit to email the remittance advices to the creditors?
- How many bank statements do you receive? Accept and reconcile them electronically with Bank Reconciliation.
- How many purchase requisitions? How many purchase orders? Use iPOS to manage the approval workflow electronically and to consolidate orders together and email them to the supplier
- How many supplier invoices do you receive? If the suppliers can issue them electronically then use XML in iPOS to import and process them automatically online.
Breaking your dependency on paper will have a quantifiable return on investment. What is not always obvious is that the resulting changes to business process will also drive down the associated labour costs ? it is not unreasonable to expect an actual ROI of double the paper savings through pure time savings. Contact pacs_sales@profad.co.uk to make your Infor SunSystems greener.
April 2007 - iPOS Boot Camp.
The iPOS boot camp is a 5 day, intensive training workshop that rapidly accelerates attendees knowledge of iPOS eProcurement for Infor SunSystems. The following feedback is from an attendee of our February event held in Sydney:
I'd like to thank you and all your staff for all your help whilst I was at your offices, and for the excellent iPOS 'boot camp' training course, I could think of no better introduction and foundation to the product. The course was well paced and complete, and one of the best courses I have ever been on, covering the elements of the product, plus some additional associated products. KG.
We are planning another boot camp in London during August 2007 - contact pa_uk@profad.co.uk to register your interest.
March 2007 - Collect 5.1.11 released for Infor SunSystems 4.3 and 5.3
March 2007 - Bank file formats added in the last quarter
National Bank - BPay (Aust)
HSBC.net - COS Format
HSBC.net - MRI Format
HSBC.net - iFile
October 2006 - watch out for a Collect Master Class coming to a venue near you. In support of the many sophisticated enhancements to Infor SunSystems Collect in recent times, we are running "Master Class" events for Collect users to see how this product delivers on the objective of collecting cash and controlling credit. If you don't have Infor SunSystems Collect yet then you may be struggling to get your cash in the bank, you may even be funding your customer's businesses. Contact your Infor Infor SunSystems partner now to get control of your collections and credit control processes.
September 2006 - Data import formats for the following banks have been added to CashDesk.
ePay
- Bank of America
- Wachovia
Bank Reconciliation
- BPH Berenberg
- HSBC.net
- Silicon Valley Bank
- The Co-Operative Bank
- Westpac Bank BRS
- Westpac Bank CSB release
August 2006, Professional Advantage releases Workflow for Infor SunSystems
– A role based framework that enables Infor SunSystems clients to automate and control many of their human-centric activities. How do you go about adding new Debtors or Suppliers into your business? What about Analysis Dimensions and Assets? Have you got control over who can request and approve such additions and how and when those insertions are made? Workflow for Infor SunSystems comes with a bundled set of process templates that can be customised to best reflect your own business procedures. Read more and get the brochure here.
July 2006, Professional Advantage UK is delighted to announce that Albert Bouma has joined the company
– Albert comes to us with almost a decade of product and market experience with Infor SunSystems, most recently with Sapphire Systems and prior to that with Touchstone Limited. Albert will be providing application and technical consulting across the breadth of our Infor SunSystems companion product portfolio. We are delighted to welcome Albert into the team.
May 2006, Professional Advantage UK is recruiting
– We are building a specialist sales and implementation team in London to provide local services and support to our reseller partners in the Infor SunSystems world. Our products (iPOS Enterprise, Workflow for Infor SunSystems, Collect, CashDesk, Advanced Inquiry) complement and enhance business processes and user experience within and outside of the core Infor SunSystems solution.
You have 5+ years experience with Infor SunSystems or a comparable mid tier FMS/ERP (Dream, Coda, Great Plains, Kyopera, Epicor, SAP Business One etc). You are competent, motivated, level headed, process orientated, cool under fire, self managing, independent and time efficient. You can fit comfortably into many business scenarios from pre-sales through to post implementation support and communicate clearly and confidently across the org-chart.
You are confident in playing an important part in a crack, rapid-response team and will stretch yourself to
deliver the best results for your clients. Occasional UK/Europe/USA/Australia travel will be required in this role.
Professional Advantage strives to be an employer of choice and the successful candidate will receive benefits
and remuneration in line with experience. Please contact us directly at pacs_sale@profad.co.uk.
April 2006, PA extends its Microsoft Gold Partner certification
Leading provider of business applications to the mid market, Professional Advantage, has further increased its ability to offer customers a comprehensive range of solutions across the breadth of the Microsoft technology stack.
Professional Advantage has announced that it has achieved 6 of the 13 Microsoft Competencies, placing them amongst the most accomplished Microsoft Partners in Australia. Competencies are awarded based on criteria generally involving the employment of Microsoft Certified Professionals with Competency specific proficiency, along with customer approved references for the recent successful delivery of relevant solutions. These Competencies highlight Partners notable areas of expertise.
As a Gold Certified Partner, Professional Advantage is part of the highest of three levels of Microsoft resellers.
Michael Foertsch, business manager, Professional Advantage said, “Formal qualifications are important to organisations choosing a provider of Microsoft based solutions. The competencies we achieved offer our customers added assurance that Professional Advantage has the right skills, experience and know-how to deliver a comprehensive solution”.
“Combined with our extensive industry experience, we are well placed to effectively deliver an integrated solution that meets companies' diverse and unique requirements. This is particularly important in today's environment, where customers are required to keep up with constantly evolving technologies and solutions.” said Foertsch.
The specific Competencies held by Professional Advantage are Microsoft Business Solutions, Data Management Solutions, Information Worker Solutions, ISV/Software Solutions, Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, and Networking Infrastructure Solutions. In addition, Professional Advantage also holds several specialisations within these competencies, in areas including Business Intelligence, Messaging and Collaboration, Storage Solutions, Active Directory and Identity Management and Exchange Migration and Deployment.