In a move which see's LSA add IBM Cognos FSR to their product portfolio, we have added an increasingly important capability to our client's Financial Performance Management (FPM) strategies, allowing them to 'go the last mile' in their overall financial reporting capabilities.

The Last Mile of Finance is a term now commonly used to describe the business processes and activities that take place between the trial balance and the filing of the many statutory reports now commonly required by law. At present, the Last Mile has become much tougher to traverse due to new regulatory disclosure requirements including eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and efforts to enhance Internal Controls over Financial Reporting (ICFR).

By enabling our clients to produce automated, complex regulatory reports in a single environment, their internal processes are simplified and monitored with full audit trails, streamlining their workflow, and ensuring reduced compliance risks.

To find out more about Cognos FSR, download and read the product information sheet, here >>

LSA are always looking for ways to add value to our services and products in order to provide the most effective solutions to our clients.

With the current level of interest in Cloud computing services, we knew that had to take a good look at this burgeoning sector to see how we could best leverage the undoubted benefits of SaaS opportunities for our own clients and prospects.

Currently, LSA are evaluating appropriate products and will soon be releasing further information on this website, including the opportunity for you to test and evaluate this exciting development for yourselves.

In the meantime, here's a teaser of an image to provide a hint of where we are going with this...

....more news soon ! 

LSA Solutions have recently achieved registration with the Achilles organisation, having successfully demonstrated to them our compliance standards from working with our existing clients and prospects in the Utilities sector.

The registration documents LSA's processes and compliance with procurement standards in order for Achilles to satisfy procedures to register LSA to work with and provide Software Support Services and IT Consultancy to the Achilles Utilities Vendor Database (UVDB) of companies.

LSA Solutions Managing Director, Alan Sutton commented; 'We have worked within  the Utilities sector for many years and therefore gaining this registration and maintaining it according to the standards laid down by the Achilles organisation is an extremely important step for us . It clearly demonstrates LSA's ongoing development and desire to set standards wherever we work'.

About Achilles UVDB

Achilles are one of the world's largest and most trusted providers of supplier information that assists and supports the procurement process. They work to identify, qualify, evaluate and monitor suppliers on behalf of major organisations worldwide. In doing this, they build and support online communities in many industry sectors, creating unique and powerful global networks.

Achilles services deliver lasting benefits for buyers and suppliers, including new access to new business opportunities, improving procurement efficiency, and reducing supply chain risk.

View LSA Solutions Achilles UVDB Registration Certificate >>

LSA are again sponsoring the latest in a series of IBM Virtual Summit events aimed at the burgeoning Mid-Market Business Analytics sector.

The IBM Cognos Midsize Business Analytics Quarterly Summit takes place on June 21st and is the second in the 2011 series of these quarterly, interactive forums. LSA are a regular contributor at these events and are the sole UK sponsor to register thus far.
 
We will once again be supporting the event with our own virtual stand, and we look forward to many of our clients and contacts attending the event to gain the latest information from the IBM Business Analytics community.
 
The concept of a Virtual Event, whilst new to many, is now well-developed within the IBM community and provides everything that you would expect from a normal summit, but without the travelling and complimentary sandwiches ! Instead, attendees can explore the exhibition hall from the comfort of their own office chair, attend  presentations, and network with others. Full product information on the latest IBM Cognos offerings will be available to download, and full dialogue is accomplished via online 'chat' facilities.

This online event will feature reporting, planning, and predictive analytics solutions that will help drive profitable business outcomes, and will show you how looking into the past, present, and future with business analytics gets you better connected with your current customers, and helps attract new ones.

The June 21 Virtual Summit will be broadcast live at three different times during the day, so finding the perfect time to attend should make scheduling your time at the event easy.

For further information on the event along with agendas, and registration facilities please CLICK HERE.

Performance 2011, our annual headline event, was held at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone circuit yesterday (March 22nd). Designed to provide an engaging forum for our customers and prospects to find out more about the latest developments within the IBM Cognos business analytics software suite, and to discuss their own plans and projects directly with solution experts from LSA and IBM Cognos, the event also provided our guests with the opportunity to drive some fantastic automotive machinery courtesy of Porsche, as our images below reveal.

The start of the day, and the Porsche Experience Centre is ready to receive our guests. 

On arrival, everyone was treated to some spirited laps of the Porsche test circuit, just to get the day off to a great start, in the very competent hands of a top Porsche Driving Consultant....

...following which there were of course plenty of stories to share with other guests and colleagues over breakfast !

Following breakfast, the serious business of the day got underway with plenty of discussions with our team of experts in the various presentation streams....

....and guests were able to see the very latest product news and developments.

Finally, after a mouth-watering lunch served in the Porsche Restaurant, our guests were able to explore the tremendous facilities at Porsche in the whole range of current Porsche models, again with expert tuition from the top driving professionals at Porsche.

The end of the day, and smiles all round !!

If you missed PERFORMANCE 2011 and would like to discuss any of our supported IBM Cognos products with us, please visit our Contact Us page and send us a message.

PERFORMANCE 2011, our headline annual event, has been designed with you in mind - and with the LSA ethos of injecting a bit of fun into proceedings ! We want you to not only get the most from your event in terms of value to the performance of your business - we want you to enjoy the day !

So why not come along and not only benefit from hearing the very latest about the IBM Cognos suite of Business Analytics software, and gain valuable insights into Best Practice from the experts at LSA Solutions, but also test your own physical performance (it doesn't hurt and only takes a few minutes to gather vital performance about your own well-being!!) or try your hand at your driving performance? Both activities are conducted with Porsche performance experts and can be added to your day when you register online here.

If booking Human or Driving Performance activities, it is important to REGISTER at the LSA Website first and then call the Porsche Experience Centre directly on 01234 567 890, quoting LSA Solutions before Wednesday 16th March to book your activity.

And There's More....
Join Technical Track at Performance 2011

LSA Solutions have added a special Technical Track for delegates attending PERFORMANCE 2011. Technical Track will be delivered by our technical expert, Justin Thomas, as one of the afternoon Breakout Sessions. It will be fairly and squarely aimed at your individual technical issues and will seek to address your commonly encountered deployment issues such as multi-server environments, and global deployments of the IBM Cognos solution.

This session is sure to be oversubscribed, so register early. To book this session, click here to visit our website event page, then click the Event Registration link and insert 'Technical Track' in the text box indicating your meeting preferences.

LSA's annual 'PERFORMANCE' events, held at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone, have become a 'must-attend' event for many of our clients and interested prospects over the last few years, and the 2011 event looks set to easily maintain that distinction, with the focus well-and-truly on the recent release of the IBM Cognos 10 platform.

Our PERFORMANCE events always introduce a topic of keen interest to the Cognos community of business, finance, IT, and project managers, as well as thought-leaders, and end-users from a wide range of industries and business functions. From initial responses, the 2011 event looks set to surpass previous attendances by some margin.

Alan Sutton, Managing Director of LSA Solutions commented "This year's event has generated significant interest from the Cognos community and I feel that this is in large driven by the high level of interest in the IBM Cognos 10 platform. Also, our clients value LSA's knowledge of the IBM Cognos product set, and feel that they obtain a real benefit in attending these annual events, for the high-value feedback that they obtain from LSA Associates and IBM Cognos product managers that they engage with on the day".

Notwithstanding the undoubted benefit attendees find that they get from the day, the other important aspect of the event is of course the venue used, and the opportunities to break-up the day with activities provided by the Porsche team at Silverstone, bringing an extra element to the event and making it stand-out from the usual run-of-the-mill business event!

As in previous years, the 2011 event will again provide all attendees who arrive before the main sessions commence, with a chance to experience an exhilarating  drive on the Porsche facilities in a Porsche Panamera, or, if off-road is more your thing, then a good test of the Porsche Cayenne's astounding off-road abilities will set the tone for the day !! And for those who feel that they'd like to find out a little more about their own personal performance, or their own driving performance, one-to-one sessions can be booked in advance with a Porsche Human Performance Consultant, or Porsche Driving Consultant during the afternoon.

As can be seen from this article's accompanying pictures, those who have made use of the opportunities presented on the day have certainly enjoyed themselves, as well as taking home some very valuable performance initiatives for their respective businesses, courtesy of LSA Solutions !

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PERFORMANCE 2011 AND REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE

LSA recently increased its market awareness, by sponsoring the Media Planet publication 'Business Intelligence' - a supplement by Media Planet distributed within the Sunday Telegraph.

In addition to a full-page advertisement within the supplement, LSA also featured on the front cover of the publication, gaining valuable recognition by all readers.

The publication is also due to be distributed to all delegates at the forthcoming Gartner Business Intelligence Summit to be held at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London from the 31st January to 1st February 2011.

The full supplement is available to download and view on our Resources Page.    

In launching their latest upgrade of the well known suite of Business Analytical products - IBM Cognos 10 - IBM aim to introduce a much enhanced user experience that promises to redefine the way we interact with information.

The eagerly anticipated new release is a significant milestone in the trusted IBM Cognos platform, and combines social networking, collaboration, analytics and targets mobile workers. IBM hail IBM Cognos 10 as delivering a revolutionary new experience which expands traditional business intelligence (BI) with planning, scenario modelling, real-time monitoring and predictive analytics.

LSA Solutions will be at the forefront of the introduction of this latest incarnation of the IBM Cognos suite of products, and will shortly be bringing you a live 'virtual event' as part of the worldwide product launch. Please contact us for further information.

LSA Solutions held their annual Performance Management event yesterday (Wednesday 28th October 2009). The event (the third in a series of successful annual LSA 'flagship' events) was held at the Porsche Driving Experience Centre at  Silverstone Circuit , and benefitted from the enthusiastic support of LSA customers and prospective customers.

'The feedback from this event has been fantastic' said Alan Sutton, Managing Director of LSA Solutions. He went on to say 'Porsche have been superb to work with on this event and have made everything so easy for us to hold our event at this prestigious venue. A lot of work has gone into this, but it's all been worthwhile, especially to hear the extremely positive comments of our customers on both the venue and the event as a whole. I'd like to thank everyone concerned for supporting us and making this a very successful day'.

The Event In Pictures 

The prestigious Porsche venue gave us and our guests a warm welcome....

....and before the morning's presentation began, our guests were treated to some high-speed performance laps of the test circuit....

and some preferred to 'get their feet dirty' on the off-road course !!...

Playtime over, it was down to the serious business of the day and the Performance Management presentation from both LSA Solutions and IBM.

Scheduled coffee and mealtime breaks throughout the day gave our guests plenty of opportunity to speak with key LSA personnel and to network amongst themselves - or even drool over the fantastic array of historic Porsche road and racing cars !!

The afternoon sessions provided both the opportunity to discuss detailed requirements with our Associates or take advantage of the location and drive a selection of beautiful Porsche machinery on the test track under the expert guidance of a Porsche Driving Consultant

....all of which left our guests wearing smiles from ear to ear !!

The end of a perfect day - thank you Porsche !!