Insight Issue #9 - Sage Pastel

Staying competitiveAccording to economist, Mike Schussler, one outof every six South African adults works for him orherself. That’s up from one in seven in 2002.And it translates into a huge number of SMEs –which is exactly what’s needed to create growth inthe economy.In fact, businesses like yours are so important thatthe SABC has launched a local reality show called‘Kickstart’ focused exclusively on SMEs.The challenge for you, though, is to stay ahead ofsteeply escalating competition.Our article on customer relationship management(CRM) shows you how to do that through astuteexploitation of information you already have.Also, our article on International Financial ReportingStandards (IFRS) and changes to the CompaniesAct shows you how to be competitive and compliantat the same time. We explain these changes insimple terms and offer guidance.Talking of growth, we’re moving to bigger, betterequipped premises in order to stay efficient andrelevant in the ways in which we support you.#9ContentsInsight Issue #9 Winter 200702 18 Years old and still the best business solution03 On the move04 A closer look at the changes to the Companies Act06 Pastel customer support recognised internationally07 Meet the team08 Tips and tricks11 Employee Self-Service (ESS) Module12 CRM: the competitive advantage14 If your business is growing you need Pastel Evolution16 Awards, rewards... and all that jazz18 The new BEE codes actually work in your favourOne of those ways is to help improve the qualityof computerised accounting education at schools.As you will see, feedback from learners and educatorsin response to our Certified Schools Program is extremelypositive.Enjoy the read!Zoe Nilen, Editorzoe.nilen@pastel.co.zaJHB: 011 290 2700 CT: 021 680 9000 DBN: 031 566 3670Pastel Cover Support Line: 011 290 2880 / 0860 PASTEL • support@pastel.co.zaSales: 011 290 2710 • sales@pastel.co.za Website: www.pastel.co.zaAddress: If your address details change, please e-mail us on updatedetails@pastel.co.zaDesigned and produced by blast

18years oldand still the best business solutionBY: STEVEN COHEN, SOFTLINE PASTEL MDOn the moveAs a business person, you’re acutely aware of how volatilethe software industry is – because you’re the one who hasto choose among the ever-changing options.So you’ll appreciate - with all the IT companies that have come andgone over the years - just how incredible it is that Pastel not onlyturns 18 this year but continues to grow steadily and purposefully.OK, so let me not be bashful. Actually 9 out of 10 South Africanaccountants now recommend Pastel to their clients, and more than180 000 SMEs in 52 countries on five continents run their businesseson our software.So, what are we doing right?Well, we’ve always understood the needs of the SME sector and we’venever deviated from addressing them in the most appropriate way.In doing so, we’ve successfully ridden the relentless waves of changein IT. When IBM introduced the personal computer in the 1980s,all we needed to do was help customers achieve better efficiencyand accuracy by making it affordable for them to move their accountingfrom a manual process to a computerised one.Sales were easy.Then, both software and customers began to mature at an everincreasingspeed. With their bookkeeping looked after, customerswanted to be more proactive in running their businesses. And accountingsoftware began to reach beyond the Finance Departmentto everyone else in the organisation. Accounting software was rathermorphing into “Business Software”.Customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning,serial number tracking, warehousing, business intelligence and otherniche applications triggered the move from a purely historical, accounting-basedapproach to a business process methodology forrunning a business.Accordingly, we had to learn to help our customers achieve operationalas well as purely administrative efficiencies – or fall by the wayside.In fact, we prospered. Because we’ve always listened to what ourcustomers wanted – on the principle that you’re the ones who seethe gaps between what the product can do and what you need donein your business.But products are only part of what makes us successful. Withoutour channel partners (did you know there are over 3 200 of themin South Africa and more than 450 internationally) we couldn’t havereached and therefore helped you. So, thanks to all our resellers andaccountant forum members! Especially for evolving yourselves tobecome advisors to customers on how to run their businesses better.In fact, everything Pastel does, including investing in the latesttechnology ourselves in order to service you in the ways you prefer- and working with provincial governments to give school leaversPastel qualifications - is geared to being a true partner to you.And, as the cherry on top, we get awards for doing what we love.As just one example, our support director, Tanya Miranda, has beennamed a finalist in the Best Contact Centre Leader for Europe, MiddleEast and Africa (EMEA) award category by ContactCentreWorld.com– the global conference, research and online magazine provider forthe contact centre industry.Oh, and by the way, because of all this growth I’ve been talking about,we’ll be moving our offices to bigger premises in August. As you cansee from the picture, our new offices, like us, are state of the art.You know by now that our promise to you is that we go beyondaccounting. In other words, we don’t just design and sell accountingsoftware. We do whatever we can to make it easier for youto run your business in the most profitable way possible.Over the years, that has meant creating all sorts of new ancillary supportproducts and services, such as Cover and our call centre, to ensure that,no matter what you need, we can respond quickly, effectively and relevantly.In the process, our employee head count has doubled in the past five years– and now stands at 320. The number of Cover customers has increasedtenfold in the past four years - from 3 000 to 30 000. The number of callswe take in the call centre has increased to an average of 50 000 a month,triggering a trebling of call centre agents in the last three years.Now we’ve got to the point where our current office space, housed in twoseparate buildings in the same office park, is too cramped for us to continueto be efficient and appropriate in serving you.In August, therefore, we’ll be moving all the Softline companies - SoftlinePastel Accounting, Softline Pastel Payroll, Softline Accpac, Softline VIP,Softline Enterprise, and the Head Office team – to a single campus thatincorporates state of the art facilities, including the latest technologiesfor developing and delivering both our products and services to you.There’s a dedicated training complex comprising conference facilities aswell as 12 training rooms that can collectively accommodate 178 delegatesand a 160-seat auditorium with the latest audio and visual equipment.We also have the very latest telephony equipment, making it easier for ourcall centre to handle the current volume of calls and also scale up as callvolumes grow.There’s a custom-designed production and distribution facility, so thatwe can have product and Pastel stationery available at all times and easilyaccessible for those of you who collect directly from us.There’s even a convenience store and a restaurant, making it easier forour staff to nip out for basic necessities and still be productive. And we’veopted for extremely sophisticated security systems.The new buildings are only about 5kms away from our current premises,and your support contact number (0860 PASTEL) remains. So, froma logistical point of view, very little will change for our customers andbusiness partners.Our physical address and landline phone numbers, of course, will change.They will be:Softline Technology Park102 Western Services Road or 56 Lotus Road, Gallo Manor Ext 6, 2191Switchboard Tel: (011) 304-3000 • Support Tel: (011) 304-3300We’ll keep you up-to-date with more information about the move as soonas it becomes available via e-mail, our website, and our Cover newsletter.The New Softline Technology Park102 Western Services Road, Gallo Manor Ext 6, 2191 • 56 Lotus Road, Gallo Manor Ext 6, 219102 Insight Magazine 03

A closer look atthe changes to theCompanies ActBy Steven Cohennow, if you got into a situation where your liabilities (monies that you owed)exceeded your assets (money in the bank plus revenue coming in and anybuildings or machinery owned by your business), you would have had todeclare insolvency. At the very least, you’d have to start negotiating withyour creditors to see if they would allow you to postpone paying them untilyou had more cash available.The problem with either of those options is that the processes used areup to individual businesses and their advisors. There is no structured legislationthat helps a business pull itself together again.Now, however, the Companies Act is putting in place a rules-based methodologyfor business rescue, very much like the Chapter 11 provision inthe United States.This new way of rescuing a business is described in the Act as• the rehabilitation of an insolvent firm by its management with temporarysupervision• a temporary moratorium on the rights of claimants against thecompany• and the development and implementation of a business rescue planfor the entity to function on a solvent basis.In other words, the Act describes clear procedures to be followed in allcases – with the specific aim of rescuing rather than closing the business.Which means that the playing fields have been leveled. Every businessin financial trouble will be treated in the same way and given the sametools for survival.Globally standardised accountingmethodologiesThe accounting methodologies used in South Africa are also being moreclosely aligned with international standards – particularly with the InternationalFinancial Reporting Standards (IFRS).This means that if, for instance, you and an overseas company want tosee each other’s financial statements, direct, easy and appropriate comparisonscan be made. It’s like the old story of comparing apples withapples. There’s no danger of misunderstanding the figures because ofdifferent country approaches or laws.Also, in order to compare financial information across different businesseswithin the same industry – or even to compare the results of the samebusiness over time - there must be consistency in the way the financialinformation has been presented.And, of course, banks and authorities like the Receiver of Revenue or ReserveBank want to see figures that are drawn up according to acceptedaccounting principles – and not some you invented one Sunday afternoon!So, the move to IFRS is good news. It makes it easier for you to be partof the global economy.And here’s the sound adviceIt doesn’t really matter what the law requires or how solvent you are, youstill need a reliable set of both financial and management accounts - forprofoundly practical reasons.For instance, if you need a loan from a bank in order to expand your businessor buy more stock in the run up to Christmas – or simply to tide youover a lean period – the bank is going to ask for a financial statement, preferablyaudited.So, while the changes to the Companies Act are aimed at reducing thecost to SMEs of auditors and accountants, be sensible. Make sure, if onlyby using your Pastel product to the fullest, that you can always producean up-to-date, accurate, public set of financial numbers that an accountantcan confidently verify in the shortest possible space of time.Also, there really is no substitute for good management accounts on whichyou can make intelligent decisions about your operations. They’re yourheadlights on the way to profitability. Don’t switch them off just becausethe Act has changed.As for IFRSOne other thing – IFRS is an immense body of accounting principles thateven highly qualified accountants in very large corporations find difficultto unravel. So, globally, there is a move to simplify IFRS for use in SMEs.That’s a seriously long way from done, though.So, stick to the basics. Keep producing your management accounts andyour financial statements according to the Generally Accepted AccountingPractices (GAAP) your accountant already uses. We’ll let you know whenit’s safe to change all that.Well, there are three bits of very good news - and one bit of sound advice.The first good news is that the most important changes to be made to the South AfricanCompanies Act in the past 50 years will become law in the near future – resulting in mucheasier financial reporting requirements for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).In fact, from a legal perspective, certain categories of SMEs will no longerhave to produce financial statements or audited accounts.The new law recognises the changes that have taken place in the SouthAfrican economy since 1973 and aligns it with international standards.Specifically, the law aims to reduce the regulatory burden on SMEs to empowerminority shareholders and employees.Private companies and close corporations will be phased out over thenext 12 years and be replaced by public interest companies – which aredefined as• A widely held company• A not for profit company• A closely held companyClosely held companies within certain ‘thresholds’ will have fewer disclosureand transparency requirements.The thresholds will be measured as a combination of at least two of thefollowing: a turnover of R50m, assets of R25m, or 250 employees.More than a million registered close corporations and more than 350 000private companies will have to convert to either closely or widely held companies,depending on their threshold limits. In fact, the majority of SMEswill become closely held companies.Getting out of financial troubleThe second piece of very good news is that the new Companies Act isalso making it easier to bail out companies in financial difficulties. UntilDifference between financial statements andmanagement accountsRemember that financial statements are official, public documents that you are either obliged by law to produce or that financial institutionsand authorities such as the Receiver of Revenue will ask for when assessing your business.Financial statements consist of the:• Balance Sheet• Income Statement• Cash Flow Statement• Notes to the Financial Statements – which flesh out some of the more complicatedinformation contained in the Income Statement and Balance Sheet.Management accounts, on the other hand, are private documents, compiled by you and your staff on a monthly or weekly basis forthe purpose of seeing how the business is doing and where and how to improve your operations. These accounts are really the vitalinformation your management team uses to navigate your business through the increasingly competitive South African landscape.04 Insight Magazine 05

Thank you, Cover customers, for teaching us throughyour feedback on how best to provide you with supportand, therefore, enabling us to put together processes,staff, and a call centre whose excellence is beingrecognised globally!In other words, you’re a significant part of the reason forour support director, Tanya Miranda, being nominatedas Best Contact Centre Leader for Europe, Middle Eastand Africa (EMEA) by ContactCentreWorld.com – the globalconference, research and online magazine providerfor the contact centre industry.SupportWe thought it would be great for you to meet the call centre consultants that handle your support queries. Our supportdepartment is divided into various teams, each with their own areas of expertise and own set of customers, so we’vedecided to introduce one team to you in every issue of Insight. In this issue it’s the turn of Grant Schneider’s team.Pastel customersupportrecognisedinternationallyThen again, Tanya’s no slouch herself. She’s been withthe Softline group for 13 years, having worked in most ofour departments before taking over the running of Pastel’scall centre nine years ago. So she knows us and our productsback to front and, can therefore, together with hersupport manager, Tamsin Bradford, ensure that our callcentre agents give you the support most relevant to yourneeds.More than that, Tanya makes sure that most our agentsspend some time resolving queries on-site at customerbusinesses. This learning enables them, as she says, “todevelop a sense of urgency about the support they providebecause they see for themselves just how time-critical therunning of a small business is and, therefore, how importantit is that their phone responses to customer queries befocused, relevant, and quick.”Also, Tanya and her team leaders coach each agent throughphone calls in order to help them assess the quality oftheir work and see what could have been done better.In the last three years, Tanya has tripled the number ofagents to ensure the correct ratio of agents to customers– and optimise agent initiative.Tanya’s nomination recognises that once a call centremeets all the basic criteria for successful responsivenessto customers, there’s always that little bit more you cando to enhance customer service.We caught up with Grantover a cup of coffee.Insight: What does your Team focus on?Grant: Our team consists of 8 people and offers technical support onPastel Partner, Pastel Invoicing and Sage ACT! Customers contact usfor support via telephone, e-mail or fax, although most of the querieswe receive are telephonic. We also handle other important tasks suchas keeping the call centre knowledge tools up to date (e.g. providingcontent for Cover newsletters, Insight magazines and the KnowledgeBase). Our team places a lot of emphasis on “buddy coaching” to bringnewer agents up to speed. A more experienced agent listens in on aless experienced agent’s call to provide feedback and advice.How is the call centre structured?We used feedback from customer research to structure the call centre tomeet the needs of our customers. Many of you told us that you often builta rapport with a particular consultant and therefore wanted more directaccess to that agent. We therefore divided the call centre into various teamsand allocated a specific group of customers to each team, giving you theopportunity to deal with the same team of consultants every time you callfor assistance.How does this work?When a customer calls in for support and enters their Customer Number,the call will be automatically routed by the IVR (Interactive Voice Response)to their specific team.The team: (from left) Swazi Tshabalala, Carno Lawrence, Pravesh Magan, GrantSchneider, Adnaan Adamjee, Bennie Pienaar, Wandile Nhlengethwa. Not pictured,Talicia Parsadh and Cashivo Nthleng were on maternity leave.Quick Tips from Grant Schneider’s TeamWhen mapping a drive, ensure that you map a drive by computername, not Internet Protocol (IP) address, as Pervasive SQLrecognises computer names and not IP addresses.Should Tanya win the EMEA award in London in Julyshe will be eligible for the ContactCentreWorld Awardfinals to be held in Las Vegas in the United States inNovember 2007.Other finalists include contact centre leaders from internationalcompanies such as FedEx and DHL. Absa is theonly other South African organisation to have been nominatedin these awards.And, international recognition of our support for customersdoesn’t stop with Tanya.Two call centre agents, Angelique Valassopoulos andAdnaan Adamjee, were awarded Highly Commendednominations from ContactCentreWorld.com. Pastel wasalso awarded a Highly Commended nomination for theCommunity Spirit Award. We are very proud of this nominationbecause it demonstrates how committed our callcentre staff are to social responsibility initiatives.How many Cover customers does your teamsupport?We look after 4915 Customers, handling on average 3500 calls on a monthlybasis. However, the number of calls increases during the busy Year Endperiods and when new products are released. On average, it takes about7-10 minutes to resolve a query, depending on the nature of the question.Some technical calls may, of course, take longer. The team’s overall customersatisfaction rating average for this year is 95%, one percent higher thanthe department’s average. This is based on getting customers to rate theirsatisfaction on number of criteria on a scale of 1-10.What challenges does your team face?Accounting software is mission critical to the daily functioning of any business,so when things go wrong, customers can experience high levels ofstress. We completely understand and therefore take our role very seriously:to convert every query into a positive experience for the customer.What do you enjoy most about your job?Making a real difference by changing what started out as a bad day fora customer into a great one!When the bank reconciliation is out of balance: pull these threereports (detailed ledger, cashbook details and bank statement)and then do a manual bank reconciliation by comparing yourbank statement with your cashbook details and detailed ledger.A frequently asked question is that when you process via ajournal to the bank account it does not show on the bankreconciliation. This is because only entries processed throughthe cashbook will reflect on the bank reconciliation.If you have any feedback or questions for the team, e-mail themIf you have any feedback or questions for the team, e-mail themon support@pastel.co.zaTel: 0860 PASTEL/ 011 290 2880E-mail: support@pastel.co.za • Web: www.pastel.co.za06 Insight Magazine 07

Tips and TricksHow to e-mail Pastel documents and statementsOne of the most frequent queries of our Cover customers is how to sendinvoices and statements via e-mail. They also want to know whetherthe software allows you to send more than one document at a time andhow to set the process up in Pastel. Our call centre receives at least15 calls a day about this, so we decided to focus this Tips and Tricksarticle exclusively on the topic.E-mailing your Pastel documents and statements is by far the most efficientway to run your business. An immediate benefit is that your invoicescan be sent out that much faster, speeding up payment. It’s more secureand there’s proof of delivery if you activate the read-receipt functionalityon your e-mail system. It also saves paper, postal costs and a whole lotof hassle. So familiarize yourself with all the tips below to take full advantageof this feature!Getting started and understanding your optionsFrom the menu bar, select View, click on Customers, Print Document,then select a document e.g. Tax Invoice and select your filters (or View/Supplier/Print Document). You can now select the Print To drop downmenu option. The various choices available when you select Print Todetermine where your selected Pastel Accounting document or reportwill be sent, one of these being E-mail. Depending on the kind of documentor report you have selected, the full range of output options are:• E-mail: this option e-mails the report as an HTML or PDF attachment.If you use this option, you need to provide the recipient’s e-mail address.• Screen: this displays the report on the screen. From there, you can ofcourse print to the printer.• Printer: this prints the report to the printer. The system lets you changethe default printer and the default font before you print.• Microsoft Excel: this opens the report in Excel, from where you canformat, edit and save the report. You cannot use this option if you do nothave a Microsoft Excel compatible program installed on your computer.• Microsoft Word: this opens the report in Word, from where you canformat, edit and save the report. You cannot use this option if you do nothave a Microsoft Word compatible program installed on the computer.• HTML File: this outputs the report in HTML format. You can then uploadthe report onto the Internet and/or Intranet pages. You can also view thereport in your Internet browser. If you use this option, you need to choosea folder and enter a file name for the file.• ASCII: you can export the report into a plain text file for spreadsheet orword processor import. If you use this option, you need to choosea folder and enter a file name for the file.• PDF: this creates a PDF file from the report. You need Adobe AcrobatReader to view the file.Choose the format in which the systemshould send the report. Two optionsare available, HTML and PDF.HTML format requires HTML compatiblesoftware such as Internet Exploreror Microsoft Word. The PDFformat requires Adobe Acrobat Readersoftware which is free and the mostwidely used.NOTEThe person to whom you are sendingthe document must have thereader software installed on theircomputer. You can download thisfrom www.adobe.com2. Invoices and other DocumentsFor Customer / Supplier Statementsor Remittances, you will have to selectthe option E-mail as per Customer/ Supplier Masterfile, the To fieldwill not be available for you to addrecipient addresses.By clicking on the Cc or Bcc option,you will be able to select the person/sto whom you wish to send from theCustomer or Suppliers. You can addthe addresses yourself in the Cc andBcc fields. If you are sending to multiplerecipients then separate the e-mail addresses with a semicolon (;).NOTEThe e-mail address for each Supplieror Customer must be added to therelevant account. If no e-mail addressis present then the account will notbe selected.If you select to E-mail Document asthe output option, you are able tocombine a number of functions inthe Print/E-mail window.To set e-mail options and e-mail a reportIn order to e-mail reports or documents, your computer must have Microsoft Outlook installed1. Customer Statements and Supplier RemittancesIf you select to E-mail as the outputoption, you are able to combinea number of functions in the Print/E-mail window.For Customer Statements or SupplierRemittances, when selectingthe option E-mail as per customerfile it will not allow you toenter any further recipients in theTo option. You are, however, ableto add additional recipients in theCc and the Bcc fields.Choose the format in which the systemshould send the report. Two optionsare available, HTML and PDF.HTML format requires HTML compatiblesoftware such as InternetExplorer or Microsoft Word. The PDFformat requires Adobe Acrobat Readersoftware which is free and themost widely used.NOTEThe person to whom you are sendingthe document must have the readersoftware installed on their computer.You can download this fromwww.adobe.comYou are able to do the same in theCc and Bcc fields as has been describedfor the To field.Select Attach to add additional filesthat you wish to send. You can sendmultiple attachments.In the To field you are able to enterthe addresses yourself. If youare sending to multiple recipientsthen separate the e-mail addresseswith a semicolon (;).By clicking on the To option, you willbe able to select the person/s to whomyou wish to send from the Customeror Suppliers.NOTEThe e-mail address for each Supplieror Customer must be added to therelevant account. If no e-mail addressis present then the account will notbe selected.You are able to select the Contactsoption to build the list. Using Outlookyou may be requested to confirmwhether Pastel can access the contactlist.In the Document Attachment fieldyou can edit the name of the attachedfile. The Subject field can be changed.It defaults to the report/documentname.08 Insight Magazine 09

Another value-adding innovation from Pastel Payrollnumbers, marital status, dependants, next of kin, bank account, ID number,SARS office, tax number, photograph and other details are always current.Whenever individuals add new information or update existing information,the revisions are automatically routed to the appropriate department heador manager for authorisation, before being saved to the HR database. Thisensures payroll accuracy and eases the burden on payroll administrators.Super Fast. Super Easy.The software also contains a calendar and personal diary facility for eachmember of staff. A resources scheduling feature allows staff to book meetingrooms and training facilities well in advance as well as automatically notifyother members of staff who are required to attend. Bookings are transparentto all users.ConfidentialityTime is money. With the ever-changing, complex payroll legislation, processingyour payroll manually or via spreadsheets can be painstakingly time consuming.By utilising Pastel Payroll, you will have more time to focus on the core aspectsof your business! We’ll keep you up to date with the very latest legislation. Withour feature-rich software and user-friendly help facility you can process your payrollwith ease and efficiency, saving you real time and money. Trust South Africa’s bestsellerin tax and payroll software solutions to take your business beyond payroll.Add-on modules available: BI Payroll: Excel Reporting• Industrial Council Compliance • Bulk E-mail Payslip DistributionJohannesburg (011) 895 2350 • Cape Town (021) 680 9000 • Durban (031) 566 3670 • www.pastelpayroll.co.zaPastel Payroll’s software development team has been in value-addedmode this year, turning out complementary modules that provide businesseswith significant benefits and advantages. Now the team hasdone it again with the Employee Self-Serv ice (ESS) module.Everyone scores with ESS – the company, management, payroll and HRadministrators and most of all, the staff! The software provides staff witha user-friendly means of streamlining payroll and HR administration, atthe same time improving communications with department heads, administratorsand management. It takes the “guESSwork” out of Payroll and HR.PaperlessESS is another step towards the paperless office. Staff can make on-lineapplications for leave, salary advances, loans, sponsorships, bursaries orother financial assistance. Employees of bureau clients outsourcing theirpayroll system and administration to Pastel Payroll may also use ESS tocommunicate with their “virtual payroll administrator” as though the administratoris in the next office instead of another building, city or province.A “Workflow” function allows employees - at management’s discretion- to submit documents to cover workplace issues they may wish to formallytake up with HR, their head of department or top management, for examplesubmitting an application for a loan or advance, applying for training orovertime claim.The documents facility becomes a “virtual repository” for current internalpaperwork such as company policies, procedures and conditions to whichstaff have quick, easy access. With documents of a confidential nature,access rights can be defined and implemented on a need-to-know basis.Always currentIn the “Your Details” section of the software, employees can access andmanage their own personal HR information to ensure addresses, telephoneFor security and confidentiality of individual details and payslips, eachemployee is allocated a login user name and password through whichthey can access the system and view their individual details, payslips,total remuneration, total tax deductions, leave totals, travel allowances,medical benefits and so on. Supervisors, department heads and managershave wider access within the system.The software has powerful workflow capabilities to ensure that all individualleave requests are automatically forwarded to the head of department ormanager for on-line approval or refusal. Progress can be traced electronically.The ESS module optimises web technology to break down distance barriers.It is ideal for companies operating with remote branches or sales representativesout on the road, offering control features that allow managementto define staff access according to status and needs.To find out why Pastel Payroll boasts more usersthan any other payroll software company in thecountry and why we are growing three times fasterthan our nearest competitor, contact us today.Exclusive Discount:Pastel Cover Customers receive a 20% discountwhen purchasing Pastel Payrollwithin their first 30 days of registering theirPastel Accounting software.JHB 011 895 2350 • CPT 021 680 9000 • DBN 031 566 3670E-mail: info@pastelpayroll.co.za • Web: www.pastelpayroll.co.zaInsight Magazine 11

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows a businessto manage all contacts that your business has with its customers. Theunderlying principles are focused on tracking, analysing, and managingwhat people - whether they’re customers, suppliers or employees - sayand do in relation to your business, and can even be organised down tospecific objectives.While it has often been held that CRM solutions are only for larger organisations,a case can be made that SMEs have an even greater need to ‘keepa finger on the pulse’ of their businesses during their start-up and initialgrowth periods. By proactively recording information and sharing knowledgethroughout the business, SMEs can take advantage of opportunities asthey arise.A key word in all of this is ‘proactive’. Few SMEs are in a position to assertthemselves in the market because their approach is reactive. They allowexternal events and trends to affect the way they operate rather than settingtrends themselves. If, however, they were able to track their own activitiesas well as those of their suppliers and customers, they could spot gapsand either close or exploit them to their own advantage.An effective CRM solution doesn’t just address ‘keeping the customerhappy’ though – it can be used to assess conversion rates of leads, automateprocesses such as customer mail-outs and more.CRM requires company-wide acceptance and employee ‘buy-in’. Unlessstaff see the benefits of a CRM implementation, a 360 degree view of thecustomers and the business will not be possible. Each department impactedby the CRM solution should be shown the benefits based on thatdepartment’s specific objectives and goals: Sales should be made awareof the new selling opportunities and chance for increased revenue andcommissions; finance can reduce costs and minimise outstanding accountsby using a documented relationship process; marketing can become moreeffective by using CRM information to target specific customer groupsand segments. However, the benefits of a CRM system can go far beyondinstant financial gains.There is an adage that it takes anywhere from five to ten times more effort(and cost) to gain one new customer than to keep an existing customer.CRM tools allow a company to make sure that their customer is servicedin the best possible way and never miss an opportunity.• Correct customer profiles means smarter marketing.• Focusing on the right opportunities and targeting specific customergroups maximises sales effectiveness.• Understanding a customer’s needs and preferences helps reduce thecost of service, and allows a business to be proactive rather than reactive.ACT! CRM SoftwareACT! CRM is the worlds’ number one customer relationship managementpackage and Pastel Accounting is South Africa’s best selling and mosttrusted accounting software for SME business. So it makes sense that thetwo solutions are integrated. Pastel is the sole distributer for ACT! in SouthAfrica. Used by over 30,000 businesses and 2 million users worldwide,ACT! provides:• Easy, out-of-the-box installation with a user-friendly interface.• Integration with Pastel Partner 2005 and 2007, allowing you to bringacross customer and supplier information into your CRM solution. Thismeans you don’t need to re-enter all the customer information becauseit’s already in your accounting system.• Synchronisation of your appointments, reminders and tasks with theMS Outlook calendar.• Unlimited data storage of customer contacts, records, e-mails andrelated documents.• The ability to organise the contact details, notes, histories, appointmentsand documents needed to build and sustain successful customerrelationships.• Fast and powerful access to relevant data on customers and supplierswho can be sorted into groups and sub-groups that can representdifferent companies within departments and divisions within a company.View historical notes and associated contact information such as previoussales quotations provided to customers.• Support for multiple sales processes, allowing you to view sales opportunitiesand asses which leads are inactive, how long opportunities havebeen open to see how effective your sales force truly is.• Sales forecasting and opportunity tracking capabilities that can be usedas is or customised to address various business requirements.• Advanced field types for pictures of contacts (JPEGS, bitmaps and GIFs),product items (e.g. a history of customer purchases) and more.• Functional calendars to show future tasks and alerts to make sure noopportunity to service the customer is missed.• Mobile functionality by using your Pocket PC or Palm OS.All this leads to increased revenues and profits while lowering the costof marketing and internal procedures as the ‘right thing’ is done once,and at the right time. Many CRM solutions also support PDA integrationallowing a sales rep to know their customers’ business history on the fly,allowing timely customer support when and where your customer needsit and truly extending your business to wherever you are.Another benefit of CRM software is that it provides businesses with a greatersense of control and organisation. You don’t have important informationscattered everywhere throughout the company, like inside people’s head’s,scribbled on pieces of paper and in various e-mails. Instead, with a goodCRM solution, it’s all in one central, accessible repository.South Africa’s economy can be a double-edged sword. While it is vibrant, progressive and there are relatively fewbarriers to entry for start-up businesses, this also means that competition is rife and you may be one of a numberof businesses competing in a particular market segment. For instance, there have been, on average, over 122,000close corporations registered each year for the last six years. Furthermore, we expect this figure to rise on the backof the 2010 Soccer World Cup. So in an environment where costs and product offerings are increasingly similar,how you manage your customers and the service you provide them can give you that all important competitive edge.When linked to your accounting software, real benefits are achieved.ACT! CRM integrates with Pastel Partner 2007, and this integration allowsfor one-time entry of customer information, such as address and contactinfor-mation. So whether you make entries via Pastel Partner or ACT! CRM,once synchronised, the information is available in either package, savingyou and your staff considerable time. This type of functionality effectivelyspreads your accounting system into the rest of your organisation. You’llimmediately notice how your actions affect your bottom line.Customer satisfaction certainly helps to retain business, but it can alsohelp in growing your own brand in the marketplace and provide opportunitiesto expand your business in ways you may never have known.Pastel Sales: 011 290 2710E-mail: sales@pastel.co.za12 Insight Magazine 13

If your business is growingComparative table of product rangeyou need Pastel EvolutionIt’s one of those unwritten laws of business that the more your business growsthe more information you need to keep it growing.Specifically, you need enough information about the activities of youremployees, your suppliers, and your customers to allow you to spot trendsthat either constitute a threat to your business or enable you to grabopportunities that will lead to even more growth.The best way to capture that information and feed it back into your financialcontrol systems is through integrated customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) software.Okay, so now you’re thinking cost. Can you afford extra packages – andif you can, will the benefits justify the expense?Well, as always with Pastel, the news is good.We cater for precisely these kinds of changing needs in businesses. Wemake it easy, for instance, to upgrade from Pastel Xpress to Pastel Partner– and to add users and modules to Pastel Partner so that you get morefunctionality at least cost.In other words, Pastel’s flexibility not only gives us a competitive advantage– it also gives you a significant edge in the market. It enablesyou to adapt your operations quickly and cost-effectively.And then there’s the option of upgrading to Pastel Evolution. It integratesCRM with the core accounting application and therefore brings all aspectsof your business operations together in one easy-to-use interface, providingyou with a holistic view of your operation.Also, because it’s built on Microsoft’s SQL server database, it’s a trueclient server application - providing stability and data integrity. Andit’s scalable and flexible with any number of concurrent users andtransactions.When is the ideal time to convert from Pastel Partner to Pastel Evolution?If you’re in one of the following situations, Pastel Evolution will makea tangibly positive difference to your business:• You want more than 10 users. Because of Evolution’s increased scalabilityand speed across the network it enables you to process largevolumes of transactions as well as increase the number of users.• You want to empower employees and make them more productivePastel Evolution’s CRM module allows for an efficient flow of communicationwithin your organisation to build and maintain relationshipswith your customers and suppliers. Also, its integrated sales forceautomation capability makes the tracking of sales leads and prospectivecustomers so much easier.- Customer credit risk management- Annuity billing- Case lots (units of measure)- Integration of mobile (PDA/cellphone) devicesPastel Evolution offers all these as add-on modules.• You need to- Create multiple-level bills of material- Generate a Work-In-Progress report from your General Ledger- Create by-products in addition to the main manufactured item- Do forward planning for manufactured items- Replace one or more components in existing manufacturing processesIt’s easy with Pastel Evolution.You don’t have to reinvent the wheelBecause we’ve already helped more than 300 businesses move fromPastel Partner to Pastel Evolution, we’ve developed a conversion programmethat allows you to transfer your data directly from Pastel Partnerto Pastel Evolution. The conversion provides for the following Masterfileinformation with balances: General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, AccountsPayable, Inventory, Warehouses and User Defined FieldsMake the conversion even easier by doing a little preparation inEvolution…- Create an Evolution database with the same period setup as in thePartner database.- Make your commencement date the first day of period 1.- When you create the database, set the system to start in year 2.The conversion automatically places current balances into year 2and last year balances into year 1.- The database needs to be blank. The conversion will not continue ifthere are transactions in the database.- You need to backup the blank database. If the conversion does notcomplete, you can then restore the backup without having to recreatethe database.… and a little preparation in Partner- Post all open batches.- Link every cashbook is to the financial Category BANK.- Run a full data integrity check and ensure that the trial balance balances.- Ensure that the inventory valuation report agrees with the inventorycontrol account.- Ensure that the Bank Reconciliation is in balance.- Create a 9998/000 Evolution Conversion Suspense account in Partner.This account should have a zero balance after the conversion.- Give user defined fields unique names across all master files.FUNCTIONALITY START-UP XPRESS PARTNER EVOLUTIONDatabase Manager – Pervasive Yes Yes Yes NoDatabase Manager – Microsoft SQL No No No YesNumber of Users Single 1-3 1-20 1-250+Number of Companies Single Unlimited Unlimited UnlimitedNumber of Financial Years 2 2 2 5User Defined Fields No No Yes YesGeneral Ledger Yes Yes Yes YesSegmented GL Accounts No No No YesCash Books 6 6 30 UnlimitedCustomers Yes Yes Yes YesQuotations Yes Yes Yes YesInvoices Yes Yes Yes YesSuppliers Yes Yes Yes YesPurchase Orders Yes Yes Yes YesInventory Yes Yes Yes* YesSegmented Inventory Items No No No YesImport Cost Allocations No No Yes YesProject Tracking/Cost Centres No No Yes YesReport Writer No No Yes YesStationery Customisation Yes Yes Yes YesMulti-Currency No No Yes* Yes*Business Intelligence Centre No No Yes* Yes*Receipting (Cash & Bank Manager) No No Yes* NoTime & Billing No No Yes* NoPoint-of-Sale No Yes Yes* Yes*Serial Number Tracking No No Yes* Yes*Multi-Store No No Yes* Yes*Job Costing No No No Yes*Bill of Material No No Yes* Yes*Manufacturing No No No Yes*Mobile No No No Yes*Lot Tracking No No No Yes*Fixed Assets Yes*° Yes*° Yes*° Yes*°Payroll Yes*° Yes*° Yes*° Yes*°ACT! No No Yes* NoCRM Resolve Basic (Contact Management) No No Yes* Yes*CRM Resolve Premium (Contact Management) No No Yes* Yes*°CRM Sales Force Automation No No No Yes*°Pricing Matrix (Disc. Matrix & Vol. Disc.) No No Yes Yes*Customer Account Consolidations No No No Yes*Customer Credit Risk Management No No No Yes*Annuity Billing No No No Yes*eBusiness & eBilling No No Yes Yes**Purchase as an add on module °Purchase as a stand-alone module• You want more sophisticated business management capabilitiessuch as:- Lot tracking- Job costing- Pricing matrix- Customer account consolidationFor a free demo on Pastel Evolution call 011 290 2934or e-mail evolutionchannel@pastel.co.zato book an appointment.For Sales Enquires call 011 291 748114 Insight Magazine 15

Awards, rewards...and all that jazzWe’ve been around and growing steadily for 18 years, but Pastel doesn’t begin andend with accounting software. Whenever possible, we like to go beyond accountingto positively impact South African society as a whole.Grass rootsEven though almost every business uses computerised accounting thesedays, most schools still use chalk-and-talk methods to teach accounting.So, as mentioned in the last issue of Insight, Pastel has designed aCertified Schools Program (CSP), to bridge the digital divide.Working with the various provincial departments of education, we’re providingteacher training as well as our computerised educational software,which is aligned with the national accounting curriculum for Grades 10,11 and 12, free of charge to 5 000 schools (and at a nominal fee for independentschools).We’ve discovered, though, that most schools in underprivileged areashave had computers donated to them without also being given the skillsto set them up or use them. As a result, most are working on old versionsof Windows. Where computers have been networked, the servers aren’tworking. And where computers have indeed been used, viruses are playinghavoc and memory is often woefully too small.So we’ve rolled up our sleeves and, through our CSP team, led by PerdickMzizi, are involved in helping schools become more computer literate, ina very hands-on way.It’s a huge commitment for us. But then the pay-off is huge - because we’rehelping to increase the talent pool for bookkeepers and accountants. We’realso improving the quality of life for thousands of young people.As Moses Sekgapi in Grade 11 at Tong Comprehensive High School inGanyesa outside Vryburg says: “Now we can compete with learners whostay in urban areas because skills like these always start with them andthey get all job opportunities. But this time I will be a Pastel Certified Learnerin North West and I will be first in line. Now I can have fun while learningmy favourite subject.”Educator Tello Koaho from the Free State says: “The Pastel Program closesthe gap between the corporate world and South African education by preparinglearners for a business world driven by computers.”MB Makoko, Deputy Principal of the Ntsu Secondary School in the FreeState, believes that our software “has revolutionised accounting in theclassroom”.Project director of transformation for the South African Institute of CharteredAccountants (SAICA) Natalie Zimmelman, welcomes the Pastel initiative“because it will have the effect of amplifying our own Thuthuka project,which is designed to help learners at disadvantaged schools improve theirmaths, accounting and English marks – in order, generally, to better equipthem for future careers and, specifically, increase the talent pool for accounting.“Inherently, Pastel’s Certified School Program promotes accounting as acareer choice while being an enormously practical resource to schools. Andbecause it doesn’t need access to the Internet, it’s especially beneficial tounderprivileged schools – which is where we feel the greatest need exists.”Zimmelman also believes that the Certified Schools Program is sustainablebecause of the investment Pastel is making not only in hands-on teachingand training but also in helping schools at the most basic levels of computerliteracy, including the physical aspects of setting up computers, loadingoperating systems such as Windows, and showing teachers and learnershow to use the keyboard and mouse. “They’re not simply dropping off thesoftware at the schools and walking away.”Not a bad way of going beyond accounting?Business to businessThere’s a saying that it’s not easy to please all the people all the time – butwe do pretty well because we listen to those with whom we work, whetherthey’re customers or channel partners. This goes a long way in creatingwin-win situations.And that’s one of the reasons our Channel Manager, Jacqui Bekker, hasbeen nominated as one of CRN’s 2007 top 20 Channel Executives. Shebuilds in-depth relationships with our business partners and so she reallydoes understand how to help make them profitable.CRN’s Channel Executive Awards honour executives at vendor and distributorlevel who are influential in the channel and go out of their way to assistbusiness partners close deals, embrace new business models, and growtheir businesses.The CRN editorial team polls the channel electronically for a month fornominees. So Jacqui’s nomination is a direct vote of appreciation fromthe channel.Awesome.Tong Comprehensive High School, one of 5000 schools that will benefit from Pastel’s Certified Schools Program.Street credAlthough the music industry - and the entertainment industry as a whole– is Very Big Business indeed, it’s quite hard to imagine musos and otherentertainers spending any time at all with accounting software.Still, we stuck our necks out and put Pastel Xpress Start-Up in the goodybags for the presenters and performers at the annual South African MusicAwards in April - and guess what? They loved it. Because it meansthey can get on with what they love doing while the software takes careof the money.In fact, many said their accountants were already using some versionof Pastel. We like that: South African celebrities putting their trust inour South African software.Cool.Lichtenburg High School takes advantageof Pastel’s free educational accounting software.Pule Leeuw High School learners become computer literatewhile they improve their accounting skills.Bridget du Toit, Softline Pastel Sales Directorat the South African Music Awards (SAMA).Zubs, local hip hop artist, examines his Pastel Accountingsoftware gift in the SAMA goody bag.16 Insight Magazine 17

The new BEE codesactually work in your favourCompany SizeDefinitionTurnover greaterthan R35mApplication of the codesGeneric Scoreboard or approvedSector Charter appliesSo how do the new codes work?Here are the seven elements of BBBEE insofar as they apply to QSE’s,with their targets and points weighting. If you’re a QSE, you need onlywork towards four of the seven requirements.LargeEnterprisesQualifyingSmallEnterprises(QSE’s)ExemptMicroEnterprises(EME’s)Turnover betweenR5m and R35mTurnover lessthan R5mSimplified scoreboard applies:• Choice of 4 of 7 elements• All elements weigh 25%Exempt from BEE and arerecognised as Level 4contributorsSource: Bravura Economic Empowerment ConsultingELEMENT OF BBBEE REQUIREMENTSOwnership (defined as economic interestand voting*NetrightsProfitderivedAfter Taxfrom shareholding)Management Control (defined as topmanagement)TARGET (BLACK BENEFICIARIES)25.1%50.1%WEIGHTING25 points25 pointsThere’s good news about government’s new Broad-based BlackEconomic Empowerment (BBBEE) codes announced in Februarythis year.Government has given priority to sustainability rather than mere compliance.In other words, government is aware that the sustainabilityof small businesses in particular was jeopardised by the previous verystrict terms of BBBEE compliance. So it has altogether exemptedbusinesses with turnover of less than R5 million from compliance.Start-up businesses are exempt from compliance – for their first year.And for businesses with an annual turnover of between R5 and R35million (government calls them Qualifying Small Enterprises or QSEs),it has relaxed the compliance codes considerably.It now allows a QSE to comply with only four out of the seven basicBBBEE requirements, with the choice of which four left to the QSE.So, for instance, if you’re not at equity stage yet you can focus yourBBBEE efforts on skills development instead – as one of the four requirementsyou meet. The important thing, from government’s pointof view, is that your BBBEE intentions be focused on sustainable transformationof the economy at large and not only on being obedient tothe law.All of which makes it much easier for SMEs to proactively engage inBBBEE initiatives that will generate business growth and encourage entrepreneurialactivity – not just for themselves but for the entire country.It’s one of those rare win-win situations. Government is quite deliberatelyencouraging the survivability of your individual business while ensuringthe survivability of the economy.Employment Equity (for first five years –from 2007)Skills DevelopmentPreferential Procurement (for first five years– from 2007)Enterprise DevelopmentSocio-economic Development*NPAT = Net Profit After Tax.40% of management60% of total workforce2% of leviable amount in terms ofthe Skills Development Levies Act40% of total measurable procurementspend2% of NPAT*1% of NPAT*Key things to remember if you are a QSE:• You should aim to score between 75 and100 points in the short tomedium term• The direct beneficiaries of BBBEE must be African, Indian and Colouredpeople who obtained citizenship before the Interim Constitutionof 1993• There is a gender recognition factor in most of the calculations. So,a balanced gender representation will enable you to maximise yourscores• Getting good scores in all the elements you choose is the best wayto stay on your customers’ preferential procurement list.Tips:What sustainable transformation means in practice.25 points25 points25 points25 points25 pointsGetting a significant return on your BBBEE investments by, for instance:• Pooling your socio-economic contributions with those of your primary clientsvia joint projects. This allows you to cement customer relationships• Assisting with the cost of employees’ children’s education. You get loyal employees,a significant improvement in productivity, and, in the long term, a better talentpool from which to source future employeesFor more expert advice on the new BBBEE codes, contact John Botha on JohnB@adcorp.co.za18