Topaz set to launch new versions of financials and EMS at Softworld

Topaz has announced it is to unveil the latest versions of its Topaz Financials and Topaz EMS packages at Softworld Accounting and Finance at the NEC, Birmingham (20-21 October 2004) in the wake of achieving record sales over the last three months.

In all, the new look Topaz Financials will contain numerous enhancements and there are a many further additions to Topaz EMS, the companyís combined payroll and HR offering.

All this is part of the companyís ongoing initiative to set itself apart in what is traditionally a ìme toî marketplace ñ a strategy that has seen Topaz establish itself as the fastest growing company in its sector during 2004.

One of the more significant breakthroughs to be unveiled will benefit both Topaz Financials and Topaz EMS users. The Topaz Web Kiosk module allows intranet/internet access to key areas of both packages ñ so providing browser functionality to users outside the constraints of a LAN, extending system driven processes to the WAN and beyond.

Topaz Financials has also moved up a gear in its own right with the introduction of a new Data Warehousing module, traditionally the preserve of significantly more expensive corporate products such as Cognos. In order to achieve this, Topaz utilised a little known feature of Microsoft SQL server and incorporated functionality within Financials ñ allowing key reports which normally take days to be produced in minutes.

The company has been making a name for itself in the hotly contested software world ever since winning the David V Goliath style competitive bids against the big boys, including Northgate, JDEdwards and Sun Accounts.

With only a limited marketing spend, Topaz has built much of its success to date on leads from Softworld ñ a situation the company plans to replicate this time.

It has also bucked the trend, which has seen some suppliers stagnate in the saturated software market by aligning its products with third party developers whose applications are already well established in vertical markets.

Topaz has been particularly successful with this strategy in the recruitment market where it has effectively become the financial accounts of choice for sales Tempest Time & Bill, the leading application in the sector. As a result, it has achieved sales to nine leading recruitment companies ñ the latest being the Reed Health Group - and there are several more in the pipeline.

Meanwhile Topazís credit control module ñ the first to position itself as pro-active ñ has also been instrumental in achieving new sales across all sectors.

All this is not surprising in a company who acquired its first major client ñ Allied Mills ñ in a deal worth 500,000 when the total turnover for Topaz at the time was only 750,000.

Yet Allied Mills opted for Topaz against the wishes of its consultants after Topaz persuaded its bank to underwrite the work ñ so removing any concerns that Allied Mills had.

ìThis is a highly competitive marketplace and so you have to go that extra yard,î says Geoff Griffiths, MD of Topaz. ìWe did it for Allied Mills and weíve been doing it for all our clients ever since . . . ì