Please join me in welcoming the newest addition to Client Services, David Cote!  David is joining the team as a Senior Consultant.  Prior to joining Serenic, David was most recently employed by Blackbaud, Inc., holding the most recent position of Senior Solutions Engineer.

Serenic Hires New Senior Consultant - David Cote

David worked for Blackbaud since 1996, and brings to Serenic many years of experience in all facets of the software business, including administration, sales, and client services—and has a very solid NFP (Not-for-Profit) background.

We are excited to have David on board as Serenic continues to grow and maintain a leadership role in the NFP/Governmental software market space. Welcome!

Please join me in welcoming Tricia Jo Score to Serenic as a key addition to our growing International Sales Team as Sales Engineer for EMEA.

Tricia brings a wealth of pre-sales knowledge and expertise in and around the public sector domain.  Tricia attended George Mason University (BA, ’01) and received her MBA from Marymount University (’07).  She is originally from North Dakota, has lived on the both the east and west coasts and will settle in her new home in Brussels, Belgium.

We’re looking forward to Tricia’s invaluable contributions to the team in helping Serenic grow its footprint globally.

Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker to Keynote Explorations 2010

We welcome to Explorations 2010 Josh Sundquist, a bestselling author, motivational speaker, and Paralympic ski racer. Josh has spoken across the country to groups ranging from Fortune 500 companies to inner city public schools—to the White House!

Josh’s journey began at age nine, when he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and given a fifty percent chance to live. He spent a year on chemotherapy treatments and his left leg was amputated. Doctors declared Josh cured of the disease at age thirteen and he took up ski racing three years later. He trained for the next six years and in 2006 he was named to the US Paralympic Ski Team for the 2006 Paralympics in Turino, Italy.

Not only is Josh an amazing athlete, but he is also dedicated to helping others.  He served a two-year tenure as the National Spokesperson for the Combined Federal Campaign, an effort that raises over $300 million dollars a year for charities. On top of that, he has been featured on the back of Doritos bags nationwide for being the founder of LessThanFour.org, the world’s largest social networking website for amputees.

Josh received a degree in business from the College of William and Mary and a Master’s in Communications from the University of Southern California. He has been featured on CNN, USA TODAY, and NPR, and his memoir, Just Don’t Fall, was a National Bestseller.  Josh currently lives in Washington, DC.

Serenic is very thankful and honored to have Josh Sundquist be the keynote speaker for Explorations 2010.  For such a large event that caters towards helping nonprofits succeed with their accounting methods and software, we couldn’t think of a better person.  Find out more information about Josh, and Explorations 2010 through the links below!

Serenic Software – Explorations 2010

Josh Sundquist’s Website

Josh Sundquist on Facebook

Josh Sundquist on Twitter

by Randy Copeland, Senior Consultant

I have worked with Navigator for seven years—five years for a VAR and the last two for Serenic Software. I had always heard great things about Explorations – our user conference:  the wonderful people you meet, the informative sessions and learning where Navigator is headed.

With my first Explorations in May 2009, I was eager to see if it could be as good as I had heard.  I was not only attending Explorations, but I was jumping in the deep end as a presenter.  Being a Serenic consultant, I have trained small and large groups my entire career.  I felt nervous trying to live up to the presentations I had heard about from previous Explorations attendees (for those who know me, not a common occurrence).  I had two sessions to present:

1. General Ledger – Views, Account Schedules and Analysis & Report Requests
2. Workflow & Approvals

All the sessions were aimed at training instead of demos of new features.  The training emphasis of the sessions and the One-on-One Sessions were what set Explorations 2009 apart from other software conferences I have attended. Based on my reviews, and the overall conference reviews, we accomplished our goal of increased knowledge.

I had a wonderful time at Explorations 2009!  Networking with Serenic users, partners and staff was extremely valuable.  It was important to be able to meet clients face to face after talking with them via GoToMeeting and other electronic tools.  I was able to spend time with our nonprofit clients, inquiring about their Navigator installation, and discussing their daily accounting challenges.  I also attended sessions where I learned new accounting software tips within Navigator.

Explorations 2009 was different from any other software conference I have attended, and Explorations 2010 looks to be even better.

The feedback from Explorations 2009 was taken to heart and I am glad we will have more Software Consultants available to troubleshoot with users in the One-on-One Sessions.  New sessions have been introduced and training will be enhanced with a consistent approach (I would reveal more but then what would be the fun in that?).  This year, I am going to teach Procurement.  In just two hours, I’ll be covering the process from requisition to purchase order to invoice.  Will be a crash course !

We at Serenic are all working to make Explorations 2010 a conference that you can say was, “the best software conference you have ever attended!” If you have not signed up it is not too late–register here. This is your chance to learn more about Navigator, where Serenic is heading, network with other users in your industry and get help with your daily challenges.  I look forward to meeting you at Explorations 2010.

Most nonprofit board members get far too much material prior to their regular meetings, and certainly the financials are prime offenders. Face it: Most of your board members don’t take the time to slog through a five, ten or even twenty (yes, I’ve seen these) page financial report. While your board treasurer and members of your finance committee should go through the financials with a fine tooth comb, is that really necessary for other members? What most board members really need to see is a summary of income and expense against budget, a cash flow projection for the coming six months (also in summary) and a set of balance sheet generated ratios, again compared to goals and past performance.

Remember, any board member should be able to see any number they want, and right away. This kind of differentiation of reporting is intended to allow board members to perform their fiduciary responsibilities efficiently without being buried in numbers.

What about your staff? Does each member of your management team need to see the detailed financials for the entire organization? I don’t think they do. What each manager really needs is a report of her or his area of responsibility in detail and then summary information about the organization as a whole. And, of course, a cash flow projection; everyone needs to see that far too infrequent report.

My philosophy about financial reports is that they should be constructed to fit the varying needs of their intended audience. In reporting your numbers, one size definitely does not fit all. Ask board and staff members what kind of displays they really want. Show them some options and stay flexible. Some people love numbers as numbers. Others get more out of numbers as pictures (graphs and charts). Take a look at the options provided in your Serenic Software and begin a conversation with the end users of your financial reports about ways to accommodate their needs. They’ll be happier, the oversight will be cleaner and you’ll save a few trees to boot.

My name is Celeste Bacon, I am the Training Coordinator for Serenic Software. I have been involved with Serenic‘s training program, now called SerenicEd, since I started with the company a little over eight years ago. When I began working at Serenic, Financial Management Implementation and Navigator Sales were the only two training classes offered, and, they were only available to partners once a quarter in Lakewood, CO. Now, I am very pleased to say, that we have several fund accounting classes scheduled each month, we are beginning to create more offerings for both partners and nonprofit clients, and we are conducting international classes in London!

The change that I am most excited about, however, is the addition of self-study training products. We just released our first self-study accounting class, titled Year End Processing. This hour-long tutorial covers the steps of closing the accounting periods and running the close income statement process. You can choose to run this training session at your convenience and if you need to leave the lesson at any time, you can pause it and pick up right where you left off. The Year End Processing self-study includes screen shots of the software to help you maintain context, and also includes embedded tutorials, which are little movies that illustrate specific processes. At the end of the training, there is a questionnaire to confirm whether you gleaned everything possible from the lesson, or if there are sections you may want to review again. I have to say, the response to this class has been great and we are all working hard to create more topic-specific products. In fact, the next self-study product which will cover Workflow, is already underway!

That is all for now…Be on the lookout for future announcements about new trainings, and feel free to contact me anytime at cbacon@serenic.com for more information or to register for a class!

We, at Serenic, were thrilled to once again be featured as an exhibitor during the 2010 InsideNGO Annual Meeting for finance, grants and contracts. As usual, it was a great time for us to connect with our users and attract potential clientele who shared insights and concerns about their current financial solutions.

This year’s meeting turned out to be great success across the board! Sessions for the 2010 InsideNGO included Stay Ahead of the FASB Curve, Cooking up a Sub-Award, and Indirect Cost in a Cap Environment. We also recently teamed up with InsideNGO to deliver a great webinar.  We look forward to many educational events with them again (and again!).

However, the most common obstacle faced by many of our prospective users  was the lack of integration between  financial software HQ’s and their field office solutions, who’s software often lacks multi-currency capabilities—thus, forcing organizations to use multiple applications to track their projects’ finance and awards. As you can imagine, this can be a real drag because many NGOs  end up having to duplicate their efforts, taking time away from work just to manage and sync their various software applications! Luckily, people were very responsive to our discussions about how Serenic Navigator can consolidate their efforts and overcome these challenges.

As it turned out, this year’s Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference happened to coincide with the InsideNGO Annual Meeting, giving top Serenic executives, like Randy Keith (President and CEO) and Chris Stevenson (VP of Sales), as well as members of Serenic’s Africa-based partner, TechnoBrain, to come out and press the flesh with InsideNGO attendees.

One of the attendees, Denise Graves, Budgeting Administrator at Jhpiego, actually won the $80 Visa Gift Card in our raffle—congrats, Denise! Use it wisely

All in all, the 2010 InsideNGO Meeting was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who attended the sessions, shared their experiences and discussed with us at Serenic their specific needs. It is through these kinds of constructive exchanges that we are able to improve our products in order to better serve you, the clientele.

Brooke and Ryan holding down the Serenic Software booth!

Brooke with Tanya Johnson, Finance Manager at Family Health International

The gentlemen from TechnoBrain, Ltd, our Africa-based partner! Left to Right: Thomas Cullen (VP, US Sales & Marketing), Manoj Shanker (Group CEO), Mahesh Patel (Chairman), Clint Cuny (CEO, USA)

With Explorations just around the corner, I thought I would talk a bit about the sessions titled “VOC”, which stands for Voice of the Client.  These sessions are pivotal in defining the features and prioritization of enhancements for future releases and they also happen to be my favorite.  We are right in the middle of a project that grew out of one of our VOC sessions and I’m so excited about it that I can hardly stand myself.  Actually, it’s my husband, daughters and neighbors that can hardly stand me and, now that I think about it, seem to be avoiding me.  I don’t understand; doesn’t everyone want to talk in great detail about the design and requirements for a budget planning module?

Here’s the background—We conducted a VOC at the conference in Long Beach in late 2007 where the topic was budget planning.  With more than 50 users in the room, we captured a list of pain points:

• budgeting process
• enhancement requests for the product
• relative prioritization of features
  • calculated lines
  • workflow
  • versions

Product Management left that session with enough flip chart paper and colored sticky notes to wallpaper an entire office—which we did!

Now, I know it seems like that was awhile ago, but that’s how product roadmaps work.  First, we had to deliver on our “Go Deep” product strategy for 2008, which was announced at Long Beach and culminated with the release of 5.00.02.  Then we had to incorporate the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 release into Navigator so we could leverage the new architecture, user experience, and integration points.  With that accomplished, we kicked off the budget planning project.

We are now well underway and this project is the cornerstone of our 6.00.01 release, targeted for the end of this calendar year.  We have already conducted a number of focus group meetings with end users and consultants to review our prototypes and validate the requirements; and the response has been extremely positive.  That brings me back to my original point, which is that the users who participated in that VOC session in Long Beach in 2007 played a significant role in assisting the product management and development teams in defining the feature set that is being so well received by users and consultants.  Your voice was heard.  You made a difference.

So, now I’m going to shamelessly plug my favorite sessions in the upcoming conference in September—there are going to be 3 of them—Come join me!

By Andrew Urban

I hope you did, as I just did, spent a great weekend with family for Father’s Day. I always love seeing them again and picking up right where we left off. I appreciate those relationships so much.

Enjoying the relationship is one of the main reasons I am in, and have stayed in a sales role all these years. Many people think of sales as a rough and tumble world of stress and deal making. To me, it’s about the relationships that I’ve been able to nurture with so many incredible people. The wonderful nonprofit organizations I’ve worked with over the years are great because of the people that provide the day-to-day services  to the community. I am constantly amazed by their dedication, hard work, and giving attitudes.

I remember one late afternoon reaching out to a now Serenic Software client, a city zoo, to go through a few benefits that the software was going to provide.  I didn’t realize that I was catching him in his car, with his entire family, on the way to a swim tournament for the weekend! After I apologized for interrupting his family, he asked me to go ahead and walk through the answers I had for him. The details of that specific conversation and of our software are lost to history now, but our Serenic solution was something very personal for him and for the people in the organization. They needed more than just an accounting software upgrade. We offered them the opportunity to enhance their business processes via our Web Portals. For example, bringing the various zoo departments into the purchasing process in a productive way, and native Microsoft integration to help leverage their existing Microsoft technology investment in SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, and Office integrations. After a few minutes of getting down to business, I loved learning about his child’s competitive swim team, and how active the family was with the club. Hearing the giggles from the back seat, and the obvious love for his family in his voice, was an amazing insight into the man who I knew cared about the mission of his employer and finding the right solution for their organization. Lucky for me, he was also kind enough to share a bit of himself in the process.

When we meet, we’ll make sure to get address the business at hand, but it’s wonderful to know that the person across the table and I are both here to find a relationship that will be the perfect fit for the mission of their organization.

Common goals, cares, and a personal understanding of wanting to do the right thing for your own unique mission make each meeting I have feel so much more than a business meeting, but rather the start of good, quality friendship. I’m not saying we have to become buddies in order to do business together. That’s definitely hard to do all of the time; however, it can happen sometimes. A former customer, from over a decade ago, just sent me an email to share the news that he was about to become a Grandpa for the first time. I take pleasure in the fact that he thought of me with his good news.

I hope to reconnect or meet with you soon!

By James Duplinski, Senior Implementation Consultant

After working with Serenic Navigator over the years, I’ve noticed that there can be several approaches to starting a new implementation. Some people immediately jump into the software and have the user start entering setup data. Others take an approach of defining exactly what should be setup by spending months defining business processes and mapping work flows. In my experience, the best approach lies somewhere in the middle of these two models.

When I first started working with software about 10 years ago, I’ll admit I used the approach that would have the users immediately go into the software, and I would explain to them every little setup option and how to enter data once they decided how they wanted the system to work. This would typically involve going over all the options with a handful of users for several days as I tried to impart everything the user needed to know to make an informed decision. While on the surface this seems logical, I found when I followed up with them in our next session, very little setup had been done.

The reason the setup was incomplete wasn’t due to a lack of effort from the users. Rather, it was the fact that there are many setup options in Serenic Navigator and proper consultation on which direction to go can be of great help. Serenic Navigator is highly configurable and can be set up many ways. This is great, but can be a double-edged sword. There are hundreds of ways to setup it up incorrectly and only a few ways to set it up correctly for individual needs!

After experiencing this result several times, I modified how I approached the initial kickoff meeting. Now, I spend our first meeting with the key users talking about their business practices and issues, and I don’t even display the software during that initial kickoff. As part of standard Serenic practice, I also fill out a Concept Document, which touches on all of the major factors when setting up a database. This document serves as the agreement between me and the client as to how their business works, and the client signs off on this document as acknowledging that we are both on the same page.

After this initial meeting and signing of the Concept Document, I take all I have learned about their business and set up a database for them. I can generally return it to them within 1-2 weeks with all the basic setup completed. This gives the users the chance to play around with this configured database, check the results of their transaction entries, and verify whether I have set it up correctly or not. After practicing in the database and confirming that the transactions are posting correctly, I can then go back through the setup options I chose for the client. Here, I explain why I made those choices and how they affect the system. This approach has proved to be the most successful. I get a better understanding of their business, and the client can more narrowly focus on their test and setup efforts.

The only time I do get comments about this approach is in that first meeting, and it is generally from users who just want to jump right into the software and start clicking on buttons. I understand that people can be anxious to jump right in and it does seem like I am holding a holiday present in front of them, but telling them they can’t open it until after the New Year! I like the fact that they are interested in jumping in, but I still have to convey that this is an important step. Not only do I get them a test database more quickly with this approach, I also learn about their business and can ask more informed questions about their business practices, ultimately providing the best configuration possible. That is why I say that the accounting software implementation doesn’t begin with the software; it starts with conversations about how the custom install of YOUR Serenic Navigator will fit your nonprofit needs and empower your mission.