The Need for Stability by Ray Ryan

I was in conversation with some of our customers recently discussing business prospects for the future. One of the current major concerns voiced was our dependency as an economy on our export business. This concerned them even though these customers were not in the export business themselves.

As local businesses our customers serve the local Irish marketplace and they are fully dependent upon business generated in the local economy. But the catch is that we can only have this vibrant local economy if our export companies are performing well and maintaining employment.

Oops I thought, Advent is in exactly the same boat as our customers – during our conversations it became evident that one of the immediate concerns was the outcome of the coming referendum on “The Stability Treaty". As an economy being so heavily dependent upon exports we should be very concerned about the outcome. We need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. It struck me that the risk of being on the outside, if we voted no would completely undermine the stability of our export business thus undermining our own businesses.

So what will saying YES mean for Irish SME's ?

1. External Investor Confidence in Ireland.  Investors will want to know that the Euro will still be around in a few years time.
2. Access to ESM funding – although it is not certain that we will need additional funding, saying Yes will ensure access to funds at a reasonable rate, if we need them.
3. We will need to get our own country finances in order – this is something that we need to do in any case but saying Yes will provide a framework for achieving this. It should guard against such an economic mess from re-occurring in the future.

The important thing to note is that we do know, for sure, what the outcome of saying yes will be, and it will provide stability. We are not sure at all what the outcome of saying no will be. So we can only speculate on the outcome and in my opinion this is not the time to be speculating. Look where speculation brought us to previously. Like all of our customers we desperately need a stable local market and not to gamble, for any reason whatsoever on the future employment prospects in the our economy. Me, I am a big yes for stability.

Now where did I put that piece of paper?

By Sinéad Hayes, Sales & Marketing Manager

How many times have you said this in the past day, week or month? Be honest!

Despite being surrounded by tablets, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, most of us still can’t seem to confront the inevitable break-up with the piece of paper. Let’s face it, we love scribbling on a piece of paper.

Then when we decide what we have written really doesn’t make much sense, we scrunch up the paper and toss it in the bin. Or if we decide that it will be useful at some future point, we stick it onto the wall or into a drawer or somewhere where we know it definitely won’t move from – that is until we go to find it again.

When the phone rings, we scramble around looking for a pen that works so that we can scribble down the sales enquiry that we have been waiting for. All the important information is captured on that scrap of paper.

Now, back to an earlier point, what happens when we go to find that piece of paper tomorrow, next week or even next month?? Where did I put it?????

I am going to offer you some advice – for starters a good sales & marketing database will definitely help you. Capture the information onto a proper system such as Sage CRM. No matter if the sales enquiry leads to something or not, it’s always useful for future reference to know who called, their contact number, what they were looking for and how they heard about us.

Now, just imagine all of the scraps of paper nicely organised and sorted logically into the correct place but instead of being stuck somewhere with a thumb tack, you now have what you need right in front of you – with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Here’s how to send Sage 200 Invoices in a Jiffy…….

If I told you that I have the secret formula to sending Sage 200 invoices by email with

Just One Click……..would you believe me?

It’s true – your days of sending invoices the slow way could soon be behind you.

Believe me, there are lots of savings to be made, so why don’t you join us for a quick webinar on 23^rd of April @ 2pm and all will be revealed……..

PS - Don’t tell anybody else, it’s a secret!

Imagine and Advent

We featured in The Sunday Business Post last weekend (25th of March) with an article describing how Imagine has benefited from upgrading their software to Sage 200, along with some customised integrations designed by Advent.

Picture features L-R
Claire Mooney (Imagine);Sinéad Hayes (Advent);Eimear Lawler (Imagine)

Meningitis Research Foundation and Advent

On March 3rd, Advent staff got all dressed up to attend the Meningitis Research Foundation's First Annual Gala Ball, held in the Radisson Blu St Helen's Hotel Stillorgan.

The Ball was an effort by the Meningitis Research Foundation to raise both funding for the charity and also to raise awareness of this deadly disease. It was a chance for Advent, as a supporter of the foundation and its work, to enjoy a wonderful evening as well as having the opportunity to network with other corporate partners, members and supporters.

The evening began with a champagne reception and some Irish music, giving everyone the chance to mingle. There was then a 4-course dinner, catered for by the top chefs at the Radisson Blu and hosted by both the staff of the Meninigitis Reseach Foundations and RTE's Claire Byrne who is a patron of this charity and really speaks out of the wonderful work they do.
The evening was finished off by two raffles where some of the Advent staff came out winners! This was followed by dancing until the early hours.........

All in all, a great night was had by everyone there and as all proceeds from this event went to support the Meningitis Research Foundation, Advent were delighted to be invited along and to be given the opportunity to show their support for this worthy cause.

Brand New Advent by Sinéad Hayes

Over the past number of years, we have changed. We have become more focused on what we do best and what we know brings real value to our clients. The only problem was that our image did not reflect who we are now or what we do now.

New Advent Brand

We realised that to move forward, we needed to take a step back to really understand what we do, how we do it and what all this means to our clients and prospective clients.

We embarked on a journey of self discovery, which has resulted in a new brand identity for Advent. We hope you like it.... 
  
"our unique approach uses software to connect every part of your business like never before. We call it joined up thinking because it will bring out the best in your business and your people, every day".

We welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have. We also have a suggestions email address if you would prefer to send suggestions to us this way..
suggestions@advent.ie

Go Mobile with Sage 200

By Arshad Abdul, Account Manager

The New Sage 200 Mobile is designed to give users the freedom to choose how, where and when they access business-critical information.

It couldn't be easier. Download the App, Configure the application & Start using Sage 200 Mobile.


You will be glad to hear that this New and Exciting Feature is available Free of Charge with Sage 200 Version 2011.

Sage 200 Mobile gives SECURE ACCESS to your Sage 200 data on your iPhone!

With Sage 200 Mobile you can access your Sage 200 data using views and search functionality via your iPhone or Blackberry device. Sage 200 Mobile gives you quick and easy access to a wide range of business information, enabling your workforce to be more productive. The data available as standard is aimed at the Financial Director, Managing Director, Sales Person and Project Manager roles, how ever the application may be customised so you can access data that is relevent to a particular role.


Now in this age of mobile technology, it makes sense that you should leave the pen and paper to one side, forget the pages of customer and contact information and just log onto your iPhone or Blackberry to find the information you need when you need it.

Now you can............

• View customers, suppliers, projects, stock and bank accounts




• View invoices, and sales orders




• View transactions on customers, suppliers and bank accounts




• Rapid access to information, through "Favourites"




• Workspace can be viewed for Sales Summary, Cash Position and Project Position

Drop me a an email if you would like to find out more.....
sales@advent.ie or call me on 01 8223200