Author: Joanie Mann

As the CTO for Mendelson Consulting and Director of Cloud Services for Noobeh, Joanie Mann provides support and guidance for businesses seeking to implement cloud solutions and services in their IT environments.
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The Business Cloud: Hype versus Reality

The Business Cloud: Hype versus Reality

There is no doubt that cloud and mobile computing models are driving technology adoption as well as changing the landscape of how consumers and businesses purchase and use IT.  Accompanying any great shift – which in this case is fueled not simply by cloud technologies but by social computing – are the purveyors of propaganda and hype.  Cloud computing and social media won’t make you popular, is not always safe or free, and it doesn’t whiten your teeth. What it can do is help businesses increase agility, collect and use information better and reduce the cost of change. There are many benefits to be achieved with cloud computing models, yet many providers continue to play on the hype rather taking the more difficult road of communicating how their solution actually solves real business problems.

Gartner research tracks this type of activity, producing reports offering assessments of the “maturity, business benefit and future direction of over 1,900 technologies”.  In the Gartner 2011 Hype Cycle Special Report, entries were grouped into 76 different “Hype Cycles”, revealing the similar patterns of “over-enthusiasm, disillusionment, and eventual realism” that comes with every new technology or innovation.  Hoping to provide guidance business IT decision makers, the report intends to inform businesses about when they should consider adopting technologies or IT models in order maximize the value of the approach.

Yet the market is bursting with definitions for “cloud computing”, and services providers offer their wares with varying levels of service and capability.  It’s really difficult to compare one private cloud solution to another, as they are all seemingly offering the same value proposition described in the same language – and none of it really describing what the solution is, how the business takes the greatest advantage of it, and what disruption can be expected along the way. Layer on top of that confusion a big heap of expectation, and the belief that cloud computing technologies are somehow different from “real” on-premise systems in that they are not subject to the same potential for breakage, failure, or unexpected cost.

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For example, even though Amazon may use the term “elastic”, cloud computing does not automatically create a stretchy and eternally-dynamic resource that can grow without end.   There are still limitations and costs associated with growth.

There is also a great deal of hype around applications and their performance in cloud environments.  When a piece of software is poorly designed and crashes frequently on a local computer or network, it is just as likely that the application will perform poorly in the cloud. It’s simply a reality of software that even great products that are designed to run exactly the way they are being run don’t have a guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong. With cloud computing models, however, there may be a service provider working in the background to manage the systems and keep things running.  You simply might not notice the failures and hiccups as much, but they are still there.

And not all cloud services mean everyone is sharing servers and infrastructure.  While the term cloud generally applies to multiple scaled systems, it doesn’t mean that everyone shares everything and benefits from tremendous levels of redundancy and fault tolerance. In most cases, a solution described as a “private” cloud means that the service has been customized for the unique needs of the organization, and that there are resources of certain types allocated exclusively to the use of that customer. On the other hand, a private cloud may mean that the system elements are all contained within the business infrastructure, providing “cloud” type of services but being delivered from company resources.  There are a wide variety of ways to describe these configurations and approaches, and quite a bit of inconsistency in use of terminology.

The best thing for a business owner to do now is to just ignore the term “cloud” and simply consider how the business might leverage resources from service providers to gain more IT capability at reduced costs, and how outsourcing certain technology needs allows a greater focus on internal innovation and improvement.  Centralized management, improved security, disaster recovery, and increased mobility are all benefits to be realized with the right business cloud implementation.  Just because it is to be an outsourced solution does not mean that the business organization should not still architect and understand the solution they will depend on.  If this level of participation and understanding is not in place, the solution is unlikely to deliver the resulting benefits expected and hoped for.

Outsourced IT service, remote access and server-based computing aren’t new concepts.  It still requires using common sense and reasoning when considering any change in business technology and the innovative application of IT in a business – this cannot be outsourced.  When it comes to cloud computing… to put it bluntly, just avoid the hype and stay away from unrealistic marketing and sales messaging.  If it sounds too good to be true… it probably is.  Technology hasn’t come that far.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Migrating Business Data to the Cloud

Migrating Business Data to the Cloud

When businesses elect to have their desktop applications hosted in the cloud with a hosting service provider, they are also electing to have their data hosted with the provider.  This point is not always obvious to non-technical users and those unfamiliar with the hosted application concept.  Many business owners have adopted an online or hosted application solution and then realized after-the-fact that their data was no longer present on their computer.  At least, no current data was present, and it was quite a surprise the day they wanted some information but could not get it because they were not connected to the Internet at the time.  An important thing to remember, and the essential factor in measuring risk associated with use of cloud services and hosted solutions, is that adopting online applications in almost any form means that the data associated with (and possibly even data remotely associated with) the application will also migrate to the cloud.

mobile cloud data

Migrating on-premises servers – and the applications and data residing on them – to the cloud makes sense for many businesses.  Particularly as network and internet threats increase in number and as system vulnerabilities are more frequently introduced with remote and mobile access technologies, cloud solutions can significantly assist a business in mitigating the risks of being connected.  Yet business owners and IT managers must be diligent in terms of understanding the measures their service providers take to protect and preserve as confidential the customer’s business data.  And it becomes more than essential that any and all tools or services implemented be part of a strictly controlled information management and data protection plan.

Where applications are simply interfaces and logic; the value for a business is in the data used by the applications – data containing information about the company, how and with whom it does business, and how it makes money.  It is critical that the business consider how and where users need access to applications and data, so that any cloud deployment does not wind up hindering productivity rather than facilitating it to a greater level.  It is when the user becomes disenfranchised, unable to perform their work due to lack of access to information or tools, that “shadow IT” deployments appear, and data sharing solutions are introduced outside of the governance of management or IT.

The vast number of offerings for hosting applications and managing business data in the cloud makes finding and implementing the right business solutions a complicated and often frustrating process.  Even large providers that specialize in delivering from a menu of business cloud solutions often forget that their target customers may not be particularly tech-savvy, and will fail to recognize the nuances in service delivery or protection that could make big differences to the business down the line – like in the case of a system failure or outage.

Among the keys to a successful cloud solution deployment, particularly when critical and frequently used applications and data are to be migrated off-premises, is a thorough understanding of how users currently work with the tools provided, ensuring that processes and utilization can be fully adapted to the new IT model.

As long as users are able to retain their productivity and efficiency, and when improvements in workflows and information access become additional benefits, the security and protection of the business data is more likely, as users will feel less compelled to find alternative and less secure means for making the business data available from the cloud.  You may want to migrate your business data to the cloud, but you don’t want your data to migrate further than you can reach.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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A Higher Level of Customer Relationship Management: Building Closer Customer Relationships

A Higher Level of Customer Relationship Management: Building Closer Customer Relationships

Most businesses recognize the importance of creating a quality experience for customers doing business with them.  The thing that many business owners overlook is how their internal workflows and information management systems serve to either support or impede the delivery of a well-rounded positive customer experience.  Growing businesses must adjust their processes and improve their tools in order to have the necessary information available to workers at various levels of the organization, providing a centralized means for collaboration, data sharing and analysis.   With the right information systems and process support, even small businesses are able to function at exceptionally high levels and provide the consistently high-quality service and customer experience that establishes long-term value in each and every customer relationship.

Businesses which excel at providing very high levels of customer service tend to have a few common characteristics – features of the business that identify it as an organization geared towards growth and success in driving the customer engagement and business value.  Among these characteristics is the recognition of the need to use technology better – leveraging automation to a greater degree to create consistency in work performance, and improving information collection and integration to provide more context and depth to the data. Added efficiency which affords employees time to focus on customer oriented tasks and elevating the customer experience even more is the payback.

total-business

Many CRM solutions describe the benefits of a “360 degree” view of the customer, yet these solutions often orient themselves to supporting only sales and Contact Management and do not address product and/ or service delivery (fulfillment of what was sold/ordered)  or project management, contracts and agreements tracking or other aspects of doing business with the customer.

Granted, customer interaction occurs most frequently with sales and service teams, but there are potentially vast number of processes and tasks performed within the business which operate with the same information as sales and services, and which would benefit by integration within the same information and workflow framework.

By selecting a solution that addresses the wider variety of business and information management requirements rather than focusing solely on sales and support, business owners and managers find that they are better able to address internal workflows with streamlined process automation.

The result is significant improvement in the quality and completeness of the information available to users throughout the organization, ultimately improving the quality and nature of customer engagement and interaction. Perhaps even more impactful is the ability for the business to better understand  the context of and motivations for customer interactions, and (most importantly!) having the capability to take immediate action based on that knowledge.

With the right customer relationship and business management solution in place, and with a focus on systematic approaches to enabling process and workflow automation, businesses can become more flexible and responsive to changing customer needs and expectations.  Creating the complete view of the customer relationship and capturing the data which helps users understand the dynamics of the entire relationship serves to build closer customer relationships that will strengthen and grow over time.

When a business needs to implement a Customer Relationship Management solution to address sales and support needs, it makes sense to also review information management requirements for:

  • Delivery of products and/or services  – i.e. fulfillment of what was promised by sales
  • Scheduling of Work/Service Orders and integrated billing based on completed work
  • Time and personnel activity management as well as time reporting and billing
  • Project or job resource and time management and reporting
  • Documents, contracts, before & after pictures, and agreements of all types
  • Products and services, proposals and quotes, price books and channels

Additionally, since the processes are so closely related in terms of the information collected or used, it makes sense that the CRM solution would also work with:

  • Marketing campaigns and activities, lead generation systems and e-newsletter solutions
  • Accounting solutions which also utilize customer, product, job, time, cost and other data
  • Expense spending management, approvals and reporting

To be truly useful, the solution must also support remote and mobile workers since field service personnel and other workers are often not in the office when they need to get something done.  Whether the access is via hosted solutions providing full remote desktop functionality, or via web-based application extensions allowing device independent access (or both!), the solution should be designed to allow users to access the system and perform their work from wherever it is required.

Even more, a comprehensive approach to managing business activities and information, particularly with a focus on providing all departments with all the information and capability they need to get their jobs done properly, requires that everyone in the company be on board.  There really isn’t a great way to centralize and manage critical business data when the approach is to give a few people some information and functionality, leaving it up to human beings and individual initiative to connect the dots (and the data).  The result is almost always a series of gaping holes in various processes where information and requests get lost.

Among the best solutions I have found which delivers the foundation for all of this functionality is Results CRM.  Thousands of users have successfully migrated from ACT!, Goldmine, Telemagic, Salesforce.com and other SFA and CRM solutions to the Results CRM platform, and have benefitted from better workflow automation, more logical company and contacts associations, and a broader range of functionality supporting everything from sophisticated quote and proposal development to comprehensive project, time and expense management.

At the end of the day, it’s the reporting that wins.  If the data isn’t in the database, you can’t report on it.  If you can’t report on it, you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t make good business decisions and grow the business.

Make sense?

J

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Client Experience and Perceived Value: It’s Looking Cloudy for Accountants Working with Small Business

Client Experience and Perceived Value: It’s Looking Cloudy for Accountants Working with Small Business

Every day it seems there is another professional accounting or bookkeeping firm asking questions about how to get new clients for their new “online accounting” business.  Most of these professionals are likely missing the point that their current clients are probably already looking at online accounting solutions and services. Just like in the days when QuickBooks was beginning to take the lead in the market; today’s increasingly popular online accounting solutions are gaining popularity with the direct users, and are bringing those solutions to the professional community (not the other way around).  Professionals who wish to build their businesses on what the market demands would do well to recognize that the push to the cloud coming from their clients is a reflection of past activities, and firms riding the wave are much more likely to see success than those fighting it.

In reflection, remember that QuickBooks, unlike the other business accounting and financial products at the time, was a retail product marketed to and sold via retail and direct-to-customer outlets rather than via a channel or reseller approach.  At that time, State of the Art Software (which became Peachtree and then Sage 50) was the solution preferred by most accounting professionals, yet more and more small business owners would come to the professionals with the QuickBooks product already in hand, so accountants threw up their hands and adopted (if not embraced) the software.  Over the years, QuickBooks became the “go to” software for small business accounting, and many professional firms didn’t just gear up to work with it, but went as far as developing standards and practices based on the product.

With the introduction of high-speed broadband access, business Internet connectivity and affordable remote/mobile service, businesses are now finding that their options for shopping for, purchasing and implementing various solutions to business problems is possible at any time and from anywhere.  Even more, social computing and the blurring of the lines between personal and business use has made it all but assured that new business owners will seek online solutions where they can access business information and perform business-related activities regardless of location or mode of access.  This is what they have come to expect as consumers of information and services, and the expectation extends no less into their small businesses.

Professional firms must recognize that these evolving paradigms represent opportunity, taking advantage of cloud-based, real-time collaboration models to provide more timely value to their clients.  Where the more traditional on-premises and paper-based models have flourished, the online working models representing lean process and sustainability become the focus.

The movement to the cloud for small business accounting started with the consumer, who ultimately became the small business, and who may eventually become the big business. The professionals who recognize the value of and wisely adopt cloud technologies and online application services in their businesses – specifically in terms of how they work with clients and deliver value – are the firms which recognize that the client experience and perception of value delivered are the most important elements of all.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Why Accounting in the Cloud?

Why Accounting in the Cloud?

Business owners and managers need to keep close control of their financial data.  They need to know where they stand at all times, and having information available to make business decisions is essential.  When the financial information is in the office but the owner isn’t, how can wise decisions be made without access to supporting data?  They can’t, and that’s a problem.  The solution is simple: work in the cloud.

A cloud computing model properly applied to accounting and bookkeeping systems helps businesses of any size keep their financial data and accounting applications in a safe a secure environment, yet accessible to those who need it.  By locating the business applications and data in a protected central location, access to programs and data sets can be provided to authorized users regardless of location or computing platform.  For a small business owner, this means that working from home or on vacation can be as productive as working in the office.  In larger businesses, cloud-based accounting means the accounting department, CFO and financial advisers might all access the same financial records and applications no matter where they work from.

Cloud computing and hosted application models applied to accounting and bookkeeping represent a viable option for managing, securing and providing access to critical financial information.  Businesses outsourcing their accounting or bookkeeping work find that cloud based approaches offer workflow and process efficiencies to help get the necessary information in the hands of those who need it, quickly and efficiently.

Keeping accounting and bookkeeping systems safe yet available, providing business decision makers with the flexibility of accessing their financial data from anywhere and at any time is a highly valuable service. Accounting and finance professionals can act as the trusted adviser to their clients, providing important business insight and information, with guidance in developing cloud computing and online accounting approaches being among the benefits the firm offers.   Working closer with clients allows professionals to produce better, more accurate and insightful results.   Cloud computing models remove distance barriers and allow professionals and their clients to work more collaboratively with applications and data than ever before.

Many firms are just recently discovering the relationship between technology adoption and business competitiveness.  Those that embrace new computing paradigms gain the ability to meet client requirements in innovative, efficient and timely ways while those that do not adopt these new models continue to struggle, unable to communicate value and differentiation in their service offerings.

There are some recognized truths in business, and one is that is isn’t what you know but who you know.  Another truth, an understanding that is just now being fully recognized, is that it’s not what you do, but how you do it that matters.  Accounting and bookkeeping for business is absolutely an area where cloud computing and the wise application of technology and service can improve cost efficiency, accuracy and turnaround times, allowing the firm to provide a higher level of service to clients.  Accounting in the cloud is a technology-enabled approach which propels the firm into an entirely new range of capabilities and potential service offerings, reaching higher levels of performance and profitability.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Efficiency and Value with Cloud Accounting

For some accounting professionals, the problem is finding a way to provide services that are valuable to the client, and doing it in a way that makes it profitable for the provider.  Outsourced and online accounting models are the answer, employing innovative tools in the practice and with clients: tools and resources necessary to get more informed and run the business better.

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With online accounting solutions the firm is able to increase profitability with the range of services offered, often adding clients and work without hiring more personnel.  Online solutions allow professionals and their clients to work from anywhere at any time, providing both with the freedom to focus on core business capabilities (and lifestyle).

Reducing the requirement for sophisticated on-premises technology may mean providing everyone with the ease of use and security of server-based computing models, which is among the benefits of a cloud IT approach.  Centralizing and managing applications, protecting valuable data resources, and streamlining business processes are among the benefits to be achieved with an outsourced, managed application hosting solution.  Businesses who outsource their IT management often realize an increased capacity to do business simply by leveraging the cloud to make the current working models more efficient and effective.

Leveraging mobility and real time access is also about increasing the overall range of opportunity to deliver value.  Contractors, employees and clients all find improvements in getting the information they need when it matters, and the firm finds a greater agility in meeting client demands and expanding service offerings.

Cloud computing and online accounting solutions have proven the viability of anytime, anywhere working models, and professional accounting practices of all sizes and orientations are realizing the benefits of working closer with their clients by applying them to the engagement.

Cloud accounting is really about improving the profitability of the accounting practice while delivering higher levels of service to the client.  The movement of information from one place to another; translating data from one form to another – these are the processes representing the cost and inefficiency in the practice, and are specific areas where a collaborative, online approach may introduce new service efficiency and value.

jmbunnyfeet

Make Sense?

J

It is worth noting that “cloud accounting” and online accounting models do not necessarily require the use of a SaaS solution.  QuickBooks Online, Xero, Freshbooks – these are new small business offerings that exist purely on the web.  QuickBooks desktop editions can be “cloudy”, too, when they’re hosted by an authorized QuickBooks hosting provider.  The point is not necessarily to use web software, but to approach IT management and systems from an outsourced perspective, allowing for centralized management and administration and delivering secure remote and mobile access.  The systems should facilitate the working model, not force it.