FSN: Johnson goes live on CODA’s Neon accounting system

Johnson goes live on CODA's Neon accounting system

7th April 2008
CODA Group, the finance software specialist, has announced that Johnson Facilities Management Ltd has successfully gone live on its latest accounting software release, Neon . Johnson Facilities Management is a property, building and facilities management organisation managing over £1.2bn of annual client spend across a range of services throughout the property lifecycle.

At the heart of Neon is Version 11.0 of Financials. This delivers international accounting functionality, with core Neon enhancements and, says CODA, many new features that improve access, security, inter-company accounting and cost control, including enhanced Assets and Workflow applications. Integration with Microsoft Office ensures familiarity among users and encourages them to collaborate more with the rest of the business. The Procure-to-Pay application enables Johnson to provide access to the system to non-finance users, encouraging widespread adoption across the organisation so users can raise an order from Outlook without opening a separate finance application, and the information is securely stored in the system.

Johnson has also implemented business intelligence and reporting tools from Cognos which will interface with the CODA software. It will be rolling out additional Neon functionality over the coming months and expects to be fully functioning by November 2008.

The company is already up and running on the accounting, purchasing and invoice matching elements of Neon and expects it to deliver significant benefits to the business and its 85 users.

“We wanted to replace our old SAP and CODA systems with the latest technology available and CODA proved its Neon software was the best on the market,” said Lee Pantling, IT Director at Johnson. “We needed a flexible finance system that allows for changes in our business model as we grow. We are already benefiting from the simple design and intuitive nature of the system, which is helping encourage its adoption by our users. As a customer focused organisation, we also had a requirement to improve management reporting across the business and Neon will help us automate many of the processes involved, reducing our reliance on spreadsheets. Users now have instant access to centrally stored information on customer account balances for example, which empowers them to do more themselves while the software ensures that documents requiring approval follow a pre-defined workflow.”

Released in September 2007, Neon is the largest and most significant product release in CODA's history, representing a £15m investment in new and enhanced products and almost 300 man-years of research, development and testing time.

“Despite the potential risks of working with such a new and technically advanced software release, we are pleased to have been involved with Neon at this early stage,” continued Mr. Pantling.

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