Winner of the 2006 award for hotly contested Enterprise Software of the Year is Cedar OpenAccounts. The judges said version 6, released in July this year, was ‘comprehensive and well developed’, with an approach that showed ‘vision and quality throughout’.

OpenAccounts has contributed strongly to the company’s growth. New client wins include a £3.8m project with pub chain Tattershall Castle, a global contract with Progress Software, and a six-figure contract with retailer DFS to provide an integrated finance and payroll system.

Overall results for the company showed that turnover in the financial year to 31 March 2006 increased 12% to £43.4m, with a 5% increase in EBIDTA to £8.9m. Software license orders grew by 24% to £10.3m; maintenance revenues increased by 20% to £17.9m (41% of total revenue).

Version 6 of OpenAccounts strengthens financial management, provides integrated e-procurement and embeds process management. It also incorporates integrated HR and payroll analytics. Reporting tools, including the board pack, have been extended so users can extract information from multiple data sources easily, producing reports that illustrate business performance across the organisation. Version 6 also includes new collaborative modules for budgeting, forecasting, planning and cashflow developed in the last 12 months.

Helen Adams, management accountant at OpenAccounts user Edge Hill, says: ‘We have been thrilled by the impact COA’s collaborative planning application has made on our ability to more quickly and efficiently collate and produce budgetary information. It has reduced the collation of information from our budget holders from two weeks to a few days.’

COA managing director Mark Thompson said: ‘We have increased market share in both public and private services sectors and broadened the product portfolio through acquisition and internal development. COA’s financial performance confirms that our strategy of focusing on the needs of service sector organisa tions is the right path.’

USER’S VERDICT

Jonathan Crisp, financial controller at FirstTitle, says: ‘We chose COA because of its understanding of our specific requirements. The new system will support our expansion into Europe with its multi-currency functionality, and its better reporting capabilities are easier to use and designed for remote users. This will speed up corporate decision-making.’