COA Solutions – Business Accounting Software

From electronic data interchange (EDI) to customer relationship management (CRM), IT directors were keen to talk up the importance of their latest three-letter acronym-based project. Top of these initiatives came enterprise resource planning (ERP), an all-encompassing approach to resource management.

Yesterday I read the MacLeod review on employee engagement, ‘Engaging for Success’ . It bought to mind my experience as a Sunday footballer. Much of the time I played in teams who were at the bottom or close to the bottom of the league. Getting out of bed on a Sunday morning was miserable. The pitches were always too wet or too hard. The knocks always hurt. And what has this got to do with David MacLeod and Nita Clarke’s report? Well, it reminded me that when I played in a team that did very well, funnily enough getting out of bed was easy, the pitches were great and it was easy to shrug off bumps and bruises. Under all the criteria of engagement I would say that I was much more engaged when we were winning.

My mother is full of age-old wisdom and sayings. One that was often heard through-out my teenage years was ” You will be judged by the company you keep”, mainly used to discourage me from falling into the wrong crowd and to get me to concentrate on where I wanted to be in the future.

Its been a big week for the COA Solutions HCM team this week. Firstly, they brought together all HCM customers for the first time at one venue for the COA Solutions HCM User Group.

On 20th May 2009 over 80 Finance Directors came together at the London Chamber of Commerce to meet and discuss practical actions that could help their organisations prosper in a downturn. Interestingly of those surveyed, 41% felt the upturn would come as soon as 2010.

COA Solutions Guest Blogger Rick Emslie is principal of Emslie Analytics, a business that helps organisations measure their people contribution. He is also deputy chairman of AdviserPlus, a fast growing business which offers a unique HR advisory service; and one of three ‘old hands’ who run Oxen Park, a European network of HR leaders and business partners.

Guest Blogger, Richard Donkin (author of Blood Sweat and Tears, The Evolution of Work and Financial Times columnist on work and careers) returns to the COA Solutions blog for a third time to discuss how to manage in the current downturn.

Just as some employees are safer than others in a downturn, the same rule applies to corporate departments. Sales staff are usually secure, since without sales the whole company will fall.

Guest Blogger, Richard Donkin (author of Blood Sweat and Tears, The Evolution of Work and Financial Times columnist on work and careers) returns to the COA Solutions blog to discuss how to manage in the current downturn.

Recessions and downturns often offer great opportunities for business start ups. They do so because entrepreneurs who begin trading in hard times must learn to be agile, frugal and inventive if they are to survive…

COA Solutions Guest Blogger Richard Donkin is the author of Blood Sweat and Tears, The Evolution of Work and Financial Times columnist on work and careers. Based in Woking in the UK he works as a commentator and writer on management and employment issues. His book, Blood Sweat and Tears, was warmly received and extensively reviewed in the US and UK (Times Literary Supplement, Washington Post, New York Times, Time, The Economist). His FT column has been appearing since 1994.

If you could increase staff productivity and save thousands, even millions of pounds in overhead, depending on your company size, you would, wouldn’t you?

Apparently not, according to recent research carried out on behalf of BT Business and Nortel. It found that nine out of 10 managers did not trust their staff to work from home.

COA Solutions was very well represented last Thursday 30th October at the Sift Media Business Software Satisfaction Awards 2008 at the Brewery in London.