Sage, the market leader in cloud business management solutions, has welcomed a plethora of new customers to Sage Intacct, looking to deepen their strategic insight and financial management across their businesses. These customers have selected Sage Intacct to address several common operational needs, such as accelerating the monthly close, enhancing productivity through automation, accessing rich company data with multi-dimensional reporting and real-time access to actionable insights.

Sage is delighted to welcome L W Cole, a fourth-generation family run business to the UK Sage Intacct community. It has operated exclusively within the contract market for over 20 years, offering supply and installation services of major domestic appliances to UK housebuilders across England and Wales. 

Since going live with Sage Intacct, L W Cole has experienced key outcomes, including: 

• 75% decrease in month end close time
• 36% productivity improvement on accounts payable inputting
• One – man-day resource saving every month due to automated report generation
• Seamless integration with bespoke business management system thanks to Sage Intacct’s flexible API 
• Data manipulation efficiency gains with dimensional reporting

Another notable Sage Intacct customer is East Malling Trust, a charitable organisation that has supported scientific research into the horticultural industry since 1913. Today, the Trust’s main objectives are focused on the advancement of science for public benefit, primarily through the support of research and development, particularly in the fields of horticultural and other plant-based disciplines.  

Since selecting Sage Intacct, East Malling Trust has achieved several benefits, including:

• 50% quicker to compile board reports
• Sped up pay run process by 75%
• Halved the time to do quarterly VAT returns
• Bespoke dashboards for users to see

Across Q1 of 2021, many organisations across multiple verticals have selected Sage Intacct for their cloud business management solutions. This includes:

Business Services Customers

• Ark–H Handling is one of the UK’s premier supply services and handling houses that offers diversified fulfilment services. For more than 25 years, Ark-H Handling has provided services including POS, kitting, system integration, e-commerce, contract packing, sampling, customer care, data management, email broadcasting, and brochure fulfilment.
• Arlington Portfolio Management Limited is a property investor and developer with a pioneering reputation and a focus on innovation real estate. Arlington invests mainly in business space which can be used for corporate, innovation technology, or R&D functions, with a growing  focus on tech and life science. The organisation also develops logistics and manufacturing buildings to enable their technology customers to transition from R&D to light manufacture or clean production.

Professional Services Customers

• ERS Medical provides 24-7-365-day service of non-emergency patient transport, neonatal patient transport, and courier services to the NHS and the wider healthcare sector across the UK. ERS Medical completes over 1 million patient and medical courier journeys a year and serve more than 319 NHS Trusts for patient transport. Additionally, they own a comprehensive fleet of more than 400 vehicles and employ over 900 staff including paramedics, technicians, and nurses. 

Technology & Software Customers

• Energy Aspects delivers industry-leading data, research, and analysis on global energy commodity and macro markets. Founded in 2012, Energy Aspects is now retained by approximately 500 companies to provide indispensable insights that help guide trading decisions. Energy Aspects' clients also rely on their robust data sets, actionable analysis, and timely forecasts to invest, finance, and plan.
• Featurespace is the inventor of Adaptive Behavioral Analytics and the award-winning ARIC Risk Hub -- a platform that offers multiple machine learning solutions for fraud and Anti-Money Laundering analysts to spot suspicious activity and prioritise alerts with explainable anomaly detection. Working as a technology partner to the financial services industry, their ARIC Risk Hub is deployed in some of the world's largest banks, payments processors, and merchant acquirers.

Financial Services Customer

• MHA Carpenter Box is an award-winning sector focused firm of Chartered Accountants, Tax, and Business Advisers. Organised into specialist business groups, MHA Carpenter Box offers a comprehensive range of services to businesses and private clients in the South East and beyond. MHA Carpenter Box is at the forefront of cloud accountancy and are recognised as a national thought leader and as one of the most respected accountancy, tax, and business advice practices in the region.

Telecoms Customer

• Wireless Innovation specialises in machine-to-machine (m2m) satellite and cellular connectivity products and solutions. Wireless Innovation has worked extensively in the utilities market and delivers end-to-end solutions – whether that’s a wireless network for CCTV backhaul, or a satellite communications system for retrieving critical M2M data from a remote geographical area. They are recognised as pioneers in wireless data communications, with customers in over 100 countries.

To learn more about Sage’s customers and their stories please click here.

HelpSystems announced today that its GoAnywhere managed file transfer (MFT) solution is now AS4-certified by Drummond Group. This certification recognises that GoAnywhere meets the full interoperability testing, so information is exchanged and received securely and according to the Applicability Statement 4 (AS4) standards.

AS4 is a newer security protocol that makes it easy to use web services to transfer important files between parties. AS4 popularity is rising because it easily supports attachments and uploads or downloads of virtually any file type.

In addition, AS4 supports multiple attachments/payloads in a single transaction, while AS2 is limited to a single file at a time. Bi-directional transfers (uploads and downloads) are also possible with AS4. AS2 is only push-oriented (uploading only).

AS4 Drummond Certification benefits organisations by providing assurance that as their digital operations grow, the solutions they use to exchange files with third parties and trading partners are thoroughly vetted for security and interoperability.

“By going through the intensive testing process, we are able to recognise and act on organisations’ need for ever-more secure and interoperable protocols,” said Brian Pick, Managing Director for HelpSystems’ MFT. “Drummond certification for our AS4 solution delivers tested proof that GoAnywhere MFT has the ability to seamlessly integrate with other applications when exchanging information.”

About HelpSystems

HelpSystems is a software company focused on helping exceptional organisations Build a Better IT™. Our cybersecurity and automation software simplifies critical IT processes to give our customers peace of mind. We know IT transformation is a journey, not a destination. Let’s move forward. Learn more at www.helpsystems.com

Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, has announced the release of a new unified payment solution that allows consumers in Europe to pay for electric vehicle (EV) charging quickly, conveniently and safely.

The use of EVs is soaring across Europe, with 455,000 vehicles in the United Kingdom at the end of February, while Germany registered 20,000 electric cars in a single month. EV registrations are overtaking diesel vehicles and there is a 71% jump in electric vehicle purchases projected for 2021. The European EV fleet is projected to grow from 2.3 million in 2020 to 34 million by 2030, with public EV chargers growing from 200,000 today to as many as 3 million by 2030.

The growth of EV charging presents a challenge in terms of payments since charging stations are unattended, leading to a risk of non-payment, and will be used by customers with a range of currencies and payment methods. The market requires an end-to-end offering with omnichannel capabilities that allows for app-based, contactless and PIN pad payment authorisation. These payments will also have to be pre-authorised and allow for payment in multiple currencies.

Worldline’s Easy EV solution, suitable for both big infrastructure or as a one stop shop for smaller players, addresses the needs of both EV charging geographies and client business models. Payments can be taken on four different card readers with both touchscreen and press-button operation and includes simplified acquiring coverage over Europe. The solution will be rolled out to infrastructure owners, charging point operations, electric mobility providers and EV charger manufacturers across the continent to help supercharge their businesses.

Given the explosive growth of both EVs and digital payments, the WL Easy EV payment solution is uniquely positioned to impact not just the EV charging market, but to become part of everyday life for millions of people across Europe as EVs become more common.

Radu-Vasile Pop, Global Head of Self-Service Verticals, Parking & EV-Charging at Worldline said: “As the world looks to reduce vehicle emissions, our goal is to address all the payment challenges of EV charging in Europe with a simple, smooth and secure customer experience together with a fast & flexible payment process for operators and consumers alike. Our WL Easy EV payment solution combines the best of unattended and online/in-app payments to truly electrify journeys.”

For more information: http://worldline.com/easy-ev

About Worldline

Worldline  is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide. With its global reach and its commitment to innovation, Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies in all sectors. Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and secure solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business growth wherever they are. Services offered by Worldline in the areas of Merchant Services; Terminals, Solutions & Services; Financial Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services include domestic and cross-border commercial acquiring, both in-store and online, highly-secure payment transaction processing, a broad portfolio of payment terminals as well as e-ticketing and digital services in the industrial environment. In 2020 Worldline generated a proforma revenue of 4.8 billion euros. worldline.com

Today, ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection announced that Gemini, a leading crypto exchange and custodian selected ComplyAdvantage’s hyperscale platform for anti-money laundering risk management. 

Compliance teams around the world need access to intelligent technologies that can uncover risk in real-time and decrease operational costs so their companies can transact with trust and grow with confidence. With the accelerated adoption of cryptocurrency and digital assets, Gemini wanted a solution that could continue to scale with its rapid growth.

“We selected ComplyAdvantage because of the company’s agile approach to financial crime risk management,” said Elena Hughes, Chief Compliance Officer at Gemini. “ComplyAdvantage’s hyper-scalable model, customizable screening solution, and collaborative approach to Gemini’s model were critical to meeting our compliance needs.”

Leveraging its proprietary data asset and advanced machine learning, ComplyAdvantage helps to detect sanctions and adverse events while uncovering hidden risks during customer onboarding and throughout the client lifecycle, automating AML risk monitoring to help companies like Gemini maintain the highest level of compliance oversight and integrity.

"Gemini is a great example of a market leader implementing the best in compliance practices to support the company’s customer on-boarding,” said Charles Delingpole, founder and CEO ComplyAdvantage.  “Now, Gemini can scale with our real-time, high quality sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media solutions, allowing them to make more informed decisions on their customers relative to their risk-based approach.”

Already the preferred choice of some of the world’s largest banks, enterprises, and high-growth fintechs, ComplyAdvantage uses machine learning to help regulated organizations manage their risk obligations and prevent financial crime. The company’s proprietary database is derived from millions of data points that provide dynamic, real-time insights across sanctions, watchlists, politically exposed persons, and negative news. This reduces dependence on manual review processes and legacy databases by up to 80% and improves how companies screen and monitor clients and transactions.

Tyr Capital Partners, the team behind the successful crypto arbitrage hedge fund, Tyr Capital Arbitrage SP, has announced it is setting up an actively managed long-only fund to launch next year, following increasing demand from investors. 

The fund will offer investors exposure to the potential long-term rewards of a portfolio of cryptocurrencies.

The structure and strategy will be tested this year with a small number of private investors, including the fund’s founders. Tyr Capital Partners predicts the fund will open for investment in 2022.

The fund comes at a time when there is a growing hunger to go-long on cryptocurrencies. An increasing number of retail investors, institutional investors and even bitcoin miners are holding onto bitcoin for increasingly longer periods of time, as conviction over the price strengthens and deepens. Glassnode’s recent "BTC Percent Supply Last Active 2+ Years" indicator showed that Bitcoins active within the last two years had reached a three-month low to 45.364%.

Tyr Capital Arbitrage SP has consistently delivered high returns with one of the highest average Sharpe Ratios in the industry. 2020 saw the arbitrage fund deliver returns of over 35% at a Sharpe Ratio of 6.5.

Nick Norris, CEO of Tyr Capital Partners, comments:

“We are very excited to get this fund up and running. Both our own research and the conversations we’ve been having over a number of months with investors all point toward a growing appetite to incorporate long strategies as part of a diversified portfolio. Our flagship fund has performed exceptionally well since inception and now we’re branching out at the request of our investors. The Partners at Tyr Capital are investing in this fund as well, as we believe in the potential and opportunity that crypto presents as it moves towards a more stable, institutional-friendly asset.”

Ed Hindi, Chief Investment Officer at Tyr Capital Partners, comments:

“The nascent crypto market remains highly risky and speculative. Diversifying your portfolio along the lines of market neutral pro-volatility strategies and beta exposure leads to higher and less volatile returns over the medium and long term. Expanding our product range from our flagship market neutral and pro-volatility arbitrage fund to include an actively managed long only fund was the natural next step towards establishing Tyr Capital as an industry leader in the digital asset management industry.”

The nature of work in the financial industry is changing rapidly, according to new research from specialist recruiter Robert Half and global labour market trends experts Burning Glass. Businesses are simultaneously embracing remote working for financial and accounting staff, with a 186% increase in the number of remote working job postings in the last year, and expanding the skill sets expected of candidates, including:

• Securities and finance dealers required to establish customer rapport (+46%)
• Finance and insurance clerks with CRM abilities (+100%)
• Management and organisational analysts to apply conceptual thinking (+25%)

“The way we worked was already evolving before COVID-19 struck, but the pandemic has acted as an accelerator for these trends in a way we would never have expected 18 months ago,” said Matt Weston, Managing Director of Robert Half UK. “These findings are further proof that businesses are shifting away from outdated ideas around ‘presenteeism’ and towards more useful metrics related to productivity and output. What an employee produces is more important than where they do it, which is why businesses are increasingly comfortable with remote or hybrid working, and why demand for agile, adaptable candidates who can effectively marry strong technical capabilities with essential softer skills like interpersonal communication or building rapport necessary for working with clients and prospects.”

The Demand for Skilled Talent report also lays out the ways in which employees are pushing the move towards hybrid and flexible working, with two fifths of workers (39%) saying they plan to relocate to another country or city and continue working remotely, and almost half (49%) want to switch to a compressed four-day week in response to increased workloads over the last year. A large majority (68%) also expressed a desire to continue working from home for between one and three days a week post-pandemic.

“For hiring managers, the most important takeaway from these findings is that they need to have a full understanding of the job function and required skillset for every role in their team,” continued Weston. “Without a clear picture of how various team members are working, and the demands being placed on them, it’s that much more difficult to develop sensible policies around remote working and training and development to maximise efficiency, productivity, and team morale.”

Leading Open Banking Ecosystem Fabrick and Crédit du Nord, a leading French retail banking group comprising nine regional banks, launched Identity Check Mobile (IDCM) to make biometric authentication available to cardholders for remote transactions.

On 01 January 2021, the final piece of PSD2 came into full effect: banks are now required to follow strong customer authentication for most card transactions. The PSD2 requirement for strong customer authentication for most card transactions, combined with the recent mandate on biometrics requiring that issuers make biometric authentication available to cardholders for remote transactions, has increased the importance of simple and rapid authentication solutions. Crédit du Nord has selected Fabrick’s IDCM solution to meet these vital requirements for its French customers.

IDCM provides a secure and easy way for users to identify themselves while shopping online.  As part of the payment authorisation process users receive a notification on their phone which asks them to identify themselves using secure biometric data via their mobile phones, comprising fingerprint, face or voice recognition.

The growth in e-commerce, which has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, has also led to an increase in fraud. IDCM addresses consumers’ security fears, while delighting them with its ease-of-use which is also helping driving adoption. 

Fabrick’s IDCM solution has been integrated into a new standalone white-label app configured with Crédit du Nord’s own branding and published on app stores under the name of “Mon e-paiement sécurisé”. The versatile IDCM solution also enables banks to integrate the IDCM Software Development Kit (SDK) developed by Fabrick into their existing mobile banking or payment app simplifying the time-to-market of IDCM, while still being able to support the main credit card system providers according to customer needs.

Fabrick’s pioneering platform and ecosystem supports the collaboration of fintechs, corporates and financial institutions to design the future of banking. Working with partners to deploy cloud-based products like IDCM is an example of that vision brought to life. IDCM allows banks and fintechs to make the most advanced biometric authentication services and technologies available to their customers.

For Laurence Deschuyteneer, Head of Payments within Crédit du Nord group: “The growth of e-commerce, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, places the risk of fraud at the center of the concerns for online shoppers. Crédit du Nord responds to this major concern of its private, professional and corporate clients: this application guarantees both strong customer authentication meeting the requirements of regulations on payment services. The app is both an additional anti-fraud system as well as a secure shopping experience."

Marco Casartelli, Deputy CEO of Fabrick commented: “Strong customer authentication that harnesses the power of secure biometric data is an increasingly vital part of modern banking, providing the convenient and protected transactions that customers demand. We are proud of our collaboration with Crédit du Nord and this is an opportunity to embark on an innovation journey with them. The partnership confirms our role as a trusted partner for leading banks and fintech companies across European markets. Crédit du Nord is a company that understands the material advantages that technological innovation and open banking bring in terms of delivering their end customers with value-added services such as robust security and easy-to-use authentication." 

“Our IDCM solution brings together the integration between the credit card circuit players and banks creating efficient internal processes for our partners and benefits for their customers. Fabrick’s track record in leading innovation is the ideal accompaniment to maintaining a competitive market position.”

 Online Payment Platform, the Netherlands payment service provider, has selected payments expert and licensed bank, Banking Circle, to enhance its marketplace offering.

Online Payment Platform is focused on providing a cost-effective and fast payment solution for over 170 marketplaces such as Nature.house and Marktplaats.nl from the Netherlands and eBay-Kleinanzeigen in Germany. Also they are currently expanding into the UK and France. One of the big challenges sellers using these marketplaces face is the speed of accounts settlement, with delays impacting on cashflow.

Addressing this challenge, Online Payment Platform is using Banking Circle’s accounts in multiple currencies to gain access to various local clearing methods in just one solution. This helps Online Payment Platform to receive and make payments faster and cheaper as well as enhance internal processes. It is also using Banking Circle’s unique Virtual IBAN solution for accounts reconciliation.

As Maurice Jongmans, CEO, Online Payment Platform explained, the partnership with Banking Circle enables the PSP to offer an important added value to its marketplace customers.

“The marketplaces we support are dealing with thousands of merchants who are making and receiving numerous payments every day, to and from multiple countries and in multiple currencies. It is critical, therefore, that funds from acquirers can be paid out to marketplace sellers as quickly as possible and that the merchants’ profits aren’t undermined by fees or FX costs. By working with Banking Circle we are capitalising on its ‘real-time’ payments proposition which cuts out cost and time.”

Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle added: “Online Payment Platform has ambitious growth plans and we are delighted to be able to support these, both in terms of their plans to grow their geographic footprint and in the added value services they can provide.

“We have built a solution that allows businesses like Online Payment Platform to give their marketplace customers access to transparent, local payments and collections across borders, without the need for a physical presence or a relationship with a correspondent bank in that region. And that means increased speed of settlement as well as reduced cost.”

Available globally through SWIFT, Faster Payments, CHAPS, SEPA and local clearing, Banking Circle solutions are currently available to Payments businesses in 25 currencies with more currencies and local capabilities planned. Smoother, faster reconciliation is achieved through dedicated multi-currency Virtual IBANs in multiple jurisdictions, delivering improvements across reconciliation, consolidation, risk management, operational efficiency, transaction processing and liquidity management.

Available via API, Web and SWIFT, the solutions can be accessed by new and existing Banking Circle clients, with just a connected or unconnected BIC required by the Payments business.

Clim8 Invest (Clim8), the investment platform to help consumers invest in companies that are focused on tackling climate change, has today announced the launch of its mobile app. 

Offering a range of portfolios to suit different risk profiles, the Clim8 Invest app empowers people to make a real, positive impact on climate change with the potential to enjoy a return on their investment. Core themes are clean energy, cleantech; smart mobility; clean water; circular economy; and sustainable food. 

Over the last 12 months, based on a mixture of simulated and actual past performance Clim8’s balanced portfolio has performed well and returned 25.35%, significantly ahead of its benchmark (50% MSCI World Equities, 50% Barclays Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond). The comparative benchmark performance over the past 10 years is 7.76%.

“We are launching at an exciting time for sustainable investing. 2020 was an exceptional year for environmentally-focused investment offerings such as ours, as investors looked harder at climate related opportunities,” said Duncan Grierson, CEO of Clim8. “Sustainable investments have continued to outperform markets since the beginning of the Covid-19 Crisis and we believe this will continue.”

Sustainable fund inflows more than doubled in 2020 for equity reaching $348 bn compared to $166 bn in 2019. Additionally, sustainable funds tracked by Morningstar (actively managed and passive strategies) outperformed the market. In the US, the outperformance over the S&P 500 reached 400 bp, and 345 bp in developed countries ex-US.  

“Not only is sustainable investment becoming mainstream, we believe it has the basis for sustained out-performance in the medium-term, irrespective of views on the environmental crisis,” said Vincent Gilles, Chief Investment Officer, Clim8 Invest. “We believe this outperformance can be explained by two main factors. The demise of the oil and gas sector² in which sustainable funds are typically not invested in and the defensive qualities of the more sustainable companies in a period of market turmoil.”

“Whatsmore, it is anticipated that billions if not trillions will be redeployed towards sustainable investment. Clean energy technologies are now economically competitive and will amplify the trend towards sustainable solutions. And as more evidence of the environmental crisis emerges, regulations will continue to get tougher for polluters.”

Gilles and his experienced investment team have developed an in-depth due diligence process for stock selection from a combined 50 years’ of experience in the energy focused capital markets. Key metrics include performance vs risk exposure, the management teams’ track record, company's financial merits and how they work towards being aligned with the Paris climate agreement. 

“We are focused on structural growth, sustainable returns, and competitive advantage. We filter companies that make the best use of their resources and show positive developments on carbon emissions relative to their sector & region. When assessing sustainability we use temperature alignment models to actively select companies that are working towards the Paris goals,” said Gilles.

The Clim8 Invest mobile app can be downloaded from the Apple and Android app stores.