MPs’ expenses can’t compare to the bosses of Britain’s FTSE 100

Comparing contracts of MP’s expenses to the bosses of Britain’s FTSE 100, reveals million-pound pay and bonus deals are merely pocket money, as they enjoy special pension arrangements, second-home allowances and most day-to-day costs covered by their companies.

Britain’s company directors are under scrutiny as suggestions of ‘a month without pay’ to workers, to aid companies through the economic down fall.

Marc Bolland, chief executive of Wm Morrison , clearly struggles on a meagre £850,000 salary so the supermarket group is helping with his phone bill by paying £50 a month “towards the rental and unit charges”.

Mark Tucker, chief executive of Prudential, has made a contractual obligation for the company to install “security for the protection of the executive”.

Stephen Hester, who arguably has the toughest job in Britain as chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has negotiated seven weeks vacation to recuperate every year – making him the most holidayed boss of a FTSE 100 company. Even Sir Fred Goodwin, Hester’s moneyed predecessor, only had six, Reports the Telegraph June 22nd.

Royal Bank of Scotland, the majority taxpayer-owned bank, is expected to this week announce a £9.6 million pay package for Stephen Hester, its chief executive, reports the Times June 22nd According to Incomes Data Services’ executive compensation review, earnings for FTSE 100 chief executives rose 167pc between 2000 and 2008 and 147pc for FTSE 250 bosses. By comparison, the median national average pay rise over the same period for the country’s 28m workers was just 32.2pc, IDS said.

Reviewing wage percentage data requires a multi-dimensional analytics software platform, the Infomatrix OneView Platform provides Reporting, Financial Dashboards and Multi-Dimensional Analytics for business users within a single web-based view.

Infomatrix is a leading Information Management Consultancy that delivers innovative and visually pleasing web-based business solutions which are created by the Infomatrix OneView Platform.

Property Market Falling Prices to Slow

There are still bargains to be had say Property Market experts.

City traders are predicting house price falls of just 7% this year with the
worst of the property market downturn behind us, report The Times June 19th.

Brokers are urging buyers to snap up a bargain before mortgage rates and
property market rise. Rob Atkin of Tullett Prebon said:

“We’ve seen more property buyers are willing to bet that the Halifax index
will not fall as far as the property market was suggesting three months ago.
And with derivative prices suggesting the low point to be sometime next
year, the worst may very well be behind us.”

Property Market prices will trough in December 2010 and will not recover to
today’s levels until 2016.
 
Capital Economics, the consultancy, last week improved its forecast for the
British property market. It now expects prices to fall 10% this year,
compared with a previous prediction of a 20% decline. It has also changed
its forecast for 2010 from a fall of 10% to one of between 5% and 7%.

Ed Stansfield, one of its economists, said:

“It seems likely that, from here on in, house prices will fall more slowly than they did last year. As for 2011, the outlook is even more uncertain. But the house-price-to-earnings ratio is still likely to be above its average over the long term”
 
“So, unless the recovery is strong enough to generate a rise in incomes, we
would not rule out a further fall, of perhaps 5%, in nominal house prices.”

IHS Global Insight, another City forecaster, said its prediction for a 10%
fall this year looked overly pessimistic, while George Buckley, economist at
Deutsche Bank, also said the pace of declines expected this year could slow.
 
Stephen Noakes of Lloyds said:

“I think we will see about only 10% to 12% falls this year. For the first time people are thinking that the property market will increase over the next 12 months.”
 
Finding a solution to predicting peaks and trough in the property market
sector by comparing the present economy, to past trends and future forecasts
will require a multi-dimensional analytics software package, this is where
the Informatrix OneView Platform can help.

Businesses that adopt the Infomatrix OneView Platform can benefit from
increased efficiency and awareness of the key factors that can impact their
growth and market share.

Infomatrix is a leading Information Management Consultancy that delivers
innovative and visually pleasing web-based business solutions which are
created by the Infomatrix OneView Platform.

Broadband Tax Could Speed Up OneView Platform

A 50p per month broadband tax is to be introduced to every home and business with a phone line, under government plans to raise up to £1.5bn to pay for upcoming internet connections, reports The Guardian.

In Digital Britain’s report, communications minister Lord Carter also revealed plans to divert money from the license fee to fund a £200m investment in bringing existing broadband services to everyone in the UK by 2012.

After 2012 he wants to continue to raid the license fee to pay for regional news and children’s TV shows, which broadcasters are cutting back on as a result of the collapse in television advertising.

The BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons hit back at the plan, warning the broadcaster’s governing body “will not sit quietly by and watch this happen”.

Along with the plan to get existing broadband at 2Mb per second to everyone in the UK by 2012, Carter took many in the industry by surprise by proposing the new 50p-a-month tax on all phone lines. That will raise between £150m and £175m a year which the government will make available to companies such as BT, who want to push the next generation of internet networks.

If plans of a broadband tax go ahead, all homes and businesses will possess a Broadband connection, this will enable professionals who share their time between home and the office to access critical web based reporting, especially if they are using the Infomatrix OneView platform.

 The Infomatrix OneView Platform enables businesses to address the many problems associated with delivering critical business information in a timely manner to their management team.

For information on the OneView Platform, visit or contact us

Property Market Lose Cheap Fixed-rate Mortgages

Despite the Bank of England keeping their rates on hold, High Street banks are raising their costs to boost their profits.

Nationwide Building Society first to increase their mortgage by 0.86 per cent

Several major high street lenders increased the rates on their fixed rates deals following the Nationwide Building Society raising costs up to 0.86 per cent, despite the Bank of England keeping interest rates at just 0.5 per cent, according to The Telegraph, June 16th 2009.

This has come as a major blow to the Property Market after finally reaching a turning couple months ago. Melanie Bien, of mortgage brokers Savills Private Finance, said:

“Home owners who are on a cheaper standard variable rate should hang on where they are while the rate is low.”

Jonathan Cornell, of mortgage brokers First Active Finance, said:

“If you move onto an SVR, you are probably going to have a cheaper monthly payment than if you fix now”

He then added:

“Fixed rates are going up and while you might enjoy being on an SVR for the next six to nine months, the whole experience is going to become more painful as we see interest rates begin to rise after that.”

With interest rates varying across the property market sector, finding a solution to shared reporting in real time is a task, but with Infomatrix’ Oneview Platform, businesses will benefit from all the commercial property challenges.

Infomatrix is an IT and Management Consultancy providing a flexible Oneview Platform that presents critical business data in a single view.

Oneview provides web based reporting, interactive dashboards and analytics allowing information to be analysed, shared and viewed online.

Economy is Stabilising say the CBI

Britain’s leading business organisation has revised its forecasts for the economy; according to the CBI the recession will be less severe and shorter than previously estimated, showing output growing from January next year, economic growth would be “slow and gradual” around April and that it would take time to see whether the emerging “green shoots” would deliver sustainable growth, according to the Times, June 15th.

“The harshest period of the recession looks to be behind us, the economy is stabilising and this should continue during the second half of this year,” said Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI,

The CBI predicts that GDP will fall only marginally in the second half of this year before growing by 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent in the first two quarters of 2010.

The CBI estimates by the end of the recession, the economy will have shrunk by 4.8 per cent, taking less of a toll than the recession of the 1980s, when it contracted by 5.9 per cent.

Jobs are being saved because staff are working fewer hours or are accepting pay freezes in a bid to keep their jobs, the CBI said. About a third of private sector companies are operating pay freezes.

Comparing the present economy, to past trends and future forecasts in the Finance Sector, can obviously determine current risk evaluations on future decisions. By adopting Infomatrix, OneView solution, businesses can benefit to achieve increased performance, growth and market share.

Oneview’s flexible BI Platform provide web based reporting, displays financial dashboards and its multi dimensional analytics, presents all critical business information in a single view.

Swine Flu: Pandemic could overload NHS

Thousands of schools could be closed and millions of people infected with swine flu and as the first flu pandemic for 40 years was officially declared by the World Health Organisation.

The Department of Health told NHS managers to expect a surge in cases of swine flu when children go back to school after the autumn holidays and again over Christmas.

Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain’s chief medical officer, said several million people in Britain could be infected with swine flu, putting the NHS under pressure. But shutting schools with cases could be more disruptive than just treating affected pupils, reports The Telegraph.

Confirmed cases of Swine Flu and their close contacts have received the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and orders have been placed for 90 million doses of H1N1 vaccine which are due to be delivered by December.

Dr Maureen Baker, Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “This does not mean that patients are in any more danger, or that the virus has become any more harmful. The majority of H1N1 cases will get a nasty dose of flu and recover within a week or two.” In some cases the swine flu virus has caused vomiting and diarrhoea.

The NHS already faces exceptional challenges in increased regulations and rising costs. Informatrix aim is improve efficiency in the health sector with a robust web-based medical device management application.

Infomatrix’ fastest growing service is the OneView Platform, a multiple data source combined to be displayed in a single view and accessed online as a form of web based reporting, this enables users to upload information and spread sheets to create reports and perform in-depth analyses from multi-dimensional analytics in real time.

For more information, visit OneView

Middle Classes Benefit From Property slump

According to a new report, the middle classes are likely to benefit the most from the property market crash after making the most of the lower financial interest rates.

The owners of properties worth between £450,000 and £750,000 have found it easiest to use the low interest rates to make overpayments on their mortgages.

As well as having a larger disposable income, the middle class have seen the biggest falls in their monthly payments as the base rate has dropped from 5% in October to lows of 0.5%.

The study by PropertyIndex.com said the additional equity built up by owners of middle-market properties had helped ‘cushion’ them against property market falls.

Lee Bramzell of PropertyIndex.com said: ‘Thousands of middle-class homeowners have prudently compensated for the falling market value of their own home by overpaying on their mortgage and therefore maintaining their level of equity.’

Researchers have also warned that with financial interest rates expected to start rising again next year, borrowers may only have a limited ‘window of opportunity’ to benefit from the falls.

During this economic climate, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the fluctuating interest rates. That’s where Infomatrix financial reporting and multi-dimensional analytics can provide a solution to the world of finance and property.

Infomatrix’s OneView platform offers the finance and property sector critical business data that can be shared and viewed online, enabling managers to view an operational performance dashboard in one view.

For more information, contact OneView

National Healthcare Service Face Budget Shortfall

The NHS Confederation has released a new report revealing that ‘Tough decisions’ have to be made on what the NHS can afford to pay for or cuts will mean waiting lists will increase leading to poorer care and eventually increased costs.

The Confederation, which represents most NHS organisations, warns action is needed now if the health service is to remain free at the point of need, The Telegraph reports.

The report also said that in the five years from 2011, the lower increases in budgets that are predicted and the impact of the recession along with rising costs mean it is likely the NHS will face a real terms shortfall of £15bn.

Chief executive of the Confederation Steve Barnett, said: “With little or no cash increase from 2011/12 the NHS has to prepare itself for real terms reductions in what it can afford to do and needs to make the hard decisions about which programmes to fund, how to reward staff and how to reorganise services now.”

Controlling multiple budgets across the NHS, cutting costs, improving service and managing performance requires multi dimensional analytics, so NHS managers and chief executives can view an operational performance dashboard in *OneView.

If the key to success is communication, then this method will definitely keep the NHS managers ‘fingers on the pulse’ if you’ll excuse the pun!

Infomatrix is an IT and Management Consultancy offering a flexible *OneView Platform that presents critical business data in one single view.

Property Market Recovering.

The number of people looking to buy property is at the highest level in a decade, reports The Telegraph. The research also indicated that the property market prices rose for the third successive month.

According to the latest property market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, new buyer enquiries have risen at the fastest rate since August 1999. The survey also suggested that the rebound in enquiries is feeding through into increased sales, with the number of properties selling over three months, edging up from 10.6 in April to 11.8 in May.

RICS member based in Durham City, Keith Johnson said: “While the market is still somewhat erratic and very price sensitive there are good signs of recovery.”

RICS member Richard Sayer, based in Northumberland said: “This is an excellent market for many buyers and sellers to be testing their options.”

With Property prices varying across the country, it is easy to get lost in analysing trends on market movement from county to county. That’s where Oneview’s multi-dimensional analytics software provides a solution to your Reporting requirements across the property sector.

Infomatrix is an IT and Management Consultancy offering a flexible Oneview Platform that presents critical business data in a single view. Oneview provides web based reporting, interactive dashboards and analytics allowing information to be analysed, shared and viewed online. For information on how we can help your Financial Reporting, contact Oneview.

Education & Training

While all applications are designed with a high degree of usability and interactivity, training still remains a key component to achieving a successful implementation and long-term end user acceptance. It is also important for key relevant technical personnel to be able to securely maintain and administer the environment, and also to modify, enhance, upgrade existing applications, or develop new applications. 

To support your training needs, we provide both in-house and on-site training courses for developers, administrators and end users. These courses are offered both as scheduled standard courses and as fully customized courses provided on site at your location. Customer specific on-site end-user training, often in conjunction with the on-site implementation, is also available.

Our innovative Web Base Training has proved to be a huge success with our clients, providing remote, one on one on-line training sessions that are tailored to each individuals specific need.

For more detailed information on our training programs, please contact your account manager to discuss your needs and to learn more about the various options offered.