We’re excited to announce the expansion of our Serenic Navigator Online (NOL) product suite, which is now available in three offerings:

• Serenic NOL Basic
• Serenic NOL BE (Business Essentials)
• Serenic NOL AM (Advanced Management)

Serenic NOL is a Software as a Service (SaaS) version of our award-winning Navigator financial management system. The cloud-based subscription model leverages Internet streaming functionality with access to Serenic’s financial management software for the term of the subscription. The Serenic NOL product features are designed to meet specific needs of nonprofit and public sector organizations, which are increasingly connecting to the Internet to automate and simplify business processes “in the cloud.”

“Serenic Navigator Online offers NGOs and nonprofits financial management functionality coupled with the advantages of a decentralized software deployment model,” according to our CEO and President Randy Keith. “Organizations with multiple offices, remote workers and distributed workforces especially benefit from using a cloud-based solution. If their situation changes for any reason, NOL clients can easily and cost-effectively transition to the on-premise version of the Serenic Navigator financial management suite.”

NGOs and nonprofit organizations can download the Serenic Navigator Online Success Kit or informative white paper for more information.

Please join us in welcoming James Romero back to Serenic.  James is returning to lead our Channel Sales operation for North America.  He was previously instrumental in launching the business development function here at Serenic, has managed two small businesses, and most recently, provided solution sales training for field personnel at Microsoft.  While consulting for Microsoft, he travelled to over 35 countries including Russia, the UK, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

James loves the great outdoors here in Colorado (hiking, snowboarding, skiing and biking).  When not working or spending time with family, he coaches youth baseball, loves reading and playing music, and watching the Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies.

We look forward to working with James again and the leadership he will bring for our Serenic Navigator partners.

For international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), managing funding from multiple grants across dozens of countries and currencies can be extremely complex. Implementing grants management software ensures financial teams can concentrate on budget management and other more important duties instead of spending their time on data entry and chasing down paper forms.

The top three benefits of grant management software for NGOs include:

1 – Track grant applications from start to finish. Within one system that is integrated with financial data, an organization can combine hundreds of grant applications and proposals, capture status updates and deadlines, and map to budget records for previously funded projects. Grants that are spread across geographies and programs can be tracked with NGO management software to help with the challenge of “weaving together the complex tapestry of funding,” as one software user describes it.

2 – Monitor grant spending and restrictions. The U.S. and international governments, foundations, and individual donors provide funding in the form of grants and donations. Grant proposals typically spell out what an organization plans to do for a specific program and how it plans to use the requested budget. Approved funding dollars normally come with restrictions that stipulate how they can be spent to correspond to the original proposal. NGO grants management software helps track budgets across multiple programs and can assign codes for award restrictions to help monitor restricted grants and donations to ensure transparency and accountability.

3 – Handle multiple currencies and languages. Some NGOs can deal with more than a dozen currencies a day, which makes it critical that they have the ability to conduct transactions across international borders. Grants may be awarded in U.S. dollars with money earmarked to be spent in Euros or other currencies. Money has to be converted back to U.S. dollars for reports to donors on spending. Software built to handle multiple currencies easily makes conversions and allows users to work in their own familiar monetary system and avoid errors.

Governmental organizations and NGOs need specialized accounting software for non profits that meets functional requirements enabling mission critical accountability and transparency. Not all governmental accounting software meets these needs, as Serenic customer, The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC), explained in a case study.

“We are more complex than some government organizations, because we receive different rewards from federal, state and local agencies for water conservation and desalination projects,” said Phil Letrong, director of finance and IT for MWDOC. “We needed to track financial information from the grant application stage to the point of billing customers.”

Serenic Navigator provides governmental accounting software features that help NGOs as well, such as AwardVision, a sophisticated grants management module. With AwardVision software for non profits in place, users easily access customizable reports to better manage grant-funded projects. Reports are simple to run and save manual data entry time required by other accounting software non profits use.

Governmental organizations and NGOs appreciate the budget control Serenic Navigator enables.  Having financial data readily available in real time is critical for organizations’ business processes. When a project manager needs to purchase an item, he or she can easily check the budget in Serenic Navigator to see the exact balance remaining – replacing paper purchase requisitions with online approval processes built into the software for non profits.

Project managers no longer need to request and wait for information from accounting, because they can see financial numbers whenever needed. The governmental accounting software will not allow a user to request a purchase if sufficient funds are not available, so it provides a check-and-balance for budgets.

MWDOC’s Letrong appreciates that, unlike other accounting software non profits use, Serenic is always updating its system to keep up with technology innovations. He expects MWDOC to be able to use Serenic Navigator for the long haul.

“For a relatively small non profit organization like us, having a system like Serenic with the limited investment we had to make is a great deal,” Letrong said. “The software can do so much for accounting to save time, which is pretty impressive at its price point.”

We are happy to welcome Carla Feagan back to Serenic and the field sales organization.  Carla is resuming her prior role as Channel Manager for HCM (Human Capital Management). She will help with our market presence and grow the reach of our HR and Payroll software, which is based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV.  Carla will operate from her home in Edmonton while periodically checking into our Serenic office in Edmonton as well.

Carla clearly brings back with her some valuable experience in working with many of our current HCM partners.  Welcome back Carla!

Cantect Letter, an online magazine profiling high-tech Canadian stocks recently interviewed our very own President and C.E.O. Randy Keith!

Randy Keith, President and C.E.O.

The article helps us learn about how Serenic Software fits into the larger landscape of nonprofits, NGO’s and charities. The nonprofit sector accounts for a high percentage of jobs and GDP, and Serenic helps companies in nonprofit sector account for their finances.  Randy candidly speaks about Serenic, from the business model to their competitive advantage. Read more here to learn more about Serenic and about Randy Keith!

http://www.cantechletter.com/2011/06/5-questions-with-randy-keith-of-serenic-tsxvser/

Igor Barrena

Please join me in welcoming Igor Barrena to Serenic as a very valuable addition to our growing international team as our new Channel Sales Manager for Europe.

Igor brings a wealth of experience in enterprise software sales to Serenic, having worked in various direct sales as well as partner management capacities, one of which was to launch and lead Blackboard’s e-learning business across the EMEA space, selling to Public & Private Higher Ed and other Education/Learning vertical markets.

Igor is a true international, having lived in over 6 countries, even including a couple of years in Minnesota (as a Spaniard taught him to live in below room temperature climate), fluently speaks 6 European languages (as far as I can count) and currently lives with his newly wedded  wife in not-as-freezing cold Frankfurt, Germany.

We are thrilled to have Igor on board to help expand Serenic’s footprint across the promising European continent.

Please help me welcome Igor to the Serenic Family.

Baris

Serenic has teamed up with Zap Technology to create an integrated nonprofit business intelligence solution as part of Serenic Navigator. Using the powerful capabilities of Zap Business Intelligence for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Serenic’s product management team is working with a number of early adopter customers to identify metrics that will help our customers boost productivity and effectiveness.

Business Intelligence software helps your organization automate management reporting, alerts, report scheduling, and what-if analysis. ZAP further points out that “all users are empowered to create their own analytics, and power users appreciate the simplicity and flexibility of creating complex analytics and automating workflows.”

Zap Business Intelligence for Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to:

• Automate reporting workflows and save time and money spent on manual reporting.
• Analyze your business from any angle, including unlimited multi-dimensional analysis and cross ledger analysis.
• Make performance information pervasive with dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators.
• Perform analyses that make a difference to the bottom line, such as cash flow analysis and inventory analysis.

So why use Serenic’s BI solution?

We know the nonprofit industry, so we’re working hard to bring you a tailored, industry-specific BI solution that minimizes the time, cost and effort you’ll need to implement BI. Our ultimate goal is to enhance Zap’s existing BI solution to include a nonprofit financial management cube and a set of pre-packaged analytics specific to the nonprofit sector, including reports, dashboards, KPIs, and scorecards.

In the meantime, Zap’s patent-pending and award-winning technology provides several innovations that cover the full spectrum of BI needs – everything from building a cube, to providing pre-packaged analytics, to easy creation and use of analytics so your business users can take full advantage. There are many BI solutions on the market, but many are technically complex, only provide partial capability, and most can’t easily cater to the unique and powerful features of an embedded NAV solution such as Navigator. We’re confident that the combination of Serenic and Zap will meet your BI needs in the easiest and most effective way possible.

Stay tuned to new information posted on the Serenic website and, if you have questions in the meantime, contact Serenic Client Account Manager Sue Kim at skim@serenic.com or call 720-362-5114.