Category: Business Process Automation

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Lessons Learned (or Not): Development and the Cloud

Lessons Learned (or Not): Development and the Cloud

Talk about agile technology and how great things are because we can experience rapid software solution development and deployment via the cloud is shining a brighter light on certain IT management issues which have existed for quite some time, but perhaps went largely unrecognized.  One of these issues is product development direction and influence, and where it really comes from.  If you think most IT companies determine their product lines and offerings from the top down, with detailed specifications supported by a strong business case, you may want to think again.  Based on my experience and that of a lot of other folks, there are many companies out there offering products and services  that were crafted in more of an ad hoc manner than through a focused “product development” effort with long term sustainability in mind.  In some cases, this demonstrates ingenuity and a desire to look at things in new ways.  Sometimes it’s just uncontrolled and unstructured chaos with dollar signs attached.

“there’s a school of thought, put forward by the small but influential analyst firm RedMonk, that developers now occupy the role of IT kingmakers. This theory holds that the traditional model of IT adoption, which assumes that major decisions emanate from the top, is wrong. Instead, the decisions that appear to come from a CIO are, in fact, dictated by the choices made by people way down in the IT organization-the traditionally denigrated developers. CIOs merely ratify the decisions made by “lowly” developers.”

It goes like this:  a high level concept comes from upper management… some “great idea”.  This high level idea is communicated (at a high level) to the production teams who will make it real.  The production teams decide what it really is, how it will really work, what it will look like, and how it will be offered – and all of this generally based on the preferences, skill sets, moral guidelines, belief systems, and work ethic of those involved in the development process.  The product details are run back up the food chain, where they then become the defining elements of the new solution.  In many cases, refinements and changes are argued against by the developers, citing various reasons or roadblocks to making changes to their prized construction.  But hey – they got it ready to go out the door, didn’t they?  So what if it’s not quite what you envisioned, and doesn’t necessarily represent a sustainable strategy?

Experience in business does count, particularly if you learn from it.  There is a saying I heard once, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it other than it proves to be so very true each and every day.  The saying is that “there is no morality without context”.  In business, context is often experience, understanding the cause and effect of an action or activity.  Without this learning, without the experience earned within the organization or by others, there is no context guiding the development.

“It’s irresistible to poke fun at some of the most egregious aspects of today’s IT practices-change control committees that only meet once every two weeks;ITIL implementations that place more emphasis on paper trails than actually, you know, getting things done; operations groups that resist application updates in the name of stability, and so on and so forth.

However, the fact is that these functions, if not their manifestation, exist for important reasons. Overlooking them-or outright ignoring them-is not the right solution. Ensuring that updates to production systems are made, and being able to track who makes changes to infrastructure, are enterprise functions are that won’t go away just because cloud computing is in the picture.”

Lessons previously learned will need to be learned again, and addressing problems after-the-fact is generally far more costly than being proactive and trying to avoid them in the first place.  It can be a very painful process, watching the company go through puberty all over again (particularly if it had once reached some level of maturity), yet this is what can occur when the bright and shiny new idea causes management to forget fundamental lessons previously learned.

In a recent article on Computerworld.com, author Bernard Golden makes a number of really good and interesting points about the opposing viewpoints of this “agile” development enabled by the cloud (the article focuses on AWS – Amazon Web Services, but it is completely relevant in the broader context).  Link here to access the entire post, it’s worth the read.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9230040/How_the_Cloud_Brings_Developers_into_Business_Process

Make Sense?

J

Read more about legacy application modernization, and why IT and back-office outsourcing makes sense for a lot of reasons 

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Working With the Right Numbers: Financial Data Analysis Requires Accurate Financial Data

There is a lot of discussion these days about big data and financial data analysis.  One of the most valuable aspects of the available tools for performing financial analysis, forecasting and “what-if” scenarios is the ability for a business to benchmark their performance against other businesses in similar industries.  By comparing their performance metrics with other like businesses, an owner or manager may be able to identify items in the performance profile which could be improved or which may represent differentiation from competitors.

When speaking to accounting professionals about the additional valuable services they could be providing to clients by using these KPI reporting tools to identify additional consultation and advisory services clients need, the feedback I generally get from the professional is that “you have to get the numbers right, first”.  It seems that, even with the ready availability of powerful and affordable software solutions to run the business, accounting and finance still tends to be an afterthought for many business owners.  Relegated to the back-office, and being an after-the-fact recipient of transactional data, accounting is still viewed by many as a “necessary evil” of doing business rather than an area of potential strategic advantage.

Many accounting professionals are still struggling with finding the right approach to help clients get better financial reporting on a regular basis, in as near real time as possible, without having to practically live in the client systems.  These professionals are often still approaching the problem by attempting to get the client to participate in the financial systems directly by inputting checks and payments, creating invoices, and doing other types of work the client needs to perform – and using the accounting system to do it.

This approach may well be the source of the dilemma, and all because the client is being asked to work in the accountant’s software rather than with a solution which addresses specifically the tasks the business users need to perform on a regular basis.  When users have tools which don’t suit their requirements well, they tend to not use the tools properly, if at all.  When users are provided with tools suited specifically to solving their functional or process support problems (Service Oriented Architecture approach, or SOA – what Doug Sleeter calls “chunkify”), usage and accuracy can increase dramatically.  Getting the numbers right means getting the supporting solution right first. When these solutions are properly configured and deployed, data collection and integration can become a “stealth” process, silently passing information from one system to another, significantly improving the accuracy and quality of data.

Accounting professionals who focus on assisting their clients with applying the right solutions to support operational as well as accounting processes, and who help to create the controls around the appropriate flow of information end-to-end, are delivering very high levels of value to those client businesses.  It is the assistance these consultative professionals provide, helping the business facilitate its processes faster and more efficiently, which increases the accuracy and, ultimately, the meaning of the resulting financial data.

Make Sense?

J

Interested in learning more about tools which can help your professional practice get more opportunity from every client?  Contact me @JoanieMann on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook.

  • Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
  • Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
  • Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
  • Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud
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More Than an Accountant: A Trusted Business Advisor

More than an accountant: A Trusted Business Advisor

Accounting isn’t available for re-invention.  The rules were established long ago, and my debits and credits aren’t any better than yours.  Accurate accounting, completed tax returns, and quality audits are an expectation of every client of a professional accounting practice.  So, with accounting being somewhat of a “known quantity”, how does a firm show that it can do so much more than simply crunch the basic numbers, and demonstrate their value as a trusted business advisor? The answer is in knowing more about the client business and operation, and using that knowledge to identify opportunity for both the firm and for the client.

Accounting firms serving growing businesses must deliver value, insight, and long-term service to their clients.  These firms desire to enhance their service deliveries to existing clients and prospects, and need efficient and effective tools to support the effort.  For today’s accounting professional, that toolkit needs to include data collection, integration, and analysis.  The accounting professional’s participation in these areas is critical.  Data collection and integration efforts must be controlled in order to ensure accuracy of data in the financial systems.  This becomes the first and most important element – making certain that the data in the financial systems is accurate and complete.  Only then may additional steps be taken to add more value to the service delivery.

A primary method of adding value to accounting service delivery is to enhance the firm’s ability to provide data analysis and deep insight into business and financial performance.  This is, of course, enabled through the monitoring and control of data flowing into the financial systems, ensuring accuracy of information used for analysis. Staying abreast of changing financial needs and finding additional opportunities to add value to client deliveries is a key element in gaining new business and revenue for the firm, and adding to the “sticky” nature of the firm’s services.  Engaging with clients on key financial trends and industry performance metrics can help to set the firm apart from its competition, differentiating services and offering far more value to the client.

Financial analysis tools available today offer accounting professionals more capability and process support than ever before.  With direct integrations to practice management and engagement solutions, firms gain the ability to map and sync data automatically from core firm applications.  This ability can significantly improve upon the time and effort required to introduce data into the system, and delivers efficiency and scalability which allows the firm to easily expand use of the solution to the entire portfolio of client engagements.

There are numerous benchmarking and reporting tools today which make reading and understanding financial data easier and more accessible for business owners and managers, yet these solutions rarely address the needs of the firm in terms of mining the entire portfolio of clients for new opportunity where the firm can deliver more value and service.  The selection of the right tool for the firm becomes a key element in this respect.  The solution must deliver not only better analysis and reporting for each client, but should also be oriented to provide a system-wide view for the firm members and participants.

A key aspect to the efficient application of these tools is to systematize the activity, and structure it as a standard process within the business.  When it becomes part of a firms DNA, to structure, compare and analyze client engagements for trends and similarities and then to take advantage of the opportunities revealed therein, the firm has a practice model which speaks to sustainability and growth over time.  For smaller firms and solo practitioners, this approach is what turns individual accomplishment into a long-term business model.

The solution is out there, and it’s available today for practitioners who wish to introduce efficient and scalable ways to identify client opportunity, capture it, and deliver on it.  Turn your firm into a value machine, and deliver the trusted advice your clients need.  A little investment in this area can deliver large returns for years to come.

Make Sense?

J

Interested in learning more about tools which can help your professional practice get more opportunity from every client?  Contact me @JoanieMann on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook.

  • Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
  • Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
  • Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
  • Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud
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Data Warriors – Accounting in the Cloud

Data Warriors – Accounting in the Cloud

The cornerstones of building and supporting a professional accounting, bookkeeping or financial services firm are the tools and resources that assist the professional in building their practice clientele.  In today’s market, that means understanding the value and application of cloud computing models and services.

Information management paradigms are changing, and professionals who can help their clients to achieve maximum performance and profitability through increased efficiency and innovation will find that the practice evolves into a more effective and agile organization, and the quality of their client engagements is taken to an entirely new level

Not participating in a cloud technology model is making a decision to not participate in today’s technology-enabled flow of business opportunity.  Ensure your continued relevance and value, and communicate to your clients and peers that your firm is prepared to meet the demands of an intelligent and informed clientele and market.

What does the “cloud” really mean to accounting and business?  Well, it means a lot of things.

  • Centralized access to information resources
  • Distributed storage and management of information resources
  • Collaboration and co-working
  • MORE data collection than ever before
    • MORE data being produced by various operational systems
      • MORE need for controls on data flows and exchanges
        • MORE need for analysis
          • MORE need for critical thinking

It’s been proven that any time things become more complicated or complex, it creates a need (read = opportunity) for specialists.

There is a current a growing need for accounting and business professionals who understand how all of this “connectedness” will work.  And the question isn’t really a technology question, as there are people way smarter than me handling all that.  What I’m talking about is the flow of information and data throughout the system.

This used to be more in the domain of the CIO; information systems guys and data analysts.  Accounting and finance, for all its business value, was the final dumping ground for after-the-fact financial data.  Operationally, things could be humming along in the business and looking just fine, but the business was losing money and nobody knew it before it was too late.

But we’re finally coming to understand that virtually EVERYTHING in business has a financial impact leaving an imprint on the business: every action and activity, every relationship and interaction.

With the applications and service now being made available to businesses of all sizes, even small businesses are  now able to leverage the tools and gain the insight that only the largest of enterprises were able to do in times past.

The key is in enabling the business – facilitating their processing and getting their work done – using connected applications and mobile data access tools, or even simply helping with the collection of job or invoice or expense information electronically and in real time.

The earlier in the process, where you convert information into electronic data, the better.  You can then use connected systems or integrations to move and share data with others – other systems or other processes – within the business.

Accountants are already familiar with many of these concepts and tasks, where detailed customer activity and information is distilled into an AR entry, or where vendor and payments and various enterprise expenditures and resource utilizations are summarized into AP transactions and inventory valuations.  Operational systems are simply ‘exploded’ views of these subledgers and subsystems, where operational data and process-specific functionality resides.

With a traditional ERP/MRP approach, software systems were designed to meet the integrated business model by hanging all of the functionality and capability off a single framework or foundation.  Everything in the business was an extension from the core accounting and finance system.  Less intuitive for the user than a function or process-specific tool, at least the comprehensive integration of data was there.

What businesses may benefit from with a cloud-supported model is a similar result in terms of information being shared and enterprise collaboration being supported.  The difference, and the real and amazing benefit, is that specific and unique tools can be applied to support each operational segment or functional requirement in the business, and it can be done affordably and dynamically because it comes with the integration and real time information (data) exchange that single-framework enterprise systems provide.

The accounting professional becomes of greater importance in this connected system of data and functionality.  Their experience with and understanding of back-office and bookkeeping process, and the collection and preparation of subledger data for proper accounting treatment, is an integral role to play in establishing the proper integrations, syncs and data flows to and from “accounting”. Accounting becomes not an after-the-fact silo of historical data, but the centerpiece – the key – to unlocking business intelligence which leads to deeper understanding of business performance. When information is power, data analysis becomes the weapon, and the accountant the warrior who wields it.

Make Sense?

J

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Building Smarter Businesses: Staying Relevant in a Cloud Accounting World

Building Smarter Businesses: Staying Relevant in a Cloud Accounting World

They are pretty interesting commercials, and they get you thinking.  You know what I mean: those IBM commercials about developing models for the prediction of traffic conditions in Singapore, and “infusing intelligence into the systems and processes that make the world work”.   What they’re saying makes sense, but most business owners would likely say that it addresses bigger issues and doesn’t really speak to them.

The Wikipedia entry on Smarter Planet is introduced as “a corporate initiative [which] seeks to highlight how forward-thinking leaders in business, government and civil society around the world are capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development and societal progress”.   You see, the ability to leverage technology to collect data and analyze that data in real time can make a huge difference, whether it is in a small business or a global system. With an intelligent approach to enabling the enterprise, we can build smarter businesses and introduce new relevance for accounting and finance professional involved with them.

“Together, we have to consciously infuse intelligence into our decision-making and management systems, not just infuse our processes with more speed and capacity . . . We are moving into the age of the globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet. The question is, what will we do with that?” IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano

Our software and systems have reached the point where data collection and raw business intelligence is being gathered in real time by businesses small and large.  This new world of information management is no longer focusing on paper-based systems or business process automation; this is the world of real time information, big data and analysis.

For accounting and finance professionals, this is your time.  Accounting is not simply the final dumping ground for after-the-fact financial data; it is the department responsible for turning collected data into actionable information.  Data is just data, but information is power.

Information management and computing paradigms are shifting, and for accounting and finance professionals, the solution to the relevance problem is quite simple: shift your thinking of what accounting and finance is, and use it to your advantage.

The competitive landscape for businesses of all kinds is changing along with the progress and adoption of technology.  Accounting professionals in particular should be paying close attention to what’s happening out there, and learning to use the tools which will help them find the patterns and trends in the system which can help to forecast more accurately – coming closer to having that crystal ball than ever before.

Whether the attention is on small business or large enterprise, accounting professionals and information management specialists need to work together, and use the cloud and connected technologies to help achieve the benefits of growth, efficiency, sustainable development and progress envisioned by the Smarter Planet initiative.

Make Sense?

J

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Use the Cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries

Use the Cloud to connect beyond traditional boundaries

With the number of definitions being applied to the term “cloud” these days, it’s no wonder business owners and IT managers are having a hard time keeping up. Depending on who you talk to, cloud can mean anything from “all things related to the internet” to a description of a more complex, distributed method of provisioning and utilizing the various elements (or layers) involved in a network computing model. There are purists in the industry who don’t agree with the broad use of the term “cloud”, as it creates confusion in the market as to what is and is not true cloud computing. Over time, however, this situation should be resolved through the understanding that, no matter what software or system you elect to implement, there will likely be an aspect of “cloud” in it. The popular term will become less important, and the market will simply recognize that this is how business computing is done.  It becomes “normal” IT, and not something special.

The stealthy inclusion of web services and connected applications has been happening for a few years now.  Even the tried-and-true QuickBooks desktop editions have become the center points for a large number of Internet delivered product features. Where payroll was once simply part of the program, it’s now an outsourced service delivered seamlessly from within the application. It’s the same with credit card processing, bill payments, attaching documents, and more. The cloud is involved in a lot more than most people really understand, because so much of the “magic” happens behind the scenes. This makes it easier for the user to adopt, but doesn’t go a long way towards helping them understand the model or the intrinsic benefits derived from it. Cloud is here, and it’s probably in the solution you are currently using. It’s already “normal” IT, you just didn’t know it.

While the market works through this realization, there is much to do in terms of educating folks on how they can use this new paradigm to their greater benefit. Business process automation, outsourcing non-core processes, and using integrated systems to improve information sharing and exchange within an organization aren’t entirely new concepts. What’s new, and what is enabled through this distributed yet interconnected technology model, is the ability for organizations to extend their “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries. The walled garden of the enterprise can be safely and affordably opened to allow interaction at deeper levels with entities outside of the firewall, allowing metrics relating to those interactions to be captured, collected and analyzed in real time.

Make Sense?

J