Highpoint is excited to announce that we have implemented Unit4 Business World On!.

Like many small/medium businesses, Highpoint used a variety of apps and Cloud based solutions in support of its Finance, Project Management, Resourcing and HR/Payroll functions. 

Please see below our very own implementation case study.

Highpoint has definitely become more efficient and working smarter since the implementation of Unit4 Business World On!

If you would like to find out more please contact us on 01225 326409 or e-mail enquiries@highpoint-services.co.uk.

Dudley College: Unit4 Business World On! Implementation Case Study

Highpoint supplied Consultancy on the upgrade project at Dudley College. Covering technical Consultancy, Application Consultancy, Business Analysis, Training, and Project Management.

Dudley College of Technology has recently been awarded Ofsted’s prestigious ‘outstanding’ rating. The college has played a pivotal role in the provision of vocational and technical education in Dudley borough and the wider Black Country for over 150 years.

The college’s legacy system needed updating. Working in a constantly changing sector, the college recognised the need for software that could adapt to ever changing needs. With this in mind, the college chose Unit4 Business World On! which would be implemented using the FE Value Accelerator developed by Highpoint.

Below is the case study of the project.

Ten Years of Highpoint Celebrations

Ben Houghton, Tony Peacock and Dan Farmer founded Highpoint ten years ago. They saw an opportunity to create a training and consultancy firm that had the best expert knowledge about the software but also really listened and adapted to customer needs. In ten years, Highpoint has worked with Unit4 Business World customers across the globe. In 2010 Highpoint became one of three preferred unit4 Business world upgrade partners. In 2011 Highpoint became preferred Unit4 Business World training partners. Our relationship with Unit4 has always been very close, we are now the only Unit4 Strategic Training partners in UK & Ireland, working with Unit4 to bring first class training for the software.  Highpoint’s very first employee was Martin Ostell who is still with the company today, and the team has grown and got stronger through the years.

Highpoint is continually innovating our products to keep up with the digital revolution. In June 2016 Highpoint launched the Knowledge Hub, an online support portal for Unit4 Business World users, which has been a massive success. Highpoint and Unit4 have partnered up for the “FE Your Way” campaign. Using Highpoint’s FE Value accelerator to make implementations for Further Education Colleges, quick and within a budget.

We feel it is a real achievement that Highpoint is ten years old. Considering some of the turbulent years that it has faced due to the world economy being unstable at times.

To mark the occasion Highpoint had a party with the team new and old and also a special guest from Unit4 Matt Searles. It was a wonderful afternoon, with a few bubbles to cheers, a buffet lunch and a Highpoint pub quiz.

We would like to say thank you to all our customers, unit4 and the team. Here’s to another ten years, we wonder what they have in store for us

New Release of Unit4 Business World On! Manuals

With the huge success of the Milestone 4 & 5 manuals, we are excited to announce the release of the Unit4 Business World On! manuals.
At Highpoint, we have been developing and honing our Build Training for Unit4 Business World (formerly Agresso) for many years. We deliver these to audiences at our customers sites and our own offices with excellent results. Due to the outstanding feedback and amazing results we have received from these courses, we have developed a set of user manuals. These Unit4 Business World manuals are the perfect way to learn at your own pace. They come complete with a step-by-step task list to make your learning experience as clear and easy as possible. We are confident in the unique style of our course manuals, which evolved based on seeing what works and what doesn’t for those who are new to Unit4 Business World, and those who simply want to know how to get more out of the capabilities.

Who are these manuals for?

• Anyone who needs to learn Unit4 Business World quickly
• Individuals who want to start their Unit4 Business World career
• Experienced consultants converting to Unit4 Business World from other ERP systems
• Corporate staff and individuals who need to rapidly learn how to use Unit4 Business World
• Project managers who want to fast track their project
• Project teams and consultants requiring pre-prepared user training documentation

We think you will find it to be the training you were looking for all along.

To buy the new range of Unit4 Business World On! manuals click here!

Well Done to the Highpoint Training Team!

Highpoint’s training team has had a very busy and successful first half of 2017. The team have been sharing their Unit4 Business World expertise across the globe, training organisations in such places from Edinburgh to Nairobi.

The training feedback has truly been amazing, so we have created an infographic to share with you all

Highpoint offers a wide range of Unit4 Business World training services. From eLearning, webinars, and classroom. We work very closely with our customers to match time and budget needs.

For further information please go to www.highpoint-services.co.uk or contact Fiona Powell 01225 326409

What is FE Your Way?

FE Your Way is a new offering for Further Education Colleges in the UK and Ireland. It represents a renewed focus for Unit4 within the FE sector.

FE Your Way is based upon a software bundle and implementation process, which is cost sensitive, time efficient and delivers a robust and appropriate solution for Colleges.

It utilises a pre-defined FE Value Accelerator which includes software appropriate for most Colleges in UK and Ireland and an implementation methodology which is based upon excellent knowledge transfer, dynamic documentation, and agile project management.

Our aim is to provide a robust implementation experience to our customers throughout their project and beyond.

The FE Your Way journey began several years ago when Highpoint started writing their own Business World On! user guides and task lists documenting how to build the application. Once this work was completed, we realised that these guides collectively described a build which has morphed into the FE Value Accelerator.

There are a number of benefits to this approach:

• The FE Value Accelerator exists as an entity and is used at the outset of the project to review current and proposed processes
• The FE Value Accelerator is fully documented in terms of the build process, this facilitates knowledge transfer to the project team
• The documentation is updated during throughout the project with the effect that your final built solution is fully documented as part of the core project.
• The FE Value Accelerator is not prescriptive; we provide the knowledge transfer to enable your team to change elements such as the General Ledger or Work Flows.

So that is the theory. FE Your Way was first put into practice with Dudley College. The colleges legacy system needed to be updated. Working in a constantly changing sector, the college recognised the need for software that could meet these ever changing needs. With this in mind, the College chose Unit4’s Business World On! coupled with the FE Value Accelerator developed by Highpoint to deliver these requirements.

“Highpoint have been excellent. They have been flexible and understanding, as our needs have developed through the project. Project management from Highpoint is very thorough. The consultants (Martin and Eleonore) are both extremely knowledgeable about the software and have both been friendly and supportive –
which has enabled the success of the project.” – Andrew Woodford Management Accountant

Following on from the huge success of the Dudley College implementation, Unit4 and Highpoint officially agreed to collaborate and use this methodology to benefit more Colleges. FE Your Way was launched and has been going from strength to strength ever since.

“When I joined Unit4 in May 2016, it was the ideal opportunity to review our approach to the FE marketplace. We found that customers in FE were in need of a solution that was FE specific, affordable, reliable, and adaptive to change. Business World On! is an incredibly scalable solution so it was essential to find a perfect balance between functionality, FE core requirements and effective implementation. Unit4 were extremely impressed with the approach Highpoint services took to Dudley College, based on quick implementation, sprint methodology. What really drew me to Highpoint was their train the trainer methodology where the staff was empowered as advocates of Business World On! by effective knowledge transfer. This was the start of our ‘FE Your Way’ approach which has continued to develop and grow in 2016, taking this successful approach to other colleges in the FE Sector.” – Selina Watmore Unit4 Account Manager – Education

A Look to the Future

At the end of 2016, Sandwell College opted to implement Business World On! using the FE Your Way implementation methodology.

Going on into 2017 two more colleges have selected FE Your Way City of Wolverhampton College, Kingstone Maurward and Calderdale College.

Calderdale College has recently had some great things to say about the project so far:

“We have been tremendously impressed with the professionalism displayed by Highpoint in connection with the implementation of our Unit4 BWO! Finance package.  They have been both patient and considerate when assessing our needs. One thing we found that was of great use to us was the 3-day Familiarisation session.  This was a pressure free walk around the various components of the overall system.  By doing this it gently lead our users through how the system fitted together and with it not being full on training also helped them to buy into the concept of a rather different system to what they have been used to. We are looking forward to finishing our build of the system and then the training and testing of what we have constructed. We could not be more happy with our dealings with Highpoint and the people that make Highpoint what it is.”

Highpoint is delighted with the progress of the campaign and is going out to many more Colleges in the next few months to demo Highpoint’s Value Accelerator. We are looking forward to working with Unit4 and many more Colleges to make their implementation as smooth and as successful as possible.

If you would like to know more about FE Your Way please contact us on:

Tel: 01225 326409

E-mail: enquiries@highpoint-services.co.uk

Editor’s note: Massive thank you to Highpoint’s Ben Houghton for writing this blog post!

Sandwell College Go-Live With Unit4 Business World On!

Sandwell College has gone live with Unit4 Business World On! this week. The implementation started in the last week of October 2016, following the new and improved “Highpoint FE Value Accelerator“. Highpoint’s Unit4 Business World implementation method includes a defined FE Value Accelerator. This is underpinned by excellent knowledge transfer, dynamic documentation and agile project management. Knowledge transfer is fundamental, enabling customers to take part in the build. Thus better maintain and develop their solution post go-live. FE Your way is easy to use, quick to install, low in cost and high in value.

The Modules Implemented included:

• Record to Report (including Casterbridge reporting)
• Accounts payable
• Purchasing (including funds checking)
• Fixed Assets
• Accounts Receivable
• Sales Ordering
• Bank Rec
• Planner
• IntellAgent, Flexi-fields, Workflow (including alerts), Action overview, document archive.

Successful Implementation

There was a great collaborative effort between Sandwell and Highpoint staff – with a huge amount of work achieved in a short time frame.

The implementation came in on time and within budget.

Well done to both teams and we wish Sandwell College all the best using their new system!

Highpoint look forward to collaborating with other customers helping them to implement Business World on! by running efficient and cost effective projects using our FE Value Accelerator.

If you would like to know more about Highpoint’s Further Education Implementation implementation please contact us – Tel: 01225 326409 or E-mail: enquiries@highpoint-services.co.uk