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23 December 2008: 2008 in a nutshell

Its fast approaching the end of 2008 and we’re very happy to report a most successful year.

The company has taken on a number of new staff to accommodate the increased number of sales, ensuring implementation and on-going development of the product suites continues to run smoothly.

We also have welcomed three new additions to the future generation, with all 3 mothers and respective children doing well

And most importantly to us, we are taking our company global. We already have interested parties in the US, Canada and Australia and plan to roll-out across the rest of the world throughout 2009.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

15 December 2008: Christmas time… 

Every year there’s amad-panic-rush to find that perfect ‘must-have’ Christmas gift, which inevitably is sold out everywhere! I’m trying to get a Wii Fit for Mrs. Everatt; you may have seen these ‘boards’ that allow you to perform exercises in front of the TV.  Of course there’s a hidden agenda, the Snowboarding game that happens to work with the Wii Fit balance board looks really good…  I have found a supplier of these boards but they seem to want me to pay double the price, outrageous, but I paid.  

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a great festive season, much luck in finding your perfect gift and hope that you have a prosperous 2009.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

01 December 2008: Software as a service ensures a smooth transition

The changes to the VAT rates went live yesterday and I’m pleased to report that as far as our customers were concerned the transition was transparent.  Both expenses2009 and framework use the VAT rate in their logic but as a hosted service we confirmed with our clients that they wanted the new rate applied and made the change for them. 

With our online expenses product the configurability of the solution really came into its own, the intricate design behind the solution ensured that we can now support both old and new rates as claimant’s process their expenses during the transition period. And all this occurred without the need to disrupt our clients workflow.

Just a few years ago a change like this might have required a software vendor to dispatch an update disk, the client to schedule their technical teams to apply the change and then a rigorous testing phase. Whilst the update, change and testing phase still has to be performed, in the world of Software as a Service these are performed for all of our clients at the same time by us, which means the business can continue to do what it does best.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

24 November 2008: 19 years of outstanding support

2009 sees us entering our 20th (Platinum) Anniversary year in business. We intend to mark this celebrated occasion through various activities culminating in our expenses2009 and framework user group sessions, which are being held in very grand surroundings during next September.

There are very few providers of online services that can offer a history to match that of Software Europe (providers of framework and expenses2009).  I know my peers provide blogs that cover VAT issues, fraud and other hot topics, and its all very useful information, I find it good reading.  But it barely scratches the surface of the real issues, an understanding of how business’ operate, what clients expect from investing in these online solutions, and who needs to be involved in the project to make it successful.  We’ve done this for 19 years and have provided outstanding service to some of the world’s most prestigious international organisations.

Delivering a unique level of service was the foundation of our business 19 years ago, and it still is today.  We provide 24x7 support for all our products, and it is available to all users, not just the administration team.  To be honest we don’t get many out of hour’s calls, testament to the quality of the software, but support is a ‘life-saver’ for an administrator that wants to know how to configure an urgent new report for their Managing Director.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

03 November 2008: It’s that time of year again!

Our marketing team came up with a great idea for a Christmas card for this year.

Like most companies we try to do something a little different whilst still respecting the occasion, I think this year they have something really nice that ties in with the festive period very nicely. 

Some of the children of our colleagues have submitted a drawing of Christmas scenes, which the marketing team plan to put onto our Christmas cards for this year.  It seems really appropriate and the results are looking really good.  

And of course, we will be using environmentally friendly resources.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

24 October 2008: Innovate, but create what customers want. 

We’re undergoing some major changes in how we deliver our products and services.  As a company we haven’t even scratched the surface to see what the real potential of internet based products and services will bring. But we do have a few great ideas.  

Without giving too much away in a public forum we expect to see framework continue to evolve in a number of areas; we feel that accessibility and scope will be of particular importance to our customers.  

Customers as the User Group last month would have seen a hint of what is around the corner that is going to further assist them with the contract management task.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

17 October 2008: Push the boundaries of our support

At a recent meeting with a new framework customer we were pleasantly reminded about how help and support can be a proactive experience.  

To give you some history… many years ago, when expenses2009 and framework were being designed, it was agreed that client support would be at the centre of the experience. I know every company in the world describes their level of support as ‘excellent’, but we all know the truth can be significantly different.  19 years ago our company was formed to service the world of the blue chip mainframe market; these are very demanding organisations and our differentiator was a level of service that was second to none – I believe we excelled in this.  

Fast forward to today and our two software-as-a-service products (expenses2009 & framework) are supported with the same approach and commitment to service, but we take an additional step.  

You see, if you are using our solutions and an error is uncovered it ‘phones home’ and reports this to our helpdesk team.  I had a meeting this week with a customer who was amazed to receive an email from our helpdesk explaining that the error they had encountered only a few moments ago was logged and would be reported to the development team.   This is what we believe is true service and we strive to push the boundaries of our support experience, the truth is that sometimes things can go wrong, but its how you deal with them that counts.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

13 October 2008: How to deal with changing T&C's

Every month we receive an appeal for a change of contract terms and conditions from an existing customer.  We have many mainframe (now called Series Z) customers who need to store many hundreds of contracts and somehow need to reference them when a change of circumstance dictates - a potential merger or acquisition is one change of contract circumstance that we see regularly. 

Deploying a contract management solution can make a positive impact on the efficiency of dealing with these situations.  In many cases we see £1000's being lost because the contract tracking system is not dynamic, warnings about termination periods are non-existent leaving the only option left is a renewal, regardless of what the business actually needs.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

9th October 2008: framework saved us thousands of pounds

This month we have continued to evolve our framework roadmap, framework’s sister product is expenses2009: an internet hosted solution for expenses processing. 

We are looking at where these solutions will be in 5 years time - and we think it is an exciting prospect for our customers.  The new release of framework brought many new features and enhancements that have been requested by our customers. 

As you might expect, we use framework for our own contract management and it’s difficult to understand how any organisation can survive without these solutions in place, a couple of clicks and we can see what a particular agreement means to our business. It’s vital information and has saved us many thousands of pounds by making us aware of our commitments.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

6th October 2008: User Group Success!

September saw a good turn-out for our annual User Group. This year it was held near Tower Bridge, in Central London. These meetings are an essential part of our product development process. We also tested new ideas with our existing customers, I can’t give too much away on the new developments but they involve some new technologies that should deliver some great savings and ease of use features that will help our customers.

Plans are already in motion for next years User Group, which we plan to combine with our “20 years in business” anniversary celebrations.

Neil Everatt, Managing Director

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