Category: Cloud Solutions

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Sleeter Peeps and New Technology in Las Vegas

Sleeter Peeps and New Technology in Las Vegas

Marshmallowpeeps.com bunnies Peeps

The Sleeter Group is preparing for its 10th annual Accounting Solutions Conference, which is in Las Vegas next month (Nov 3-6) at Caesars Palace.  The conference is THE annual event where Sleeter Group Consultant Network members and other accounting, bookkeeping and business professionals get together to learn about new technologies, see and explore a wide variety of solutions and services, and to meet and network with their peers and peeps.

The venue this year, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is likely to be even more fun than last year and is far easier to get to than Orlando, Florida (for those of us on the West coast, anyway).  And, unlike in Florida, we’re probably not going to see all those little lizards everywhere around the hotel grounds.  Well, unless there’s a lizard convention going on in LV, which wouldn’t surprise me.  Actually, the good old days of attending the conference at the Tuscany Suites are what I miss – when the venue was a little more intimate and you could really have a good conversation without all of the typical Vegas distractions.

The “Sleeter Conference” used to be a purely QuickBooks-oriented conference, but has expanded to embrace the larger realm of products and services emerging which serve various small business accounting or process automation needs.  While there remains a very large focus on the QuickBooks products and service lines, it is not unusual to see sponsors and speakers representing other accounting solutions and business technology products.  The benefit for the audience is exposure to emerging technologies and trends, and discussion on how these trends are impacting business in so many ways.

Among the technologies and trends to explore at the conference are application hosting and software licensing and delivery, and how those models are changing the way people obtain and use their business applications.  We introduced the application hosting models and cloud-based QuickBooks models years ago, and those hosting solutions proved the value of anytime, anywhere access to conventional desktop applications.  Now, we’re introducing other application delivery models which address a variety of needs, and which go beyond the Remote Desktop concept.  It’s pretty cool stuff, and this conference is where you can learn more about it. [*Note: visit Skyline Cloud Services by Uni-Data at the conference; they’ll know where to find me.]

Meet me in Las Vegas next month, and we’ll chat more about technology, the evolution of the accounting industry and profession, and how these elements are combining to create new challenges and opportunities at all levels of business.  Sleeter peeps – I’ll see you there!

J

 

  • 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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Marketing and Sales Needs System and Process Automation

Marketing and Sales Needs System and Process Automation

Running a business means finding and keeping customers who will buy from you.  This isn’t necessarily easy, particularly with the number and variety of “impressions” people get throughout their day.  It used to be that simply locating a business in the right place would generate drive-by traffic, with location being the key to generating impressions and causing people to actually stop and shop.  Impressions – yes, those brief instances where your brand or service is viewed – count.

The entire lifecycle of the customer relationship starts with the first impression, so it needs to be a good one.   Marketing impressions expose your business and products to prospective customers, with efforts oriented towards the generation of sales leads.  A lead is a business or individual that may ultimately develop into a sales or business opportunity.  Rather than attempting to engage with businesses or individuals one at a time, businesses use marketing to target large groups in hopes of earning the permission to engage group members in more focused or individualized sales activities. When the business earns the ability to communicate directly with a prospective buyer, a sales lead is generated, and the business now has a prospective customer and the potential to make a sale.

Sales leads don’t stop becoming leads just because they purchase from you.  Every customer remains an ongoing opportunity to generate new business directly or indirectly via referrals or recommendations.  The best case scenario for your business is when you know when and why your customer buys from you, when the customer wants more, and that they will refer their friends or business associates to you.

Part of the problem with marketing and sales is that there are often too few people and/or resources to apply to the task.  Most businesses aren’t in the position of simply throwing money at a problem (which rarely actually solves the problem), so it becomes essential that you find a way to get the job done with the same or fewer people and resources.  The keys to solving this problem are systems and processes (automation).  Automation doesn’t always mean that there is an “automatic system” somewhere which performs all of the tasks for you.  In most cases, it simply means that the process is structured, efficient, and is able to be effectively repeated without significant deviation or loss.  Structured systems and processes, along with a strong commitment to capturing activity data and measuring results, is the foundation which will support growth.

Marketing Automation Explained (Infographic) | The automation of business function is set to be the new trend in 2014. There are already dozens of sales, marketing and finance automation options, and for good reason: The quantifiable returns they provide are undeniable. Here is a look at marketing automation and how it works. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227923#ixzz2ghHq9Qpn

From the very first impression through the conclusion of the sale and ongoing, it is essential to capture the data which describes the activities and events around doing business with your customers.  It is important to track unsuccessful efforts as well as those which are successful.  By understanding what does not work, you develop valuable insight which helps refine the process and the approach, resulting in fewer wasted efforts. The accumulated data tells the story of how you earn new business and how you create a customer relationship, which helps you understand how and where you are successful in earning new business and why you are able to retain loyal customers.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

Read more about Enterprise Functionality for Small Business | Relating to Customer Data

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Banks and Small Business: Finding the “Just Right” Fit Isn’t Easy

Banks and Small Business: Finding the “Just Right” Fit Isn’t Easy

Banks need business customers because business accounts provide more profitability than consumer accounts.  By volume, there are more small businesses in the US than mid-size or enterprise businesses, which you would think would be a good thing for the banks – more business customers, right?  It seems not so much.

For many banks, the problem is that they don’t appear to really know how to service – or even identify – these small business customers.  The majority of small businesses in the US don’t have employees, so direct deposit and payroll solutions aren’t something they are looking for.  Many of these small businesses operate from the business owner’s home rather than an office, and don’t generate the revenues (=deposits) that bigger businesses do.

To a bank, most small businesses look like consumers.  These small businesses are treated like consumers – are offered consumer-level services and are not educated on what business banking services might be able to do for them.  In reality, the banks really don’t have much to say to these small business owners, because the services offered by the banks are simply not a great fit.  There are studies which suggest that the small business market is fairly evenly divided, with approximately 50% using consumer banking services rather than those designed for business use.  Given the inability of the banks to even identify those consumer banking customers who are actually small businesses, I would suggest that the percentage is even higher.

There are three primary elements tied to banking which should be better-positioned to assist small business owners in leveraging their banking relationships to the benefit of the business and not just the bank.   If the financial institutions can find a way to meet these three essential needs for smaller businesses, they would likely find that more small businesses would embrace business banking services, resulting in greater profitability for the bank.

e-Payments

Use of electronic payments services represents a growing trend in small businesses and needs to be better-addressed by the financial institutions rather than purely retail providers.  Small businesses are increasingly using the Internet and online technologies to service their various business needs, and payments processing is among the top sellers.  Providing SOLO/SOHO and other small businesses with the ability to process payments at any time and from anywhere has become a big driver for this type of solution.  The popularity of Pay Pal, Intuit GoPayment and Square payment solutions is a testament to the need for such services in the small business market, yet the broadest use continues to be within retail providers rather than directly via the financial institutions.

Entitlements

Security and access controls to account and transaction information (frequently referred to as “entitlements” attached to business accounts) are hugely valuable for small businesses.  Most small business owners engage bookkeeping or accounting professionals at some point, and the process of accounting for the business activities is improved dramatically when those professionals are able to access the information directly from the financial institution.  Unfortunately, it is only with the more expensive business class accounts that most banks provide the means for account holders to grant access to account and/or transaction information for accountants and bookkeepers, financial advisors, etc.  Allowing small businesses to benefit from this type of security and control of their accounts is tremendous, yet the overall costs of the associated business banking solutions are often simply too great for the small business to bear.  The result is either a lack of privacy, security and control, where the business owner must grant unfettered access to account information to a 3rd party bookkeeper or accountant, or the business owner simply continues to pay for manual bookkeeping transaction entry.

Cash Management

Most small businesses operate on cash, and expense and cash management is essential to maintaining operations.  Consumer banking solutions may offer limited capabilities for expense and cash reporting, but the services offered through many business banking portals would be far more beneficial for the business, reflecting trends and providing more insight relating to business financial activities and business behavior.  Unfortunately, many of these services designed for business customers are oriented towards the larger organization, and are far too complicated or expensive to provide real value to the owner of a small business.

Small businesses fuel the economy, yet remain a largely untapped market in terms of business banking and other services.  Small businesses run “under the radar” of many service providers because they have not reached the point where the obviously available business services (e.g, the more profitable banking solutions) seem attractive to them.  Banks need to recognize that serving the small business customer well – providing the services which help small businesses grow into bigger businesses – is ultimately the key to acquiring new customers for whom the big banking solutions fit.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

Read more about small business banking and credit

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Enterprise Functionality for Small Business | Relating to Customer Data

Enterprise Functionality for Small Business | Relating to Customer Data

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Many small business owners are under the impression that most powerful business process management solutions are just for big businesses. A common misconception, for example, is that robust CRM products with turn-key functionality are too complicated and expensive.  This misconception leaves most small business owners to frequently turn to inexpensive online solutions or to their favorite email client in order to store and manage customer information. In today’s competitive business environment, the intelligent and innovative use of technology and business information is often the determining factor between success and failure. Now more than ever, small businesses must leverage tools with the same capabilities as their enterprise counterparts in order to help the business perform at levels necessary to drive growth and maintain profitability.

The data developed within the solutions supporting various business processes is the key which unlocks business intelligence. This data may only be captured and used if the systems and tools in place allow for it. With far too many small business CRM solutions, the assumption is that simplicity of use is the equivalent of less functionality. Approaching the problem from the standpoint of what most small business owners KNOW they need to know, developers have sometimes failed in delivering the capability (and resultant data) small business owners didn’t know they needed or would benefit from. What business owners need to know about is the customer.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions help businesses identify, acquire and retain customers. Almost any business relationship or interaction represents a customer opportunity. Present customers are customers now, past customers are not just past customers but prospects and everyone else is a prospective future customer. Consider that vendors or resellers are different types of customers, too.  Even employees and coworkers can be seen as “internal” customers. Keeping useful and relevant information about these various “customers” and documenting how the business interacts with them is essential to understanding the entire relationship lifecycle, which is a step towards understanding the business better.

When a small business elects to use a software solution to handle the various interactions with customers, it is often approach in pieces rather than in a comprehensive manner.   Traditionally, Contact Management solutions are applied to sales efforts, providing tools for communicating with leads and prospects as well as current customers. However, related information is also often stored in accounting systems, which handle billing and payment processes involving customers (clients, suppliers, employees, etc.). Some businesses also may use other systems for time management, service or work order management, project management and to archive related documents and emails at various levels of the relationship, where customer information is used and data is created.  With segmented pieces of information in numerous databases, it is hard to achieve true Business Intelligence and a comprehensive view of the entire operation.  Smaller companies can easily miss out on the benefits that their enterprise counterparts possess.

It’s not really unusual for businesses to store some of the same information in several systems, generally in order to support specific job functions for workers in those areas, and delivering data on the equivalent of a “need to know” basis.  For most small businesses, though, an integrated Business Management system that provides CRM as a component of its overall offering could be the answer to providing a single comprehensive solution for all departments.  An integrated solution of this sort would seamlessly integrate with the accounting, email, and document management products Small Businesses use every day.  Examples of such solutions include, but are not limited to, Results CRM, Method CRM and LeGrand CRM.

Beware, however, that not all integrated CRM solutions are created equally. If your organization delivers billable services, make sure that the integrated CRM system that you select can take a billable appointment that was scheduled in the CRM system and automatically place that on an invoice for you – without duplicate data entry and manual tracking of timesheets – so you’re not leaving money on the table. If you manage projects, make sure that the CRM system has the cohesiveness to include project and resource management functionality so that the full business relationship – from sales to the delivery of services to billing – can be managed and tracked in one system without duplicated data entry.

When systems are not tightly and intelligently integrated, sharing data between them becomes very problematic.  Without the ability to check for duplicate records or properly map data points and related fields between systems, there is a great potential for errors in or duplication of data. The result could be a large amount of unrelated and unusable information, which is often what happens when list or transaction data is simply copied between applications without the necessary logic to understand changes in various records, record types, or record states.

There’s a reason why “legacy” integrated software solutions made sense for businesses, and why many enterprises continue to hold on to their solutions – they include the wide variety of tightly integrated functionality and logical data sharing that has been a benefit to the business for years. As organizations seek to start up or reassess their software and systems, they would be wise to keep in mind that generating “big” data with a bunch of loosely connected applications isn’t enough. The data must be intelligently related – just like the business and the customer. 

A tightly integrated and well-managed CRM and Business Management solution, whether in-the-cloud or on premises, is not out of financial reach for small business.  While a solution of this type is not free, the reasonable investment in a quality solution will provide the Business Intelligence necessary to build and maintain a competitive advantage.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Licensing the Cloud: Software Distribution and Use in a Remote Access World

Licensing the Cloud: Software Distribution and Use in a Remote Access World

Whether we like it or not, and whether we agree or not – software developers have a right to decide how and where their licensed products are run.  There have always been arguments in this area, where software license purchasers take the position that they should be able to do what they want with their licenses, and where commercial software developers believe they have the rights to dictate authorized usage.  Truly, when it comes down to the legalities of it all, the software companies will win because they have the legal footing to fall back on  – the EULA containing use rights and terms which licensed users have agreed to.

The problem has been ongoing, with software developers constantly and consistently seeking methods to reduce unauthorized software distribution and unsupported use, and users spending amazing amounts of time and resources finding ways to break the rule.  Copy protection, “phone home” license validation models and all sorts of approaches have been developed to prevent software theft and unauthorized distribution.  But it happens anyway – a lot – and the cloud is turning into a great facilitator.  Surprisingly, it’s an “in your face” approach, too, where the previous iteration of web-enabled software theft (unauthorized digital downloads and license cracking) was fairly quiet and tried to be secretive to stay out of the gun sights of the developer.  Today’s “flavor” is right out there, being marketed to any and all who care to view the ads.

With businesses more frequently turning to “cloud” server providers to run business applications, it is no wonder that the IaaS and PaaS companies would want to make their services easier and more valuable to acquire than the next guy’s.  Aside from a groovy control panel and great networking and VM pricing, the added value from these providers is in the applications they are able to service.  More frequently, hosting service providers are marketing their solutions in the context of the applications customers run on the service (which makes sense, because the application’s what really matters).  Leveraging the brand value and recognition of popular commercial software products makes sense, as it improves overall visibility and increases the potential of the “right” kind of prospect engaging and becoming a customer.

The problem arises when these service providers sell hosting services for, or which support, applications they are not authorized or licensed to deliver, and this is where the argument comes full circle.  The hosting provider wants to host applications customers use, customers have licenses for those applications, but not a right to have them hosted.  The host deploys the application anyway, because that’s what the customer wants.  “What’s the risk?” they ask… “the customer has the software license”.

The risk is, unfortunately, greater for the service provider than for the customer.  Even if the customer has a license for the software product, that license may not actually be eligible to run on a hosted server.  “Businesses lease computer equipment all the time, and they can run the software on those systems” is the next argument generally offered by the service provider.  But, in the eyes of the software developer, there may be a big difference between leased equipment run in-house versus subscribed platform services deployed via a commercial hosting provider.  Even Microsoft recognizes the benefit and value of providing “mobility” of application licensing, and has specific licensing models to allow commercial hosts to deploy customer-owned licenses.  While many service providers understand and recognize the requirements to ensure that customer applications are properly licensed for hosted delivery, there are a great many who think the rules simply do not apply to them.  These folks are introducing a great deal of risk into their hosting businesses, even if they are not willing to recognize it.

When a customer runs their software in an unauthorized manner, they risk losing the rights and benefits associated with their software license.  When a commercial hosting company runs software on their servers that they have no right to install and run… they are potentially guilty of unauthorized software distribution and copyright theft.

Actions against facilitators of unauthorized content distribution – you can equate “software” with “content” – have received much press in past months, yet much of the discussion centers on music and video content (as in the Megaupload story).  Actions involving commercial software products tend to be somewhat less visible, probably due to reluctance by commercial developers to have what could be perceived as negative press flowing through social media venues.  It’s popular to protect music and videos, but hosting providers aren’t seeing the wisdom of preserving the integrity of a commercial software product license.  Instead, they’re relying on the customer to indemnify them (the customer has a license, remember?).   But the customer can’t protect the host; the host must protect the host – it’s the prudent business approach.

Infrastructure providers, platform providers and businesses operating as application hosting companies should pay close attention to the content living on their servers.  Taking a position that the customer has the right to do whatever they want with the system is not a viable position; the precedent has been set that the hosting provider is responsible for the content on their systems.  In the case of hosts offering service for small business applications like Microsoft Office and Intuit QuickBooks, for example, it is essential that a service model which conforms to and supports proper license usage be in place, and that any required authorizations are, too.

Software is just another form of content, and the cloud makes distribution of and access to content a lot easier, even when it shouldn’t be.

Make sense?

J

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CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud | buildingUp.biz

CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud

For as long as there has been high technology use in business, there has been a struggle between the enterprise CFO and CIO for the power to make IT purchase decisions.   It isn’t rocket science… the reasons for the challenge are fairly straightforward.  The CFO wants to know what the expected return on the investment will be.  The CIO, on the other hand, recognizes that there is rarely a straight line to be drawn between IT expenditures and near-term positive business outcomes.  Sometimes it takes a while to fully realize the benefits of an IT project… and sometimes it’s necessary to spend the money just to maintain status quo.

While there may be indicators that the CFO’s influence in the enterprise is extending into areas where the CIO traditionally ruled (due – at least in part – to SaaS and the Cloud) there are also indicators that the role of the CIO is evolving rather than losing relevance.

A survey performed in 2011 by Gartner and Financial Executives International revealed a number of interesting results which indicated that the balance of IT procurement power was shifting within the enterprise.  344 senior financial executives were surveyed, and they revealed that:

  • in 45% of organizations, the CFO makes or leads IT investment strategy
  • about 75% of surveyed CFOs said they have little confidence in their own IT departments

A CFO.com article on the subject also mentioned a KPMG study from April 2011, in which it was reported that “73% of CFOs identified IT as the greatest risk to finance meeting its objectives”.

With the emergence of “cloud” computing solutions and the plethora of application and service options now available to businesses, some businesses have concluded that “the CFO is better equipped for the cloud world”.  The belief is that the CFO is more attuned to the processes of vendor management and contract term and condition negotiations, which are primary areas of focus when looking to obtain outsourced IT and application services.  The process of comparing pricing and service level agreements is more of a business process than a technology process, placing it squarely in the realm of the CFO.

The real issue here isn’t a struggle for power and influence; it’s a change in business priorities fueled by changes in technology and service models.  IT and the role of the CIO must focus on innovation and improvement of processes and profitability through efficiencies gained with technology, not on defragging hard drives and running software updates.  Brocade.com discusses this evolution of roles and focus with enterprise CIOs and CFOs in the release entitled The CIO Is Dead. Long Live the CIO. The Cloud Redefines the Role of the CIO

“ … the CIO role will evolve and policy enforcement, technology evangelism and mediation between business units and their services providers will become the key responsibilities for the CIO by 2020…. And rather than being replaced by the CFO in this shift in IT provisioning, two-thirds of respondents predicted that the roles of COO and CIO will merge as technology continues to become more operationally vital. http://newsroom.brocade.com/press-releases/the-cio-is-dead-long-live-the-cio-the-cloud-rede-nasdaq-brcd-977455

Who understands better than the internal IT department the time-consuming and frustrating nature of maintaining user environments and applications?  Who in the organization has the technical understanding, coupled with a direct business understanding, sufficient to explore new ways of approaching various process or workflow problems? I think most business IT managers would agree that addressing issues that have a potential to radically improve the way a business operates is much more challenging and interesting than selecting the right make and model of server.

via CIO, CFO, IT and Procuring the Cloud | buildingUp.biz.