COA Solutions - Business Accounting Software

We recently received a call from one of our Account Managers who had seen a posting on a popular accountancy forum asking for help. The person who had posted the question had been looking for a finance system

One of the questions that always goes through my mind when I am on a plane waiting for take off is, ‘Am I safer because there is a pilot flying this machine or would I be safer without him?’. This was brought home to me with the media discussion on the crash of the Air France Airbus 330.

Like many companies, at COA Solutions we have scaled down our internal recruitment as we tough out the worst of the economic downturn. Our acquisitions strategy has always made us mindful of the importance of running efficient processes to eradicate duplication of effort and job roles. By undertaking a common sense approach to our workforce we have avoided the brutal pruning seen at many other software organisations.

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.

Having famously been described by our Managing Director as “cheap to keep”, I thought that I was beyond question when it came to the subject of expenses. No claims for swimming pool maintenance or eyeliners here. However, a recent series of events has prompted me to question even my own, rather humble, expectations.

On loan from HR Zone, guest blogger Derek Irving discusses employee engagement levels at work on the lead up to our “How To Prosper In a Downturn - The New Reality of HR” event on the 20th May 2009 in London

How’s your level of engagement at work? Is the economy getting you down? Are you just trying to hang on? Or are you actually more focused on your work and enjoying it? If it is the latter, you’re not alone. Several studies are reporting increased levels of engagement.

Alistair Darling’s bold prediction at yesterday’s Budget that the economy will return to growth by the end of 2009, expanding by 1.25% next year and 3.5% in 2011, has generated an avalanche of criticism from opposition parties and industry leaders who have dismissed his predictions as “fantasy”.

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…

When times are good, few people see the value of actively joining their user community. Often those that sacrifice their own and company time to lead the committee can feel they are pushing effort into a bottomless pit of apathy and derision. Even free to join user groups struggle to engage their members on a regular basis, surveying users again and again to try and understand where they are going wrong.

Whilst most UK media still continues to focus on the doom and gloom of the economic downturn it is interesting to see a hint of sunlight on the horizon. Recent research by RBC Capital Markets and reported in Computing reveals that only 3% of UK companies are delaying their larger longer term deployments compared to 36% who are continuing to replace outdated software and look at discreet, short term, fast ROI projects.