Tag: application service providers

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Remote applications, virtual desktops and hosted QuickBooks

Cloud computing and SaaS applications are all the rage, and businesses are finding tremendous benefits with the mobility and managed service these models provide.  On the other hand, there also continues to be huge reliance on the desktop computer and the software running on it. From basic productivity tools to more advanced business solutions, desktop-based software and locally installed applications remain in favor for the vast majority of businesses around the country.  Adoption of web-based solutions is certainly increasing, but the need for tried-and-true business applications that were traditionally installed and managed directly on the PC or local network doesn’t seem to be going away. At least part of the reason for this is the functionality and performance these applications deliver.  Another factor is that hosting and remote access solutions have matured to the point where hosting applications is just as “mainstream” (and often more useful to the business) as using a SaaS solution. Managed application hosting models have made solutions like Microsoft Office and QuickBooks desktop editions available anytime, anywhere and using just about any device. I call hosting the best “tweener” solution available, because users can have the functionality they need and still get fully managed, on-demand service.

Back when a few businesses started operating as Application Service Providers (ASPs), there were a limited number of realistic approaches available for building the platform to deliver desktop applications.  Many application hosting offerings grew somewhat like a fungus from the internal Citrix Metaframe and terminal service set ups performed by IT service companies.   A lot of these companies didn’t start out to provide application hosting services; they simply found it to be more efficient and profitable than trying to manage all that hardware and software at the client site.

Over the years, a variety of solutions have been introduced to ease the burdens of implementation and management of desktop applications on centralized platforms, but most of them were designed more for enterprise deployment rather than as the basis for a generalized service offering.  Microsoft’s Remote App and Remote Desktop services, Microsoft and Citrix and Dell (Quest) app virtualization/management/publishing, even streaming and “containerized” applications… there are quite a few options out there and, in some circumstances, they can work pretty well.   What has kept them from working out REALLY well, however, is the cost and complexity of deploying these solutions.  From printing problems to user device support to simply allowing a user to gracefully reset their connection when it gets stuck…  application and desktop delivery platforms can be very difficult to set up and manage.

My team works with a number of solutions which address these aspects of application and desktop delivery, bringing the functionality to a level where small businesses and their IT service providers can easily set up secure remote access and hosting environments that actually work.  This includes addressing the printing facilities, user management, app and desktop publishing, workspaces administration, and connection management that makes a remote desktop or app deployment useful. For IT folks, the fact that no special firewall configurations are required and that a static IP address is not needed means that our solution for on-prem can work where many VPNs and web portals can’t.

Remote Desktop services (Terminal services) is the most widely recognized approach for creating “virtual” desktop or hosted application services.  It solves many of the problems involved in centralizing the management and administration of computing resources and applications for broad bases of users, and it’s pretty much the only game in town when it comes to putting traditional desktop applications online (or putting the desktop online).  This approach, which is essentially packing all of the computing requirement into a centralized infrastructure, is the most effective method of addressing the total business requirement (e.g., hosting all the business applications with associated data, administering user security and access, and managing the entire system) at any significant scale.  Each of these methods of providing managed applications require that the entire realm of solutions – the main applications, all integrations, drivers for devices to be supported, and all associated data – exist on the service provider servers and under the service provider’s control.

Our services deliver a simple and straightforward set up so you begin using the platform right away; seamless and affordable.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Mobilizing QuickBooks Desktops

 Hosted QuickBooks for Remote and Mobile Access

There was a time not too long ago when the “thought leaders” in information technology said that the desktop is dead, and all software will be accessed via the web. (Note: I put “thought leaders” in quotes because industry thought leaders are often those with the greatest media influence.  After all, you can’t lead them if you can’t reach them, right?). The whole no software thing is a dramatic oversimplification of what is happening with computer software, but one thing is kind of coming true: nobody wants to be tied to their desktop.  It’s not that the desktop is dead… it’s just not all there is. For users of the desktop editions of Intuit QuickBooks software, the question really isn’t whether they intend to give up their familiar and trusted software to use a different, online solution. The question is how to use the QuickBooks desktop software they want in the cloud so they can use it on desktops that aren’t the primary desktop computer, or on mobile devices.

Computing technology has finally reached a level of accessibility that was previously only imagined in science fiction stories.  Communicating instantaneously with anyone anywhere around the world; accessing extensive (limitless?) libraries of information, art and music with a simple handheld device – these are the things that people do every day without a second thought.  Business users may even be able to access their business documents, email, contacts and appointments etc. from mobile devices, enabling a productive and functional mobile workforce.
desktop-appsYet the desktop remains as the primary workhorse for most business users. This is where the productivity applications live, where large spreadsheets and full-screen applications are run, and where keyboarders and production data entry users operate.  Tablets, touchscreens and mobile devices just don’t provide the same capabilities unless you tether them to full size monitors and keyboards.  Even then they may not because they might not run the same OS as the desktop.  The point is that the desktop hasn’t gone away and isn’t likely to any time soon.  Users may use more mobile apps and devices, but this isn’t diminishing use on the desktop as much as it augmenting it.  This is what fuels the interest in application hosting and virtual desktop computing models – the desire to mobilize desktop and network applications and working environments.

Hosting applications and data gives businesses the flexibility of working in desktop applications and accessing data just as if they were in the office, yet users may be located anywhere there is Internet connectivity. When the applications and the associated data are managed in the datacenter, businesses are able to centralize their information assets and manage them more effectively than if the data were distributed among multiple computers.  While most sync and share solutions require files to be downloaded to local computers in order to open and edit, a hosted application service with virtual desktops and file sharing provides a security model which keeps business data secure yet available for user access without compromising security by downloading information to the user device.

A hosted solution approach can make license utilization more efficient and compliance easier to maintain, too.  By enabling access to applications on a centralized platform and eliminating the installation and maintenance of software on individual computers, businesses reduce the reliance on local IT personnel to install and update applications and user accounts, and improve their ability to control application assignments and usage.

Hosting helps businesses take advantage of technology that would otherwise be unaffordable, and delivers the mobility and centralized management required to boost productivity and contain costs.  There is a high cost to managing a business network, and creating secure mobile access to that network can represent an exponential increase in IT spending (just to initially set up, not to mention ongoing costs for security management, monitoring and support). Rather than taking on the entire burden of service management and delivery directly, businesses electing to work with hosting providers find that they are able to focus more on business operation, strategy and growth – and spend less time worrying about the IT supporting them.  Costs are reduced, workers are empowered, and capabilities are increased while knowledge and process investments are preserved.  When it comes to mobilizing business applications like QuickBooks desktop editions, it all starts with a hosted approach.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Where do we go from here? The SMB SaaS Migration

Where do we go from here?  The SMB SaaS Migration

Forests are a great renewable resource.  You may cut them down, but you can replant and grow new ones to cut down again later.  I suppose it’s sort of like that for software vendors who provide small business solutions.  While many small businesses fail and close every year, lots and lots of them start up and continue operating each year.  Since there’s a steady stream of new prospective customers coming up each year, maybe it is OK when some of them outgrow the product and leave (leaf?).

On the other hand, maybe it makes sense to understand where those customers who do grow up and flourish will go… to which products or solutions they will migrate, and how the company might actually retain a relationship with them through that process and beyond.  Some businesses will mature successfully, and will outgrow their small business solutions and leave their vendors, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way for all.  For some key software vendors, a fair question to ask themselves is where their customers will go from here… where “here” is the solution the customer is using now.

When this question is applied to the small business accounting market, it ends up centering on the QuickBooks product line.  Intuit is currently encouraging all QuickBooks customers to look at the QuickBooks Online solution, the fully SaaS-based offering which is different from the desktop editions.  The QuickBooks desktop editions, on the other hand, service small businesses very well.  The functionality improves and increases as users move up the product line from the Pro version through Premier and to Enterprise edition.  This line of solutions has done a great job of serving the needs of both small and larger businesses – all within the same product set.  But now Intuit wants users to experience the benefits of subscription-based service and an online working model.  Those are great benefits, but there’s a question that is left open for the asking.  Where are QuickBooks customers supposed to go from there, assuming that at least some of them might grow beyond the capability of the online product?  It’s a fair question, and here’s why I think so.

fall_from_cloudOnce a business has adopted a certain working model and the mentality that goes along with it, it is difficult to come in and tell them they have to change to a new model and find a way to adjust.  Change doesn’t come that easily for many individuals much less an entire organization, so this is a big deal and potentially very impactful to all aspects of the operation.  Yet this is exactly what is currently suggested with Intuit’s desire to have customers use the online edition.

It may be a great solution for now, but what’s the next step up from there?  Is it QuickBooks Enterprise on the desktop?  Kind of a weird message, don’t you think?  Let’s have customers adopt an anytime, anywhere subscription solution model, and then migrate them back to the desktop where the management and maintenance of the solution is higher due to number of users, and where there is no mobility, multi-location or remote access capability as there was with online.

The thought is that QuickBooks Online will eventually compete with the Netsuite and Intacct class of SaaS solutions, but right now it doesn’t and there are customers who must leave that product for something that handles their larger and deeper business needs (like the QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise solutions do).   There is a big gap between the entry level accounting products and those which are designed for the larger or midsize “small business”, and the QuickBooks desktop editions represent the only viable options in that very large space.  In fact, many businesses utilize line of business products that allow them to retain use of QuickBooks even as the enterprise scales far beyond the expectation that QuickBooks could handle the need.  But it often can, and it makes sense for businesses to leverage this ability if they are able.

The answer for these growing businesses  – the place they should go when they’ve outgrown the small business SaaS solution like QuickBooks Online (or Xero or Freshbooks or whatever) is to a hosted or remote-enabled QuickBooks model.  With the QuickBooks desktop editions hosted and managed by a cloud provider, businesses are able to retain the benefits of managed service, subscription pricing, and anytime/anywhere access while utilizing the products that are recognized as the industry standards for finance and accounting for growing businesses.

The hosted approach gives the businesses a clear path for the advancement of their systems in line with the growing needs of the business, and removes the need to shift working models from online to on-prem.  As needs increase and the complexity of systems grow through integration and scale, the service provider manages the platform and systems, enabling the business to not simply continue operating, but to grow and expand with the confidence that there is a plan to grow and expand the systems which support it.   The place to go is the cloud, and whether it is an entry-level SaaS solution or a hosted desktop and server approach, the service is there to handle the business.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Hosting Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Editions Delivers Big Benefits for Small Business

Big Benefits with Hosted QuickBooks

diagram_self_hosting-500_289Everyone, it seems, is adopting outsourced IT and cloud computing models yet one size does not fit all when it comes to serving business – whether it’s the software or infrastructure under discussion. Cloud, mobile and online application models deliver big benefits for small businesses, but it is important to know the options available before investing in something that’s hard to get out of later. Initially, a hosted application model might be the best approach, allowing the business to achieve the mobility and on-demand service they desire but without an investment in SaaS solutions that are much more difficult to change out of or grow with later.

When “QuickBooks” and “cloud” are mentioned in the same sentence, most people are likely to think about the QuickBooks Online Edition, which is Intuit’s version of QuickBooks accounting software that was developed specifically for the web.  But QuickBooks Online isn’t the only QuickBooks “flavor” finding success in the cloud.  QuickBooks desktop editions have made their way into online and hosted deliveries, giving customers the ability to run the business and grow the organization with the software they’ve already invested in, but running the apps in the cloud.

QuickBooks Online lacks the features and functionality present in the desktop product lines, and the range of 3rd party applications which integrate or work in conjunction with QuickBooks desktop is huge and continues to grow.  Developers with SaaS products often find that their target customers prefer the desktop editions of QuickBooks, even though there may be connections to QBO available.  All of these connected software products can be hosted with or connected to hosted QuickBooks, providing businesses with mobile and remote access for all their business applications, not just the web-based ones. *Note: not all QuickBooks hosting companies will also host whatever 3rd party integrations a business needs, so make sure to verify before you buy! What sounds like a great hosting deal now could turn into something you need to change later.  The good thing is, you can change…. unlike with QBO.

The popularity of desktop application hosting continues to grow because users have investments in software, data and business processes. Adding remote access and mobility doesn’t require an entire change of software, but it does introduce new benefits that can have a big positive impact on work quality, productivity and efficiency. QuickBooks hosting models and application hosting in general gives business owners a basis for helping employees balance (or integrate) work and life time and activities, and addresses the issues of data security and mobility by keeping information securely stored on the host.

Better information security, work/life balance, mobility, making the most of your existing investments and creating sustainability in the business so you can grow. These and more are benefits of hosting QuickBooks software for your business.

jmbunnyfeet Make Sense?

J

 

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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 Cloud for Your Firm: 3 Initial Considerations for Cloud Enabling Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms Working With Small Businesses

The Cloud for Your Firm

3 Initial Considerations for Cloud Enabling Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms Working With Small Businesses

dscn0903.jpgThe potential benefits of a real-time, lean collaborative working model are too great to argue with.  Accounting professionals, bookkeepers and their small business clients are all hearing about the value of working together in the cloud, and how cloud technologies and solutions can reduce cost and improve efficiency.  There is a great deal of truth in these statements, just as there was a truth in the value of implementing computers, networks and other technologies in business.  What is not clear is exactly what businesses need “in the cloud”, and how they should approach this shift from local IT to outsourced managed service.  Initially, there are 3 issues which warrant consideration, if not deep discussion, prior to making any significant move to relocate internal IT and shift business applications to the cloud: internal use systems, client interaction, and operational support for both.

With all the discussion about cloud computing and remote access, it would seem that all the applications and solutions businesses need are now available online and paid for in low monthly subscription fees.  Anyone working with small businesses, however, comes to understand that the vast majority of these businesses are still using more traditional modes of information management and computing.   For the most part, these businesses are using PCs and local networks, possibly with a little hosted email thrown in.  Almost certainly they have a website and maybe even a fairly sophisticated e-commerce system that allows them to sell products online.  But when it comes to general office functions, and particularly back-office functions like bookkeeping and accounting, the software and the data generally reside on the office PC and server.

Accounting and bookkeeping professionals who work with small businesses are often in the same position as their business clients when it comes to information technology.  Since so much of the work involved requires the same programs and data formats as those used by the client, service providers find that they spend as much in management of software licensing and systems to support working with client data as they do on systems intended for internal use only – sometimes more.  Many of these service providers are also small businesses, and it becomes challenging to find a way to handle internal IT needs while at the same time trying to address those of the client. Where e-commerce solutions are readily available to handle operational aspects of product based businesses, the best tool set for a professional accounting firm or bookkeeping business working with small business clients may not be so easily defined.

The solution for many providers has been revealed through cloud computing and hosted application models.  With Cloud Servers, Remote Desktops, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure now widely available as affordable alternatives to capital-intensive implementations of locally installed products, businesses are finding new abilities to manage applications and data, provide mobility and enhance collaboration.  The additional benefit is in how accounting service providers may engage with their clients in more efficient and effective ways, without the burdens of replicating data or trying to share access to a single machine or application resource.

There are a number of elements to consider before taking the file server to the parking lot and running it over with a truck.  Moving to the cloud is not a one-step process, and it is important to do a little research and collect some important information before making the final decision on how to proceed.

Internal Use Systems

Among the first of the questions to ask when considering a change in IT management approaches is “which software do we need”?  Implementing an outsourced IT arrangement, which is really what “cloud” is about”, does not necessarily mean throwing away all the existing software and starting with new.  The software in use within the firm may be exactly what it needs right now and adding full IT management, fault tolerance, and remote or mobile access could be the main scope of the requirement.  Moving from locally installed solutions to hosted solutions provides quite a number of benefits while removing many of the direct costs and frustrations of IT management and administration. The greatest benefit of this type of approach is the ability to preserve the “body of knowledge” existing in the business, knowledge invested in the people and processes already developed.

On the other hand, there may be new tools or services only available as “cloud” service, and it makes sense to explore how they may benefit the business more than the in-use applications.  The important element is to remember that the solution must address real business problems, and whether it runs in the cloud or not isn’t the first or most important thing to ask.  For example, a discussion about whether QuickBooks Online might be a better choice than QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Enterprise should be focused on the functionality provided by the applications and not which servers they are running on.  With application hosting for QuickBooks now being an available option, there is a managed IT and remote access capability for both solutions, rendering the fact that QBO is a SaaS solution almost irrelevant in terms of being a differentiator.

Client Interaction

An important aspect of adopting new technologies or working models is the consideration of how the firm and the client businesses will work together, and whether or not there is (or could be) a standardized approach that might work for most clients.  Certainly, it makes sense to standardize as much as possible.  Treating every issue or engagement as a singular event – a one-off – is the least efficient way to do business.  The key to profitability is in the firm’s ability to produce high quality work consistently and in a timely fashion.  This requires that the business be well-structured in terms of the standard processes and methods which will be used to work with client information.  When the firm and the client can work seamlessly together as and when required, and when each is responsible for their own systems and data, it is a best-case scenario. The questions relating to client interactions focus on how the firm works with clients and which tools or solutions are required to improve that situation.

It is likely that the firm will need to be able to address working relationships with various client and engagement types – where clients do some of the work, where the bookkeeper does the work, or where the participants work collaboratively together in the same systems.  While it may seem that the best way to create a dependency on your services with the client is to keep them out of the systems, empowering the client is really the key to a close and long-standing engagement.  This means that the client needs to have their own solutions and approach to cloud-enabled IT, and the accounting or bookkeeping service provider should be able to access and work within that environment.

It is rare that a small business can effectively operate without computers and software to manage information and support operations, so it makes sense that the business should have its own accounting and financial systems, too.  For the accounting service provider, it is essential that a level of understanding be gained around the use of today’s available remote and mobile access technologies, as it is with these solutions and tools that participation in client systems will be enabled.  When the client accounting solution sits on their office PC, there are limited options for working together in any real collaborative form.  Connecting to their PC via remote control is a widely recognized means of gaining access to client systems, but if the bookkeeper is on the system when there is a problem of some sort, all eyes go directly to that remote user as the likely cause of the problem.

The considerations relating to remote access to client systems focus not just on enabling a collaborative working environment, but also on mitigating risk and improving client perception.  The risk issue comes in when the accounting service provider is exposed to systems and information not relevant to their task, and the perception issue becomes material when the accounting professional becomes the software or IT service provider.  It makes sense for the accounting professional to make recommendations or suggestions about software and IT service which might benefit the business, but not to necessarily be the reseller or direct provider of the product or service.  The moment the accounting professional attempts to sell the client a software product or IT service, the relationship is changed and the client is more likely to view their accounting pro as another vendor rather than a trusted advisor.  It’s also not necessarily a great move to start a new client engagement by telling the client they have to switch accounting products to allow the accountant to work closer.  Rather, professionals need to help their clients position those products for more efficient use, which may include enabling remote or mobile access granted via deployment in the cloud.

Operational Support

When businesses outsource their IT management and administration, there is often an initial belief that all responsibilities in these areas will be handled by the IT service provider.  What is often overlooked is the reality that the firm still needs to have people attending to IT related tasks, just doing different levels of work with the technology. It is important to recognize that someone in the firm will end up dealing with various IT and process support issues, and it still makes sense to have personnel dedicated to these tasks (*Note: here’s where I suggest that the cloud changes the focus of internal IT personnel, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for them).  The service provider and solution evaluation and selection process, as well as the actual deployment and administration of services, will take valuable time away from actually performing client accounting or bookkeeping work, and there should be people attending to these issues while the business continues operating.

Where an internal IT department or contract technicians may once have supported internal systems, an operational role within the business is still required to manage outsourced IT activities, including and particularly those where clients are involved with the firm systems.  Delivering new benefits with a minimum of business disruption is the goal, and can be achieved through proper planning and coordination with team members and clients alike.

Closing Thoughts

“The Cloud” is just another way to run software and implement computing resources.  It still takes servers and software, it uses processors and storage and networking, just like more “traditional” computing models.  The difference is in how these resources are purchased and provisioned, and the impact is a change in how businesses of all types can benefit from technologies which enable collaboration, lean process, and mobility.  The Cloud for Your Firm addresses your internal business requirements, lends itself to client collaboration, and has internal operational support to ensure the firm is fully leveraging the available benefits to improve business performance and profitability.

Make sense?

J

Read more about Accountants and Bookkeepers Working With QuickBooks Clients: App Hosting Approaches That Work

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