Simpson Associates announce two more PLR wins. One of our new clients is based in Yorkshire, the second is in Scotland. We look forward to both becoming successful engagements this summer. 

Simpson Associates' announce more PLR wins this quarter. Our two new clients are a large paper,consumables and visual communication organisation in the Midlands and a leading Garden centre company in the South.

Simpson Associates announces a series of breakfast and half day seminars covering Microsoft SharePoint 2010.  The 'Insight into SharePoint 2010' series is focused on giving you an introduction to Microsoft SharePoint with a particular emphasis on the Business Intelligence components available.  Simpson Associates are very excited about the upcoming release of the next version of SharePoint and are already working with the product to ensure that our clients are able to maximise their investment in this technology.  These events are being held in York, Birmingham and London, further details can be found here.

Simpson Associates' announce their second PLR win of the year. The client is a leading clothing manufacturer in the Midlands.

The government has confirmed that the budget for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is to be slashed by £915M over three years, reports the Times Higher Education, 4^th January 2010.

Paul Marshall, the Chief Executive of the 1994 Group of Smaller Research Universities, has said that these cuts would place an 'enormous burden' on the on-going review of Higher Education funding and student finances.

Sir David Watson, Professor of Higher Education at The University of London, said that the impact of this 'at a detailed level,' is that there will be even greater competition for smaller pots of funding available through HEFCE, which will impact all Universities.

Once again, the emphasis is on efficiency and savings and those organisations who can demonstrate University-wide audit ability and control of finances, student choice and student support will be better candidates for continued HEFCE support. Higher Education Institutions will be under even more pressure to deliver transparent and coherent information and to demonstrate well managed financial control.

To find out how we are working with Universities to provide solutions that can contribute to the central management of student resources, financial management and information management and transparency, contact us today on 01904 234523.

To review this article on line click here www.timeshighereducation.co.uk.

Congratulations to Cameron Knight who is the winner of our annual Customer Services satisfaction survey.  Cameron is the winner of the iPod Touch.  We received seventy entries from the survey and will be implementing new aspects to our service as we seek to continually improve during the course of 2010.  Thank you to everyone who entered into the survey.

Simpson Associates has won a new contract to be the support providing partner for a well known insurance provider who were seeking a support providing partner for their IBM Cognos environment.  Simpson Associates is pleased to have been successful in winning a three year agreement and looks forward to developing this relationship.

Simpson Associates announce their first PLR win of the new decade. The new contract is with a manufacturer based in Scotland. 

Research published recently shows 4 UK Uni's have a place in the World University Rankings 2009, however resulting commentary highlights the 'gap' in University-wide information, which fails to fully express academic excellence. The survey which delivers these rankings, combines scientific and economic factors, but does not deliver a full illustration of an Institutions overall performance, or any validated student feedback or experience. Read more about our student planning and performance solutions here.

The Times newspaper on Tuesday 1st December contained a very informative Business Intelligence supplement, if you missed it then it is available here.

One of the articles discussed Microsoft's next generation of Business Intelligence and what will be released with Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008R2.  Microsoft  is also extending its "managed self service" offering with a product called PowerPivot.  PowerPivot is an add-in for Excel that allows large amounts of structured and unstructured data to be easily analysed within Excel and shared via SharePoint. 

Simpson Associates has been working this these products over the last couple of months,  if you would like to understand more about how these products will deliver benefits to your organisation please contact us.