LAKE SunSystems Newsletter

March 2009

Welcome to the March edition of the newsletter for LAKE Customers. On this occasion we take a look at the Not for Profit sector and include a new case study featuring Global Witness.

Once again, if you would like to discuss any of the items in this newsletter please call me on the number below.

Best regards

Adrian Howard
General Manager
0113 273 7788

NEW CASE STUDY

Global Witness

Key Features

• SunSystems Financials
• SunSystems Vision

Global Witness investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses.

Global Witness is a non-profit organisation with the majority of funding coming through grants and donations, from trusts, foundations, individuals and governments.

Systems Selection

Global Witness were thorough in their selection of a new finance system. A list of requirements was produced and suppliers were rated against these criteria. Background research revealed a list of 4 potential systems to review and the inclusion of SunSystems in the list came from speaking to other charities.

At the end of this process SunSystems from LAKE received the highest rating. This was driven by a number of factors, but two in particular stand out:

• Reporting with SunSystems Vision
  Vision is the integrated ad hoc reporting and analytics solution for SunSystems. The other systems could not match the flexibility and ease of use of SunSystems Vision.
   
• Organisational fit
  Global Witness felt that they could see themselves working with LAKE for the long term.

'I have a number of friends that work at other charities and NGO's and a lot of them use Sun already. It was natural that we would include it in our review...

.. We went through quite a long and thorough process of finding the right supplier. We looked at 4 different systems and SunSystems was the one that came up top...

.. SunSystems provided a much greater level of flexibility. One of the things I really like about the system is that it provides capacity to grow as our needs change. We knew we were at the limit with Sage...

.. What tipped the balance for us was the SunSystems Vision report writing software; we liked it a lot...

.. and LAKE are a nice bunch of people to deal with.'

SECTOR FOCUS

Not for Profit

In this article we interview a senior member of our Not-for-Profit team in order to highlight some of the reasons why SunSystems is so well suited to the needs of Finance teams in this sector.

Key Requirements

Macy:
'Not for profit organisations in particular, need good analytics and reporting. Analysis of performance by donor, project, fund, region, department, employee and so on, tends to be important...

.. It's not just about getting information into the system, it's about how easy it is to get information out and deliver it to stakeholders in a timely fashion...

.. Integration with third-party applications is also a common requirement...

.. If analysis, reporting and integration are important to you, then a LAKE SunSystems solution is one you should take a closer look at.'

Reporting with Vision

SunSystems Vision is a dynamic reporting and business intelligence tool that enables users to deliver information to stakeholders at the click of a button.

The Vision solution delivers real-time links between MS Excel worksheets and data held in SunSystems. The formidable power of Excel can be applied to financial data extracted from or transferred back into SunSystems ledgers.

Macy:
'One of the good things about Vision is that it is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Excel, which is perfect for the Finance team. But with Vision, you've got something that is more powerful than Excel on its own...

.. Excel really does become an extension of your Finance system...

... Whether sending reports out to stakeholders in the traditional way or having budget managers look at information themselves, Vision provides that ease of use and flexibility.'

Better Analytics

The SunSystems solution provides tremendous flexibility in the way you can analyse financial and business information. Analysis can be set up to reflect organisational activity such as cost centre, fund, campaign or project. Most importantly of all, analysis is created and maintained independently of each other rather than being incorporated into account codes.

Macy:
'It is one of the only solutions that has such an elegant approach to delivering analysis. The simple chart of accounts is much easier to understand and the analysis is simple to manage...

.. It's a solution that accommodates the analysis, the growth and the change that charities experience much better than other systems.'

Improved integration with other business systems

LAKE has a proven track record for delivering SunSystems solutions that are tightly integrated with an array of third-party business applications.

Macy
'We very rarely work on a project that doesn't involve some form of integration. The range of systems includes payroll, membership, Care billing, booking and ticketing systems and so on...

.. At the simplest level it can be loading data, say from the fund raising system, into Excel, then using Vision to validate and upload into SunSystems...

.. The next level is to use SunSystems Transfer Desk to automate or provide a tighter level of integration. Or, thirdly, SunSystems Connect gives you the ability to deliver real time "hands-off" integration.'

CLICK HERE to further details regarding LAKE Solutions for Not for Profit.

SUNSYSTEMS & PROACTIS TRAINING

CLICK HERE for an introduction to the SunSystems and Proactis training services provided by LAKE.

CLICK HERE to view the latest schedule of public courses for SunSystems

CLICK HERE for Proactis training