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Finance One provides top accounting solution for Councils

Leading accounting software system, Finance One is providing world best practice financial management solutions for Councils across Australia with the product gaining a strong and loyal following among Council users.

Finance One is now in service at 25 local government authorities Australia wide with this expected to increase substantially over the next 12 months. Councils in NSW include Pittwater, Marrickville, Shellharbour, Waverley and Newcastle City .

In Victoria, Hume City, Wyndham City and Yarra Ranges Shire Councils run Finance One, while in Queensland, Councils include Logan City, Redland Shire, Maroochy Shire, Caboolture Shire and Rockhampton Shire.

In the other states, Perth City Council in WA, the City of Salisbury Council in SA and Tasmania's Meander Valley Council all run Finance One. (see adjacent list)

Finance One is the flagship financial management information system (FMIS) from software developer Technology One. Because Finance One has hundreds of private and public sector customers, such as the Seven Network, Aussie Home Loans, Mitre 10 and the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, Councils can leverage the research and development (R&D) that has gone into Finance One and can gain the benefit of its proven performance in the marketplace.

Finance One's Local Government focus has been to understand each Council's requirements and provide them with a solution that will give them greater efficiencies, such as better time management, decentralised services and lower costs.

Don Johnston, Manager of Finance at Marrickville Council said he had been impressed with the Finance One team's understanding of Council requirements. "They took the time to research our specific needs and clearly demonstrated Finance One's capability by working on a number of Council scenarios so we could see its scope," he said.

The flexibility of Finance One, its user friendliness, its integration capabilities and the fact that it provides a one-stop solution &endash; including the product, the implementation and after sales support &endash; has been highly attractive to Councils embracing best practice principles and wanting return on investment.

"Return on investment is a major criteria for Councils and we have addressed this by keeping our implementation costs to a $1 for $1 basis to the initial licence fees. Our competitors have not been able to match this," said Managing Director of Technology One, Adrian Di Marco.

"Our staff who carry out Council implementations are part of the one marketing team and, for Councils, this means much better continuity within the project, shorter implementation times and greater cost efficiencies." He said four months was the average implementation period with larger Councils sometimes taking slightly longer.

Many Councils also require an accounting system that uses new technology that will sustain their operations in a rapidly changing technical and business environment. Finance One is internet, intranet and email enabled and the current version, Release 9.2, is GST ready. Current directions being developed include e-business and web enabled capabilities that will maintain its position as a leading edge software system.

Ralph Saunders, Manager of Information Services at Caboolture Shire Council said, "A major driver for us is that Finance One is a system for the future. It supports our strategic technical direction for database and operating systems while keeping up to date with the latest front end technology." This means Councils can be assured they have a product that is not outdated in a few years time.

Director & General Manager of Finance One, Ron McLean said that many Councils had been so delighted with Finance One that other Councils had visited their sites to test the product. He said this was an important way for potential Council customers to see Finance One in action and to talk to colleagues about its proven performance.

"At Technology One, we are very focused on our financials product. Our sales people have accounting backgrounds and speak the same language as the Councils' finance and IT people. We've been able to provide solutions for any problem and we've worked closely with each Council to ensure optimum product performance."

He said an ongoing benefit for Councils using Finance One is its intensive $10 million research and development (R&D) program. This includes program upgrades every four to six months based on customer feedback with major releases every 18 months.

Finance One is the most successful accounting software system to be developed in Australia for medium to large organisations. It is the only Australian developed FMIS approved for the Federal Government panel.

The Technology One web site is at www.technologyone.com.au For further information contact Mark Culverson on (02) 9460 1000

Finance One Council Sites

NSW
Coffs Harbour City Council
Leichhardt Municipal Council
Lithgow Council
Marrickville Council
Newcastle City Council
Pittwater Council
Shellharbour Council
Wagga Wagga City Council
Waverley Council
Wingecarribee Shire Council
Woollahra Council

VIC
Hume City Council
Wyndham City Council
Yarra Ranges Council

QLD
Caboolture Shire Council
Hervey Bay City Council
Logan City Council
Maroochy Shire Council
Pine Rivers Shire Council
Redcliffe Shire Council
Redland Shire Council
Rockhampton Shire Council

SA
Salisbury City Council

WA
Perth City Council

TAS
Meander Valley Council

Total of 25 Local Government authorities.

*Copy provided by Technology One.

Click here to visit the Technology One web site

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