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BIS NEWS - OLD BUT STILL GOLD
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It only seems like yesterday when we had 14 people in a small room at the Swiss Grand on Bondi Beach in 1999 for our first User Forum. Boy, was I nervous !
Would anyone show up ? Would they lose interest and leave ?
Well, it's the same nerves every year, but people still keep turning up and the responses we get are great. Here are a few:
"Impressed with BIS's ability to react to client demands, thanks for assistance and patience."
"The staff at BIS are extremely helpful and understanding - you do a great job."
"Overall very practical and informative forum - well done the team."
"BIS staff fantastic, keep up the good work."
We have come across several organisations using MYOB and needing iCMS. There is only a certain amount of configuration possible with MYOB,
plus it has built-in purchase import capability. These two things mean we can give these clients a standard iCMS
to MYOB interface at no extra cost. This can manage Corporate Cards as well as Employee Reimbursements. Call Brad Deveson on 02 9387 2509 to find out more.
The 2007 Budget included a rise in the threshold on purchases that require a Tax Invoice to claim a GST Input Tax Credit.
Are you prepared ? Our clients will be ! See here (page 4).
Wow ! Thank you to all our clients who saw the value in spending a day with BIS on the 9th of March 2007.
We have been holding user forums since 1999 as we feel this is a fantastic way of passing on information about iCMS
to our clients, getting and consolidating their feedback as to priorities for new functionality, and probably most important of all
giving them a chance to interact and swap experiences with their peers in other organisations.
People travelled from Darwin, Perth, Canberra, Launceston and Melbourne to attend. Some comments...
"Really enjoyed the User Forum can't wait till next year."
"Great user conference, thanks for the invitation - glad I paid attention as I did a presentation last Friday to our senior execs
and showed them the custom reporting facility. The response was awesome!"
"Very valuable listening/interacting with other administrators."
"What did you learn ? HEAPS !"
With attendees from organisations as diverse as the Australian Tax Office, the Church of the Latter-day Saints, AMP and Australia Post,
we were assured a wide variety of opinions and angles - and we got them. Thanks !
As of Monday 30th January we are at our new office in the Westfield Centre in Bondi Junction.
As expected we suffered various telecommunication SNAFU's, with our fax line being the focus of particularly interesting treatment
by a tag team of Telstra and Optus workmen.
The new offices have Bondi and Botany views, and a specially-built server room for our ever-expanding gear.
We are also dangerously close to a great food court and pub !
Glen Buckingham from ABTA was kind enough to invite Brad to speak at the
Adelaide and Perth ABTA forums. Not quite a world tour, but it felt like it !
Brad spoke about what Expense Management was all about and the attendees at both locations were very receptive.
iCMS recently went live at the NSW Police Department, with Westpac MasterCards and SAP.
BIS implemented a streamlined system to give pilot end-users enough time to
prove iCMS in a limited deployment before the wider roll-out. It is certainly BIS practice to ensure that system
implementation is given focus so that iCMS has the best chance to work well within the client's business.
If this means it takes a little longer, that's preferable to a rushed implementation that is poorly received by users.
Earlier this year IPL split from the Orica Group and quite reasonably wanted to continue using iCMS, which Orica implemented in 1998.
BIS assisted in this time-sensitive project in splitting the systems and ensuring the cutover went smoothly.
Ian Bradshaw, the project manager, said "the entire project went extremely smoothly in so far as the iCMS software is concerned".
Thanks Ian !
(This is not the first time BIS has assisted a client like this - when Mayne split into different entities we were pleased to help there too.)
BIS is very pleased to have been selected by Edith Cowan University in Perth after a strenuous RFT process.
We were impressed with the level of detail in their RFT as well as their clear understanding that they wanted
a sophisticated system that could reflect their business rules and integrate tightly into Oracle Financials.
From our side, with existing clients like La Trobe University, Victoria University, RMIT, and the Universities of Melbourne and Tasmania,
we feel we understand the unique issues they face.
"The Presentations are getting more professional every year. There is an obvious bank of knowledge and support."
"Thanks for a great BIS User Forum on Friday. I really believe this is a worth while gathering and I got a lot out of it."
The 8th Annual iCMS User Forum was on 3rd March 2006. We had one of the most interactive days ever, with some
times where Brad and the BIS boys just sat and listened to our users talk through the different ways they use iCMS. We
noted many great new ideas - some very simple to implement but with big user impact, others that
will need working parties between BIS and selected clients to ensure we get the business requirements right.
As of February 2006, our powerful new Code Level Authorisation (CLA) model is ready for prime time.
iCMS can select an appropriate authoriser by traversing a Cost Centre hierarchy, looking at dollar limits as
well as taking other elements into account like a Cost Centre 'owner', relationships with the employee, and even looking
at undue influence. Of course, the data this is based on can be synchronised with your source data.
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