After an evaluation of five packages, RAD chose Ixchange`s AccountAbility to consolidate all the RAD group`s financial results. AccountAbility, a core offering in Ixchange`s Enterprise Management Solutions (EMS) Ability enterprise software suite, was up and running inside a week - a record for Ixchange; equivalent financial control systems usually take three months or longer to implement.
RAD Holdings, a JSE-listed company under the chairmanship of Don Ncube, achieved interim earnings of R65,2 million to December 1998. It is a bank controlling group offering a comprehensive range of financial and investment banking services, including structured finance and corporate finance advisory services, securities broking, and other related financial advisory services. It embraces five companies, including RAD London, RAD Sec and RAD Zimbabwe, and 140 employees. In the last year RAD has undergone a period of establishing and building IT and banking risk management infrastructure.
A major niche for AccountAbility is banking and associated services niche. "We are in an intense growth phase," says Charmain Booyens, management accountant at the bank`s accounts department. "We are building infrastructure and setting up systems as fast as we can, and we wanted a financial package that was quick to install but still had all the functionality we needed."
AccountAbility, running on Windows NT won the evaluation, says Booyens, "because it can manage the large volumes of transactions generated in a banking environment, it`s user-friendly, and its front-end runs under Windows 95/98, which our accountants know".
RAD`s accounts department is using five of AccountAbility`s modules: control, general ledger, cash book, accounts payable and fixed assets. "We use it to consolidate the group`s financial results and for monthly reporting to the SA Reserve Bank. AccountAbility will be integrated with Opics, our treasury and investment banking system, which records and processes all financial instrument transactions. The accounts department is also using EMS`s ReportAbility for extensive management reporting."
Future plans include linking other financial systems, such as human resources and treasury, into AccountAbility via a direct interface. "We have asked for add-ons to AccountAbility, which will be installed in the near future," says Booyens.
These include:
A bank control feature to download bank statements and perform automatic bank reconciliations;
Electronic funds transfer (EFT) for direct payment of creditors; and
Level control, which restricts the combinations (links) for the various companies, branches, business units and cost centre combinations.
AccountAbility is particularly strong in the banking and associated services market, where it has gained a number of leading customers.
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