NEWS

Scotland's cloud software firm Eureka Solutions is experiencing a surge of fresh exuberance after recruiting six new graduates in the past year. Eureka Solutions has a graduate staff retention rate of 70% across the business, where the graduates who join the East Kilbride firm have gone on to develop successful careers with the firm. 

One success story of the programme is the firm’s CEO David Lindores, who joined the company as a computer science graduate 17 years ago.  

Eureka Solutions established a Graduate Apprenticeship partnership with the University of Strathclyde in 2022 which has allowed students to combine workplace learning and real-life experience with a Computer Science degree. The Graduate Apprenticeship scheme is supported by Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council, and as of 2022, more than 4,692 people have benefited from the scheme which has been supported by more than 530 employers throughout the country. 

Avalara, provider of tax compliance automation software and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), announced expanded collaboration with Oracle to create a fast, easy, accurate, and automated touchless tax compliance experience in Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).  

“Working closely with Avalara will enable us to remove unnecessary friction and inefficiencies in tax compliance by automating tax processes for our joint customers,” said Rondy Ng, EVP of Applications Development at Oracle. “With Oracle Cloud ERP, organisations can embrace automation and continuous innovation to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve controls.”

Jayme Fishman, EVP and GM of Indirect Tax at Avalara, added, “Avalara aspires to be part of every transaction in the world with our global compliance platform. We’re getting there more rapidly thanks to collaborators like Oracle who are integrating our solutions to simplify the most complex processes of every sale or purchase transaction — calculating taxes and filing the returns.” 

With Avalara embedded in Oracle Cloud ERP, manual indirect tax setup, configuration, calculations, and complexities from every transaction are removed — saving businesses valuable time and lowering their overall risk of calculating taxes incorrectly or filing the wrong returns.  

Quadient announces the integration of its Intelligent Communication Automation (ICA) platform with Microsoft Azure AI, a portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) services designed for developers and data scientists backed by a secure environment and responsible AI principles. The integration of generative AI into Quadient’s cloud platform will further contribute to transforming the way organisations engage with their customers. 

Leveraging Microsoft Azure AI, including Azure OpenAI Service, Quadient software solutions will empower customers with enhanced features that range from measuring content readability, similarity and sentiment, to generating contextual content summaries and streamlining content creation and communication management in a secure environment with privacy controls. 

By integrating AI and machine learning into its Intelligent Communication Automation solutions for several years now, Quadient has been empowering users to create highly accurate, relevant, and personalised communications, leading to improved customer experiences. Quadient's software customer base stands to benefit greatly from this new evolution. Integrating Microsoft’s generative AI and content intelligence technology further elevates the platform performance, allowing users to efficiently analyse, summarise and prioritise data, run content similarity scenarios to consolidate and organise documents such as forms, policies or contracts, or securely generate customer-facing content in a trusted environment. Quadient's commitment to data protection is enforced by Microsoft Azure AI's infrastructure, ensuring privacy and confidentiality for customers and partners.  

Leeds-headquartered CloudCoCo has announced another strategic hire, as the transformational technology specialist furthers its quest to reach £100m turnover.

Head of cyber Mark Allen is the latest addition to the senior team, bringing with him 18 years of technical and commercial industry experience. Having worked for a number of telecoms, software, and digital transformation organisations during his career, his last three roles have centred on strengthening the managed service provider (MSP) offerings within UK internet service providers (ISPs).’

Attracted by CloudCoCo’s ambition to become a modern MSP with a difference — not least due to it’s recently unveiled multi-cloud proposition for customers that want to hyperscale — he will now lead on the firm’s security offering.  

His appointment comes hot on the heels of Lee Thatcher joining CloudCoCo last quarter, as the newly-instated head of cloud. In the same month, the PLC announced an exclusive partnership with large-scale digital innovation specialist Abstract Tech, similarly based in Leeds. A strategic agreement was also unveiled with Ingram Micro UK, allowing CloudCoCo to offer leading-edge vendor cloud solutions, such as Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google GCP. 

Fintech companies in the UK and Europe often seek global expansion, including entering the Australian market. Scottish fintech Know-it is no exception, as it has announced the launch of its cloud-based credit management platform in Australia for 2024.

This strategic move aims to deliver Know-it’s credit management solution to the Australian market, ensuring that Australian SMEs have access to the platform to effectively manage their credit control process. With its impressive track record of helping businesses minimise late payments and boost cashflow, Know-it is well-positioned to significantly impact the Australian fintech industry.

CEO and Founder of Know-it, Lynne Darcey Quigley, commented:  "Australian businesses face the same issues as UK businesses regarding late payments and manual credit control. Automation is crucial to ensure a steady cash flow and efficient financial processes. This is an opportune moment to implement such solutions”.

“Our platform, is the first of its kind, enables companies to perform credit checks, automate payment chasing, collect overdue invoices, and more in one place. Doing so mitigates credit risk, reduce debtor days, and enhances company cash flow. At Know-it, our ultimate objective is to expand our services globally and assist SMEs worldwide in realising the importance of automating the credit control process. This automation is crucial not only for business survival but also for achieving success. The Australian market will be the first step for us internationally and we are all excited to see where the journey takes us afterwards.

“We aim to demonstrate to Australian business owners, especially SMEs, how fintech can safeguard business continuity during the turbulent economic conditions currently affecting SMEs on a global scale. Our team is thrilled to begin collaborating with local businesses, assisting them in securing cash flow by addressing late payments, decreasing debtor days, and automating their entire credit control process”.  

To empower accountancy firms to achieve more, the cloud-first working papers solution MyWorkpapers has launched its innovative General Ledger functionality.

This enhances the existing trial balance functionality, which will grant users the ability to import transactional data into the platform.

Importing General Ledger data will initially be available through CSV import with additional integrations being added in the future.

This information can then be used to check and validate data and see if discrepancies exist thus permitting all of the transactional work for the financial year of the engagement to be done in one place.

This latest development will further enhance the efficiencies already offered by MyWorkpapers and is based directly on recent developments within the platform and on feedback from existing users.

Talking about the benefits that General Ledger offers, Rich Neal, MyWorkpapers CEO, said: “This feature really bolsters the existing abilities of our platform and offers users a far more simple and efficient process when managing their general ledger.

“Rather than having to switch between various platforms and data sources, they can now enjoy a single point of clarity through which their work can be done.”

MyWorkpapers says this latest innovation also ensures that a permanent history is retained by the accountancy firm, which can help in situations where clients, or practices themselves, choose to move accounting or bookkeeping systems.

“This initial launch is just the beginning, and we fully intend to develop our General Ledger feature to open up further opportunities for firms to utilise data analytics, industry benchmarking, risk assessment and other functionality all within MyWorkpapers,” added Rich.

To find out more about MyWorkpapers’ new General Ledger Feature, please visit www.myworkpapers.com 

Sage announced the launch of Sage Intacct Planning in the UK. Already supporting customers across the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia, the cloud-based solution will help UK organisations reduce the need for time consuming spreadsheets for financial planning and budgeting tasks. Freeing them up to get work done quicker and smarter, it offers a more effective budgeting and planning solution, simplifying complex tasks such as advanced financial modelling and ‘what-if’ scenario analysis.

“SMBs are operating in a fast-changing world, so simplifying their work and freeing them up to focus on what really matters to their business is key. With this solution, customers can create highly detailed and comprehensive financial plans that take into account a range of scenarios and variables, allowing them to better prepare for the future and adapt to evolving market conditions,” said André Lafayette, VP Planning Product Management at Sage.

Sage Intacct Planning offers:

• Integration with Sage Intacct Core Accounting, allowing customers to use their existing General Ledger accounts to manage actuals, budgets, and forecasts seamlessly

• An Intelligent Planning Wizard, enabling customers using ERP systems other than Sage Intacct Accounting to easily import and map data and dimensions from any ERP or General Ledger system

• 'What-if’ scenario modelling, enabling the evaluation of multiple options and variables simultaneously to confidently choose the best path forward

• Multi-currency planning and reporting, providing seamless collaboration with budget owners in every location

• Advanced modelling, facilitating the building of flexible budgets tailored to the organisation

• Rolling forecasts, making it easy to modify plans and pivot as business conditions change

AMP, a retail wealth management and banking business in Australia, has implemented Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). With Oracle Cloud HCM, AMP has centralised its HR operations and simplified complex processes with consumer-grade user experience to boost employee productivity and experience.

Founded in 1849, AMP has a long history of providing banking, super, retirement and advice services to millions of customers across Australia and New Zealand. Previously, with fragmented HR systems supporting its 3,000+ employees, AMP struggled with time-consuming manual HR tasks and lacked insights needed to optimally manage its workforce. To gain deeper HR insights and improve efficiency, AMP consolidated its HR processes with Oracle Cloud HCM.

“We needed a platform that was able to streamline core people processes in a consistent and scalable way. With Oracle Cloud HCM, we have streamlined our HR operations and created a unified employee experience to significantly improve insights and productivity as the organisation looks to the future”, said Malcolm Dore, director of people services, AMP. “

“Having to toggle between several different HR technology systems can create confusion for managers, employees, and candidates, ultimately wasting time and leaving key tasks incomplete,” said Meredith Rowan, vice president, Applications, Oracle Australia and New Zealand. "With Oracle Cloud HCM, AMP has created a more efficient workforce by connecting HR processes and providing employees with a cohesive experience, which has resulted in better workforce insights and decision-making”, Dore concluded."