Coprocess held our 7th User Group Meeting for all our netting clients at the Hotel Barcarolle, Nyon, Switzerland. As with previous years the event was held over 2 days. There was a dinner hosted by Coprocess on the evening of Thursday.
Coprocess is pleased to offer these opportunities. They give our users a chance to meet others in similar roles where they discuss matters concerning netting or other topics. Coprocess provides demonstrations of the latest features, many of which are developed in response to client requests.
It is also an opportunity for Coprocess to meet the users of its systems. Since most of the sales, implementation, training and support is completed virtually, these user group meetings are invaluable to us too. Since the last user group meeting (June 2012) we have made many changes to the system and being face to face is a great way for us to assess the value and interest in the latest features.
One of the highlights of the UGM was the presentations given by our clients:
- Atlas Copco: adding month end reconciliation and broadening the scope of netting
- BASF: interfacing the netting with SAP
- Nestlé: on their netting system
- Sandvik: on pooling and payments
for which we are deeply indebted. We would also like to thank all the attendees for completing our quality and satisfaction survey and for the very kind clients who volunteered to be interviewed in front of the cameras. We asked for their opinions on a variety of Coprocess' services. These we hope to publish later when we have permission from the various companies and the individuals. Coprocess was also proud to show off the latest changes to the system, including some innovative ways of including business units that cannot normally take part in a netting, either because of currency or country regulations. In a user friendly way the payment flows are automatically turned into information only flows based on various criteria. This is a real bonus in terms of visibility of transactions which would otherwise have to be sent outside the system, with all the consequences that entails.
There was also praise for Roger Joerg from our Zurich office for the round-up of country and currency regulation and how the Coprocess system allows business units to take part in netting and settlement to a larger or lesser degree, even though the flows cannot be 'netted' (reduced to a single flow in local currency). Information about the regulations is collected by interviewing some of our larger clients. Many indeed are active in a large number of countries and the whole user community benefits from their local expertise.
The netting regulations are now posted on our Coprocess User Forum, again new for this year, the Coprocess User Forum is a closed area of the website, just for clients. Here clients can post information such as the netting regs but also ask questions of the community. Coprocess will be posting there too, with such items as the 'What's New', a roundup of the latest changes in the system, normally released quarterly. We hope to make use of the information in forum for client feedback and product development ideas, to augment our FAQ's on the website etc. However, the client comments remain in the closed group and we always ask for permission before publishing anything given to us there.
Other items on the agenda included:
- Hosting vs Installed
- Month End Reconciliation
- Vendor Payments
- Tips and Tricks with the New Version
- What's Missing
- Savings - Are they bigger than you think
- Reporting & Interfacing
Download the full agenda (PDF).
There was a lot of information to focus on in the sessions, indeed Jim Virdee's presentation on the state of the universe moments after the Big Bang was the light relief (and yes talking of light, Einstein's equations were in there too!). However there were several breaks where clients could relax and maybe wander outside to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Bacarolle Hotel. There was a break for drinks at the end of the first day, before dinner. Clients were also treated to wines from a local company (fill in here), the owner of which was on hand to answer questions.
Make sure to check out our User Group Meeting video.
And here are some pictures to give a flavour of the event. Each year our clients grow in number and we look forward to welcoming as many as possible to the 8th Coprocess User Group Meeting in 2016.
