We commented last week that one of the best things about Microsoft Dynamics is that each software package works with, and like, the Microsoft applications and tools your employees are already familiar with.

But in addition to requiring minimal user training and support, each package is also highly-flexible. The software can be moulded to fit the unique way your business works and it uses a flexible technology that doesn’t lock you into a specific deployment method; so as your business grows and adapts to meet new market conditions and consumer demands, and your business processes change, your Microsoft Dynamics package develops and grows with you.

You can find out more about Microsoft Dynamics  here .

As reported last week, following two European Court of Justice rulings, employees who fall ill while on holiday may be able to reschedule their leave. But what are these rulings and how might they impact employers?

In the most recent case, Vicente Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA , the ECJ ruled that national provisions or collective agreements which provided that a worker who was sick during a period of scheduled annual leave did not have the right, after his recovery, to take his annual leave at another time were unlawful, and, therefore, workers who fell sick while on holiday should be allowed to reschedule their leave.

This followed an earlier ruling in the long-running Stringer v HMRC case that workers can accrue holiday pay while on sick leave and must be allowed to take it on their return or be paid in lieu if their employment ends.

Commenting on the Stringer v HMRC  ruling,  Tim Marshall, a partner at DLA Piper, stated that: “the ECJ's judgment has potentially serious financial and practical ramifications for employers.” He also commented that employees must ensure they manage sickness absence effectively and efficiently as allowing absence “to continue longer than is necessary will see workers 'racking-up' substantial holiday entitlement. This could create significant financial liabilities and, where employees seek to take significant periods of holiday following extended sick leave, it could also cause severe disruption to the business.”

In a recent article in Personnel Today, employment lawyer Alex Lock observed that the additional ECJ ruling, allowing workers who fall ill while on annual leave to retake those holiday days at a later date, will be a “costly blow” to companies. "Sickness absence already costs British business billions of pounds each year, with the average worker absent for around 10 days,” he stated. “This judgment, allowing workers to carry over holiday days where they coincide with illness, will add further to this cost.” He also commented that: “businesses will face an increased administrative burden in keeping track of accumulated annual leave for employees on long-term sickness absence.”

The most efficient and effective way to keep track of employee leave and monitor and manage employee absence in the light of these two ECJ rulings is to implement an accurate, automated leave management system in your organisation. You can find out more here.

According to an article on the Personnel Today website, following two European Court of Justice rulings, staff who fall sick while on holiday may be able to reschedule their leave, even if that means carrying their leave over to the following year.

As a result of the rulings, employers have been advised that they may need to change their sick leave policies to allow employees who’ve fallen ill while on holiday to carry over into the next leave year, more than the eight days holiday currently permitted by the UK Working Time Regulations.

If staff are able to turn their holiday days into sick leave, re-schedule their holidays for a later date and carry over a large number of untaken days, employers will clearly face a huge administrative burden trying to keep track of employees’ holiday entitlements and ensuring staff don’t take more days off than they’re permitted.

This highlights the critical importance of having an accurate, automated system in place for monitoring and recording employee leave and absence, such as Systems Valley’s powerful leave management application, LeaveMaster.

The advantage of LeaveMaster is that as well as enabling you to effortlessly record and monitor all forms of employee leave and absence, it allows you to set how many days holiday are automatically carried over into the next year if an employee doesn’t take their full entitlement.
 
You can find out more here.

The new Ferrari website has been powered by Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007. This insightful case study on the Microsoft website reveals how Ferrari migrated to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in order to streamline development, simplify content management and improve the user experience of their new site.

Since launching the new SharePoint-powered site, Ferrari’s site traffic has increased by 237 percent, with a 150 percent increase in unique visitors.

You can read the full case study here. Or to learn about Systems Valley’s SharePoint solutions and services or to book one of our experienced SharePoint developers, contact the Systems Valley team.

Did you know that Microsoft Dynamics AX holds a record for transaction processing? In a test conducted by Compaq and Oracle, the powerful business management solution processed an incredible 315,000 sales orders from 3,600 simultaneous users in just one hour.

An easy-to-use enterprise resource planning solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX streamlines and enhances your business processes and improves communication across the whole of your organisation and supply-chain.

Systems Valley can help you evaluate how the advanced technology and extensive functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX can best be put to use in your organisation. We can also use our expertise and experience to seamlessly implement it for you. To find out more, contact the Systems Valley team