Home-based businesswomen lead technology charge with Palladium accounting software

Palladium, the locally written and developed multi-user accounting software for SME businesses, has been adopted by Honey Fashion Accessories for its team leaders and sales consultants, providing a highly efficient solution for capturing sales and purchase details.

"We were looking for a way to alleviate the arduous administration burden of our team leaders and to allow them to focus on what they do well: sell and recruit," commented Gary Carlisle, CEO of Honey. "We approached the team at Palladium and they came up with the direct switching of the orders to us electronically, which just made sense all-round as it allowed our team leaders to interact with us at their convenience, day or night. We do not need staff to recapture the orders, faxed orders no longer get lost, and we can reassign those staff members to more proactive functions."

Carlisle added that when the Palladium solution was presented to the Honey team leaders at its recent annual conference, there was an immediate 80%-90% uptake by the distributors, which just goes to show how committed they are to embracing technology in making them more efficient.

The solution enables the Honey team leaders to receive orders from individual sales consultants in Excel format by e-mail, directly convert them into formal sales orders in Palladium, and convert them automatically as purchase orders directly into the Honey head office AccountMate system with full authentication. At the time of receiving the goods, the customers' details are displayed so that team leaders can immediately indentify the client and expedite the orders accordingly.

AccountMate Africa and Palladium managing director Stephen Corrigan said the system also instantly updates new stock items created at the Honey head office directly into the team leaders' Palladium systems on synchronisation, and new sales consultants signed up appear as customers directly in the team leaders' Palladium Accounting system without any additional work.

"The Palladium Accounting system offers the team leaders a fully-fledged accounting solution that controls stock, customers, suppliers, VAT with full financial statements, and breaks away from the hallowed group of conventional accounting systems, offering big business functionality at small business pricing."

Nadine Swart, a Honey team leader, commented: "We are extremely excited about the innovation shown at Honey, and it's not often you have a supplier that is striving to make you more efficient. The Palladium order system means that I can get all my admin up to date in the evenings and communicate with the head office after hours just as if there was someone there. When I send an order through, I receive an instantaneous response and confirmation that there is stock available and that it is reserved for me. I also receive e-mail alerts of the status of the order through the expedition process, making doing business with Honey really easy."

A certified Microsoft partner, Palladium optimises the Microsoft platform and enables transactional records to be stored for life as opposed to the more conventional two to five years. Google Maps has recently been integrated into the software, another feature that assists mobile sales teams to function more efficiently.

"There are a number of accounting software companies out there that are resting on their laurels, offering limited function software with outdated technology at inflated prices. We believe this is about to change as enterprises no longer tolerate inequalities, such as data corruption, as an acceptable means of doing business," said Corrigan.

"We are fortunate in that we are an independently owned company and not governed by the red tape of a holding company. It is this flexibility that allows us to innovate and set industry trends together with our clients. With progressively thinking clients there is no limitation to what can be achieved, and this development is a case in point."

Palladium offers a world-first three-year money-back-guarantee against data corruption and offers a host of business-enhancing features, from business intelligence in all product versions, SMS marketing to up-selling and quick customer and supplier transactional look-up functions for enhanced customer service.

"Vendors are realising that the market is highly competitive and that there have to be compelling reasons and value propositions for customers to change software," said Corrigan. "As technology becomes more pervasive and accepted, there will be a shift from SME accounting software being regarded merely as a means of storing historical data and becoming a critical tool for running a successful business."

The software is available in three versions, ranging from a single user to mid-range and larger businesses, with thousands of users worldwide.