PRESS RELEASE
COA Solutions new software supports vertical markets

UK business applications software provider, COA Solutions (formerly CedarOpenAccounts), is launching a range of new financial management software solutions to support its key vertical markets, including local authorities, education, shared service centres, retail, utility and airline companies.

Marketplace Connectors for public sector e-procurement

COA Solutions’ new Marketplace Connectors solutions are launched to support the growth of e-procurement in public sector organisations (PSOs). It enables a PSO’s financial management system (FMS) to automatically integrate with a number of industry-specific eMarketplaces so that users can requisition, order from external catalogue content and gain internal approval though a unified system, saving time and cost with full real time integration to the FMS. Marketplace Connectors are now generally available and being implemented in various UK local authorities and higher education establishments.

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council has just implemented Marketplace Connectors in order to interface effectively with the IdeA eMarketplace. Sarah Arthurton, senior accountancy technician at the Council says, “COA Solutions’ Marketplace Connectors works seamlessly with our existing COA Solutions e5 financial management system to ensure that procurement orders are processed automatically into the Council’s overall budget management. The system is very simple to use for the many users outside the finance department and works like an internet shopping site, with a straight forward ‘click and order’ method. We have already experienced considerable time saving benefits in the ordering and authorisation process."

Invoice Matching for airlines

COA Solutions’ Airline Invoice Matching system is launched following close collaboration with Aer Lingus. Invoice Matching helps airlines to more efficiently manage their direct operating costs by automating invoice processing and highlighting any inaccuracies of billing by numerous suppliers. As the first customer for Invoice Matching Aer Lingus will be one of the world’s first airlines to certify external supplier costs through an automated online process.

Gerry Finnegan, head of management accounts at Aer Lingus says, “Direct operating costs account for around 50% of our cost base, so it is crucial for us to be able to verify accurately invoices from suppliers. Invoice Matching has huge cost saving benefits for the airline industry that spends valuable time on manually tracking invoices and cross referencing with thousands of aircraft operations every year. By automating the process through a web-based financial system, an airline will be able to save significantly on administrative costs and ensure that bills are being accurately issued by their suppliers.”

Job Billing for consultancies and shared services centres

COA Solutions’ Job Billing system is launched to help improve the billing process for any organisation whose products are time and people, for example, consultancy businesses and shared services centres. Job Billing improves the process of re-charging jobs by reducing the amount of days spent issuing and tracking invoices through an automated rather than manual approach. It will help local authorities realise efficiency savings set out in the Gershon Review by reducing processing costs and allowing staff to be redeployed to the front office rather than spending time on administrative tasks. It will also enable consultancies to monitor the profitability of customers and help to analyse service levels.

Darryl Rodrigues, market development manager at COA Solutions comments, “The new solutions have been developed in partnership with COA Solutions’ customers to ensure that specific vertical market requirements have been satisfied. COA is committed to continuous investment in product development with the aim of delivering real tangible customer benefit and increased process efficiencies with rapid ROI for the customer.”

The new software modules have been integrated into e5 5.2, the latest version of COA Solutions’ e5 financial management software platform. e5 5.2 has been designed to be available 24/7 with full ‘point in time’ recovery and built with Oracle Real Application Cluster Processing making it highly resilient, scalable and cost effective, particularly for shared service centres and hosting providers setting up and deploying the system across multiple servers.