Over the last 40 years, we have provided financial management and accounting software to what started as a predominantly Scottish customer base, but overtime has grown beyond Scotland now covering the full UK. As our business and products continue to evolve, we believe it is necessary to keep our customers involved in our journey. This means keeping them up to date with the latest product roadmaps and exploring the latest technologies and solutions to help streamline not only finance departments, but your whole organisation.
On the 3rd of October we hosted our annual event at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh welcoming over 50 delegates, 10 members of staff and several keynote speakers. Not only did this event inform our customers on the development and Roadmap of SunSystems, but it also provided them with an insight of what’s happening in our business right now.
Introducing Kick – Combining 40 Years of Castle & Talon
After welcoming our customers with some refreshments and pastries, we got straight to business – beginning the day with opening remarks from Chris (our very own Superhero – those who were at the event will understand what I mean) who then passed on to our CEO Tom O’Hara to provide a business update.
Over the last year, our business has been undergoing a transition and we were pleased to introduce Kick ICT Group Ltd – our new name and brand. Not only this but we announced moving into our new and bigger home. Although it’s just a few hundred yards down the road from the Castle office, our new home provides flexibility, room for growth while adding a fresh and modern feel.
Key Speakers
Our morning began with an informative SunSystems roadmap update from our partner Infor by Tim Truesdale. This entailed a discussion on SunSystems current position, how you can add value with Infor OS, explanation of the Infor Cloud and ended with SunSystems vision and strategy.
Following on from this, our very own George Strathie delivered an exciting live demo on enhancing SunSystems with d/EPM and Infor OS. This technology brings together collaboration, analytics, integration, mobility and document management in one single platform.
Andrew Parsons from one of our partners – Professional Advantage offered something new to our customers by introducing XMPro. An efficient business process management for Infor SunSystems which provides a basic flow process in each area designed to meet the standard and minimal requirements for automation and control of the area in question.
Our morning session ended with a short presentation from Barry Seston at SolarWinds who discussed Layered Security. This highlighted that although data breaches of both small and large organisations are still prominent, organisations can put plans in place to mitigate these threats. By implementing internal review processes, identifying your core protection areas, carrying out regular risk management reviews and creating human firewalls can all help combat security issues.
After a refreshing lunch we moved into our afternoon sessions, Grant Campbell from Brodies provided an insight to GDPR one year on and preparing for change with Brexit. Examples of companies such as Google and British Airways were discussed to showcase recent ICO enforcements. Other topics addressed included guidance of cookies and tracking technologies for E-privacy, Cyber Security by highlight both personal attacks and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSE) and ended with GDPR ‘To Do’ list.
Breakout Sessions
The afternoon was split so that customers had the choice of selecting two breakout session which were of most interest to them. Delegates selected two from the following list:
Going paperless with e-Invoicing with Eoin Maguire
Streamlining your purchase order and invoicing process away from manual paper-based tasks to a full electronic process based on European PEPPOL Standard. These changes bring efficiency and costs saving to both your organisation and your suppliers.
B4B/CSB with Andrew Parsons
Focusing on Cash Management Andrew covered two great topics from the PA portfolio.
B4B that provides a seamless link between Infor SunSystems™ and your bank(s) for Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) or internet banking. B4B brings international and domestic payments together, allowing multi-national companies to set up a global payment’s operation from a single source. This reduces inaccuracies, time and cost. B4B has a large library of banking formats, spanning across the globe and supports CHAPS, Faster Payments, BACS, SWIFT, SEPA and many more. B4B was developed specifically for Infor SunSystems and is able to be embedded as a shortcut with SunSystems.
Contract & Service Billing (CSB) is an invoicing module catering for contract, recurring and ad hoc invoices. It works in sync with your business processes to remove manual tasks and increase billing accuracy and speed.
Microsoft Modern Workplace – beyond email with Ian Davis
In a technology infused world dominated by Microsoft products Ian spent time explaining the Microsoft Office 365 product stack, including email and a further 27 applications, many of which you may not have come across before. From Dynamics 365, Business Central, CRM to Email and Yammer – this was a well-received educational update which highlighted the additional services that come under the Kick ICT banner.
Q&A 11 Changes – Kevin Hamilton
It was no surprise to see Kevin’s session oversubscribed with the room overflowing with interested users. As Q&A 10 is the defacto standard for reporting and data imports into Sun, the advent of Q&A 11 with it’s combined product set, 64 bit excel support and new interface was notable and expertly demonstrated.
Networking Opportunities
As well as receiving informative presentations and live demos of products, customers had the opportunity to network with over 40 other SunSystems users and share their own experiences and ask any of our speaker’s questions regarding their presentations.
Feedback following the event was highly positive:
“It was an overall very interesting day and good opportunity to network with others”.
“The format was very good and the team delivered a excellent and enjoyable event”.
Again, a huge thank you to all our speakers, to those who led breakout sessions and finally to all our customers, without each of you the day wouldn’t have been the success it was. We hope to see you again at our next event.
If you are interested in learning more about our range of accounting and finance software you can find more information here or get in touch by calling 01698 844 600 to discuss your requirements.