data integration – Page 8 – Cooper Mann Consulting

September 23, 2015

Analysis, forecasts and modeling: What’s the point?

finance In today’s business world, risk, uncertainty and volatility are just par for the course – everyday realities of simply being in business. Nothing is certain, they say, except death and taxes. Yet there is a fine art to driving profitable growth in a business, and adapting to existing and emerging risk takes a great deal of experience, information and agility. While planning and process development may occur at many levels within the organization, it is the FP&A (financial planning and analysis) capability which helps top performing businesses be top performers.

Financial planning and analysis are activities central to enterprise performance management (EPM) and must necessarily extend beyond finance. Integrating various functional domains in the business (financial, operational and strategic), FP&A should bring data together from the various facets of the business and use the information to help structure and guide the organization toward meeting short-term and long-term goals. Among the most critical of the duties of FP&A is calculating the financial impact, the monetary effects, of potential business decisions. Everything in business means money, so there is always an impact to a decision. With the right information supporting the decision, it is far more likely to have a positive impact and a level of sustainability.

While many CFOs may recognize the importance of performance measurement, planning and forecasting, a great many also believe the process isn’t very effective. The cause is frequently the divide between the various domains in the business and the information systems supporting them. Operational data are distilled into summary financial information and fed to finance systems, losing much of the underlying intelligence that might be gained from analysis of the details. Strategic development and planning may overlook certain volatile elements in the market, or may base successful outcomes on an expectation that conditions within the business will not change. Finding ways to integrate the data from the respective domains into a comprehensive model is essential to developing a better and more robust forecasting and scenario-playing capability. With the right information, analytics may be applied to all facets of management decision-making, anticipating and shaping business outcomes far more effectively than could be done without the insight.

Small business owners may believe that things like “predictive modeling” and “enterprise performance management” aren’t things they need to worry about, but the small business could use this information just as beneficially as a larger enterprise – perhaps even more as the insight could be the key to small business survival and growth.

Using analytics, the owner is able to adjust and re-align strategy in real-time to keep on the right path and goals clearly in sight. Analytics can also help a business better understand what really drives revenue, working capital and profits. Analytics can even help managers align compensation and strategy with business objectives, preventing compensation issues from outpacing business benefit.

There is a cost to growing a business, and some strategies might be more sustainable than others. Time will tell, but it is great if the business owner has some business intelligence that might indicate what’s going to happen before it actually does.

Make Sense?

August 18, 2015November 13, 2017

Confused about QuickBooks and the Cloud? Join the club

In most regions around the country high-speed broadband is readily available, and using the Internet for working and playing online is a part of everyday life. Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are household names and just about every conversation starts or ends with a reference to a meme. It seems that everyone is connected and app-savvy, using high technology while doing business, doing homework, or doing just about anything. Yet this move to online and cloud technologies has come with a high price tag for some businesses, especially small businesses trying to keep up with the pace of change and who are being encouraged to adopt just about every new thing that comes their way. It’ll make them more efficient, more profitable, more attractive to customers, more interesting to prospects, and will allow them to do more in less time. All of the “apps” for this and that have created a great deal of confusion for the average small business owner who may need a few tools to help get business done, and who is now facing the daunting task of figuring out which ones to use as the type and number of tools grows exponentially every day. It used to be so simple, but now even the simple things are becoming difficult to understand – like QuickBooks, for example.

QuickBooks desktop editions, born from Quicken personal finance management software, continues to be the most popular small business bookkeeping solution available. Yet QuickBooks is now offered as either desktop application (software you install on your PC), as a hosted solution (software installed and run on service provider systems and which you access via the Internet), or as an online application (QuickBooks online edition). Initially, the lines were fairly clearly drawn – the desktop software gets installed on the local machine and the online edition runs from Intuit’s servers. Then things got a bit more complicated as hosted services rolled out, and users were able to have their desktop QuickBooks managed with a service provider and accessible via an Internet connection. Now, just to add to the confusion, Intuit delivers a new desktop app to access the online version of QuickBooks. What?! Yeah, you heard me. There’s a desktop app to install to the PC (97MB!) that accesses the QuickBooks online system.

When Intuit, like to many other software companies, began pushing the online-only version of their solution, the messaging was all about making life easier with “no software” to install or manage. Customers could simply sign up and have all the features and capability they need using only the browser on an Internet-connected machine. Failing to consider that computing devices (PCs, tablets, phones, et al) continue to get smarter and more powerful each day, the software companies firmly believed that everything would eventually be on the Web, and the “access device” wouldn’t matter any more. However, things haven’t turned out quite as planned, and users continue to not only demand desktop and device-based apps, they will often forgo the browser-only approach until a better app and interface comes along. The truth is that the market wants apps and software running on their devices because the user experience and performance is almost always better than with a purely browser-based approach. Browsers are great for visiting websites, but not so much when it comes to running business applications. Sure, there are a lot of browser-based solutions out there, but not too many of them are as trusted or as heavily used as their desktop-based counterparts or competitors.

There is little argument to be made regarding the fact that many software developers are working towards entirely online application models, where little or no software would exist on the device and all data is managed and stored online. What is arguable is whether or not the “fully online” model will ultimately win, or whether software will continue to be installed and maintained on the device. Performance, functionality, integration with other applications, and usability will all influence the buyer’s decision regardless of the marketing hype. It may simply be that users will have to try each model before they decide which one works best for them. It seems that, with the introduction of the desktop app for QuickBooks Online, the QuickBooks-users club has voiced an opinion which sounds a lot like they liked the desktop software approach best.

Make Sense?

June 30, 2015May 19, 2017

Two Ways to Get QuickBooks in the Cloud

Get QuickBooks in the Cloud: Hosted QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online

cloud-computing Running applications online, or “in the cloud” using today’s parlance, is top priority for a lot of businesses. It’s not that these organizations have a burning desire to post their financials to the web, which is what a lot of folks thought was going to happen when we first suggested they use their financial applications online. Rather, business owners and managers have begun to recognize and experience the benefits of connecting their various locations, remote and mobile workers with real time access to business applications and data. Further, centralization of IT coupled with outsourced IT management and subscription service pricing has introduced financial and operational benefits which make businesses more cost-efficient as well as more agile. From being the basis for foundational process and workflow improvements to allowing the repositioning of IT costs from capex to opex, online application services are proving their value in various ways every day.

The evident popularity of cloud solutions is clearly visible in one small corner of the global software marketplace: the small business accounting solution market. Intuit’s QuickBooks product, almost a default go-to with entrepreneurs and small business owners, is still the most prevalent accounting solution in use by US small businesses. While there may be growing usage of other applications on the web, such as Xero or FreshBooks (both are awesome SaaS apps that do what they do quite well), there is equally strong growth in Intuit’s own SaaS version of QuickBooks. The SaaS applications are easier to localize for different places in the world – different languages and currencies – so international use of these products is likely to continue to grow. Even more to the point, these solutions address functionality and pricing levels which are acceptable to entirely different classes of users that previously wouldn’t even consider buying accounting software to do the books (like freelancers and solo/soho operators), so the overall size of the market of “businesses who use accounting or bookkeeping software” is actually growing.

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online edition is a true SaaS solution that is quite different from the desktop-based QuickBooks. While QBO has gained tremendous popularity, it has yet to reach the user numbers the desktop products have. The desktop solutions boast not just a particular range of functionality, but integrated applications and add-ons, and – perhaps most importantly – being a foundation for a wide variety of financial and business record keeping, bookkeeping, accounting, operationally oriented and reporting processes. To sum it up: it’s embedded. People know the software, the data is in a known format, and the product is simply part of how the business operates.

Once a solution is as entrenched as QuickBooks is – kind of like the entrenchment Microsoft Word and Excel have in the productivity area – it doesn’t go away very quickly and only when the value proposition is much greater… and maybe not even then. Rather, folks find ways to make the solution they want work for them. This is where hosting comes in and meets with the market’s demand for running applications (yes! even desktop applications!) online, as managed subscription service.

Running your QuickBooks desktop online via a hosting provider is how businesses take advantage of the best benefits of SaaS without actually converting to a SaaS application. They retain investments in training, process and integration yet introduce mobility, remote access and office connectivity, centralized information and predictable costs. QuickBooks-using businesses need to know about hosting their QuickBooks and the providers who can offer anything from standardized to extremely customized service.

As technology continues to evolve at ever-increasing rates, businesses will continue to be faced with new paradigms for doing business. Some will adopt early and some will adopt later, and some simply won’t adopt. Certainly the market as a whole doesn’t adopt as quickly as software companies would like, but then that’s always the way it is. Customers will do what works for customers, and right now hosting is working for QuickBooks customers.

Joanie Mann Bunny Feet Make Sense

June 9, 2015

Marketing in Business: Everyone has something to say

Most business owners recognize the need to market their products in order to support sales of those products. What many business owners don’t recognize, however, is that there is a bit more to successful marketing, and it reaches throughout the business.

One aspect of marketing is the internal marketing – how the company communicates to and through the various functional organizations. Whether it is the announcement of new policies or descriptions of new products launching, internal communication and feedback loops are as essential as those involving customers, yet few businesses employ formal mechanisms to handle it.

Another element essential to making a marketing campaign a success is the follow-up. The feedback loop marketing receives in terms of campaign performance is great, but if sales and service are able to incorporate some of that intelligence into their efforts, sales calls become warmer and service is more enlightened to customer demands and needs.

Sam Saab, the CEO of Results Software, knows these things to be true because he works with clients having these experiences every day. Results CRM is more than simply a customer relationship management solution, but in that specific area the software functionality excels. Over the years, Results has been expanded and extended to handle a wide variety of business and information management requirements. Among the recent developments is the integration with Constant Contact, providing even more capability for small businesses to more intelligently manage their operations and get the most value from every business expenditure.

Following is an article which came from a discussion with Sam on this very subject, and which I am pleased to publish here because it makes sense.

Marketing in Business: Everyone has something to say

When someone talks about marketing it is the radio and TV advertisement, the advertisement in the paper or magazine, or even all those email newsletters that come in to the inbox which come to mind. Small business discussions about marketing generally center on branding, and finding the right message to “engage” with a prospective customer and turn them into a buying customer. What many business owners fail to recognize is that marketing has a presence in every aspect of the business.

Marketing is the message businesses tell their customers, whether it is the future customer (prospect), current customer or past customer (which is really just another kind of prospect). Marketing is also what they tell themselves and others in the business – the internal customers. It is marketing which gives voice to the organization, and provides the venue for the many parts of the company to speak to their respective constituents. Every department makes a contribution, and every department has something to say.

Business owners who recognize the value of giving voice to the various entities within the company understand that cooperation and communication go hand in hand. The development of a finely tuned machine means that everyone must work on the same page and towards the same goals, so centralization of content and managed distribution to relevant readers becomes the key to keeping the message on point.

Developing communications and drawing input from various areas of the business diversifies the message and creates interest where there was none before – all due simply to a change in perspective of the message. It is this understanding of when to change the perspective and voice, or to adjust or expand the message, which fuels ongoing marketing success. And while it is important to target the messaging towards the audience, it is equally important to present multiple facets to the message in order to gain the interest of different prospects as one never knows what subject matter or message will resonate with the reader. Essential is the follow-up on any campaign: follow-up with a sales approach or sending additional information or simply continuing communications.

Yet questions of relevance or interest of the message by the audience need to be answered, and the business needs indicators that reveal whether or not the information is being understood and accepted, or is even of interest to the audience. This is part of the value delivered in marketing and campaign management tools such as Constant Contact. But even if the messaging is on target and there is demonstrated interested, is the sales or customer management system in use designed to help sales follow-up and reach out to those audience members who expressed interest through accessing the material? Results CRM has this ability, and addresses the reality that too many businesses wait for inbound responses where outbound might be more efficient if only the information was there to help target the effort. Where service or support is the subject, does a response to the content suggest any follow-up or action? For a marketing campaign to be effective, it must discuss areas of interest and actionable subjects so that the audience is encouraged to read and to respond. For the business doing the marketing, the overall value of any campaign is reduced if there is no action taken or no intelligence gained from the response.

The integration between Results CRM and Constant Contact delivers the business benefits of connecting marketing communications and campaigns with sales, service and other business processes to support greater business and marketing intelligence. By providing users with the tools necessary to not only create communication campaigns but also to track and take action on the results of the effort provides a basis for gaining greater understanding of the performance of the communication and how it relates closely to sales and customer engagement. Connecting Constant Contact campaign information to Results CRM provides business owners and managers with an additional level of intelligence supporting decision-making and action.

Everybody in the company has something to say, and each “voice” may offer a message or idea that will trigger engagement with the customer, whether internal or external. When the company provides each entity in the organization with the benefit of a communications platform coupled with tools like Integrated CRM that are necessary to support analysis and action based on the performance and reaction to the messages, the company has begun to recognize the power and potential of what marketing may truly be.

S.Saab

June 2, 2015March 5, 2018

QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Desktop: The Great Debate

QuickBooks users around the country are facing a dilemma like never before – they’re being forced to consider exchanging their beloved QuickBooks desktop editions with a subscription-based online application that seems like an entirely different product. It not only seems like a different product, it is. And this is where the debate begins.

For years businesses both large and small found Intuit’s QuickBooks software to be their solution for business bookkeeping and accounting. Over the years the product line grew to support larger businesses, with the Enterprise edition scaling to 30 users and boasting a load of operational process support features. Accounting professionals, too, grew to favor the QuickBooks products because there were features just for these “mechanics” who learned to make the software do what was necessary to support the business, even if the software wasn’t intentionally designed to be used in that manner. After all, it is this “unintentional” activity which often results in really cool new features being introduced in the product – features that the designers didn’t think up but that users did and the news eventually got back to the developers.

dt-v-online-great-debate When Intuit introduced QuickBooks Online, however, the tried-and-true solution known as “QuickBooks” became something very different at first glance, creating the need to educate the market about the continuing existence of desktop QuickBooks products as well as the newer online QuickBooks product. Differentiation of the two is not really the “desktop” versus “online” moniker – Commercial Hosts for QuickBooks, who essentially turn the desktop products into online application service, pretty much eliminate the whole “any time, anywhere” debate, as hosted QuickBooks desktop editions are just as anytime/anywhere as the online edition is. The benefit of Internet access and running on any device is now removed from the equation, so what’s left to compare other than functionality, benefits and features… and a proven track record?

We could, in the past, have a conversation about the features, benefits and functionality in QuickBooks and know that the flow-through of product use knowledge, stored data and integration with other business solutions would be fairly seamless and consistent. QuickBooks Online has demonstrated none of this, fracturing the seamlessness and consistency users could previously expect as they move through the product line – as businesses will do as they grow larger and have more demands from their software solutions.

So now there’s a debate – which solution is best? The answer really isn’t necessarily about which is best, but which addresses the business need now and, if the business intends to be around for a while, in the future. Sometimes the argument is more about getting you where you need to be rather than simply supporting where you are now. I know I’m not yet ready to place any hard bets on whether or not the QBO model will truly deliver the goods for growing businesses long-term.

Joanie Mann Bunny Feet Make Sense?

May 19, 2015November 15, 2019

Accounting for Custom Manufacturing

Accounting and bookkeeping is a part of every business large and small, yet there are myriad details to work with and a multitude of possible approaches to addressing the requirement. From a summary perspective, there are standards which are fairly easily met, providing the basics of sales and expense tracking and income reporting sufficient for basic tax and compliance work to be performed. Yet accounting may go much deeper into the operational processes of the business, delving into the details of productivity and profitability in order to find and expose areas where the business might improve both.

mfg Manufacturing, particularly custom manufacturing or ETO (engineering to order) is among those industry types that could benefit tremendously from a more intimate and detailed approach to accounting. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to find experienced professionals with not simply a competence in working with manufacturing industry sector clients, but specifically with ETO process. Building to order is one thing, but finding the way to improve efficiency and profitability when every job is a custom encounter takes additional skills and a lot of data. Accounting professionals with these skills are needed to help these custom manufacturers grow, transform their businesses and make the overall operations more efficient and sustainable.

It seems logical that manufacturing and ETO space businesses are ripe for the same bridging of technology and analysis that the accounting industry started broadly approaching some years back. With bookkeeping processes being more frequently outsourced to non-accountants, the accounting professionals saw increased pressure to find more efficient ways of doing things and had to find new value to deliver to clients. Technology, data collection and analysis became the foundations for delivering on that new requirement. With the established model and philosophy, bringing more operational aspects of client systems into the mix and extending the model end-to-end just makes sense.

It takes a combination of systems – from the core accounting solution to the manufacturing control or other operational systems, through to the analytical tools. Leveraging hosting technologies and cloud service, businesses are finally able to bring the multiple work locations – shops, warehouses and business offices – together in a single software and technology platform, and collect the level of detail necessary to provide a comprehensive and true picture of the business. The analytical tools then provide the means to explore the details and identify where improvements might be made or where previously unrecognized risk exists.

QuickBooks desktop editions remain among the most popular financial systems used by manufacturing and job shop applications, largely due to the effectiveness of connecting the operational applications to an accounting solution which proves highly workable and which has strong industry support. Even with the emergence of QuickBooks Online (and the push by Intuit to get customers to adopt this web-based alternative to desktop-based software) the QuickBooks desktop edition products continue to provide more functionality and application support for these working models, as the ability to fully manage the information in the solution exists more in the disk based products than it does in a multitenant web-based application. Accounting “mechanics” are able to see, access and work with all the data rather than simply view reports where only half of the transaction is visible – making detailed accounting and data analysis more readily available.

The key is to leverage the accounting professional, the right software tools, and the platform and delivery environment that allows it all to work in concert for the entire organization. Add the QuickBooks hosting service so the participants can work more closely together. Enabling the accounting professional and bringing them closer to their clients (and client systems) allows the deeper move into operational issues, creating the basis for both to receive new and more value from the relationship.

jmbunnyfeet Make Sense?