4^th August 2010, Kampala, Uganda – ACL Services Ltd., the leading global provider of business assurance technology for audit and compliance professionals, recently announced it has been included by Gartner, Inc. in the first-ever ‘Magic Quadrant for Continuous Controls Monitoring.’¹ ACL was evaluated on its ability to execute and the completeness of its vision.

In Gartner's inaugural Magic Quadrant report, analysts French Caldwell and Paul E. Proctor emphasize the value of continuous controls monitoring technology: "Within the governance, risk and compliance (GRC) marketplace, continuous controls monitoring (CCM) is a set of technologies that assist the business in reducing business losses from fraud or failure to follow rules governing financial transactions, and improving performance through continuous monitoring (CM) and reducing the cost of auditing through continuous audit (CA) of the automated controls in ERP systems or other financial applications."²

The overall continuous controls monitoring technology space defined by Gartner in the report includes four areas: CCM for Segregation of Duties (CCM-SOD), CCM for Transactions (CCM-T), CCM for Master Data (CCM-MD) and CCM for Application Configuration (CCM-AC).

For over 20 years, ACL has provided purpose-built data analysis solutions to audit and compliance professionals. Today, ACL is the leading audit analytics technology, used by over 14,000 organizations worldwide. "We were first to market with continuous controls monitoring for transactions back in 2003," says Harald Will, ACL Services president and CEO. "Over the last seven years, hundreds of ACL customers have deployed CCM-T solutions, most often championed by Internal Audit leaders as a means to provide greater insight into the quality and transparency of business transactions. We are pleased to see Gartner now focus on the growing CCM technology space, and to be positioned as a niche player. We believe this placement acknowledges our global leadership position in audit-led transactional analysis."

Rutgers University Business School recently profiled ACL CCM-T customer Talecris Biotherapeutics in a research study, “Continuous Controls Monitoring: A Case Study with Talecris.”

"Talecris demonstrated that the close examination of business transactions underlying financial reporting uncovers unforeseen risks and potential control breaches," said Miklos A. Vasarhelyi, PhD, director of research at the CarLab (Continuous Audit and Reporting Laboratory) of the Rutgers Accounting Research Center. "Talecris' successful implementation of continuous controls monitoring from ACL is an excellent example of how audit technology can deliver critical insight that helps organizations mitigate risks, optimize business operations and assure compliance in today's real-time economy."

A growing number of ACL customers are implementing continuous monitoring across various industries, including financial services (First Hawaiian Bank, Siemens Financial Services, Inc.), healthcare (Memorial Healthcare System, Palomar Pomerado Health), transportation (Hawaiian Airlines), business services (Dun & Bradstreet), government (BC Government Ministry of Finance), telecommunications (TELUS), and manufacturing (Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc.).

"To date, ACL's audit customers have been the pioneers and leading champions for the introduction of continuous controls monitoring within their organizations," says John Verver, CA, CMC, CISA, vice president of services and product strategy at ACL Services. "It's the most effective way I know to allow management to react quickly to problems as well as monitor the overall quality of their internal controls." For more about ACL continuous monitoring solutions, go to: www.acl.com/CCM.

In Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia, ACL Services works with AH Consulting Ltd to deliver ACL solutions to clients who want to continuously monitor controls in various facets of the organization.

• Frontline services to 50 countries will be improved including countries in Africa

• Higher proportion of donations to be spent on frontline services

• Improved reporting to donor

Kampala, Uganda 4^th August, 2010: UNIT4, AHC’s Africa-wide ERP Partner and the world’s leading provider of change-embracing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, in July 2010 announced a major deal with Save the Children, the world's leading independent organization for children. The charity has purchased a UNIT4 Platform designed for the not-for-profit-sector, comprising the key solution areas of Finance, Project Costing, Billing and Procurement in a global deal worth over €1.6 million.

UNIT4 has been chosen as the preferred supplier for Save the Children’s 29 national organizations that deliver aid to children in 120 countries around the world. The charity expects the platform to reduce administration costs, improve budgeting, prepare the organization for ongoing regulatory change, allow the charity to easily demonstrate to its donors where money has been spent and improve the frontline services it provides to children across the world.

The International Program Unit (IPU), which is responsible for all international aid projects beyond the borders of each national headquarters, will be the first to rollout the platform to its regions and country offices for 2500 users. UNIT4 will provide consultancy expertise to implement it in a phased approach to replace dozens of localized finance systems. Beyond the IPU each national headquarters will have the option to roll-out the platform as and when they want to.

UNIT4 was selected as the preferred supplier following a comprehensive evaluation process that included a proof of concept with input from Save the Children employees in Asia, Africa and Europe. “UNIT4 has plenty of experience in this area and the successful ‘proof of concept’ exercise demonstrated that the not-for-profit platform is closely aligned to our existing business model and highly flexible. It was clearly the right choice for our business” commented Pam Innes, Director for IPU Transition.
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 The UNIT4 platform will provide a single version of the truth which will allow IPU management to take a view on financial effectiveness across the board from global operations down to individual projects. Save the Children will be able to cross reference financial data against specific charitable objectives such as inoculation, education or food relief programs. This will also provide individual, foundation, government and company donors with a clear view of where their funds have been used by the IPU and exactly what impact they have had on children’s lives.

Most importantly it will allow the IPU to make informed decisions on frontline operations so it can focus on the most effective means to deliver projects. With just one system in place the IPU expects to be able to divert considerable funds from administering the back office to frontline services.  “The global implementation of UNIT4 will allow us to be true to one of our five core values which is Accountability - we take personal responsibility for using our resources efficiently, achieving measurable results, and being accountable to supporters, partners and, most of all, children.” said Innes.

Financial information will now be readily available to personnel in the field through Manager Self-Service, empowering project teams to model likely project costs, bid for necessary funds and have clear visibility on working budgets regardless of their location.

The flexible nature of the platform is also a considerable cost saving benefit; it will allow the charity to rapidly modify its accounting and reporting processes in the face of regulatory and business change, with minimal investment in IT resource.

Save the Children is the latest of more than 75 third sector organizations that have selected UNIT4 to meet the specific demands of the sector.

Kampala, 31^st July 2010. AH Consulting (AHC) announced today that, the Western African Monetary Institute (WAMI) signed a contract for the implementation of a Real Time Gross Settlement System and a Scriptless Security Settlement System from CMA, AHC’s Partner for payment and settlement solutions.

This project is being implemented as part of the initiative of the Payment System Development program in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). Sponsored by the African Development Fund, it is part of WAMZ developmental programme, which requires a robust payment and settlement systems to ensure the deepening of the region’s financial system, and whose main objectives are to:

•   Eliminate, as far as possible, risks from payments, clearing and settlement systems;
•   Speed up the exchange and settlement of funds and securities to levels that will effectively eliminate float;
•   Improve convenience, services and security for users;
•   Bring efficiency to government receipts and payments; and
•   Improve WAMZ Central Banks’ monetary management capabilities.

The project will allow the WAMZ countries to fulfil their regional and national objectives including:

• Improvement of the financial intermediation efficiency;
• Better systemic risks management in the financial sector; and
• Easier liquidity management which will ease monetary policy implementation.

Both systems, based on CMA’s own RTS/X and DEPO/X solutions will be installed in three countries of WAMZ, namely the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. AHC will provide training and post implementation support.

CMA, who already implemented similar systems for the Central Bank of Central African States (BEAC) and for the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is looking forward to participate in this new challenging project aiming to promote the economic and monetary integration of the West African sub-region and help facilitating trade among the WAMZ/ECOWAS member countries.

AHC, who are already partnering with CMA to implement CMA’s world class solutions in Africa is looking forward in assisting WAMI to undertake a successful implementation of RTS/X and DEPO/X.

AHC has signed a contract to undertake country monitoring and evaluation small holder baseline studies for AGRA (www.agra-alliance.org). The studies involve the collection of extensive baseline information from small holder farmers, agro-dealers and agricultural stakeholders in Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burkina Fasso and Mali covering areas that include fertilizers, soil structure, seed systems, etc which will form a basis for intervention by AGRA in these countries in the coming years.    

M/s Energy Infratech Pvt Ltd (EIPL) – AHC’s associates in Energy Consulting – have been selected to undertake the design and construction supervision of the prestigious Karuma Hydro Power Project estimated to generate 650MW. Expected to last over 5 years, the project will involve design of the KHPP and eventual supervision of the construction work. Speaking to AHC News, Mr. Herbert Rwamibazi, the Managing Director of AH Consulting had this to say: “We are proud to be associated with EIPL (www.energyinfratech.com) in the design and construction supervision of this project and look forward to the significant contribution of this project to the economy of Uganda”.