BT and Sage help businesses control costs20 July 2006
BT and Sage (UK) Limited have today announced a collaboration to integrate two market-leading software applications that will give businesses greater visibility and control of their communication costs than ever before.
The companies will link BT Billing Analyst, a powerful PC program for analysing telecoms bills, with Sage MMS, Sage's latest mid-range accounting solution, giving customers benefits from a free flow of data between the two applications.
The integration will mean a fully automated and auditable billing process that eliminates inaccuracies often introduced via manual intervention, as well as greatly reducing the time and administrative costs of bill interrogation and payment.
Customers will also be able to view and attribute telecoms charges by cost centre within their business, right down to individually coded transactions - creating greater real-time transparency of all telecoms spend and ability for instant financial coding and analysis.
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, said: "We know from speaking to our business customers that they needlessly waste valuable hours each month on analysing and processing their telecoms bills through their accounts team. With both applications configured to transact data seamlessly, we are creating an environment where businesses can move easily from the billing analysis process through to cost allocation, payment and budgetary control within the accounting system.
"Partnering with Sage is another example of BT bringing it all together - integrating software that makes sense and brings efficiencies to the way our customers do business. It also complements the range of business solutions BT already offers small to medium-sized business and is a market-first differentiator from our competitors."
David Karlin, managing director of Sage's Mid-Market Division, said: "Sage is always looking for ways to enhance the functionality and customer experience of its products. Linking Sage MMS to the BT Billing Analyst is a great way to improve the management and control of a communications budget, helping to save substantial time and allowing businesses to focus on more strategic accounting issues. There is great market demand for this integrated functionality and we expect our joint proposition to be a real hit with businesses. We are confident that we have a significant number of mutual customers that will be able to take immediate advantage of this."
The integration development work is already underway; existing and new Sage MMS customers will be able to take advantage of the integration with BT Billing Analyst in the autumn. Following this roll-out, BT will then commence work to integrate with the wider range of Sage accounting and finance solutions.
To request more information or to comment on this joint BT and Sage project, businesses can visit: www.btintelligentsolutions.com/btba_sage_partnership
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