African countries have much to gain by encouraging open and competitive markets, particularly as a means to spur sustainable economic growth and alleviate poverty. Yet in reality, many markets have low levels of competition. More than 70% of African countries rank in the bottom half of countries globally on the perceived intensity of local competition and on the existence of fundamentals for market-based competition. Monopolies, duopolies, and oligopolies are relatively prevalent compared to other regions. In more than 40% of African countries, a single operator holds over half the market share in telecommunications and transport sectors. This lack of competition has drastic costs. Retail prices for 10 key consumer goods – white rice, white flour, butter and milk among them -- are at least 24% higher in African cities than in other main cities around the world. While these higher prices affect all consumers, the poor are hit the hardest. A new report from the World Bank Group and the African Competition Forum, Breaking Down Barriers, estimates the gains from tackling anticompetitive practices and reforming policies to enable competition. For instance, reducing the prices of food staples by just 10%, by tackling cartels and improving regulations that limit competition in food markets could lift 500,000 people in Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia out of poverty and save consumers more than $700 million a year. Cartels - agreements among competitors to fix prices, limit production or rig bids - are a serious cause of low competition levels in African countries and have been found to affect products in a variety of sectors, including fertilizers, food, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, and construction services. Evidence reveals that consumers pay 49 percent more on average when firms enter into these agreements. “There have been a notable number of countries adopting competition laws in Africa, and this bodes well for growth and development. However, while the benefits of competition are already clearly observable in Africa, there is still considerable effort required to ensure effective implementation of competition laws and policies across the continent,” notes Tembinkosi Bonakele, Chairperson of the African Competition Forum headquartered in South Africa. In addition to explaining the costs of low levels of competition, Breaking Down Barriers highlights the important progress many African countries are making in improving competition policies. For instance, the number of countries and economic communities like EAC, COMESA and ECOWAS with competition laws has nearly tripled in 15 years. There are now 25 functional competition authorities in Africa and budgets for those authorities increased by 39% between 2009 and 2014. “In the past few years, several countries have stepped up their enforcement capacity and implementation of competition laws. For example, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia have taken recent actions to block uncompetitive agreements in a variety of sectors,” explains Martha Martinez Licetti, the report’s co-author and Lead Economist for the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank Group. “Looking to the future, there is a need to prioritize resources and use the powers and tools available to competition authorities more effectively in order to continue raising the relevance of competition policy within the broader development agenda.” Tags: International financial corporation securities regulatory commission world bank group, Competition Policy
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Finding the ideal bespoke furniture for your home can be simple as long as you have the patience in doing so. If you're going to be a smart buyer, then you can save money during the entire process and find high-quality furniture that meets all your needs all at once. The following are some basic tips provided by Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden to help you find the best bespoke furniture for your home. Find reviews The internet is vast and it can cater all the basic information a person is looking for. When searching for the best bespoke furniture, it's easier to search online for reviews to avoid fraud. You can find reviews for most any type of furniture in every brand. Before spending your money on a certain piece of furniture, it would be better if you can obtain important information about it and compare its results to other furniture. Since reviews are a good source of information to find a dependable company, ensure that your chosen company is indeed trustworthy at the end and offers quality products that suit your budget. Be consistent Don't rush things because anything worth having is worth waiting for. Don't stop until you are satisfied even if it will take some more time. Your goal is to have a home that makes you feel happy and comfortable, so don't settle for less and have the furniture that meets your standards. Be consistent in looking for the best bespoke furniture for your home. Compare prices As previously stated, comparing significant data, including prices, of various pieces is often necessary, especially if you are on a tight budget. By carefully assessing your records, you can choose the right furniture where you can save up to 50 percent. Make sure to remember those tips mentioned above to shop great bespoke furniture and buy pieces that you really want. Be a smart buyer and save a little bit of money during the entire process. Put in mind that finding the perfect bespoke furniture for your home requires patience and consistency. Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden believes that you will achieve a unique home with bespoke furniture and the team wishes that you will find the best pieces for your place. Tags: Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden, furniture, tips, buying
Before the exhibition 1. Draw up a list of objectives for visiting the exhibition. Define what you wish to achieve eg to get an overview of certain types of software, see the latest software functionality, or to meet certain vendors. 2. Plan your visit. Make a shortlist of exhibitors, vendor demonstrations, educational or other sessions you wish to see. Don’t consider spending all day in vendor software demonstrations - they may end up sounding and looking alike and you may end up being totally confused. Plan a balance of visiting stands, meeting vendors, discussing your requirements, as well as attending demonstrations. 3. Mark the locations of the stands / demonstrations you wish to see on an exhibition layout planner so you know your way around the exhibition floor and can save time / avoid getting lost when you are there. 4. Attending with colleagues can help to determine which software to investigate further. However, plan in advance who is attending, who shall see what and when. Aim to cover all items, with colleagues splitting up to cover different parts of the exhibition. 5. Determine how you will get to the exhibition - so that you arrive on time and are able to complete everything. If you are attending for more than one day and need overnight accommodation, book well in advance of the date(s) required. At the exhibition 6. Follow your visit plan. Ensure you cover the areas you wish to see. Don’t get side-tracked once at the exhibition - you can use any time left over at the end to visit other stands which look interesting. 7. If attending with colleagues - use the opportunity to quickly obtain a large amount of information and to network / create new contacts for later use. Work the exhibition - don’t just stay together or treat as a day out of the office! 8. Take a copy of your outline system requirements* with you - to refer to and / or raise key points with vendors / exhibitors. 9. Take plenty of business cards - to hand out to exhibitors and to save filling in their forms with your details. 10. Take a pen and small note pad for jotting down key items, demonstration notes, points of interest, contacts etc. 11. Attending exhibitions can be tiring. They can be hot (particularly in poorly ventilated demonstration rooms) and you may do a lot of walking. Be prepared - wear comfortable clothing and take regular refreshments throughout the day. After the exhibition 12. Review the information you have obtained and write up notes / ideas as applicable. Discuss with colleagues. Then determine which software vendors you wish to follow up on and investigate further. Tags: Axia Consultants, Accounting, Software
The final report discusses “audit firm transparency reporting,” which is a practice “employed by audit firms to be transparent in their own reporting to investors and other stakeholders about the firm itself, notably, with respect to firm governance and elements of their system of quality control for their financial statement audits.” According to the final report, an audit firm transparency report should contain information that is: “[C]lear, useful and presented in sufficient detail to be meaningful to the different groups of likely users of the report.” “[F]act-based and not potentially misleading.” “[U]nbiased and not oriented toward marketing or selling services.” “[C]oncise, specific to the firm and avoids the use of boilerplate language.” “[T]imely, accurate and complete.” “[B]alanced in communicating the audit firm’s output measures of audit quality in addition to any input measures.” “[S]ufficient in terms of explaining the limitations of the indicators of audit quality, including that the indicators may not be comparable across audit firms.” For more information, see the press release and final report on IOSCO’s Web site. Tags: International Organization of Financial Securities Regulatory Commission
There are many benefits of attending an accounting technology event - especially if you’re considering replacing your accounting software. These include: • improving your knowledge of the accounting software market, the latest trends and what’s available • checking out a software vendor’s latest offerings- in a low-key, informal way • comparing multiple vendors quickly and efficiently, in just one day And it would be even more beneficial if you had details of what you need from your new accounting system. Gathering requirements and preparing a spec doesn’t have to be hard - the Accounting Software RFI/RFP Template can help you quickly and easily gather your requirements and prepare a requirements specification (and also a RFI and RFP). Clicking a link below, will take you to the event website, where you can obtain more details such as the expo or conference contents, who’s exhibiting, locations and whether it’s chargeable or free to attend. Although every attempt has been made to make the above calendar as accurate as possible, this cannot be guaranteed. For more details, contact the promoters directly. Tags: Axia Consultants, Accounting, Software
Here is an easy process to follow to help you decide. Steps: 1. Gather all the information for each potential vendor and prepare a summary of the key criteria for each. 2. Bring your project team together to jointly review the information, the summaries, discuss the pros and cons of each of the potential vendor solutions. 3. Then, jointly rank each of the vendors against your key criteria. Notes (i) Software functionality. Clearly the most important criteria, so focus on your key functional requirements and where the solution(s) from each vendor, differ from each other. (ii) Implementation. Even the best software will not work well, with a poor implementation. So you need to be very sure that you either have the skills, experience and resources on board, or can acquire these from the vendor, or other service providers, or by retraining existing employees. (iii) ROI (return on investment) / TCO (total costs of ownership). Re-check both calculations for 7 year time scale, for each vendor - as each vendor solution may have different benefits as well as different costs. (iv) Maintenance and support / SLA (Service Level Agreement). Be sure of what you are getting for your annual (or regular) payments, that it is appropriate and represents good value for money. (v) Software technology. Should be forward looking technology and either match that of your business or heading where you are heading. However, some forward looking technologies may be closer to where you are heading than others. (Solutions or vendors using old technology should have been removed at the RFI stage). (vi) The vendor. Their business strength, business and product direction, and how well you get on with the vendor are important. Equally, so is a process or arrangement to protect your investment in the software, should the vendor themselves be acquired or taken over by another organisation. (vii) In this example, we’ve included 6 key criteria for the project as a whole. You may have more criteria and may also wish to use some form of weighting and scoring rather than simple ranking. If so, amend your table accordingly. Tags: Axia Consultants, RFI RFP, Accounting, Software, United Kingdom, USA, Tokyo, Korea, Hong Kong
The continued growth of web-based and web-enabled Accounting Software and systems, including: • Cloud computing / SaaS - wholly online accounting software • Hosted or combined online / on-premise accounting software services and systems (and the beginning of the reduction of solely on-premise accounting software) • Web services, web support • e-procurement, e-commerce, e-expenses systems and electronic payment integrated within accounting software • Web interfaces from 3rd party web-based systems such as e-expenses • Workflow functionality integrated within accounting software • Improving analytics, business intelligence and reporting • e-filing for taxation returns • Enhanced security - online and offline Non-web Accounting Software trends - continued growth of: • Industry sector specific or vertical market solutions • Accounting software combined (or integrated) with specialised modules for industry specific needs / vertical markets (and the reduction of generic accounting systems) • Integration with other associated accounting software modules eg CRM (and the consequent reduction of stand-alone accounting systems) • Improved integration with 3rd party software • Seamless integration with 3rd party office products eg Excel, Word • Software scalability • Functionality and features added to accounting software • Accounting software suitable for large organisations, redesigned for medium and smaller sized businesses. And conversely accounting software that is suitable for small / medium sized businesses, extended to be suitable for medium / larger size businesses • International functionality of accounting software - to support employees in multiple countries with multiple languages • Software customisation capabilities • Intuitive use of functionality / ease of use • Financial and accounting regulations • Using technology and workflow functionality to reduce operational accounts department costs • Faster software set up, implementation and upgrade time scales Accounting Software market trends - continued growth of: • Replacing existing systems with web-based accounting software and web-enabling activities and processes • Competition, especially in the mid-range Accounting / ERP software market • Accounting software market / vendor consolidation Tags: Axia Consultants, Accounting, Software
You’ve finally got board approval to select a new software system - then what? You’ve actually got to do it! So, here is a quick ‘project initiation checklist’ of 30 things to consider at this stage. If you can tick everything ‘yes’ - you’re ready to start! Project Initiation Checklist What is the software / system selection project? 1. Has the project proposal been approved by the board without any changes to the proposal? Or if the board has made changes, can you manage these? 2. Has sufficient funding been approved for the software selection phase? 3. Are the project objectives still the same as within the proposal? 4. Is the project scope (inclusions and exclusions), still the same as within the proposal? 5. Are the project deliverables still the same as within the proposal? 6. Have deliverables been defined for each stage within the software selection? 7. Have acceptance criteria been defined for each deliverable? When will the project be undertaken? 8. Have the start and completion dates been defined and agreed? 9. Have dates for the key deliverables within the project been defined and agreed? Who is involved with the project? 10. Provide names for: - project sponsor: - project manager: - project team: - key users: - user management (who are responsible for signing off the requirements and accepting the system selection deliverables): 11. Have all the roles and responsibilities been defined? 12. Have all the roles and responsibilities been communicated? 13. Do all resources (involved) have sufficient time available for the project? 14. Is project resourcing sufficient? 15. Do all resources have sufficient knowledge / skills to undertake their part in the project? 16. Have you prepared and issued a project organisational chart? 17. Does everyone understand their role within the project? How will the project be carried out? 18. Have you determined your project management / system selection methodology? 19. Have you prepared a revised (or final) project plan / gantt chart? 20. Are the responsibilities, milestones and deliverables clear? 21. Has this been issued and discussed with all involved? 22. Does everyone understand it? 23. Have you purchased tools to help you document your business requirements / select your new system? eg Axia’s System Requirements & RFI/RFP Templates 24. Have you set up project communications? eg planned regular (weekly) project meetings, defined an email list of other people to be kept informed? 25. Have you set up an issues escalation process? 26. Have you set up project monitoring? eg using a project management tool 27. Have you defined quality standards and specified how these will be maintained? 28. Have you reviewed your risk analysis and mitigation strategies? 29. Have you reviewed your project constraints / assumptions and checked that they are still valid? 30. Have you created project contingencies? eg additional time, funding or resources which can be called upon if required Tags: Axia Consultants, RFI RFP, Accounting, Software, United Kingdom, USA, Tokyo, Korea, Hong Kong
With skill backgrounds in Accounting, Payroll, HR, processes, project management and IT, we can rapidly contribute to time-critical projects by providing the expertise, focus and drive needed to meet key deadlines. Axia Philosophy Our philosophy is to involve client’s staff as much as possible, whilst providing the in-depth expertise. So client’s costs are minimised and all concerned obtain a complete understanding of the solution. We believe in providing outstanding quality and excellent value for money. We continuously aim to be responsive, flexible and provide personal attention to our client’s needs. For more information about Axia’s services visit: consulting services / system selection and shortlisting service / client case outlines / commendations Tags: Axia Consultants, RFI RFP, Accounting, Software, United Kingdom, USA, Tokyo, Korea, Hong Kong
One solution is to identify the total cost of ownership, not just the software, as clearly as you can prior to acquisition. If you establish and compare the total costs associated with each software package for 1 year and 5 years from the date of acquisition, you will have a much better idea of what to expect. Fairly obviously, a low cost for software does not necessarily mean that it is the best overall value.
Another solution is to look out for potential hidden costs and either include them or a contingency, and then manage them as best as possible at the time they occur. To help, here is a (not exhaustive) list of such potential hidden costs: The software application licence - the modules you really need, rather than what you would like to have (or be talked into), what the prices are based on - number of concurrent system users, number of employees or records (eg for Human Resources Software), number of transactions or a mix of these? What are the different price bands? How it will work out for your organisation? Training costs – number of days and day rate. What is the typical amount of training required for the average customer and specifically, what would be required for your organisation? What is the cost of setting up a training facility on your site? Or to use the vendor’s facilities? Vendor support services fees eg for interface development, report writing, implementation consultancy assistance. Other support services eg contractors, temporary staff (plus their agency fees) to assist with the implementation. Annual licence fees – are these charged? And if so are they on top of, or instead of annual maintenance charges? |
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