Spring 2006 Edition

COINS on time and on budget again! In this issue:

The COINS implementation at AMEC Group Limited, which began during the summer of 2003 is now Amec implement COINS on time complete on time and with fewer service days than budgeted. and on budget!

The 350 concurrent user COINS Financials and Payroll system, supporting 800 users, has been COINS-etc Day convinces Jackson implemented throughout AMEC Group Ltd in the UK. AMEC, an international engineering services Civil Engineering company, provides design, project delivery and maintenance support to clients in the oil & gas; transport; infrastructure and industrial sectors, generating revenues of £5.5 billion. Working at the Shepherd Homes select COINS local, national and international levels, AMEC employs 50,000 people worldwide. COINS Land Appraisal goes Bruce Turner, Business Systems Programme Manager at AMEC states “We purchased COINS in the Commercial middle of 2003, having carried out a review of the market place for the previous 6 months. We chose COINS for several reasons: we were very impressed with the initial and subsequent contact, we House Builders implement COINS found that COINS had an extensive list of reference sites, and we also found that the COINS product House Sales module on the “Front fitted our requirements best. Since that time we have worked well with COINS to meet our project Line” objectives. It has been a significant project involving many people in numerous locations, but everyone worked hard to achieve the desired result”. CIM improves working efficiency for Rail Plant Derek Leaver, Commercial Director of COINS comments: “Bruce and his team put us through our paces. Prior to contracts being signed we undertook a 4 week ‘proof of concept’ process which St Petersburg Orphanages – the focussed everyone on what was required and assisted AMEC in preparing for the project.” story so far

An initial implementation in a controlled environment was completed in time for the system to begin Connaught go live with COINS rollout across the various divisions in April 2004. Derek continues: Commercials “Bruce managed the project from start to finish and ensured minimal disruption to AMEC end-users especially during the various COINS Special Interest Groups conversion processes. The team that Bruce created around him worked very well with our own project manager and the various COINS gets Flash – the latest specialists involved in the implementation” charts in OA Reporting

Bruce concludes: “The system is a key one for us because we have not only implemented a new system and replaced our legacy systems, but we also re-organised our back office systems so that instead of having a number of autonomous accounting centres we are now effectively operating as a single shared service. COINS has helped us to do that because we are moving from about a dozen legacy systems to a single instance of a COINS company. We have had quite a change from the original process.”

The project continued through to the first quarter of 2006, and during that time it was decided to increase the robustness Bruce Turner, Business Systems Programme of the solution by purchasing a DR (Disaster Recovery) server and installing this in a serviced data centre. The live server Manager at AMEC has since been moved to a different data centre which gives AMEC a very secure and reliable financial system. Ⅵ

COINS-etc Day convinces Jackson Civil Engineering

Jackson Civil Engineering (JCE) is a growing and forward thinking civil engineering benefits as soon as possible. To date, Charles says “Implementation has progressed contractor that is seeking ever more efficient ways to process and review supplier in a professional fashion and we are seeing a real commitment from the COINS-etc payment transactions. team to resolve our issues and meet our implementation goals.”

“Through using the COINS-etc module we expect to substantially reduce costs, increase JCE are currently enjoying strong turnover growth through 2004 to 2006. Their throughput and produce more accurate and timely information as well as develop closer operations are spread throughout with a turnover of £100 million delivered relationships with our key suppliers,” says Charles Minchin, Finance Director at JCE. from regional teams based as far south as Cornwall through to Hull in the North.

JCE chose COINS-etc because they wanted strong integration with the back office The next COINS-etc Day is 16th May at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon. Ⅵ systems and greater visibility and accessibility on site using their existing COINS Information Manager (CIM) document management system.

“We are also pleased to join COINS-etc at a time when they have achieved a substantial track record of some 40 current users – the first bird certainly catches the worm, but it is often the second mouse that gets the cheese!” Andy Lusher, Chief Buyer at JCE.

In their selection process JCE visited a number of COINS-etc users, however Charles Minchin states that: “We found the COINS-etc day meeting the easiest way to understand and assess key issues and user experiences. At the Community Day we were able to talk to many users, both contractors and suppliers, and this gave us the confidence to make our decision.”

JCE are currently in the early stages of implementation. They have set demanding targets upon the COINS-etc team to provide

Charles Minchin, Finance Director at JCE CIM improves Shepherd Homes select COINS working efficiency Shepherd Homes Ltd have joined the rapidly expanding list of House Builders to select the for Balfour Beatty COINS fully integrated software solution designed for House Builders. Shepherd Homes are Rail Plant part of the who are one of the largest family-owned, private companies in the UK building industry. As a business they have over 100 years’ experience in producing skillfully designed, soundly constructed homes to suit modern lifestyles. Balfour Beatty Rail Plant (BBRP) is an international leader in rail Shepherd Homes operate out of and currently build around 400 homes per annum with a turnover of £65m. Their homes engineering projects. They are the combine desirable locations with timeless design and traditional craftsmanship. They have completed numerous developments, UK's largest rail engineering and of varying sizes and styles, each with its own character. Shepherd’s current range includes a wide choice of stylish homes in services provider, with some 7,000 rural and urban settings. employees and an annual turnover in excess of £800m. Balfour Beatty Shepherd Homes have won numerous National House-Building Council (NHBC) ‘Pride in the Job’ Awards and Commendations for Rail Plant service the full range site supervision, plus many awards for design and service, including the coveted Express Newspapers’ ‘House-builder of the Year’ of rail infrastructure activities from accolade. high-speed rail to mass rapid transit, covering intercity, rural and Shepherd Homes will initially implement a 25-user COINS system covering commuter routes, for both public Land, Forecasting, Financials, Procurement, Valuations & Automated Sub- and private railways. contract Payments, House Sales, Customer Care and Document Image Processing. COINS will replace a number of disparate systems previously BBRP had already been using some of operated by Shepherd Homes, including Open Accounts and Sitestream. the main components of the COINS product for approximately eight “Disparate systems were not working for the business” states Craig Smith, years before they decided to bring in Finance Director of Shepherd Homes. “They relied heavily on the re-keying CIM – COINS Information Manager. of data and led to operational inefficiencies. We reviewed a number of Their objective was to improve overall suppliers to replace the current systems, with the pre-requisite being for working efficiency by deploying an one integrated system. As part of the process we visited a couple of existing electronic document management COINS house building clients and were very satisfied with what we saw and system that would assist in the Craig Smith, heard about the system. Having also used COINS previously within Steve Murray, storage, retrieval, security and Finance Director Persimmon Homes I am extremely confident that there are numerous Managing Director revision of documents such as at Shepherd Homes benefits that COINS will bring to Shepherd Homes” concludes Craig. at Shepherd Homes invoices, certificates and orders. For Neil Wilkinson, Commercial Director of Shepherd Homes adds “COINS will underpin the continuing growth of this business and a company the size of BBRP and will provide support for the key commercial functions of Surveying and Procurement. This is an area in which we have their nature of work, the volume of encountered problems with previous systems that have given rise to issues with regard to data compatibility and project co- paperwork involved is huge, which ordination and COINS will enable also brings time consuming and Shepherd Homes to replace costly processing tasks. fragmented systems with one BBRP chose CIM because of its integrated system”. compatibility with the rest of the Steve Murray, Managing Director COINS product and because of the of Shepherd Homes states “COINS excellent relationship they had with is an integrated system and will the company. provide a stable IT platform for The key benefits of using CIM largely the company from which to speak for themselves. Due to instant expand its business. In addition, access to information, it now takes numerous companies within our very little time to retrieve paperwork; sector use COINS, including a for example, when customers number of our competitors. telephone with a query, users can Potentially this will have benefits recall files instantly in CIM and when we are recruiting new staff, deal with the call efficiently and as there is a very good chance professionally. There are no concerns that they will already have first Ⅵ about not being able to find that all hand experience of COINS.” important document. Furthermore, Sycamore Court having an electronic document management system means that storage space (that is, the lack of it) is no longer an issue. COINS Land Appraisal goes Commercial

The COINS Land Appraisal solution now contains an unrivalled breadth of functionality and scalability. A new module area has been added to address the specific requirements of appraising commercial property development.

An increasing number of COINS customers are engaged in mixed residential and commercial developments. This has created a requirement for a new appraisal sector to allow for the evaluation of commercial units assessing letting, rental yields and sales options. This solution has been developed in partnership with a number of COINS customers and is currently being piloted at several sites.

COINS Land Appraisal already contains comprehensive features that cater for the needs of speculative housing development to allow different components such as private housing and social housing to be appraised separately, but consolidated for reporting. Pictured above: Julie Rhodes, who works in the Accounts Department at BB Rail Plant, processing an invoice using CIM. Julie says: “CIM is very easy COINS Land Appraisal is unique in being a component of an integrated, total to use and I never have any problems with it at all.” solution for house builders and developers. It is already in live use at an increasing number of businesses including Twigden, Bellwinch, Allison, Kier Homes and Looking to the future, BBRP plan to As for the future of CIM, the COINS Weston Homes. It is presently being implemented at another dozen customer sites extend their use of CIM throughout R&D team are currently migrating it in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Ⅵ their depots. Users will soon be able to over to Open Architecture which will scan data into COINS (for example include new features and functionality. depot-specific paperwork such as For example, it will soon be possible to conformity certificates), and not just store any content (documents and so only view them. This will allow for data on) against any piece of COINS data. to be shared across the group and thus This means that invoices, GRNs, orders, improve efficiency further. pictures, receipts, or even e-mails can be stored alongside any relevant part Tim Armitage, Technical Director at of COINS. Stored content can be COINS comments: “It is great to see BB retrieved by anyone with the correct Rail Plant using CIM to such effect and permissions either from the associated for it to produce real business benefits COINS information or from a separate to the organisation.” tree view. Ⅵ House Builders implement COINS House Sales module on the “Front Line”

Encouraged by advances in ● Developers can implement and control much improved presentation options, Laing Homes, a communications technology and the a standard, agreed approach to including graphical output. We will be brand, have developed a reputation release of the Open Architecture managing the relationship with their able to present the sales data in any in the sector for being at the forefront version of COINS House sales, an customers and prospects, which opens style or format that may be required by of innovation in home design and increasing number of customers are the door to measuring improvements the Sales team or Group management.” the use of technology and viewed rolling out the module to development in quality and conversion rates. the implementation of OA House Sales offices for use by their site-based Historically, concerns over remote as a logical part of their branding. ● Sales representatives will spend less sales representatives. communications cost and reliability have Similarly Enfield-based Higgins time on administration and will been a disincentive to the site based Homes and retirement specialists therefore have more time to invest in Implementing COINS House Sales on deployment of COINS. Recent advances Churchill appreciated that there was converting sales opportunities. site offers a number of significant time have changed this. Richard Vale, an opportunity to raise the stakes and cost saving advantages: Kier Residential are one of the pioneers Commercial Manager in the COINS in their continuous work to improve ● Visitor information is captured at of site-based use of the COINS House House Builders team, observes “ADSL, the professional image that they the first point of contact, improving Sales Module. The company is in the Broadband and VPNs are by customers, present to their clients. Jeremy accuracy, providing real time data process of rolling out the module for use technical and non-technical alike and Marcus, Sales Director at Higgins and removing the need to by 80 site sales representatives. Andrea have opened up a solution to site-based says “With COINS Open Architecture, transpose the data from off-line or Cornwell, Business Systems Manager computing that is fast, flexible, low cost we can modify the screen layouts hand written documents. at Kier, comments “The COINS House and easy to deploy. It is possible for our and the page style sheets, so all the screens that our prospective ● Representatives have easy access Sales module is now an integral and customers to add all of their site offices, purchasers see are presented with to previously captured information indispensable part of the way that we even the smallest, to the company Higgins livery and logos and are relating to the visitor they are manage our sales process. Not only does network with a minimum of fuss or dealing with. it improve the way that we manage the expense. With COINS Open Architecture, laid out in the exact style and order relationship with our customers but it there is no COINS software to install on that we want them to be. They ● Visitors can be automatically provides timely, detailed and high quality the site-based computer so deployment look great and are certain to referred to other developments that management information that it would becomes even easier.” impress. Purchasers are reassured they are likely to be interested in. be difficult, if not impossible to obtain that we are using a professional ● Follow up mailings, faxes or emails without such a solution.” Another advantage that COINS system to capture their requirements can be generated immediately customers have identified, in and are more likely to believe that thus preventing the likelihood of Andrea continues “OA takes the COINS implementing the module on site, is purchasing a home from a Higgins opportunities being missed through House Sales implementation to the next in improving the corporate image company will be a smooth, stress delays. level. It provides greater flexibility and presented to prospective purchasers. free experience.” Ⅵ

OA Documentation go live with COINS COINS recently released their new COINS Documentation The principle of improving access to documentation within module which will be available to all users of COINS Open COINS OA has been extended to include COINS release Commercials Architecture, providing better access to on-line help within notes. These are now available for enquiry and for export the product itself. to spreadsheets. Users at the SIG meeting particularly Another COINS development partnership welcomed the ability to filter the enquiry to changes has resulted in a successful go live The module was developed in response to customer feedback between their previous and current release/patch levels. for Connaught’s Western Region. The from last year’s conferences and questionnaire. It was Searching by PDR and call reference are also available. project started in May 2005 when demonstrated at the recent System Special Interest Group meetings began in earnest to produce meeting and was enthusiastically received. Standard COINS security features mean that access to a specification for the new COINS individual pages within the documentation can be controlled Don Barwick, Documentation Manager for COINS, adds: “One Commercials module which has an on a user-by-user basis, so each user only sees the of the features which generated much interest, is the ability emphasis on CVR (Cost Value information that is relevant to them. This will allow COINS to annotate and modify the standard help pages, as well as Reconciliation) and Forecasting. COINS customers to either use the standard COINS help or build creating links to existing documents such as policies and Commercials allows quantity surveyors a completely tailored documentation system using a procedures, or pages on a company Intranet.” COINS clients and other professionals to work with a combination of standard and custom pages. Ⅵ were also pleased to see the ability to create their own help Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet which can pages and help menus. download or upload information to COINS in a controlled and auditable environment. This also enables the quantity surveyor to work offline with his spreadsheet while also having access COINS Special Interest Groups to relevant contract information from COINS. It also enables commercial A series of COINS Special Interest Group (SIGs) days were While the majority of users are still using COINS Plus for routine managers with the ability to authorise held during January and February. Attendees included both transaction input, a growing number are starting to see the and review monthly figures whilst senior end-users and IT staff from clients both large and small across advantages of the new browser based screens, running via management can be provided with full all sectors of the industry in the UK and Eire. Microsoft Internet Explorer, in other areas. Clients who have visibility of their business via graphical Some sessions proved so popular that they could not be installed COINS OA for Reporting and Enquiries, Human dashboards. accommodated at the COINS building in Slough and were held Resources, House Sales, Customer Care or Facilities at the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) in Ascot. Management are now considering how they can harness the Steve Jones, who managed the project power of this user interface elsewhere in COINS. from COINS, says: “As an ex-quantity The scope of the topics covered was wide-ranging, including surveyor, being asked to work on a most areas of COINS in various levels of detail. As well as Notes of the meetings are being made available on the secure project like “commercials” really excited reviewing recent enhancements and new features, a number of client area of www.coins-global.com me. Offering end users the ability to ideas for possible future enhancements were discussed. These work in office tools such as Excel The next meeting for each of the Special Interest Groups will are currently being analysed and the impact on development and allowing management to control be at the COINS conference from 17th to 19th October plans being assessed. a common approach to the process 2006. Further details will be available shortly, but to pre-register and reporting, will give companies a It was clear from the SIG sessions that many clients are your interest please send an email to pauline.sargent@coins- real competitive advantage. This beginning to see the benefits of COINS Open Architecture (OA). global.com. Ⅵ development partnership was a real success in combining the new technology available in Open Architecture and back office tools."

Connaught PLC plan to have all regions live on COINS Commercials by June 2006. This will mean approximately eighty surveyors across the regions completing their CVRs using information extracted from COINS into Excel, and then uploading the information entered into Excel back into COINS for consolidating reporting. Ⅵ

System SIG held at the CIOB, Ascot CRM House Building SIG held at COINS offices COINS gets Flash St Petersburg Orphanages – the story so far . . . COINS have signed an agreement allowing them In 2002, COINS and group companies Total Objects and OASIS instigated a series of to embed and freely distribute activities to help improve living standards of the Pushkin Orphanage in St Petersburg. a new generation of presentation graphics within For a long time COINS has realised the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility the COINS Designer product. (CSR), and in particular, giving back to the communities in which they do business. The eye-catching animated With an office in St Petersburg where they employ the services of ten Progress charts use Macromedia Flash developers who have made a large contribution to COINS software development, (SWF) files which do not COINS were keen to make a difference in the community here as well as at home. require any Active-X or external A very simple but effective programme was initiated: employees donated good quality components and therefore can children’s clothes, and along with customers, travelled with the bags of clothes to the be deployed simply. development centre in St Petersburg for direct delivery to the orphanages. 3D Column Chart The charts enable information Linda Snellings, receptionist at COINS, sorts and packs all the clothes ready for directly from COINS to be transportation to the orphanage. She has visited the orphans and says: displayed within a browser “It was truly lovely to see that the donations we made have really benefited ‘on-line and in real time’ and the children – the fact that these kids were able to get out more and enter are completely scalable and competitions (on one occasion winning second prize) has really boosted their flexible, creating stunning confidence and outlook on life.” animated graphics that are also interactive. Users can Funds were later donated to the orphanage by the three companies to improve basic simply click on an element requirements and sanitation. of a chart to dig deeper into the underlying data This donation sparked a reaction from the local Pushkin government who was not to be automatically filtered to the outdone by companies abroad. They decided to give the orphanage $300,000 for a full relevant records. This allows renovation project (this project is now complete). charts to be used as a user- 3D Pie Chart Since then, through the introduction of a sponsorship programme, more funds have friendly front-end access point been raised. A highlight for the children has been a provision of a bus from the to any information in the COINS sponsorship fund (“The Besso Bus” – named after a Total Objects client who largely database. funded it), which is used for field trips and special events. It has enabled the children to take part in various dance and music competitions, areas that they are highly gifted in. The new charts will be available as a standard element of COINS A new IT programme has also been started for the Pushkin Orphanage as well as Designer from the next release, several other orphanages in St Petersburg. The orphanages now have an IT network and allow the user to present installed on their premises and employees from the development centre work with the information through an array of children to improve their IT skills. gauges and instrumentation “Who would have thought that something as easy as donating clothes and controls, and also 2D & 3D something as little effort as travelling with extra bags to St Petersburg would line, pie, cylinder, column, instigate such lasting changes?” says Jim Barry, Chief Executive of Total Objects. pyramid and doughnut charts 3D Cylinder Series Chart and graphs. Ⅵ A number of COINS keys clients have been involved with the project, from carrying a bag of clothes on a business trip to the development centre in St Petersburg, to committing funds to the sponsorship programme.

Among these is Stephen Casey, Managing Director of Fairview, who concludes:

COINS-etc Technical COINS 3 Peaks “It is great to see companies like COINS lead by and Advanced User Challenge Sponsorship example with their corporate social responsibility and care for others who are less fortunate. It is Workshops Opportunities proof of how a little effort from us can really change people’s lives.” Existing members of COINS-etc (Electronic Demand for team places in the COINS 2006 3 Peaks Trading Community) will be able to take Challenge was extremely high and the places went in COINS Clients who have been/and are involved with the advantage of a series of new Technical and record time: they were all taken up by December project include: Advanced User Workshops starting in March 2006. 2005! Whether your company has entered a team or Fairview New Homes • Haymills • Martin Grant Homes Implementation of the full electronic procure to not, you can still take part and make a difference at Curzon • Laing Homes • Geoffery Osborne • McInerney pay process involves a broad spectrum of users this unique industry event by choosing to sponsor the challenge. In exchange, your corporate brand and technical support staff, all of whom can If you would like to get involved with the project or will be made highly visible to the participating contribute to its success and the workshops are make a donation, please contact Margaret.jeffries@ companies and you will receive official recognition designed to assist COINS clients in obtaining coins-global.com Ⅵ maximum benefits. of your support on the event. Various elements are available for sponsorship including packages and The Technical Workshop aims to cover all the individual event merchandise. A list of options to basic requirements in maintaining continuous consider, including fees for sponsorship can be messaging throughput and covers the necessary downloaded from www.coins-global.com or contact housekeeping tasks that need to be performed to Pauline Sargent 01753 501078. Ⅵ keep the e-Commerce functionality healthy.

The aim of The Advanced User Workshop is to make users aware of the wide range of functionality now available within e-Commerce and to provide them with the necessary skills to introduce these into their business processes. BACSTEL-IP Migration

Workshops are inter-active with hands on The transition from BACSTEL to BACTEL-IP created exercises enabling users to acquire the necessary a challenge for our delivery teams in terms of confidence to manage e-Commerce. implementation timescales and user training. COINS project managed the transition for all COINS clients Christmas 2005: the children at one of the St Petersburg orphanages put on a festive The Workshops are carried out by Christina and the result was a very successful migration. All Wildman (eBusiness Consultant) and John Hayes performance, the costumes were designed and COINS clients who use BACS have successfully made by themselves. (COINS-etc Technical Manager). Booking may migrated to the new method of funds transfer and be made via email to christina.wildman@ every installation was completed prior to the coins-global.com Ⅵ deadline (31 December 2005) enforced by BACS. Ⅵ

The next COINS News will be available in Summer 2006.

If you would like to submit an article for New the next edition of COINS News, please contact Melissa Ma on 01753 501034 or COINS email [email protected]

Clients COINS Building 10, The Grove COINS would Slough like to welcome Berks their new clients: SL1 1QP