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Altus Dynamics Blog
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March 15, 2012
I’m very excited to be attending Microsoft Convergence 2012 next week and humbled by the fact that Microsoft have invited me to speak on “Unleash Your Potential” a tool designed for Partners to engage with their clients and create a solution roadmap. Road-mapping is a process I and the Altus organization very strongly believe in; through a series of questions in the areas of business intelligence, financial management, HRIS and so on, we discover where we can make improvements to the clients solution and this includes efficiencies with what they already own and potential product as well. What rolls out of the whole process is a robust report including a 5 year plan that our clients can use with their leadership team and for budgetary purposes. It’s really fantastic, we believe in this service so strongly we offer this complimentary to all Altus clients. I also asked Alecia Lantz of the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board to join me in Houston. Alecia was one of the first clients at Altus to go through this process; she embraced the content, has acted on the recommendations and keeps their Board up to date on its progress. Speaking to her about the process, she indicated that her Board has a better appreciation to what they are trying to accomplish with their solution because of this process. Having the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with this process on such a large stage is a personal milestone and a great acknowledgement of the work carried out at our small but growing Canadian company. - Diana Budeau, Client Success Director
Diana Budreau
Road Mapping
Microsoft Convergence
financial management
HRIS
5 year plan
Altus Dynamics
Alecia Lantz
Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board
Canada
Microsoft
Unleash Your Potential
Client Success Director
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December 02, 2011
As part of our ongoing Altus Gives Back program, everyone at Altus will be donating their time to volunteer at our local foodbank, The Parkdale Community Foodbank, on King Street, between now and Christmas. The Parkdale Foodbank (www.pcfb.ca) is always busy, feeding 2,800 each month on average, many from families with small children, but at Christmas is particularly so. They do not receive funding from any level of government so Robert and his team are always looking for donations and volunteers. As a local company we wanted to show our support for the valuable work they do, each and every week, so we will be volunteering our time and donating food to this worthy project. 
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September 23, 2011
We all have to do it! We have to plan it, we have to review it, and we have to work with it and many of us dread it – yes it is budgeting. It is ironic because we budget in every aspect of our lives from personal spending (a daughter’s wedding or a vacation) to how we will spend, what we will spend, and how we will justify that spend in our professional lives. Budgeting can be incredibly complex, time consuming and if you still run a manual process – then consolidating everything together can be frustrating and prone to error. So, stepping up to this budgeting challenge; Altus now has several offerings to help. At Altus we have heard our clients tell us they would like an easier, more collaborative budgeting process. They do not want isolated spreadsheets, but consistency and accurate consolidation. Organizations want to respond more quickly to change and they want their budgeting to be more naturally part of daily business – rather than a difficult annual process. They also want critical information more readily available at all times to key staff and executive. To address our clients requests we now offer two solutions, both are exceptional products and offer unique functionality that is ideal for Public Sector. These solutions are already in extensive use amongst School Boards, Government and Not for Profits and they easily integrate into your Dynamics solution. Our first offering – Questica TeamBudget will meet all of our clients’ needs from simple to complex budgets with “what if” scenarios, through multiple changes and to all the reporting requirements you may have. Our second offering Prophix takes budgeting a step further and wraps this up into a robust performance management solution, offering analytics, interactive dashboards and scorecards. This solution is targeted to our larger clients with the most complex of needs. To add to all this, Altus recognized that as much as we can offer solutions for you – we are in fact a critical portion of your annual budget. So, this month the first of our budgeting planning packages was sent to clients with December and January year-ends. This package informs you of your annual costs for maintenance, support, attending Alliance, and if you are road-mapping and have your 5 year plan completed – then your anticipated annual investment and all related information will be provided as well. The package also provides insight into current market trends and information on the latest releases, so upgrade costs can also be considered. For information on Questica TeamBudget, visit http://questica.com/Home.aspx For information on Prophix Complete Performance Management Solution, visit http://prophix.com/ If you are already working on your organizations budget and would like to receive your Altus Budget Package now, please email dbudreau@altusdynamics.com Please contact your Client Success Team at any time for information on these products or for any budgeting assistance you require.
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September 06, 2011
The prosperity gap in Canada remains depressingly wide between the children of the university-educated and those whose parents did not go to university. As of 2009, 56 per cent of the grown children of the university-educated had university degrees themselves, compared with just 23 per cent of the children of the less educated. The corresponding figures in 1986 were 45 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. Why is there such a large gap? Some argue it’s a matter of money, others a matter of culture. More likely it’s both, wound up together so they seem almost indistinguishable. Scholarships, bursaries and federal programs such as Registered Education Savings Plans, which give an extra boost to low-income families, are helpful. But they go only so far in changing the culture of expectations. Altus clients, Pathways to Education, begun in Toronto and spreading across the country, is trying to do just that. The components include tutoring, mentoring, bus or lunch money (if necessary), plus $1,000 for each year of high school, to be held for postsecondary school. Read the full article at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/children-need-not-replicate-their-parents-education/article2152616/ Posted by Colin Dickinson, VP Sales
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August 25, 2011
As not for profit organizations, including membership, educational, and mission based groups, learn more about Dynamics CRM, they are reevaluating their investment in iMIS association management solution. If you are currently using iMIS, you may want to consider Microsoft Dynamics CRM as an affordable constituent management solution. Your employees and volunteers will get more done with less frustration. Fund your mission, not your software One of the top reasons that current iMIS users are evaluating their association management system is cost. Fiscal responsibility to your members requires vigilant evaluation of the costs to manage your organization. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, qualified non-profit organizations receive special pricing. The Non-Profit Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes out-of-the-box CRM functionality as well as customizations for: - Donation and pledge management
- Basic membership management
- Basic volunteer tracking
- Campaign management
- Excel dashboard reports
- Payment solution for online donations There is no association management system on the market today that gives you the functionality of Dynamics CRM for such a reasonable investment. Make work easy for employees and volunteers Training employees and volunteers to use out-dated systems takes valuable time away from the work that they could be doing to further your mission. Microsoft Dynamics CRM works directly through Outlook or through the web — there is no learning curve. The interface is easy to navigate with intuitive self-help buttons every step of the way. Unlike iMIS, it’s easy to configure the system to match your terminology and business processes. Setting up automated workflow keeps balls from dropping no matter how many people are involved in the process. Collaboration and web integration made easy Another reason associations are making the switch to Dynamics CRM is the ease of integration with other systems that you use to manage vendor and partner transactions. If you are like most associations, you want to expand the services you offer to your constituents without big investments in customizations. When you are ready to find out more about how much money and hassle you could save by switching to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, contact Colin Dickinson at cdickinson@altusdynamics.com
volunteer tracking
donations
Non-Profit
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
campaign management
member management
CRM
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August 19, 2011
I read a very interesting article recently entitled “Taking on Failure - and Innovation - in the Social Sector” on the Harvard Business Review Blog. Erica Williams (@ericawilliamsdc) hits the nail on the head when she outlines the difficulties facing non-profit organizations as they balance trying to be innovative, like companies in the for-profit sector (Apple & Google come to mind), while mitigating the risk to donor or federal funds. For example, when an organization’s mandate is to provide shelter for the homeless or community support services, risking those funds on innovative ideas, new processes or anything outside of the status quo, can be a step too far for some. But is that the RIGHT answer? There ARE ways to innovate in the social sector, and Ms. Williams outlines 3 of them to help your organization chart a more innovative course towards developing new ideas and making your work more impactful, creative and efficient. It’s a great read! Click here ( http://bit.ly/n2TUyz ) to read the article Post by Colin Dickinson, VP Sales
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July 21, 2011
 We had a very uplifting request recently from one of our clients, The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), a Fellowship of more than 1,100 churches across English and French-speaking Canada.
The PAOC, in addition to the work they do in Canada, is also involved in Africa in numerous ways including child care via orphanages and community development, emergency relief and leadership development in colleges across several countries in Africa. While on a recent trip to Africa as part of his work, David Hazzard of The PAOC took the opportunity to scale Mount Kilimanjaro. He was accompanied by a guide, Augustino, whom he befriended and indeed presented him with a jacket, his Altus jacket, at the end of the trip as a gift. Augustino had apparently taken a shine to it! David was obviously fond of the jacket too, as upon his return we received a request for a replacement, which we were more than happy to provide. It is great for us to know that it has found such a worthy home and will be going up and down Kilimanjaro for many years to come.
PAOC
Africa
ERP
Altus Dynamics
Mount Kilimanjaro
climbing
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May 18, 2011
As part of Altus’ ongoing commitment to giving back to the community we are proud to be a financial supporter of the fund raising initiative happening tomorrow, Thursday 19th May, in Thunder Bay. United Way are holding a fund raising drive entitled the 19th Annual Great Billboard Rescue to raise much needed money for the invaluable work they carry out in the local community. Individuals will ride up on a scissor lift and spend 20 minutes calling their friends and family for pledges and our client, Community Living Thunder Bay, is helping us channel our donation to this worthy initiative. Here is the link to this event on their website: http://www.unitedway-tbay.on.ca/event_billboard.htm For more on Community Living Thunder Bay click here http://www.cltb.ca/ To learn more about Altus Gives Back click here
donations
United Way, Altus Gives Back, fund, raising, thunder, bay, CLTB, community
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March 31, 2011
Singapore’s National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has a mission to provide affordable dialysis, health screening and public education to the community. The organization chose a combination of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics NAV to manage its operational processes, covering more than 2,000 patients, 24 dialysis centers, and 600 employees. NKF needed to have excellent visibility into the data from these both Dynamics systems for operational analysis. They wanted to take their transactional data and present it in a way that could tell a powerful story. NKF decided to find a third-party analytics solution that could meet their requirements.
Non-Profit
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Microsoft
CRM
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March 29, 2011
Like many non-profit and government agencies, you may find yourself managing the approval, distribution, and tracking of grants with limited resources and tools. I believe integrated solutions between financial and grant management processes and data leads to better operational process efficiencies. If you are struggling with disparate systems, you may be experiencing challenges like: - Lack of integration between financial and grant processes leads to inaccurate payments, misspent budgets, and inability to identify potential savings - Citizens demand transparency and accountability of grant program delivery - Grantors face multiple manual and paper based processes. - Lack of integration with Financial Management System - Citizens demand simple process for applying and communicating with Grantor. An integrated financial management system that includes the management of your grants provides many benefits for your organization. Our top 5 benefits include: 1. Single integrated solution supporting all program types eliminates data redundancy and inefficiencies
Integration between financial and grant processes leads to accurate payments and adherence to budget. 2. Program level business rules enforce compliance over the entire Grant lifecycle. 3. Internal and external accountability and financial controls reduces fraud. 4. Consolidated operating budget management provides agency wide view of program funding. 5. Capture of the agreement terms and conditions ensures compliance with regulatory requirements Submitted by James Faw, VP Product Innovations at Altus Dynamics
government
Non-Profit
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Foundation
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
reporting
Supported & Assisted Living
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