Epicor Financial Management Software to Automate and Streamline the Management of £1.3bn Annual Pensions Contributions   Epicor Software Corporation today announced that the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) has signed a contract to implement Epicor Financial Management, a core suite within the next-generation Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. SPPA administers the NHS and teachers’ pension schemes in Scotland and handles £1.3bn annually in pension contributions.   “We initially looked at 16 financial systems and using our stringent purchasing criteria eventually concluded that Epicor met all of our requirements. These included the need for the system to handle high volumes of receipts, invoices, refunds and associated debt recovery processes; it also had to facilitate treasury management and budgetary reporting,” said a spokesperson for the SPPA.  

 José Maria Aznar, former Spanish Prime Minister, has visited London to present his solutions to the financial crisis to an audience of businessmen and policy-makers.   In the speech, hosted at the National Liberal Club in Westminster and sponsored by City foreign exchange firm Currencies Direct, the former leader of Spain’s Popular Party (Partido Popular) highlighted the ‘irresponsible behaviour’ of the international banking community and insufficient regulation by national governments.   Mr Aznar, who was Prime Minister of Spain for eight years until 2004 and architect of Spain’s most significant period of economic growth, discussed how Europe, and Spain in particular, must react to recover from the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s. He said policy makers and the international financial community must act collectively to safeguard the future of the global economy and Spain can play a central role in this.

Investors and decision-makers must demand uncertainty analysis warns Palisade   As the media reports tentative signs that the recession is over and the stock markets start to head upwards again, risk analysis expert Palisade (www.palisade.com) is warning on the false security offered by static forecasts.   With recessions only occurring on average every ten years, despite their potentially devastating effects, the scenario is usually excluded from a static forecast. This goes some way to explaining why Wall Street's consensus forecast has failed to predict a recession for the past 30 years.   But Palisade believes investors and decision-makers have a key role to play in changing this behaviour. Rather than settling for the false security offered by a static forecast, they must demand proper uncertainty analysis around forecasts.

- The investment will enable eCommera to expand the services it offers to retailers who are seeking to improve their e-commerce capability -   21st September, 2009: eCommera, the UK-based provider of e-commerce services to the retail industry, has secured second round funding of £5 million from an investment group led by growth capital investor, Frog Capital and existing shareholder West Coast Capital. eCommera was advised by GP Bullhound.   Founded in 2007 by Michael Ross, online entrepreneur and founder of highly successful online fashion retailer Figleaves.com, and ex-BT marketing director, Andrew McGregor, eCommera helps large retailers such as Asda and House of Fraser to establish and run profitable online retail operations.