SunSystems Press Release: 7th Day Adventist

Seventh-day Adventist Church Contract Update

Australian implementation success influences global contract decision for SunSystems.

The worldwide roll-out of SunSystems 5 for the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA is progressing well.

The agreement was influenced by the success of the Australian roll-out of the SunSystems financial suite initially at the Church's Melbourne administration office and a later implementation at the Church's Sydney-based South Pacific Division.

The South Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church went live with a new implementation of SunSystems' software in early-2001. The new system was integrated to support a restructuring and consolidation of the Division's operations that cover Australia, New Zealand and a number of Pacific nations including Fiji and Vanuatu.

The South Pacific Division oversees the operations of a number of businesses including regional and local church conferences and missions; a regional media production center; Sanitarium - The Health Food Company Australia; and the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital Network. In addition, the Division operates businesses in the travel, education, investment, banking and professional services industries.

"The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a very unique and large enterprise and the South Pacific Division in particular, includes a very diverse and complex range of operations," said Mr Virgilio E Cadungog, Manager, Investment & Financial Services, South Pacific Division, Seventh-day Adventist Church.

"During late-2000, the need arose for a new financial system that could support our business requirements and recent restructuring. A consolidation of our business units and the need for GST compliance were also guiding factors in our choosing SunSystems.

"The implementation within the South Pacific Division has influenced our General Conference's decision in selecting SunSystems as its global financial systems platform."

The main outcomes that the South Pacific Division is seeking to achieve through its SunSystems implementation include:

Reduced transaction processing time
Consolidated general ledgers and reports
Improved visibility of operating position
Better staff accessibility
Faster response to business issues
Reduction in error rates

The SunSystems solution offers several out-of-the-box advantages to the Church that include rapid installation, multi-currency and multi-language support as well as a range of business intelligence tools - known as SunSystems Vision - which deliver unprecedented analysis of Church data.

The inclusion of the SunSystems Vision tool-set has enabled the Church to input and interrogate data via Microsoft Excel, speeding up the process of accessing information and offering the ability to define customized report views.

"SunSystems offered the strength to support our business requirements and ensure that we could effectively and efficiently manage each of our operations, without heavy customization," said Cadungog.

"The implementation is well on its way towards reducing the overall time needed to input data, produce reports and drill down through Church data so we can better understand our operating position at any point in time."

"The solution will easily scale and grow as our operations change across the Pacific region and provide us with the ability to easily report into the General Conference in the United States as needed."

After an inspection of the South Pacific Division's and the Melbourne administration office's implementations representatives from the Church's General Conference agreed that SunSystems could support their needs globally. SunSystems offered an out-of-the-box solution that worked that could support the Church's unique business model, globally.

Managing director of Systems Union Australia, Bill Bryce, said, "The Seventh-day Adventist Church implementation offered SunSystems a special challenge. The Church's unique business model and international operations required a flexible solution that could scale and adapt as operating environments changed. The selection of SunSystems 5 by the General Conference is confirmation of the ongoing success of this project."

"SunSystems solutions offer enterprise ready flexibility, backed by one of the most robust functionality sets found in financial software suites today."

About SunSystems
SunSystems is a leading global financial and business management software solution.The product is used extensively by multinational organizations that require an international product with a global support infrastructure. Boasting a truly global customer base, SunSystems is installed in 18,000 customer sites, with 250,000 customer seats in 187 countries. Products within the SunSystems range are available in 27 languages. SunSystems customers include one quarter of the Fortune 500.

About Systems Union Inc.
Established in 1981, Systems Union Inc. is part of Systems Union Holding Ltd. The company has 20 offices worldwide and over 200 channel partners in 74 countries. Systems Union has annualized revenue in excess of $70 million and 710 staff worldwide. For more information, visit www.systemsunion.com. ###

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