Johannesburg, 25 Jun 2009
Leading business intelligence (BI) software vendor Alchemex, in association with Softline Pastel, has entered into a Strategic Alliance Partnership with The South Africa Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), bringing the popular 'Excel on Steroids' training courses to SAICA members at preferential rates.
SAICA believes in its members' continual professional development to keep their competitive edge in today's market, engaging in strategic alliance partnerships with some of the best training providers who offer high quality courses that meet their members' needs.
Alchemex has partnered Pastel over the last four years, powering the Business Intelligence Centre (BIC), Pastel's BI offering, and providing BIC and Excel training to Pastel's user base. Now SAICA has approved Alchemex as an Alliance Partner due to its expertise in BI over the past eight years, and provision of Excel-based BI software for small to medium enterprises.
The two Alchemex courses that have been identified to enhance the knowledge of SAICA members are the popular “Excel on Steroids” and “Excel for Auditors” courses.
Gary Boddington, MD of Alchemex, explains that 'Excel on Steroids' originated out of the need from a burgeoning client install base. “For nearly a decade, Alchemex has provided BI software for the SME market that drives information into Microsoft Excel. With the face of BI changing and Excel fast becoming the central character, we identified the need for a training programme that provided in-depth coverage of specific Excel functionality for enhanced business reporting and decision-making.”
'Excel on Steroids' is an advanced Microsoft Excel training program designed to focus on specialised Excel functionality to turn an intermediate Excel user into an accomplished report writer. To date, it has improved the efficiencies and effectiveness of over 6 000 managers, bookkeepers and accountants. The comprehensive and practical training is provided countrywide, for both Excel 2003 and 2007, in three half-day workshops, and SAICA members can gain 12 CPD hours by attending this course. Bronwyn Dorrofield, Alchemex Training Manager, says: “Our experience as a company providing business intelligence in Excel for more than 12 000 companies locally and abroad has given us a good understanding of how to empower people with the appropriate skills. We distinguish ourselves from standard Excel training providers by focusing on the key Excel functionality that makes a difference within business reporting.”
In addition to the workshops themselves, weekly Excel on Steroids tips and tricks are e-mailed to delegates for continued learning, while delegates can join the Excel on Steroids forum at www.alchemex-forum.com to obtain free access to report-writing and Excel-related queries and solutions.
Charles Atkinson, Quality Manager for Inhep Electronics Holdings, has good things to say about the Alchemex training experience: “In order to take our company to the next level, we identified a need for improved reporting skills across most departments. In looking for a partner to help us achieve this, we were recommended to try Alchemex for our Microsoft Excel training requirements. Quick, professional responses coupled with a training course which was pertinent, covered the right material and was delivered in an easy-to-absorb manner, made Alchemex a pleasure to deal with. Our training programme went down flawlessly and we would definitely recommend Alchemex as the preferred training partner for reporting solutions.”
The Excel for Auditors course is aimed at a niche market, being audit clerks and internal auditors. The aim of this course is to empower users to save valuable time by using Excel as a powerful tool when working with audit information, such as fixed assets. The learning is experiential with all exercises and examples using auditing data that relates to practical situations. SAICA members can gain eight CPD hours by attending this course. Tobie Oosthuizen, National Training Manager at BDO Spencer Steward, was impressed with the potential time-savings afforded by the Excel for Auditors course: "All the delegates walked away with an enhanced understanding of Excel. If this translates in a 10-minute-a-day savings it equates to almost 40 hours a year increased productivity."
Excel on Steroids and Excel for Auditor courses are available classroom-based, countrywide, as well as online at www.alchemexacademy.com giving users the flexibility to enhance their skills at a time and place suitable to them. Sean Elliot, Director at Alchemex, believes that the success of 'Excel on Steroids' Online Training to date has been due to two things: “Firstly, the powerful course content provides delegates with an advanced understanding of relevant Excel functionality and practical know-how that will result in significant time-savings each month. Secondly, the nature of online training has created all sorts of efficiencies, mainly because users can now excel themselves anytime, anywhere. It is also cost-effective, saving travel costs and the cost of travel downtime. Our online courses are very user friendly - with voiceover scenarios and flash simulations that take you through exercises simultaneously. In addition, the workshops are split into sessions and can be spread over several days or weeks, allowing delegates to do the training in a piecemeal way.”
Details and dates for the above courses for SAICA members can be found on the SAICA Web site at:
https://www.saica.co.za/Members/ProductsServices/SeminarsandEvents/tabid/672/language/en-ZA/Default.aspx.
For non-SAICA members wanting to know more about these courses, information is available at http://www.alchemex.com.
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