Awards 2005: enterprise software of the year - Coda Financials

A long-time favourite for many Accountancy Age readers, Coda has managed to
maintain its reliability and technical innovation, according to the judges, and
wins Enterprise Software Package of the Year for its Financials software.

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list of award winners

The company’s reliability is evident, having won Mid-range Software Product
of the Year in 2004 for its Dream product ­ and it is not stopping there. With
25% of revenue reinvested in R&D ­ amounting to £10m per year ­ and the
efforts of 170 developers, the company is looking to the future of the finance
function.

Coda’s offering was given a boost by its latest product acquisition, Ocra.
The software provides consolidation and treasury technology, and has supported
international customers over the past 12 years.

Jeremy Roche, Coda CEO, says that one of the biggest focuses for accountants
is dealing with corporate governance requirements. ‘They have added considerably
to the workload, resulting in longer hours and higher levels of stress.
Automation turns compliance from a cost into a value-added activity, so it is of
huge interest to CFOs,’ he says.The company intends to continue its organic and
acquisitive growth.
Financials is available in 15 languages and supports finance and reporting
requirements worldwide. Opportunities are being examined in eastern Europe and
China.

Coda has also established itself within shared services and business process
outsourcing markets, where formerly only the biggest ERP software products were
used.

Yet its biggest product, Financials, will still hold itself up as Coda’s
flagship in the future. In the UK, Coda saw a 21% increase in take up of users
per deal for Financials, while 2004 licence revenue grew by 3% to £9.6m.

The latest version of the product offers users the choice of Windows, or a
large majority of Unix and IBM iSeries, while databases supported include SQL,
Oracle, Sybase or DB2/400.

Maintenance charges include upgrades to new versions, but Coda prides itself
on supporting clients running on longer-running systems.

Older databases are still supported, which Coda believes provides customers
with ‘exceptional ROI for clients’, some of whom have worked with the software
provider for over 15 years.

The product is also 100% web-enabled, and provides customised screens to
match requirements. It also integrates with Microsoft desktop applications, such
as Excel, allowing users to work in familiar environments.

The new software is already off to a good start, with 45 customers live in
its first 12 months, beating previous releases of the software.

Client highlights include winning a deal with Next, poaching the high street
clothing retailer from PeopleSoft. Next chose Coda-Financials as its core
accounting system, run from the retailer’s HQ in Leicestershire.
‘Coda-Financials has been a big hit with the finance team.

It is easy to train end users, and they can extract detailed transactional
information in a user friendly manner. We are very pleased with the results so
far,’ says a Next spokesperson.

Coda boasts a 60-strong team working on Financials, backed up by technical
specialists.

Support service is continually monitored through ‘call audits’, while 98% of
calls are handled within 30 minutes of receiving them.