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.

Guest blogger Phil Hawthorn continues his look at Time Management and highlights the key points that were covered at the recent COA Solutions eFinancials Annual National User Conference and offers a selection of practical time management tips

Guest blogger Phil Hawthorn returns to the COA Solutions blog to discuss Time Management ahead of the upcoming eFinancials Annual National User Conference. Phil has run One Step Ahead since 1996 – a training company specialising in team and enabling skills. After 13 years, help with time management is still the most common requested workshop, so he will be passing on his experience and tips for a more efficient future.

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.