Retail services group counts on CODA for global operations

• CODA’s accounting system  integrates easily with other software used by MARKANT
• CODA delivers best-in-class finance software with international reach
• MARKANT benefits from rapid implementation

CODA Group, the finance software specialist, has announced that MARKANT Handels und Service GmbH has selected its CODA 2count Financials solution. MARKANT was founded in 1953 in Germany as union of independent retailers and wholesalers who joined together to form and benefit from a buying association. MARKANT, which has subsidiaries around the world, was looking for a software solution that could fulfil all of its requirements in a cost-efficient and future-proof manner.

The CODA solution was evaluated against three other solutions and won because of its ability to standardise processes, its multinational capabilities and its short implementation time. The solution has been integrated into the group’s existing application as well as with MARKANT’s merchandise management system.

Business users within MARKANT’s financial accounting and administration departments have to deal with international financial transactions and country-specific accounting guidelines on a daily basis. As a result, MARKANT needed to find a solution that could adapt to these different financial and accounting regimes readily and found that CODA 2count could meet these requirements quickly and efficiently. “In the future, we will be working trans-nationally and it is therefore important that we have a uniform group accounting system that works in accordance with the various companies in our business. We also need that solution to be cost-efficient, agile and scalable,” explained Ulrich Greber, head of accounting at MARKANT.

In addition to its international capabilities, CODA’s solutions can be seamlessly integrated with MARKANT’s existing business solutions, including a centralised settlement system which MARKANT developed itself. The team were also impressed by CODA’s cost calculation and cost allocation features.

Once MARKANT had selected the solution, CODA’s specialist team started work on the implementation itself and the first nine MARKANT companies were able to go live with the solution within four months of the project start date.

Today MARKANT’s accounting department benefits from simplified data transfers from external systems, which run very smoothly thanks to the integration with MS Office products. The previous inflexible asset management system is now a thing of the past. The financial solution also supports the trading experts in the area of process optimisation. “The system is both faster and more transparent because we have a centralised corporate accounts system. It ensures all subsidiaries are working in accordance with standardised rules and structures. This creates comparability across all clients, allowing our accounting department to save valuable time, which was previously used for reconciliation tasks and reporting,” added Ulrich Greber.

Dieter Große-Kreul, Managing Director of Agresso, said, “The implementation of standardised corporate accounting rules requires a great deal of time and continuous adjustments. In order to ensure harmonisation and the overall success of a project of this type,  it is important that the financial  system integrates with, adapts to and grows in line with the wider company requirements. This is what CODA is good at and is the reason its solutions are being utilised so successfully by so many global companies.”

MARKANT is already looking at further projects with CODA. Indeed, the group’s centralised client settlement system is being migrated to CODA currently. The final step of the overall project will involve migrating all of the group’s intra-group clients to the CODA system. The intention is that MARKANT’s entire accounting function will be using CODA 2count Financials by the 3rd quarter of 2009.

ABOUT CODA
CODA creates, markets and implements a comprehensive range of software systems designed specifically to meet the needs of Financial Directors and Finance Departments. These include financial management systems, analysis applications, and business process management and control software to implement compliance solutions. Its service oriented architecture also makes CODA software easy for clients and other vendors to integrate with their business applications.

CODA was founded in 1979 and has around 500 employees working at 18 offices in 14 countries. CODA software is designed for multi-currency, multi-language, multi-country, multi-company and multi-site operations, and is used by around 2,600 medium and large organizations in over 100 countries in a variety of markets and within both public and commercial sectors.

CODA is part of Unit 4 Agresso NV, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and listed on the Dutch stock exchange. The Unit 4 Agresso group is an international developer and distributor of integrated business information and management systems and security solutions, providing secure e-business solutions to its customers. It has around 3500 staff in 19 countries and over 5200 client organisations.

For more information, please visit: www.coda.com, or call:

Hilary Goodband
Interim Group PR Manager
CODA Group
+44 1423 537 977
hilary.goodband@coda.com