Category: data integration

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Hosted QuickBooks and Office 365 a Complicated Technical and Licensing Model (until now)

When Intuit acknowledged the ability for companies to host QuickBooks desktop editions, service providers were presented with the opportunity to offer hosting for the QuickBooks desktop editions from their host servers and infrastructure.  The benefits of using QuickBooks desktop products in a hosted environment are many, including the introduction of mobility, disaster recovery, remote access and other things now associated with cloud computing models.  But the evolution of application delivery technologies and software as subscription service models is challenging the “traditional” approaches used to deliver hosted QuickBooks services.  One of the greatest challenges facing these QuickBooks hosts is the changing landscape of Microsoft Office licensing, because QuickBooks is just no fun without Microsoft Office.

While the QuickBooks application handles a variety of essential business functions, it relies upon other software to accomplish certain important tasks, such as reporting.  Most of the QuickBooks reports can be exported to Excel worksheets, allowing users to refine and manipulate the document outside of QB;   QuickBooks Enterprise Edition uses Excel to handle consolidated reporting.  QuickBooks uses Word for writing customer letters, and Outlook as a tool to email invoices.  There is a lot of functionality in QuickBooks that relies on the MS Office products, so it is pretty typical for a QuickBooks user to also be an Office apps user.  In order for the applications to work together properly, they need to be installed on the same computer.  If QuickBooks is hosted “in the cloud” with a hosting provider, and Office 365 applications are installed on the local PC, the two applications don’t “talk”, and the integration isn’t seamless or even functional.

image credit: Microsoft Corp | Microsoft.com

When a small business subscribes to Office 365 (or Microsoft 365 now), they are provided with rights to install their Office applications on their devices (depending on the subscription level).  While this enables users to have Office apps on multiple computers they use at different times, it does not provide authorization for the application to be installed on a hosted server where it is accessed by those users.

What this means is that customers who purchase Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscriptions to get their MS Office productivity applications can’t generally use those licenses in a hosted environment.

But there is an answer for small businesses who want remote and mobile access to their QuickBooks desktop editions and who also have Office 365 application licenses. The answer is to deploy QuickBooks desktop on a Microsoft Azure cloud server. This solution allows users to run their QuickBooks software as well as their qualifying Microsoft Office (M365 Apps for Enterprise) licenses on the Azure cloud server. The cloud platform enables the anytime/anywhere access desired and keeps all the applications and data secure and available for those who need access.

There is almost never just one way to solve a problem, and the cloud is introducing new options – and challenges – at all levels.  As application licensing and delivery models continue to change, solution providers will come to recognize the value they provide in bringing the right selection of services and technology models together to benefit not just their customers, but their own revenue streams and profit potential.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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The Holistic Approach to Cloud-Enabling Your Firm

The Holistic Approach to Cloud-Enabling Your Firm

Today’s professional accounting or law practice has a number of issues to contend with, not the least of which is technology.  While IT has been serving the firm for years, shifting paradigms in computing are leading professionals to wonder exactly which direction they should turn for advice.  It’s easy, at a high level, to see the value and benefit of outsourced IT services and being able to focus on your core offerings, but it’s a little harder to find exactly which path your firm should follow.  One thing has proven true over the past few years: taking a holistic approach to cloud-enabling your firm is far better than any uncoordinated exchange of applications and services.

There are four areas the firm should explore when looking to more fully leverage technology to its benefit, which is what “cloud-enabling” the practice really means:

  1. Transitioning to a paperless (or less paper) office
  2. Exploring alternative billing methods (value versus time?)
  3. Outsourcing non-core and non-strategic tasks and processes
  4. Streamlining procedures to create consistency in service levels

The challenge is that firms have numerous options and approaches being thrown about, none of which represent obvious solutions to the entire problem.  In pieces, cloud services and online applications can deliver new capability and functionality, but a professional practice has the requirement for systems to work together to be effective.  Re-entry or redundant storage of data is inefficient, so it is difficult to streamline procedures when the systems run on different platforms or don’t integrate well.

One approach is the “hybrid” approach, where you take the best of the tried and true, and deploy it in new ways to create new capabilities.  Also introducing cloud-based and SaaS solutions where they can truly help the firm innovate makes sense, as long as those solutions can connect back to the core systems. The key is to not lose what efficiency and business intelligence the firm already has while attempting to transform and improve upon those models (digital transformation).

The new thinking by some firms is to adopt web-based practice management solutions that make it easier to collaborate with team  members and clients.  Many of these solutions get great reviews and indeed do make it easier for users to access information from anywhere and on mobile devices.  Lots of neat features for the forward-thinking practice are available, yet the problem is that these solutions usually don’t have general accounting functionality required by the business, nor do they address some of the fundamental capabilities that apps on the desktop can.

For the online applications serving line-of-business functionality, the easy answer to finance department questions is to connect to an online accounting solution, like QuickBooks Online.  While this may serve the needs of the developer, the needs of the business finance department often outpace the functionality available in the smb online accounting products.  To address this reality, many developers have created the means to export data to the QuickBooks software running on the local desktop.

The desktop editions of QuickBooks remain extremely popular with professional service firms and the businesses they serve. In a cloud and mobile world, the firm and their client doesn’t have to be tied to the local desktop in order to keep their desktop software or collaboratively work in the data.  When the QuickBooks desktop software is setup within a secure remote access environment (whether on-premises or with a hosting provider), users benefit from the same mobility and realtime collaboration advantages as with a SaaS solution, like anytime/anywhere access.

Virtual desktops and remote application models allow users to access what seems like a workstation in the cloud, with business applications such as QuickBooks and Microsoft Office and whatever else the firm uses. The desktop is a true Windows platform, so the features and functionality are just as they are when working directly on a local PC.

Most remote or virtual desktop setups also let the user access the Internet and use a browser on the remote desktop, allowing users to run the SaaS solutions they’ve subscribed to alongside their desktop applications yet still remain in a totally virtual and mobile working environment. This approach allows the firm to centralize management and administration of internal servers and networking resources, or eliminate much of the maintenance and management by outsourcing to a hosting provider. Outsourcing the hosting and management of systems further establishes predictability in cost and increases IT agility.

The thing to remember is that one size does not fit all, and every firm will need to work within their own requirements and motivations to come up with the proper approach.  What works for a solo practitioner or small firm won’t necessarily work for a larger firm… or maybe it will, depending on the company culture and structure. There are a lot of options with the cloud when it comes to outsourced information technology models, online practice management and other business solutions, and mobile services which reduce the impacts of time and distance.  It’s time to start implementing on-demand access and mobile-friendly service options before the competition leaves you behind.  Interestingly enough… the competition that looks like a huge and successful firm could be just one person using some really smart IT.

 

Make sense?

J

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One-Write System Revolutionizes Accounting

One-Write System Revolutionizes Accounting

These guys had the right idea, they just didn’t have the cloud.

It’s amazing how much time and energy continues to be spent on duplicate data entry and re-keying information generated by one system into another.  Human-based data entry is prone to errors, takes time, and carries with it the burdens of employee costs and resources.  It is a problem that businesses of all types have battled for years, but new solutions are available, and many of them are enabled via great software, the Internet and the cloud.  You see, the cloud – which is the term popularly applied to all of the interconnected “things” on the Internet – creates the path of communication which allows data to be passed to a variety of applications or systems, allowing for seamless collection, integration, and aggregation of business data.

EDI (electronic data interchange) standards have existed for quite some time, and in recent years these methods have expanded to include a variety of platforms and more open “standards-based” approaches.  Even in the small business world, business owners using traditionally limited software products are now able to enjoy sophisticated extension and integration of their applications, largely enabled and facilitated by cloud technologies and software-as-a-service offerings.

To provide a really simple example of the problem: when an individual writes a check, that check must be recorded in a variety of places and for several purposes – to record the expense and to record the reduction of funds in the account, etc.  When a product is sold to a customer, inventory is relieved, sales are increased, accounts receivable or cash is increased, costs of goods sold are experienced, and customer activity is captured.  All of this information must be recorded and the activity accounted for throughout the financial and operational systems, and can represent a tremendous burden if not automated.

One of my clients, to provide an example, sells computer parts through an ecommerce website.  Orders from this fancy website are emailed to their order operators, who then turn around and re-key the orders into the ERP system.  Because of the number of orders to enter on a regular basis, there are two different operators working in the department – both of them responsible for making sure website orders make it into the “real” operational system.

By implementing a single software solution which could take automatic transaction file exports from the ecommerce system, format them and import them into the ERP system, the company was able to reduce personnel costs, improve accuracy and timeliness of data entry, and increase customer satisfaction. If we look closely at the need to use different pieces of business information in different ways, we begin to recognize the size and complexity of the problem and the true value of these integration solutions and automation tools.

Automation takes technology, but technology doesn’t have to be complicated.  A better pencil is technology, and we figured that one out pretty well.

OK, maybe our concept of what is complicated has changed a little bit.  Remember the One-Write checkbook systems?  It was pretty cool, and truly innovative.  You put the check on a little pegboard thingy, and when you wrote the check, the check register was “automagically” filled out for you.  Amazing.  Sounds pretty simple, but take a look at the description of this innovative, highly technical device, and tell me that it wasn’t at least a little intimidating at the time. But we got used to it, didn’t we?  Maybe even liked it?

Make Sense?

J

Accountant’s Apparatus 

RECORD KEEPING SYSTEM AND METHOD EMPLOYING PLURAL FORMS AND CO-OPERATING REUSABLE ADHESIVE STRIP

United States Patent 3661407

Two different, but related form sheets are provided for use in sequence by different departments. Each form sheet has two separate pluralities of headings thereon, one for each department. Each form sheet has also one or more strip receiving spaces extending transversely across both pluralities of headings thereon. A plurality of strips of re-usable, adhesive backed writing material are provided, each strip being of a size to fit onto, and to extend the entire length of, one of said spaces. With one of the strips adhesively applied to its space on a first form sheet, data entries are made on the strip by the originating department in register with each of the headings of the first plurality thereof. The strip is then peeled off and forwarded to a follow-up department, where the strip is adhesively applied to one of the spaces provided on a second form sheet and entries are made on the strip by the follow-up department in register with each of the headings of the second plurality thereof. The completed strip is then peeled off of the second form sheet and returned to the originating department, where it is adhesively reapplied to its previous space on the first form sheet for billing and filing as a permanent record of the complete procedure.”

 And then came the portable edition for all you mobile business executives, because portability and mobility was (is) essential.

“Pocket-size one-write checkbook

United States Patent 4332400

A wallet-sized checkbook particularly suited for use in conjunction with a one-write check record keeping system wherein an entry is made on a journal page simultaneously with the writing of a check. The checkbook enables records of checks written in the field to be subsequently transferred directly on to a one-write journal page. The book comprises a cover having an interior pocket and a writing surface fastened at one end to the inside of the cover. A data sheet of coated release paper overlies the writing surface and releasably carries a series of ink-receptive strips adapted to receive ink from a carbon strip extending along the reverse side of a one-write check. A check is positioned on top of a selected strip on the data sheet by a series of pins which project through pre-punched holes in a widthwise margin of the check. Indicia on the opposite margin of the release paper cooperate with the pins to assist in the check-positioning function. Thus, data written on the front of the check is transferred via the carbon to the underlying strip which can be subsequently peeled from the release sheet and applied at the appropriate line of a journal page to provide an accurate record of the field-written check.”

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In Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Information Technology: The Value of Outsourcing

The Value of Outsourcing

The small-business market, unlike the mid- and enterprise markets, utilize the general services of public accountants in much greater volume and typically for more fundamental business services – such as business bookkeeping and daily process support. Larger organizations typically employ accounting and bookkeeping departments and/or in-house personnel, and rely on outside accounting professionals for higher-level work. Small businesses, on the other hand, want to hand off much more of the core bookkeeping and checkbook management functions to their public accountant. This creates a volume of fairly mechanical work which can be burdensome and not terribly profitable for many CPA firms. But this level of work is of significant value to the small business owner, and thus the value of outsourcing to the accounting professional should be clear.

CPA firms started to step away from bookkeeping activities (this is in the 1980’s or so), reserving their time for compliance, audits, and other engagements referred to as the “higher level work”.  As business accounting became more complex (largely due to advances in information management technologies as well as accounting and tax regulations, which generated a LOT more detailed information to “account” for), many professional firms saw a need to focus on their core offerings, and not on the lower level bookkeeping and record keeping activities.  As a result, the emerging cottage industry of bookkeeping service providers grew in power and numbers, and came to represent a critical intermediary between the CPA and the small business owner.  Truly, bookkeepers and software consultants are often the folks who help to automate the processes, capture the information, and organize the data so that it is useful to the accountant.

The issue that revealed itself was that small businesses started to pay more attention to the technology and business solution advice and direction of their bookkeepers and consultants than the advice of the CPA.  In a lot of cases, the CPA kept an arm’s length from the business, concerning themselves with their tasks, and not paying significant attention to how the data is collected or controlled.  As long as they got the data, that was OK.  As the reality started to set in, that bookkeeping and information management consulting also delivered the “higher level” accounting work, CPAs once again sought a means to gain more direct participation in the client business… but through a somewhat less direct manner than previous.  Now, partnering was revealing itself as the means to more fully engage the business, and the bookkeeper or consultant, in the overall accounting value chain, resulting with the delivery of work as well as value back to the accounting professional.

The enabler of this value chain, where the accounting professional, the bookkeeper, and the business owner can all work in concert without limitations in systems or based on location, is the cloud.  Providing standardization in terms of data platforms and integration, offering mobility and device independence, and combining resource management and access into a comprehensive approach to solving business problems is enabled through cloud technologies and connected solutions and services.

For many, this concept of fully technology-enabled business seems frightening, like a loss of control or individual accountability.  But it’s important to recognize that, as things become more complex, the opportunity for specialists is always created.  In the ever changing world of technology, it’s a dangerous approach to believe that you can be all things to all people, just as in accounting or tax.  You can’t be a specialist in every area, so you specialize in your niche, do it better than anyone else, and outsource/partner to get the rest done.  This is a philosophy of the cloud, and it’s working.

The true value of outsourcing, whether it is a small business outsourcing their bookkeeping and accounting to a public accountant, an accounting professional outsourcing bookkeeping work to a bookkeeping provider/partner, or those businesses outsourcing information technology management to cloud solution providers, the end-result can include improved focus on the core business, greater agility in embracing and adjusting to new strategies, improved quality of information through attention to process and control, and a much higher level of value delivered to all participants in the value chain.

Make Sense?

J


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The Cloud is Not the End of ERP

With the emergence and general acceptance of “cloud” technologies and services, many in the information technology industry have begun to wonder if the traditional approach to enterprise software – the ERP solution – is nearing its useful life.  Is this the end of ERP?  Well, the hype sometimes becomes the reality, and businesses are moving in droves to software-as-a-service to find the cost and efficiency benefits promoted in the sales materials, and they’re finding them.  Look at Sage’s acquisition of Intacct as an expression of increased focus on cloud-based solutions. This activity around the cloud and cloud-based software-as-a-service represents a major change in how people access and consume information technology and business services, a change that’s being driven by the huge momentum of the overall growth of “cloud”.  The market is moving to a customer-centric subscription model, where the legacy approach was more in tune with the “purchase it once and use it forever” mentality, and customer relationships were largely centered on upgrade cycles.

“As an economy and a culture, we are rapidly moving away from owning tangible goods and, instead, gravitating towards becoming members of services that provide us with experiences  – such as listening to a song, using a car, watching a movie or collaborating with our colleagues.

Of course, this cultural transformation has profound implications for business models. Why? Success is no longer gauged by counting how many units of your product you have sold. Rather, success is measuring how many customers are using your service on a recurring basis and how successful you are monetizing those recurring relationships.”

Forbes.com guest post written by Tien Tzuo http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/02/09/the-end-of-erp/

While it sounds like the cloud is the right approach for everyone, looking at the variety of real business situations in the market suggests that, as always, one size does not fit all, and more “traditional” ERP solutions may well continue to be the right foundation for many enterprise operations.  Particularly when considering that many businesses already significant investments in platforms and infrastructure, software and data integrations, and operational process support, cloud software solutions may not provide the necessary functionality to support existing business.  Further, integrations that may be available and supported with legacy systems are often not available with cloud-based counterparts, while different integrations based on cloud standards may be present.

For smaller businesses and those in emerging markets, subscription-based IT models may make more sense, especially as popular traditional software makers have introduced their cloud-based counterparts which will likely incorporate the features or functionality of their legacy systems, while taking advantage of the capabilities introduced through cloud integration and interoperability standards.  Strong consideration should still be given to “traditional” ERP solutions, however, as there may be a level of stability, usability, or process support desirable by the business.

Utilizing these traditional ERP systems does not mean eliminating the potential for the business to benefit from cloud solutions.  Rather, cloud platforms and hosting solutions, as well as cloud-based integrations and extensions, are enabling mobility and collaboration around legacy systems, delivering cost and efficiency benefits just as significantly as those who have adopted a full-on “cloud” approach.

“It also makes sense to explore “edge” investments. […] there are significant innovation opportunities outside of core operations. Look to take advantage of the ERP platform’s capabilities in these spaces. Or implement low-cost, smaller-footprint solutions – even if on an exploratory basis. If they are fully adopted later, you can integrate them into the ERP backbone and expose standardized data and processes to the edge.”

from Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2011 report titled “the end of the “Death of ERP” 

So, what does this mean for your business?  It means you need to consider all the possibilities.

First, evaluate cloud-based options, and balance features with cost, time-to-value, and operational requirements.

Then, selectively innovate.  Figure out which areas of the business give you a competitive differentiation and innovate in those areas.

The traditional thinking, which is in line with the traditional ERP approach, is that all of the business functionality has to be incorporated into a single platform solution.  This is certainly no longer the case, and businesses are finding that they now have an ability to take advantage of the benefits of their existing systems while extending and innovating through the use of cloud services.

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Help Your Business Move to the Cloud

With all of the cloud computing options and services available to support business operations and administration, selecting the right ones can be a daunting task for any business owner.  While some cloud solutions offer simple “get started” options and “click to activate” plug-ins, its important to recognize that each business and operation works a bit differently. While there are standard requirements to support every business, individual business owners may have strong beliefs or habits that will impact how well or not a solution works for their particular operation.

Selecting the right technologies and applying platform and application solutions wisely can introduce efficiency in both time and cost that was previously not recognized by the business, or it can create all sorts of havoc and disrupt what were once smoothly-operating workflows. And once a solution is “plugged-in”, consider what might happen if it needs to be unplugged at some point in the future.

Because there is no single solution or set of products which will provide the necessary functionality for the lifespan of the business, it’s important to establish a process and framework which recognizes the need for agility and addresses the requirement to meet new business needs as they arise.

“With the evolution of cloud computing, one inescapable reality continues to surface and that is, as with service-oriented architecture before it, the fact that cloud computing promotes the idea of continuous proliferation of services,” said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner Fellow.

While software and data integrations and “plug-in” data may be delivered through technology, there will always be a requirement for individuals who understand just how the pieces need to fit together and how the data and work must flow. Its okay to rely on service providers to service and support the implementation, but the direction and design of how the information and work will flow throughout the entire company can provide a strategic advantage and should be an internally-driven project.

As your business looks to the cloud for innovation, efficiency, and mobility – remember to keep your feet firmly planted on planet earth until you know where you’re going.  There are a lot of options available, and not all of the hype is representative of reality.  You’ll want experienced professionals to help you get off the ground the right way.  That’s where we come in.

“What sits between you and the cloud will become a critical success factor in cloud computing..”

Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner Fellow