June 2008: Cidermill continues series of business finance training events at Computacenter

Cidermill began delivering a series of business finance training workshops to sales managers at Computacenter in 2006. It proved very successful and events in January and June 2008 continued the series. Participants came from many parts of the UK, all with the same need: to better understand the financial and business processes of their customers. The sales teams serve customers in many different industries so the new version of a business simulation from Sweden-based Celemi was an ideal vehicle to help them quickly learn the basics of business finance.

Computacenter is Europe's leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. Headquartered in the UK, with subsidiaries in Germany, France and the Benelux countries, Computacenter is a £2Bn giant in the IT industry, employing 9,500 people. The company offers a single source for technology, skills and expertise to help IT departments realise greater value from their technology investments. Computacenter provides technology sourcing, infrastructure integration and managed services.

Celemi's Apples & Oranges® business simulation helps people learn about business through running a simple manufacturing company for three years. No computers are involved. It is a board game. Each player can see at a glance every aspect of the financial position of their company, making it easy to learn how to construct and interpret financial reports.

More importantly, participants understand (and learn to predict) the financial effect of making changes to business processes. They really "learn by doing". And Apples & Oranges® is fun! In fact, learning with Apples & Oranges® could not be more different to the traditional 'chalk and talk' training style.

At this workshop a new version of Apples & Oranges® was used for the first time. The new version provides a deeper understanding of cash-flow management and helps participants try 'what if?' analyses. This is particularly helpful to Computacenter sales teams, in dialogue with their (real) customers as they try to agree possible IT investment projects.

After learning the basics of business finance through playing Apples & Oranges, the workshop included a session to help the sales teams prepare convincing investment proposals to their customers. They learned the basics of Discounted Cash Flow, so important for their customers who are evaluating possible investments covering several years.

If you want to know how Cidermill Consulting could help your people develop their business skills, contact Cidermill Consulting today. Either send us an email or call us on +44 (0)1386 840277

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