Tag: SaaS

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Taking a Hybrid Technology Approach is Most Advantageous for Many Small Businesses

When discussing technology and cloud, most IT resellers and MSPs serving small businesses equate “cloud” with web-based applications (SAAS) and web-based file sharing and assume that any talk of cloud desktops means desktop-as-a-service (DAAS). Unfortunately, web applications and file sharing services, and especially DAAS, are often NOT the best or most advantageous solutions available to the SMB/SME organization.

Rather than taking an “all or nothing” approach to cloud, small businesses benefit more from a strategic combination of cloud servers and desktop software, a hybrid model where the business gains the best of both worlds.

It is sometimes frustrating that small business IT personnel are the drivers behind migrating businesses from desktop applications to their web-based counterparts.

Most SMB software purchases are solely handled by IT, disregarding other important stakeholders.

Capterra’s 2023 SMB Software Buying Trends Survey

These non-business users pave the way for moving the business to cloud-based applications rather than modernizing the platform for existing applications to enable improved processes and workflows. This is especially challenging for accounting and finance operations where the businesses are being encouraged to migrate without first considering the underlying business processes or the accessibility of the impacted and associated data.

Businesses have developed an appreciation for the stability and predictability of desktop applications, along with the recognition of the challenges of transitioning from a system that is deeply integrated into existing workflows. Training users and adapting the work while migrating to cloud applications can be complex and costly without delivering significantly new or increased business benefits.

Data control and security are also large considerations. Most desktop applications allow businesses to retain direct access to and control over their data. Sensitive information remains within their reach rather than under the direct control of a 3rd party SAAS provider from whom they must gain permission and access to retrieve their data.

Rather than pushing the business towards web-based application services, a hybrid approach that modernizes the server and network platform as well as the user working environment may make more sense and provide the organization with greater advantage. This allows businesses to leverage their investments in desktop software, processes, training, and data and still make significant operational improvements and transformations.

Even more, some businesses rely on specialized software that isn’t easily replicated in a web-based environment. Existing desktop applications, especially industry-specific or custom-built tools, may not have cloud equivalents. Migrating these to the cloud server platform allows for uninterrupted productivity even as the business transitions from local to cloud-based platform and operations. Employees comfortable with existing software can maintain productivity without significant adjustments.

Using a cloud server to replace on-premises servers and user desktops, and keeping desktop and network applications working more securely, with improved access and management is the hybrid approach most advantageous for small and medium size businesses.

Noobeh works with Microsoft Azure, providing cloud servers that are scalable so small businesses can adjust their computing resources based on demand. Whether it’s expanding during peak seasons or downsizing during quieter periods, cloud servers offer flexibility that on-premises machines can’t.

Businesses can continue to use the critical desktop application tools they rely on and retain direct control over their data at the same time. Sensitive information remains within their cloud network, but users can access it from anywhere.

This hybrid model combines the benefits of cloud servers, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, agility, and security, with the benefits of keeping existing desktop software, including functionality, stability, data investment and control.

A hybrid approach to modernization allows small businesses to leverage the advantages of both cloud servers and desktop software, tailoring their technology stack to the unique needs of their businesses and in a way that is most advantageous to the business.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Controlling SaaS Inflation

The cost of everything is going up, and that is as true for businesses as it is anywhere else. From office space and salaries to vendors and suppliers, everything is hitting the bottom line harder than before. For businesses invested in online application services and Software-as-a-Service solutions, the rising cost of usage is outpacing other expense categories at a fairly high rate.

Consider that many small businesses start with whatever is cheapest and easiest to use, which usually means a web-based solution. From there, the business cobbles together it’s IT by using a variety of applications and services and eventually ends up with a tangled web that can be difficult to straighten out.

Even larger enterprises find that shadow IT implementations and web-based application services make their way into the mix, costing companies greatly through unmanaged subscriptions, lack of vendor management, and missed opportunities for consolidation of resources.

Covid and remote work requirements fueled a lot of the growth in SaaS adoption as businesses implemented solutions and services to support a distributed workforce. Leaving millions of square feet of office space unused while at the same time investing in remote and mobile work, businesses have had a hard time of it.

According to an article on CFODive, “Software inflation has remained “stubbornly high” this year at a rate of 8.7% — more than double the inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index in the U.S., according to research conducted by London-based Vertice, a software-as-a-service and cloud spending management company.”

In 2023, SaaS inflation increased by 8.7%, meaning the same unchanged set of SaaS products will cost businesses significantly more than it did a year ago.

Vertice.one SaaS Inflation Index report


The Vertice report indicates that sales software, finance software and productivity tools represent categories of software that saw inflation rates of over 10% as compared with 2022. Another uncomfortable reveal from the report is that most software companies simply hiked their prices, and in some cases, they hiked them up a lot (23% increases, for example). The rising cost of Software-as-a-Service, referred to as SaaS Inflation, is a lot higher than with other products.

Part of the problem may be the global nature of online application services and SaaS companies. Costs of operations and the pricing of the product may be consistent across geographies, yet different regions will experience inflation in costs of other goods and services based more on regional factors. The result is a SaaS inflation rate higher than the consumer inflation rate. Yet even in areas where the SaaS inflation rate seems to be more in line with consumer inflation, it’s still a lot higher than many other categories of products and services. Only food and beverages compete at similar levels of price inflation.

Another part of the equation is the value for the dollar. Everyone knows that a dollar today buys less than it did last year. At the grocery store, this shrinkflation is obvious when an item is now more expensive, and you get less for the same price. With SaaS, the shrinkflation may not be quite as obvious. License packages change, features are introduced (or removed), and the value to the customer can change dramatically over time while the rates simply increase.

There are some important steps a business can take to minimize the impact of SaaS inflation, and it all starts with knowing what you have and how you use it. Reducing or eliminating shadow IT and implementations outside of general governance, consolidating vendors and licensing, and reducing redundancy in functionality and process support are key areas to focus on to control the spend.

Mendelson Consulting has experienced consultants that can work with your business to understand your needs and evaluate your options, helping to find the right solution for the problem while minimizing sprawl and spending.

Whether you rely on Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, or any other -as a service solution, the Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services teams can help you do more with your investment.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Cloud for Small Business: Gain Hardware Independence

Small businesses tend to approach their business IT in terms of the tangibles.. the hardware and software they can see and touch.

The desktop PCs where the programs are installed, the server in the back room where the files are stored, and the backup that goes offsite (tapes? discs? usb drives?) is the stuff most small business owners think of when asked about the computing technology they use. This view isn’t very comprehensive when it comes to considering the costs of purchasing and maintaining IT in the business, yet it identifies a major problem with the typical small business IT approach.

The problem is the dependency on the hardware and the reliance of the small business on the operation of individual computers.

The solution to this reliance on on-premises hardware? The cloud.

The solution to the problem isn’t centered on using web-based applications. The real solution to this small business IT problem is cloud platform, like Microsoft Azure. When businesses deploy a private cloud server they get solution that allows them to run all their desktop and network applications and store their data on a virtual platform that isn’t tied to any particular piece of hardware in the office.

Microsoft Azure offers virtual computing resources, managed and secured on Microsoft’s hardware in Microsoft datacenters. Rather than purchasing and maintaining hardware on-premises, business can deploy virtual networks and servers on the Azure platform. This makes the systems far more versatile and resilient than would be affordable to do otherwise. Surprise server hardware failures become a thing of the past, and buying ahead for possible future needs is no longer required because the systems can be upgraded on demand.

Businesses still need desktops where users access their programs and data, but the “desktop” can be a cloud desktop rather than the local PC desktop.

Remote desktops on the cloud server keeps software licensing and business information securely stored on the cloud server rather than being resident on user computers where it is more easily compromised. Users may still browse the internet and do other things with the local PC desktop, but using the cloud desktop for business applications and data means that just about any PC could safely be used for work.

When applications and data are managed on-premises, it makes changing servers or workstations a big deal. 

Changing desktops or servers means that software must be uninstalled and reinstalled, data must be migrated and user profiles and permissions may need to be recreated. When the cloud server is where users get their desktops, computer workstations become interchangeable because nothing is really installed on them other than the connection to the cloud desktop. This is also why traveling laptops and home computers become more secure for business use, because the applications and data are really running on the cloud server and not on the local device.

The cloud platform provides what the business needs without the lock-in to on-premises hardware or SaaS/Web-based software.

Rebuilding servers due to hardware failures, upgrading systems to handle future growth or replacing aging hardware all contribute to the unpredictable cost of managing and maintaining on-premises computer systems. SaaS and web-based software solutions lock-in data and lock-out many future options, yet they don’t address user desktops and the rest of the applications and data the business needs.

Rather than risking outages and lost productivity, businesses are finding that running their systems on a managed cloud platform provides more stability and consistent performance for a reasonable and more predictable cost. Desktop and server software licensing is able to service multiple locations when installed on a cloud server, and workers at home can access the tools to be just as productive as they are in the office (maybe more).

Make Sense?

J

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The Cloud and the Business Desktop

Cloud computing is here – no longer is it considered to be temporary or just a fad.  Even though there are many businesses in the country without access to high quality high-speed Internet connectivity, the levels of investment and revenue surrounding cloud and mobile computing solutions and technologies has proven that mobility and managed service matter to those who are connected. What’s interesting is that the popularity of the cloud and the emergence of cloud-based applications and services haven’t really put much of a dent in the need for the desktop, which remains as the business workhorse and – connected or not – represents the foundation for business productivity and getting work done.

Some years ago, business applications began to emerge in SaaS (software-as-a-service) format, meaning a customer could simply subscribe to an application on the web rather than purchasing and installing software.  This option clearly resounded with many business customers and ushered in an era of online application services oriented specifically toward mobile users. Yet the desktop remains as the place where online solutions meet productivity (export any online data to an Excel spreadsheet recently?) and where accounting and finance connect with the rest of the operation.

Believing too much of the marketing-speak around cloud computing, many business users believe that they can only remotely access business software solutions if they are “cloud” and subscription model applications, and that the desktop products they know and have invested in cannot be available to them in a fully managed online model.  In fact, a large number of the business owners I speak with that actually use hosted desktop services somehow believe that the software they are using is something special and different from that which would be installed to their PCs. The fact is that the software is not different, regardless of what they may think. More often than not, the hosted applications are EXACTLY what the customer had previously installed (or would have installed) to their own computers had they not been working with a hosting provider.  Whether they are hosted or not… the desktop products generally function with all the features and capability designed into them because they are hosted on platforms they were designed to run on (like Microsoft Windows, for example).

Customers of the QuickBooks hosting companies often refer to their systems as “QuickBooks cloud, but not the online one”, not really understanding that it is simply the full desktop application that is being hosted for them.

Regardless of how many online application services emerge, and even if (IF) web-based versions of our favorite word processing and spreadsheet software become as useful as the installed kind, there will still be a need for the desktop if for no other reason than to make it easier to use and work with a variety of solutions at the same time.  Perhaps this is why remote desktop computing and hosted application services are becoming increasingly popular approaches to cloud and managed computing services.  The user benefits from having the feature-rich applications they need and a single place to access them and make them work together (the desktop value proposition), yet is able to have remote and mobile access, comprehensive system management and maintenance, data protection, helpdesk support and affordable monthly payments (the cloud value proposition).  In many ways, application hosting models represent the best of both worlds for the business.

JJoanie Mann Bunny Feet

Make Sense?

Consider how beneficial it would be to businesses who want the advantage of remote desktop and mobile access to applications to be able to run their QuickBooks (feature-rich desktop QuickBooks) and/or other business applications in an anytime, anywhere sort of environment. Businesses can obtain hosting services for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise – allowing organizations to have their QuickBooks financial applications managed, protected, secured, and made available to users all the time and from any location. Some hosting services may also support integrations and extensions for QuickBooks – for both desktop and Web-based applications and services. When the host can provide authorized subscription licensing for Microsoft Office, a business can have a complete, outsourced IT solution and pay only monthly service fees to get it. No installation or system management to worry about: the QuickBooks financials, the productivity, the operational systems and plugged-in applications can all be hosted in the cloud.

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Payment Card Roll Call: “Not Present” fraud likely to increase as EMV takes hold

Payment Card Roll Call: “Not Present” fraud likely to increase as EMV takes hold

rollingballNo retailer wants to become the next Target (pun intended).  Payment card fraud costs businesses and consumers billions of dollars every year.  What’s even more frightening, many of the breaches in the news are the result of innocent participants inadvertently granting access to the bad guys.  The Target breach in 2013 exposed the data of 110 million payment cards.  Hackers got into the network using perfectly good credentials of the HVAC company.  Sometimes password security just isn’t enough, which might bring in to question the security of all those SaaS subscriptions and online shopping sites folks use these days.

EMV chip technology, the standard around the world which has just recently become a standard in the United States, has done a lot to stem the tide of credit card fraud in other countries.  As it was implemented in various countries, guess where it pushed the fraudsters?  Where the anti-fraud technology wasn’t, of course! The United States was among the laggards in requiring EMV chip technology for payment cards, opening the door for bad guys and turning the US into a veritable haven for credit card fraud, “accounting for nearly 50% of global fraud losses, according to the Nilson Report[1]”.

EMV chip (or chip and pin) technology will go a long way to prevent credit card fraud for businesses accepting payment cards… in-person and counterfeit card fraud, anyway. Online retail, on the other hand, not so much.  A chip on the card doesn’t really help when the transaction is completed with the card not present (CNP).  Some industry analysts suggest that CNP fraud losses will exceed $6 billion within the next few years, making e-commerce and online payment security a high stakes game for even the smallest of retailers.  As it gets more difficult to hack the payment system when the card is presented, bad guys will fall back in even greater numbers to the card-not-present model to find their victims.

Online retailers and service providers must take additional steps to secure their systems and protect customers and business partners, and face the challenge with the understanding that effort must be ongoing as new threats emerge. Tokenization is a prime method of layering the system with security, making the merchant system somewhat less of a worthy target by not storing the card data in the system.  Even if the system becomes compromised, the bad guys wouldn’t find customer payment card information.  There are numerous other steps a business can take to secure the CNP sales, including applying behavioral analytics which might identify rogue activities, or using 3D Secure to authenticate a cardholder’s identity at the time of purchase.   The point is that CNP fraud is likely to spike as EMV technology takes a firm hold in the US.

Card fraud is already escalating rapidly for ecommerce retailers and other card not present channels – it didn’t take EMV to start on that roll but it will surely give it a push.  Paperless payment systems, SaaS subscription services and online application service usage are increasing dramatically and there’s no chip to get in the way of these transactions.  Sellers of any and every service utilizing online payments need to now pay particular attention to system and information security.  The risk has always been there, and EMV chips and other shifts in pay card technology simply give it a push.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

 

[1] Chipping away at Credit Card Fraud with EMV; Information Week Tech Digest powered by Dark Reading, Nov 2015; NilsonReport http://www.nilsonreport.com/publication_newsletter_archive_issue.php?issue=1071

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QuickBooks Online is Pretty Cool

Doesn’t Simplify Overall IT Requirement for SMBs

dt-v-online-great-debateIntuit is doing some pretty cool things with the QuickBooks Online product.  I really like the fact that there are mobile apps available, the product can auto-send reports, form templates can be imported from Word, and there’s a desktop application available to replace pure browser-based access.  There are those who might believe that I’m a QBO hater, but I’m not.  I am evangelist for cloud computing, mobility and cloud service… I just don’t necessarily believe that only one flavor of “cloud” applies to everyone. QuickBooks Online is some good stuff – but is it really making things simpler?

What QuickBooks Online does better than QuickBooks desktop, really, is provide a cloud-based accounting solution for small businesses for an affordable price.  QuickBooks Online was built as a SaaS solution, so web-based access and a subscription service model are part of the package.  On the other hand, QuickBooks desktop editions were designed to not simply function for the user, but to deliver the user experience expected from software running on the given OS/platform (e.g., Windows or Mac).  When QuickBooks is running on Windows, it behaves like a Windows application and uses standard Windows conventions.  Same deal with QuickBooks on Mac.  It’s … Apple-y.  Whether on Windows or Mac, QB desktop editions are considered to be the workhorses that really help get things done.

What some folks don’t know is that QuickBooks desktop editions can be hosted in the cloud so that they also have the benefit of anytime, anywhere accessibility and managed service.  Businesses can have their QuickBooks desktop applications hosted and managed by a cloud service providers, and can access the applications and the data via the Internet just as QuickBooks Online users are able.  The oft’ forgotten additional aspect of cloud hosting is that the other business applications may also be hosted by the service provider, turning the entire business IT environment into a managed, anytime/anywhere resource.

When I look at outsourced IT and how businesses might benefit from subscription and SaaS solutions, I tend to view things more holistically rather than pursuing one application or functional area at a time.  The reason is that the business is an ecosystem of users, processes and capabilities.  Altering one part of the ecosystem will, without doubt, impact the others.  Note that, in many businesses, the accounting and finance systems are integrated with line of business applications and operational processes.  At minimum, there are likely to be connections or dependencies upon certain standard productivity tools for reporting and such, potentially generating lots of data.

Consider the QuickBooks Online capability of allowing form templates to be imported in .docx format.  Those templates had to be developed somewhere, and it was probably in MS Word on guess where? You got it… the desktop.  How is that local non-QBO data being managed, and how accessible is that part of the system?  Having accounting in the cloud is cool, but may also create separation in data silos and breaks in processes when it is removed so completely from the rest of the business information systems environment.  This introduces a layer of complexity for the business, where making sure all the information assets of the company are protected and recoverable isn’t as easy as doing a complete backup and archiving offsite, especially when the data is in a variety of formats and it doesn’t all exist on your PCs or servers.

Addressing the compartmentalization of business data becomes a potentially bigger issue when connecting two or more SaaS solutions via API.  Granted, this type of “extension” to the financial system helps businesses apply the right tool for the job, and ensures that workers are interacting with the information they need and not the entire financial system.  Yet small business owners generally lack the technical sophistication required to understand where and how to fully preserve and protect even a single business data silo much less multiple silos.   The ease of connecting systems to each other in the cloud often overshadows the complexity of creating a single data management strategy for the business.  And another item to remember is to disconnect those SaaS services which are no longer in use, as they represent an ongoing potential threat to the security of your data as long as they are accessing it without the data owner’s watchful monitoring.

The moral of this story is that I believe businesses that approach their information technology needs with a holistic view will have greater success than those who focus only on particular processes or functional requirements. I think QuickBooks Online is pretty cool (especially now that there’s a desktop app!), and I (and a few million others) think QuickBooks desktop editions are pretty good, too…. They’re just different pieces of software that do things differently – each carrying different risks and rewards.   The point is that neither solution stands alone in the business operation, so each should be viewed in the context of the overall business information management strategy in order to see whether they’re properly selected, placed, and managed. Trying to make things simpler doesn’t always actually make things simpler.  Welcome to the cloud.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J