Tag: AI

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Transform Your Business with M365’s Integrated Accounting Solution

The Best Alternative to QuickBooks May Be Part of a Fully Integrated Framework You Already Use

When looking at the business accounting and finance systems available in the market – particularly considering those which have earned a level of market share – there are visible gaps – big ones.

This is clearly reflected in the numbers, where Intuit QuickBooks leads in the small business market but has no reciprocal in the midrange or enterprise markets.

QuickBooks fits into that early space where the business is just starting out, but QuickBooks Enterprise can expand to keep more detailed customer, vendor and item information. Yet there often comes a point where a business has requirements that extend beyond the ability of the QuickBooks software.

Sometimes the mere thought of change is so terrible, usually based on a bad initial implementation experience, that the business uses the software far beyond what it was built to handle. In other cases, add-on solutions are adopted which offer more in-depth or complex capabilities to handle the growing business requirements. Both options may prove to be temporary solutions, meeting most functional demands as long as business needs don’t change.

If a change is in order, it makes sense to consider the benefits of using tools built on a familiar platform that is essentially a framework for designing exactly the system the business needs now, and which has flexibility and scalability enough to change as the business changes.

We understand that an integrated framework can provide much more scalability and support than a standalone solution.

We also recognize that, in today’s modern business, creating workflow efficiency and enabling user productivity are paramount.

While many products calling themselves ERP systems offer a broad range of functionality, integration, and data management capability, they often dictate more to the business how it must operate rather than revealing how it might operate.

Instead, we believe every business should have the opportunity to adapt their business software to make it easier for users to accomplish their work effectively while delivering the data and insight to guide the operation forward.

The need is for an entire tech stack and framework, not simply an application.

Competing ERP systems on the market typically address more and increasingly complex business processes while scaling to support larger business sizes. But the cost and complexity of these products, coupled with poor or too-expensive implementation services, is often the barrier to their adoption and retention.

In most cases, there is no small business version of the big business software, so the upgrade path is unclear and problematic.

Given the huge gap between the “typical” small business system and the upper-levels in the enterprise applications catalogue – the transition from very small to very large software is not likely to be made in a single step. Yet businesses can reduce the number of migration steps in the lifecycle of the company by moving to a flexible platform that can adapt and scale with the operation.

There are three things every business does: communicate, produce information, and keep score.

Microsoft places at the top with the first two, providing email and other communication tools used by businesses of all sizes around the globe, and creating the Microsoft Office family of productivity tools recognized and used by just about everyone.

In the third spot, keeping score, Intuit QuickBooks remains the clear winner. But when the business needs something beyond QuickBooks, or desires to have a solution that fits better, and maybe even integrates into their current M365 working environment, we can introduce the stakeholders to M365 Dynamics Business Central.

Business Central is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products.

Business Central is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products and is integrated with Microsoft Outlook directly, as well as the rest of the family of applications.

It is all able to be connected to the Microsoft Fabric, which weaves together the solutions and services that drive business operations around the globe.

Microsoft has the framework to provide the entire stack of applications, services and technologies working seamlessly together to deliver functionality and process support to fit the business and how it works.

When a siloed financial solution no longer supports the business requirement, or as operations become unworkable due to software that no longer fits the needs, connect with the experts at Mendelson Consulting to see what options are available.

There is never just one way to solve a problem, but there is usually a best way.

jm bunny feetMake sense?

J

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Data at Work: Intelligent Automation is Your Business Robot

Imagine having a business where connected systems are free-flowing conduits for data to move intelligently into and out of with ease. 

Software and systems connecting to one another isn’t new at all. For many years, businesses have recognized the value of having information entered in one system available in another.  Entire ERP frameworks have been created based on this concept of entering data once and using it in many ways.

A single technology stack or framework may offer such a capability, but even the most robust system may need to rely on expert systems or add-ons to address aspects of the operation.

When two or more systems need to connect, the idea is to create that connection and enable the unattended and intelligent movement of data.  People shouldn’t have to get involved for the information to flow from one system to another… it should just go by itself.  Like a robot.

A simple example might be someone who owns a web store and does their bookkeeping with QuickBooks.  The webstore isn’t running QuickBooks. It is running an e-commerce solution or shopping cart system. This allows customers to buy things online.  However, the webstore does create sales orders and charge transactions and may even manage an inventory of salable items.

Business owners often take on the task of getting the information from the webstore to QuickBooks and vice versa. They either enter the information manually themselves or hire an employee to do it.  This manual re-entry of information introduces a large potential for errors in the data entered and is time-consuming and costly.

If it is problematic for a small retailer, imagine having the problem multiplied many times over. It is unimaginable for even small businesses with active and growing operations. As the volume of data grows, the time consumed and the data entry error costs stack up.

“It was just awful,” said David Clothier, treasurer of the Knoxville, Tenn., company, which operates more than 500 Pilot Flying J truck stops nationwide. “There were humans everywhere.” wsj.com/articles/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot-1430776272

Rather than having a person re-type the information from one system into another, software-based integration programs are generally available to help users map the data and move it from one solution to the other.  This approach is faster and reduces the error rate, increasing the overall value and usefulness of the information.

Automation isn’t the only requirement that makes this all robot-like.  The additional requirement is intelligence.  If people still must get directly involved for something to happen, then all the happening is still based on human performance. No robots here.

Intelligent integration of information occurs when the systems at both ends can make decisions and act on them. 

For example, a business might use a solution that allows vendors to submit their invoices electronically.  Through a base of rules that match invoices to requests and approvals, the system can issue payment and record the transactions automatically and without human intervention, saving hugely on personnel and processing costs.  Robots (the automation solution) wouldn’t make up all the rules but could follow them repetitively and without question once established.

…software can help businesses operate more effectively. “If you think like a human, there are only certain things you can do. When you think like a robot, many things are possible.” wsj.com/articles/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot-1430776272

It isn’t a new paradigm for improving business operations, this doing of things a bit smarter than before and leveraging technology to get more done in less time.

The difference is that the pace of change is increasing, giving businesses less time to address inefficient processes and outmoded working models. Mendelson Consulting and the Noobeh cloud services team recognize that intelligent automation and integration shouldn’t be a one-time setup. Instead, we partner with clients to find the best solution to not only address today’s needs but tomorrow’s new demands.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Write it Once – The Value of Integration

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 even though enabling solutions have been around for a while. 

Methods of integrating applications and data have existed for quite some time, and in recent years these methods have expanded to include a wide variety of platforms and more open standards-based approaches.  Even in the small business world, business owners using traditionally limited software products can enjoy sophisticated extensions and integration of their applications and business data.

To provide a simple example of the problem: when an individual writes a check, that check must be recorded for several purposes including the recording of the cost or expense as well as the reduction of funds in the bank account.  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. This also means that data exists in a variety of places, increasing the challenges of information collecting and reporting.

 Cloud-based integration and infrastructure services such as DBSync and Microsoft Azure enable seamless collection, transformation, aggregation and storage of business data. Whether linking accounting with sales CRM or pushing financial and operational data to an Azure data warehouse for analytics, Noobeh and DBSync provide the data engine and the infrastructure to put it all together.

A small business owner’s situation offers a direct illustration. He sells computer parts through an ecommerce website.  Orders from this website are emailed to his order operators, who then turn around and re-key the orders into their accounting system where the inventory is also tracked.  Because of the increasing number of sales orders and product purchase orders to enter on a regular basis, there were three operators working in the department responsible for making sure website orders make it into the accounting system. Orders were frequently missed or misplaced, entry errors caused problems in accounting and product delivery, customer satisfaction went down, and the cost of handling web orders was increasing.

By implementing a single software solution, the company was able to not just address the current problem, but was set up to seamlessly increase business without increasing headcount. The solution was a system which takes transaction data from the ecommerce system and imports it into the accounting/ERP system. This single step allowed the business to reduce and redirect personnel costs, improve accuracy and timeliness of data entry, and increase customer satisfaction as well as overall business performance.

In even a small company, one piece of information may be used in a variety of ways and in a variety of systems. This complexity is found in simple business models as well as larger and more complex enterprises, revealing the value of integration solutions and automation tools at every level of operation.

Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services recognize that every business needs the right information at the right time to operate effectively. Our expert teams help businesses implement the solutions which bring business data together, empowering workers to be more productive and giving stakeholders the decision-support tools they need.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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For Franchise Business, Platform Agility Helps Deliver Customer Value

In every corner of the franchise world, businesses are talking about growing value. Customers are pursuing lower prices and are spending less, and the competitive marketplace often pushes businesses into a race to the bottom. With pressures coming from all sides – rising labor and supply costs, inflation and the cost of capital, changes in consumer spending habits – franchise operations are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and delight customers while supporting profitability and growth.

Value is not simply a discounted price on an item. To the buyer, value is often found in the quality of the product or service, and fast friction-free transactions made without errors. New bundles of products and offering new add-ons may also improve the customer’s value perception. The introduction of online and mobile ordering and partnering with third-party delivery services is not only an enhancement to the customer experience but can open new revenue streams by reaching new customers and serving current customers better.

Understanding where changes might be made to not only improve value to the customer, but also to the business and stakeholders, is the challenge. Only through close monitoring of operational and financial data will businesses understand what adjustments are needed to achieve the desired results. Yet the complexities of data collection, integration and reporting often pose barriers to exposing the information needed to fully inform stakeholders.

Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh Cloud Services understand that many franchise organizations are faced with challenges in identifying, collecting, combining and reporting on their operational and financial data. Working with Microsoft Azure and having team members and partners experienced in working with a wide variety of financial and operational systems, Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh help businesses create the foundations for flexible, agile and massively scalable data collection, storage and analysis.

From standardizing accounting systems and processes to establishing data lakes and foundations for data analysis and reporting, Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh have the range of services and solutions and partners to help support new, established and fast-growing franchise operations. Its about delivering more value… to our clients and to theirs.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Timing is Everything: Security, AI and the Tech Stack in Restaurants

Running a restaurant or chain of restaurants is no easy task. Margins are often razor thin while customer demands continue to expand. Food service, like so many other industries, is struggling to bear the weight of change as labor shortages, rising costs, increasing cybersecurity risk, and demands for an improved customer experience push the industry to do more efficient and effective business. To keep up, businesses must learn more about what’s really going on in the operation, and to turn that insight into action. Timing is everything, and now is the right time to look at technology and platforms which will deliver greater insight and intelligence.

Whether it is leveraging commercial solutions available from partners or through building the tech stack by DIY, businesses in the restaurant industry are looking for innovative solutions to drive more profitability as well as increasing revenues leveraging resources they’re already paying for. AI is playing a big role in this evolution and businesses of all sizes, from the single-location entrepreneur to the multi-location franchise, are taking steps to incorporate it into the operation. Yet AI is all but useless if it doesn’t have the data to analyze.

An example of a transformational solution for the restaurant industry might be Curbit’s products, which include digital infrastructure and real-time AI capabilities that enable the software to analyze the data around service, real-time order progress, kitchen performance and guess sentiment. Microsoft’s Azure and Azure AI platform is key to Curbit’s innovation and development, enabling them to give the information which powers timely decision-making rather than offering only after-the-fact reports or outdated dashboard data.

In the category of maximizing the resources you’re already paying for, look at new services available through DoorDash, where lunch special and happy hour promotional offerings help businesses drive demand in off-peak times. Designed to increase revenues and drive greater sustainability, the service also reflects how restaurants are increasingly faced with the need to leverage online tools and mobile ordering to replace the reduction in foot traffic at brick and mortar location.

On the other side of that coin is information security and privacy and how businesses deal with the realities of cybersecurity threats and the need for greater levels of protection. Collecting more data for analysis means there is an increased risk of exposing private data if not adequately protected.

Considering high profile incidents like what happened with Panera, adequate cybersecurity protections must be part of the essential infrastructure that supports the operation. What was initially described as a systemwide technical outage at Panera was ultimately found to have been a cybersecurity breach exposing some employee personal data and the basis for a class action lawsuit filed by Panera employees.  

Whether it belongs to employees or customers or others, personal and private data must be protected. The cost of protecting the data is likely lower than the cost of dealing with a data breach and the potential resultant backlash, which is another part of the equation which must be considered.

Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services recognize how businesses need to modernize their systems, developing greater intelligence and resilience in the operation. We also recognize the importance of redundancy and agility in systems, and how quality managed cybersecurity solutions and services help guard against attack.

From ERP and specialized business solutions to platform, hosting and managed service, Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services can help your business meet the demands of doing business now and in the future.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Enhancing Business Insight: Noobeh Cloud Services and Azure-Based Solutions

Technology is evolving and so are our ways of using it. While the rules of accounting haven’t changed for years, the solutions we use to do the work have changed a lot. Yet there remain many businesses that haven’t yet embraced the idea of fully digital workflows, integrating and automating how data moves through the “system” to provide a comprehensive view of the business and how it is performing.

This is where accountants and bookkeepers can best serve their clients, by helping them implement the platforms and solutions which transform operations and provide greater insight into these areas.

Over 20 years ago, a technology model was developed which allowed businesses and the accounting professionals who serve them to work directly and collaboratively in the clients’ accounting system. By hosting QuickBooks and Sage desktop products on host servers, small business users and their accountants could both access the software and the data in real time.

This new approach was a boon for accountants, bookkeepers and others working with small business clients as it not only enabled closer work, but also provided those advisors an opportunity to do more – and more complex – work with the client. Yet many platforms and working models created barriers to broadening the scope of service or access to client systems, limiting to just basic accounting products like QuickBooks, and not effectively addressing the rest of the business need.

As technology has evolved, so have these transformations.

More accounting professionals understand the benefits as well as the necessity of moving from analog to digital workflows, removing manual entry and improving efficiency and accuracy of data. Yet this improvement doesn’t require changing accounting software and undoing years of learning and business knowledge. Rather, the platforms and connections must be the primary focus, replacing the manual with automation and smoothing out the bumps where data isn’t flowing at all. If the system isn’t in place to handle the complete flow of the data, there is a break. Like a pipe leaking water, this break results in data loss – which is also loss of business intelligence.

A key to all of this is the consideration of where the data ultimately resides. When business data exists in closed silos – whether web-based software or closed hosting platform – it takes a comprehensive approach to collection, storage and analysis. This is among the benefits to be derived from the modern cloud and Noobeh’s Azure-based hosting approach.

Noobeh’s hosting is not just about the desktop or the applications.

The cloud platform, and Azure in particular, also provides resources for data analysis and business intelligence, workflow and data flow automations, improved security and identity management, IoT and computing on the network edge.

For professionals looking to evolve their practices by helping clients go beyond basic recordkeeping and reporting, it’s time to delve into the operational details, data flows and development of real business intelligence and insight. Noobeh Cloud Services and Mendelson Consulting have the platforms and the supporting services to help bring it all together, improving profitability and performance of their clients through the intelligent application of technology.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J