Category: Business

Powerpoint presentations that empower employees

Emma

For a certain generation, the mention of powerpoint presentations conjures memories of GCSE IT classes; of those days spent, aged fifteen or sixteen, completing simple and apparently banal tasks on software barely understood by the teachers. This generation probably remembers making sales presentations for fictitious companies for whom posters and other marketing material were also produced using programs such as Corel Draw and Publisher. Market research, meanwhile, was recorded using Access. Altogether, these kinds of information technology classes felt like jumping through a series of hoops. Powerpoint design often seemed twee and irrelevant in those days and pupils soon tired of its basic visual effects consisting of dissolves, fade-in and out and of various styles and sizes of font.

This same generation is now discovering that Powerpoint presentations do in fact have a wider use. Beyond the classroom they can have a real impact in the workplace. In fact, some employees’ career progress is dependent upon their ability to communicate ideas to audiences large and small and Powerpoint design skills greatly aid such communication. Especially in fields such as sales, marketing, banking and advertising but also in public sector jobs such as the police, the NHS and teaching, conducting a meeting with the assistance of Powerpoint will often mean conducting a successful meeting. When we talk about the success of a presentation we mean one that instantly captures the imagination of the audience. A good presentation should succeed in boiling its content down to the most simple of formulations, whether they are visually or textually based. It should also expand on its points in a memorable way that sustains the attention won at the start.

This may sound easy, but it depends on having a nuanced technical understanding of how Powerpoint works. This means gaining an awareness of how to make a presentation in the first place – from deciding what material must be emphasised, what tone should be adopted, whether to use images, texts, graphs or a combination of these – as well as an awareness of how a presentation will be received. Employees using powerpoint presentations will feel empowered when they have mastered the skill of giving a good presentation. Powerpoint design does not require artistic or technological genius, but rather a clear-headed approach to communication. Indeed, the most effective sales presentations often demand little in the way of creative expertise: anyone can get ahead using Powerpoint provided they put themselves in the shoes of their audience and turn basic skills to their advantage.

Please visit https://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

Duplicate Payments – A Concern for your Organisation?

Jo

To err is human, even for humans who work in the accounts group. Sooner or later, someone is going to make a mistake paying an invoice, and it will cost you. That’s obvious: it’s just the law of averages. The question is, how often will it happen and what will the overall cost be to your company? Intuitively, you might think it’s minimal, but the reality is quite different. Industry estimates calculate that one in every thousand transactions is an overpayment. There are many different reasons this can occur, but the most frequent is duplicate payments – where, by accident or dishonest design, the same invoice is paid twice. One in a thousand may not seem like a lot, but it all adds up. And if you’re a business that relies on very large volumes of minor transactions – high numbers of low-margin payments – then you could be in a lot of trouble. Recovery audit software will highlight where this is happening and help you claim back the money paid, assuming you act quickly. An accounts payable audit shows you who still owes you money that, due to oversight or problems in your accounting systems, has never been collected.

The larger your company, the greater this problem is likely to be – and not just because it means a larger number of transactions to go wrong. When you are making and receiving a lot of payments, it gets harder and harder to pinpoint the incorrect ones. These could be due to genuine misunderstanding, or occasionally fraud. If a supplier is sending the same invoice every month, it gets easier to send in a repeat which slips under the radar: the source of many duplicate payments. Of course, the same thing can happen through forgetfulness or accident. Either way, you’ll end up overpaying unless someone recognises it, and in a busy accounts department there’s no way that someone will be able to remember and verify all of your payments personally. That’s why recovery audit software can be so useful, usually paying for itself the first time you use it. And problems with your accounts cut both ways. You may be overpaying other people, and your customers and others could be underpaying you. These payments can become mislaid in the system, with nothing in place to chase them up. An accounts payable audit seeks out the offenders and ensures that they settle their bills.

Please visit https://www.fiscaltec.com/

Powerpoint presentation design – more than a bunch of slides

Emma

Powerpoint Presentations are very simple to put together, but excellent Powerpoint design is extremely hard. Pushed for time, most of us will sling together a bunch of slides based on our talk, perhaps illustrating some key points. The versatility of Powerpoint makes this easy – too easy. Thanks to the user-friendliness of the programme, you can very quickly build up slides with text, images, audio and video, transitioning to each other with a range of special effects. But that’s not enough. Good sales presentations are more than window-dressing, and if you don’t know what you’re doing your audience will find out pretty soon.

Bad Powerpoint design simply repeats what the audience hears in your spoken presentation. Good design has a narrative: a story that moves through the presentation and that is communicated with conciseness and clarity. The visuals matter, but only in pointing to this primary aim. People take in information in different ways, so don’t assume that the slides are an optional extra to the talk you write. In many cases these snapshots will be most or all of what a viewer/listener takes away.

This isn’t something that just anyone can do – at least not without training. If you work in a business of any size, you’ll already understand that. Although you can put together your own copy, it’s far more effective to hire a copywriter to do it for you. Anyone can write; not everyone can copywrite (although in smaller organisations they may try). Powerpoint is the same. The problem is that the ease of using the software means there are a lot of dilettantes out there, with the obvious results. Creating a really killer slideshow is actually quite an art; it’s just that creating a mediocre slideshow is within anyone’s reach – just as writing a bad sales pitch or website landing page is something anyone can do.

If your Powerpoint design is letting you down, there are companies who can either do it for you or train someone within your organisation so that they can create high-quality sales presentations. Great powerpoint presentations don’t just happen by themselves; they are crafted, just like any other worthwhile product – copy, artwork, software, a website. As in anything like this, the proof of the pudding should be in the eating, and very quickly. Return on investment is the only meaningful measure of success when hiring a service like this, and you should see it almost immediately in the form of successful bids and convincing presentations.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

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Presentation Creation and Presentation Training with a story

Jo

When it’s just you and a buying panel, having excellent presentation creation tips and tricks in your arsenal can make all the difference. You may know your product is the best on the market and believe in it utterly, but with as little as ten minutes to get people inside your mind, it can be nearly impossible to convey all you need to say.

Some people deal with this by using slides and Powerpoint presentations to convey additional information on top of what they’re saying. However, badly designed Powerpoint presentations can become a crutch. Far too many sales people expect prospective clients to essentially sit in a line reading a long list of key points which are the result of someone struggling with Powerpoint design, desperately trying to put together as much information as possible in order to convince the people they’re looking at.

But if those people had wanted a comprehensive list of everything about your product, they would have asked for it. These are busy business-people who don’t have a lot of time, and the face to face nature of a presentation is what they need to be able to take in key information and make a decision one way or the other hopefully in your favour! This can intimidate sales people, particularly those working for small businesses whose job isn’t sales oriented in the day to day. A manager or tech whiz can’t become a sales person overnight without really fantastic tools.

Luckily, face time means that fantastic presentation creation, combined with winning sales technique, can influence people enormously in just a short amount of time. What is needed is effective Powerpoint design that makes the uses of the productive or service not just clear, but appealing. If people walk out of a meeting room having had an entertaining and enjoyable experience, they will associate the company giving the sales presentation with good thoughts. When it comes to a concrete decision – whether that’s a few hours, days or months down the line – they’ll remember the appeal of the well-executed presentation, and be influenced to opt for your company.

Whether a company opts to take the route of outsourcing their sales presentation designs to efficient professionals who know what they’re doing, or investing in training experiences for their own staff to make them more effective in the meeting room, the issue of effective sales is key to any company’s success. A good Powerpoint presentation is an advertisement, an information resource and an enjoyable experience all in one.

Please visit https://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/

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How does Bacs software help businesses?

Jo

Bacs software is a type of payment and documentation software which automates the payment and claiming of direct debits and direct credits across the entire financial sector. Any company receiving or paying direct debits or direct credits in the UK has to make sure that it has the capability to receive Bacs payments, in order to safely, securely and legally carry out these transactions. Bacs is a term often used to refer to the universal UK automated payments system. In actual fact, the word means the not-for-profit group, owned by 16 UK banks and building societies, which controls and regulates the payments systems.

Direct debit is used by approximately 75% of UK adults to fulfill phone bills or subscriptions, or to make donations to charity – and it’s far more common for each adult to hold multiple direct debits. Meanwhile, direct credit is used by companies to pay recurring wages or salaries, and by UK benefits providers to distribute the hundreds of different benefits involved in the UK system: housing benefit, job-seekers benefit, child benefit etc.

In actual fact, most households pay out multiple direct debits and many receive multiple direct credits. At the same time a company or charity of any size generally needs Bacs software in place to be able to make or receive Bacs payments. When the organization gets bigger, its accounts payable departments are generally flooded with multiple direct debit payments. This means that most companies above a medium size – and some small to medium enterprises – use automated Bacs payment software to know that their payments are protected, accurate and efficient.

Although some still work with manual processing, this can leave companies open to fraud or simple losses through inefficiency. When a company receives and makes payments globally, an additional layer of complication is added. A specialist automated payments solution will validate and verify bank account information at every phase of payment, and will have software accredited by the Bacs group in place. This accreditation is a labourious process which involves direct supervision and training. This means that if a properly accredited software provider is utilized, direct debit and direct credit payments are guaranteed to be safer and more effectual.

Companies often take to automated payment solutions because of their blend of cutting costs with wonderfully increased productivity. Payments can be most effectively handled by a dedicated software solution – and if companies choose an accredited Bacs software solution provider, a huge weight is taken off the manager’s back.Â

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Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Document processing: what’s the way forward?

Jo

The old idea of document management office workers literally pushing papers around a desk is well out of date. Document processing in the digital world has an entirely different face. With most influential organisations, public or private, on course to develop wholly digital systems, very few organisations at any level can afford to be content to use paper files as their main resource. Financial figures and confidential files are all more secure and more efficient when stored digitally.

Companies which place a premium on security, productivity and confidentiality, such as those trading in the health, technology and banking sectors, almost all rely on digital document management. For instance, the NHS wants to be completely digital, across the whole country, by 2018. However, businesses in other sectors which deal with heavy-duty invoice processing, payment or documentation automatation, cash management and supply chains are increasingly turning to digital solutions.

The reason for this change is quite obvious: digital document processing simply offers a more accessible and more secure system, both for workers and for clients. Data can be easily searched for, changed and analysed. And customers are less patient than ever with delays caused by inefficient paper-based systems. This means that investment in digital document management equates to investment in customer service, as well as savings on office space and employee time.

Many companies initially find the shift to digital document processing difficult. Depending on the scope of the business and its security needs, a new method of doing things can be intimidating. However, once a digital structure is in place, most people find it to be much more flexible to changing regulations, demands and company developments. Most services are future-proof, meaning that the transfer of data will typically only have to happen once. Compared to laboriously rewriting or refilling documents to fit a new system each time a tweak is needed, simply asking the document management tool to make a small tweak takes hardly any time at all.

Different companies have very different document management needs. Some businesses only need basic invoice processing solutions in place to ensure their suppliers get paid on time, while others need a comprehensive and flexible approach to content management to keep up with changes in their industry or a fast expanding business. Many people find that once they’re using a modern digital service, they can see far more clearly what can be improved in the way they operate, and become surer than ever that digital categorically is the way forward.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

 

Bacs payments are efficient and safe

Emma

bacs is a catch-all term that describes a number of different kinds of electronic payment. Bacs payments will often be a direct debit or credit. Previously bacs software was also used for payments over the internet via online banking and over the phone. However, since 2007 the Faster Payments Service (FPS) has surpassed these, since it is virtually instantaneous (whereas bacs takes three working days).

Bacs is generally still the default for many kinds of regular payments, such as pay cheques and utility bills. The process is highly secure, with many different layers of security built into it. Additionally, there is the peace of mind that you will receive a full refund in the unlikely case that you are a victim of fraud.

For businesses there are numerous benefits to adopting bacs, instead of working with more ‘traditional’ methods of paying employees and suppliers – such as cash and cheque. Security is obviously one of these. It is no longer necessary to keep large sums of money on the premises, thereby reducing risk as well as the insurance payments you would have to keep up to protect you from theft. Reliability is another; bacs payments leave your account on the arranged date and arrive in the payee’s account three working days later. (Should you need a faster transfer there are different options, such as FPS or CHAPS, which entails a fee.)

This also smooths accounting processes, since it makes for very predictable outgoings. You know exactly when and how much money will be leaving your account – and, if you are paid by bacs, you will have a good idea of when money will come in. Bacs can also be combined with many accounts packages, helping you to spend less time on your finances and get on with what really matters for your business.

Bacs software is supplied by different companies, each of which will need to meet strict criteria. As well as providing the necessary hardware and enabling you to make bacs payments, most should give some form of training to help you make the most of your new bacs capabilities – thus saving you time and money as well as decreasing the risk of fraud to your business. As fewer and fewer businesses still use cash and cheques for their main transactions, there are more and more benefits to be enjoyed by moving to a platform of electronic payments.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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Accounts payable audit will save you big money

Stuart

An accounts payable audit is a way of trawling your accounts records and finding out where the mistakes have occurred in the past – and, as a result, where they are likely to crop up in the future. Needless to say, errors of any kind in your accounts are a mistake you can’t afford to make – especially at the moment, in times of economic uncertainty. One of the most common problems is duplicate payments – paying the same individual or organisation twice for one invoice. This could be down to human error, but it can also happen more deliberately. This is another purpose of recovery audit software: to prevent fraud and recoup money you have lost unnecessarily, whether through genuine mistake or through dishonest exploitation of the weaknesses in your system.

Estimates vary for the amount of money wasted by the average business on unnecessary payments, but it often comes out between 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent – that is, between one and 5 invoices per thousand. Needless to say, this can represent a significant proportion of turnover. An examination of three years’ worth of accounts for many organisations can reveal discrepancies that run into three figures. The problem is that the average invoice has so many data fields that it is very easy to enter data inaccurately. In fact, auditors have found that errors of this type occur in the accounts for every single business whose accounts they have examined.

Depending on the size of your business, accounts errors could be costing you hundreds or thousands of pounds every month, if not more. That means that recovery audit software could net you tens of thousands of pounds back in bad payments. Even if the figure is lower, it is likely to pay for itself the first time you ever use it, and continue to earn its keep in the months and years to come.

Such recovery audit software therefore promises a fantastic return on investment and allows some peace of mind from the problems that human error inevitably brings. Although it is probably impossible to eradicate duplicate payments altogether, an accounts payable audit will go a long way towards this goal. In an economic downturn or period of poor growth, every method of saving money should be investigated. If checking your accounts can find the money you would have saved by making redundancies, then this has got to be a preferable option.

Please visit http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/

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Recovery audit software saves the legwork – and saves you money

Stuart

Accounts payable audit software is a vital thing to use in cutting down waste and inefficiency, which is possibly the most relevant and necessary measure for recession-hit businesses available at the moment. With more transactions being made than ever before, and the bulk of them electronically through banks and organisations such as BACS, the potential for duplicate payments is huge. Businesses are by extension at the highest risk so far of losing capital through such payments as well as through fraud. Even when they are able to locate losses, it is very tough to close the problem without top quality recovery audit software.

In the wake of the global economic downturn, the UK’s budget deficit, and the MP’s expenses scandal, the most important thing on most people’s minds right now is cost efficiency, and rightly so. There is something inherently unpalatable about waste: I’m sure we all had grandparents, or knew people of a similar age to our grandparents, who remember being brought up not to waste a single piece of food. Personally I remember my grandfather telling me that on the days that he didn’t finish eating his meal one day, his father would place it in the fridge and it would be his dinner the next day, and so on until he finished: only then would he have a new, freshly-cooked meal to eat.

It seems that somewhere along the way this tradition of frugality was completely and utterly lost, and not only where food is concerned! Government spending rose to all time highs, consumerism based on credit reached its peak, and banks were lending more than five times homeowners’ yearly pay in the form of mortgages as house prices shot up. Inevitably, this didn’t last, and we saw a global banking crisis occur in 2007/08 that rocked everybody’s world. In the UK, the new government has decided it needs to quickly reduce the budget deficit by implementing a huge new spending review to save money.

It seems we are going back to a time of frugality, and with the recession affecting all of us, it is important for businesses to minimise waste and unnecessary expenditures. We can not afford too many duplicate payments going unrecovered, and we certainly can’t afford exposing ourselves to fraud by not giving our accounts payable teams adequate support. Accounts payable audit software and recovery audit software can provide this support, and help your business to become leaner, and head into the future of doing more with less.

Please visit http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/

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How a rugged PC can offer your machine protection from environmental hazards

Stuart

Most computers tend to be fairly robust, but anyone who has ever spilt some water on their machine or left it out in the sun for too long is likely to recognise the need for a rugged pc.  Such machines are designed to be used in harsh natural environments, so they can withstand wet or dusty conditions, temperature extremes and strong vibrations.  Construction workers, military personnel or emergency services might all find themselves in need of a rugged embedded PC or a rugged transport PC – or, for for that matter, anybody who has the need to protect their computer from the elements.

The best type of rugged PC is one that is specifically designed to be used in severe  conditions, rather than adapted for the purpose.  The term ‘ruggedized’ is often used interchangeably with ‘hardened’, as these types of computers are similarly robust in design.  However, ‘hardened’ is generally used to describe computers that can withstand a bit more shock.

These computers come in various variations, including stand-alone bench or desktop units, laptops, PDAs, wearable systems, and designs specific to the given installation.  What is common to all these models is that their design features are those which provide extra protection against the kind of harsh environmental conditions which, if a typical machine was exposed to them, it would break.  Therefore, users can be fairly certain  that their ruggedized computer will withstand a fairly intensive battering from the elements.

Utility trucks and similar vehicles can pose problems for standard computers, because of the vibration and jolts that are inevitable.  Ruggedized laptops are made of magnesium alloy metals, which make them 20 times stronger than commercial laptops.  Furthermore, the hard drive of such a computer will be shock-mounted with foam or reinforcing material, so that it is as durable as the rest of the machine.  After all, it is pointless to have a super strength computer with a hard drive that cannot withstand being placed in a stressful situation.

A rugged embedded PC and a rugged transport PC will provide similarly ample  protection from wind, rain,or any other natural aggressor that it might come into contact with.  For those whose career or lifestyle makes tough demands on their technological equipment, a rugged pc really is the only viable option.  The security of knowing that your computer will be protected, irrespective of the environmental conditions, is surely priceless, especially in a job with a high stress job such as the military or the armed forces.

Please visit http://www.vision4ce.com/ for further information about this topic.

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