Advanced launches SaaS-based financial management solution for local authorities

unibor-drills-into-300x225Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced), a market leading business applications and service provider, announces the launch of Advanced SaaS Financials. The cloud-based financial management system has been developed specifically for district and borough councils to alleviate the burden of maintaining in-house systems.

Advanced SaaS Financials enables councils to gain rapid access to finance technology for a predictable, low-cost annual fee which can be between and *25% to 60% cheaper than traditional long-term IT contracts. The hosted solution is underpinned by robust security level agreements (SLAs), which are fully compliant with Government EU data requirements.

Public sector organisations are being urged to embrace cloud-based solutions and break away from the financial burden of maintaining legacy software and hardware. But according to **research, nearly a third of councils have yet to use a cloud service despite facing the prospect of a funding shortfall of ***£12.4 billion by 2020.

Dean Dickinson, Managing Director of Advanced Business Solutions (PS & E Division), says, “Many local authorities have exhausted the most obvious ways to make limited resources stretch further. Organisations which tie themselves into expensive, long-term IT contracts risk being unable to preserve vital frontline services due to spiralling costs.”

Advanced SaaS Financials automates the management of core every day financial processes and includes workflow-driven electronic invoice and payment handling functionality along with advanced purchasing controls. The system works seamlessly on desktop, tablet and mobile devices to provide remote access to real-time information and customised on-demand reporting.

In addition to alleviating finance teams from manually intensive processes, councils can access leading cloud technology for a predictable annual subscription without having to commit to upfront capital costs. As the solution is flexible and scalable, organisations need only pay for the number of users and can add or remove these quickly and easily, significantly reducing IT support and maintenance costs.

Dickinson comments, “Advanced SaaS Financials has been developed specifically for local authorities so they can access all the functionality they need, quickly and affordably. Finance teams can take advantage of new technology to provide more proactive, value-added services, generating efficiencies for their organisation.

“Running back-office systems in the cloud also makes it simpler for councils to share facilities, without the political complexities than can arise if one part of an organisation controls the IT and data.”

Advanced SaaS Financials can be accessed by leading Government frameworks, including G-Cloud 6 and the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) RM1042 agreement.One in four local authorities use Advanced’s solutions, making it one of the largest suppliers of financial software in this sector.

*Cloud services are “quicker, cheaper and more competitive,” according to Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.

** Research taken from an Eduserv report in October 2014

*** According to the Local Government Association

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