Albemarle & Bond, the largest pawnbroker in the UK, is implementing a financial management system with integrated cash flow forecasting, electronic procurement, business intelligence and document management and imaging functionality from COA Solutions (www.coasolutions.com). The planned go-live for the COA Solutions system is Autumn 2009.
Stephen Wyeth, Financial Controller at Albemarle & Bond, says, “Our current financial system is outdated and restrictive and makes it difficult to extract information for management reporting. Its limited general ledger and lack of bank reconciliation also makes it difficult to maintain control of costs.”
With the new system in place, Albemarle & Bond will be able to produce management reports quickly and easily and will also have improved accessibility of financial information to aid decision making throughout the organisation. COA Solutions’ flexible cash flow forecasting module will also provide early detection of potential excess or cash shortfall to enable Albemarle & Bond to monitor its cash more effectively and maintain tight financial control.
Wyeth comments, “COA Solutions’ system will increase productivity by replacing time-consuming manual processes. It will also enable us to quickly produce management reports, making it easier to analyse financial information. This increased financial visibility will improve the monitoring of cash flow so that we can better manage outstanding debt whilst focusing on increasing profits. This is essential to our planned growth and ongoing success.”
By using COA Solutions’ electronic procurement solution alongside the document management and imaging solution (which uses Version One technology), authorised users at Albemarle & Bond will be able to raise purchase orders and approve purchase invoices electronically, eliminating the paper trail inherent with manual procurement processing, significantly improving purchase-to-pay efficiency.
Furthermore, using the integrated business intelligence solution – Financial Analytics - Albemarle & Bond will be able to monitor, analyse and improve its corporate performance by measuring it against an extensive number of key performance indicators (KPIs).
Wyeth comments, “We look forward to being able to produce analytics reports on a weekly basis tailored around our key business drivers. Having access to business critical information at our fingertips will allow us to constantly scrutinise our financial performance so that senior management can make informed decisions to ensure we remain a step ahead of our competition.”
