Age UK, the new entity formed from the merger of the UK’s largest charities for the elderly, Help the Aged and Age Concern, has chosen KPMG as its new auditor.
KPMG was chosen for a range of reasons, including its help to the charity pre and post merger.
Charles Scott, finance director at Age UK, explained: “They helped us with the due diligence and business planning both pre and post merger, so already know well the workings, risks, people and business of Age UK. They did some exceptional VAT work for us pre-merger, and we were very impressed by the standard of their work and people generally. They were very keen to work with us, and we were impressed by the interest and commitment to us."
Meanwhile, Working Families changed auditors after a mutual agreement with its previous accountants Horwarth Clark Whitehill. Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families said: "It was really a mutual agreement in regards to why we decided to change, since the auditor grew and was looking for larger clients.”
| IT | ||
| Organisation | Provider | Comments |
| Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) | ESiT | The ACF has selected ESiT’s thankQ database, with CRM and membership modules enabling it to improve communication by consolidating its existing disparate databases, while the events module, which is web integrated, will provide an easy-to-use online booking facility, including payments and confirmation emails, for attendees. |
| Freeways Trust | COA Solutions | The Trust is to shorten its month-end accounts process by three days using COA's OpenAccounts financial management system, including a care industry-specific income management module. Bank account reconciliation will be automated and the use of Excel spreadsheets for reporting purposes will be replaced with tailored management reports. |
| Scottish Huntington’s Association | DCSL Software | Association has selected a tailor-made management system to provide a centralised repository for all patient data and enable staff to securely access this information from any site across the region. |
| Crisis | Loft Digital | Loft Digital has designed a new accessible and interactive website for Crisis in order to match last year's rebrand and meet the needs of a wide range of audiences. |
| Emmanuel Schools Foundation | Blackboard | Foundation has chosen Blackboard to establish its first Virtual Learning Environment across four of its schools. |
| Pump Aid | Haulmont Technology | Haulmont Technology will custom build a monitoring and evaluation system for Pump Aid to replace the current paper-based reporting procedure. The new solution will save time by streamlining data inputting and create an online database for Pump Aid to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of its projects. |
| Society of Biology | netXtra | netXtra has designed, developed and launched a website for the Society in less than eight weeks. |
| North London Collegiate School | Purple Vision | School has increased its gift aid revenue by 50 per cent after commissioning an independent review of how it uses its Blackbaud fundraising system. |
| RSPB | Equi=Media | Equi=Media has been tasked with overseeing and optimising the charity’s paid search work across multiple search engines, concentrating on membership and lead generation campaigns. |
| Elizabeth Finn Care | IRIS NFP Solutions | Charity has opted for IRIS CARE CRM, including modules for the management of campaigns and income processing, events, grants and day-to-day contact management. |
| Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Perceptive Software | Trust has entered into an agreement to deploy ImageNow document management software in conjunction with HP scanning devices |
| Royal Albert Hall (RAH) | Mimecast | RAH has chosen email management company Mimecast to provide SaaS-based email archiving, continuity and security. This includes a complete search and retrieval functionality so staff can look through the entire email archive of up to 10 years in seconds. They can also now retrieve deleted emails in less than a minute compared to several hours previously. |
| GALVmed | Sapphire / Infor | GALVmed has implemented the Infor SunSystems financial accounting solution through Sapphire following a three-way tender. |
| Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) | Content and Code / Telerik | RNIB commissioned Content and Code to design and build an accessible website using Microsoft SharePoint 2007, while Telerik were brought in to incorporate an enhanced rich text editor for accessibility purposes. |
| British Red Cross | Experian | British Red Cross has renewed its email marketing partnership with Experian CheetahMail, with planned initiatives including triggered welcome emails and new creative templates for fundraising campaigns. |
Cotswold Care Hospice appointed Bishop Fleming for its experience in working with hospices. Ben Kushner, head of finance, said: “We moved from our previous auditors, Randall and Payne, primarily because after 20 years of continuous excellent service we felt that it was correct from a professional perspective to move to a different firm of auditors. R&P continue to process our payroll for us each month. We selected our new firm, Bishop Fleming as a result of a thorough competitive tendering process.
We selected Bishop Fleming on the basis of several aspects, including the portfolio of clients they presently hold, several of which were hospices of the size we aspire to become, the quality of their presentation to us and the high level of professionalism they were able to demonstrate, and the prices quoted for our business."
