Cashbook Conference a success

St. Patrick’s Day 2006 was a momentous occasion for SAI. Not only did it mark the national day of celebration in honour of Ireland’s world famous Patron Saint, but it was also the date on which SAI’s very successful annual Cashbook Conference took place.

SAI’s customer conference was hosted in the tranquil surroundings of Windsor, in West London, at the renowned Sir Christopher Wren Hotel located on the picturesque banks of the river Thames.

It was the perfect relaxed environment for SAI to interact with their existing customers, business partners & future clients.  A host of topics were covered during the conference representing the varying business solutions SAI has to offer.  To best communicate key developments, SAI decided to let their customers & business partners do most of the talking.  This turned out to be the jewel in the crown of the conference for both SAI and their guests.  Could there be a better advertisement than the testimony of a satisfied customer?

The event started off with an overview of SAI & its core activities, presented Ltd Managing Director, Greg Coulter.  Greg passionately portrayed SAI as a company that takes pride in its success, a company that continuously strives to improve the service it offers to customers.  He also expressed SAI as a company that works in collaboration with their clients in addressing their business needs, defining solutions and ultimately refining their processes.

There were a host of guest customer speakers eager to share their experiences of working with SAI.  Impress Metal Packaging Shared Service Centre Director, Ad Wijten expressed his delight at the process improvements, time & financial savings directly attributed to their implementation of Cashbook’s Bank Statement upload & the module for automation of Accounts Receivable.

King UK’s Doug Wiggins & Joanne Kwaskowska paid emphatic tribute to the success they have enjoyed in working with SAI when adopting the Cashbook solution for the allocation of cash for high volume customers.  Doug Wiggins described the experience by saying: “if you focus on results you get nothing.  If you focus on change you get results.  That’s what we did.  We worked in partnership with SAI upon refining their solution to meet our needs and the end result has been an enormous success.  We now have 3.5 people processing 80,000 invoice payments a month when 2 years ago we had 7 people.”

The customer presentations reinvigorated customers’ belief in SAI’s Cashbook Solutions.  After all, word of mouth is the best form of promotion.  One customer said to an SAI staff member afterward “I saw cashbook 5 years ago.  You guys have made enormous progress.  You should have videoed those customer presentations.  They couldn’t have been more positive.”

Collins & Aikman, who are not yet customers of SAI, were also very impressed by the conference saying “I saw Cashbook in 1999.  We didn’t do anything about it then but we will certainly review it further now."

There were other topics covered during the conference too.  Tim Lamberstock, Voca Technology Strategy Manager, provided an insight into the new payment technologies which now exist.  Tim addressed areas of interest such as The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), IBAN Codes, Same Day Processing & the new developments in invoice payment & presentment.

Mary O’Brien, SAI Product Director, offered an insight into the Cashbook solution development path over the past 18 months with particular reference to BACSTEL-IP, SAI Version 4.5 (Java Solution), Generic Data Reconciliations, Inter Company Netting & Cash Cash Forecasting.  Many of SAI’s existing customers were very excited about the new Cashbook functionalities, as these improvements are a directly linked to feedback received through SAI working closely with their customers– a symbiotic relationship that has been proven emphatically successful.

Spencer Kupferman, Global Software Vice President of Corporate Affairs, & Michael MacNamara of SAI presented an insightful look at Spreadsheet Server – a new product for which SAI have become agents.  Spreadsheet server is a bolt on tool that allows users to export live information from their ERP system directly into Excel.  It enables users to use Excel as a window to their financial data without the need for downloading, staging or warehousing of information.  The product enhances the availability of real time business information & is widely tipped to become an integral part of Finance departments across the globe.

The conference concluded with a delicious lunch at 1pm.  Many of the attendees opted to stay on & attend the post-lunch customer workshops where SAI Product Directors, Harry Hughes & Mary O’Brien, engaged in individual product demonstrations, product training and also answered any questions.

The event was a huge success and learning experience for both SAI & for the conference attendees.  The existing relationship and trust SAI has built up with its customers has been further enhanced through the interaction at the conference.  The customer testimonies only reiterated the growing global reputation that SAI has developed through hard work, service, innovation and their unique ability to listen to, and work with their customers.

Some very encouraging feedback was received from those who attended the conference.  Nasir Suleman of Trelleborg Stanton Ltd said it “was interesting to see how Cash Book has been a 'time saver' for other organisations and how it can help our company in the same way.” 

David Bailey of Formica Ltd also expressed his views on the conference; “I thought the overall experience was a very productive one. There were many interesting topics discussed which I can take away and use to challenge existing ways of working. Well done to all involved.”

Peter Coppins of AB+AC=US Ltd was obviously very impressed with SAI’s conference; “Excellent hospitality.  Good informal atmosphere - no hard sell.  Impressive and convincing speakers - particularly the King UK people.  Very friendly and professional SAI conference and personnel.  I look forward to developing our companies' business relationship.  Incidentally, all the clients I spoke to seemed to be very content with SAI, the products and services.”

It’s not just a product SAI offers to customers…..it’s an all inclusive finance solution tailored to meet our customers needs and expectations.

Cashbook customers include Abbott Laboratories, ABS Production, Altana Inc., Autobar Group, Aventis Pharma, Bacardi, Boehringer Ingelheim, BOSCH, Bridgestone-Firestone, BSN Medical, Campbell’s Grocery Products, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Dentsply International, Diageo, Elopak, Givaudan, Impress Metal Packaging, King Ireland & King UK, Lucas TRW, Lund International, Pall Corporation, Pernod Ricard, Rank Hovis, SSA Global, Stryker-Howmedica, Sumitomo Electronic Wiring Systems, Volex Inc., and Yamaha Motor Europe .