In a recent (2009) conference, hosted by Computerworld, it became clear that SaaS is now mainstream.  To quote some of the attendees:

• “SaaS adoption has moved past the ‘tipping point’”
• “A new ecosystem is forming around Cloud computing that will transform the IT sector.”
• “SaaS is not an optional disruptive technology.”
• “Cloud, SaaS and Mobility are helping to make the “boundary-free enterprise”

In a nutshell, subscription-based software and services are getting stronger and stronger, offering more and more benefits to businesses.  For example, nine out of ten companies plan to grow their use of “Software as a Service,” according to the Gartner Group.  Should you be on this list?  Consider the following:

Business Drivers

Businesses of all sizes are moving to SaaS because of lower upfront costs, shorter implementation times, less implementation risk, reduced need for hard-to-find in-house technical resources and more flexibility to right size systems (up or down).  SaaS has a proven track record of reducing ongoing IT operations costs, freeing up capital and resource to focus on driving the business forward to new advantage and competitiveness.

Businesses are adopting SaaS as ‘insurance’ against business disruption and security threats.  They’re doing this by taking advantage of the most advanced, comprehensive, and easy to use data backup/restore, virus/spam protection, device recovery services – all automatically and without having to purchase a single piece of software.

Businesses are using SaaS tools to run their businesses better.  Whereas in the past, small and medium businesses would lag behind the technology advantages that larger businesses could afford. SaaS levels the playing field for customer management, manufacturing and distribution, HR/payroll, accounting, banking, collaboration, and productivity.  Small and medium businesses, through SaaS, have access to the latest, most powerful, and cost effective technology without any capital investment or the need for ‘in-house’ technical expertise.

The adage that ‘old is new again’ is true.  Return on investment, risk mitigation, total cost of ownership, and a focus on the business remain central to technology discussions.  SaaS has proved it’s worth using these traditional criteria.

Where is the fit?

An additional, recent survey pointed to collaboration products of all sorts as the top application area for SaaS based solutions, with human resources and customer service next on the list. Finance and accounting moved up from 10^th place to 5^th place in 2010 – one indicator that SaaS is on the move from the edges to the core of the business as the technology continues to mature.

For mid-sized companies, a mix of in-house and SaaS based solutions has been demonstrated by True Religion jeans. True Religion Jeans found that vendor experience and the ability to “try before you buy” testing of potential SaaS solutions improved operation and avoided common adoption mistakes.  True Religion also realized the benefit of being able to spend more time focusing on the business needs instead of on technology.

For small companies, the savings are even more pronounced.  In a recent presentation, Tom Kelly CFO/CIO at Kardia Healthcare discussed his experience with SaaS applications when he was with 2^nd Wind.  As an exercise equipment company, 2^nd Wind was able to replace virtually all the in-house systems with SaaS solutions and reduced costs by 61%.

The bottom line:

More and more businesses are exploring, understanding, and implementing Software as a Service to drive their bottom line. Isn’t time to explore if SaaS is right for your business?

SaaS is no longer a theory, but is a viable reality that has demonstrated business and financial benefits.  Small and medium business, today, benefit the most through the elimination of capital spend, reduction in technical resource requirement, increased business continuity and safety, and lowered overall IT cost.

By NextCorp, Ltd., Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner for Texas

Technology Creates “Best-in-Class” SMBs

Smaller companies have historically lacked tools to help formulate and execute against solid financial plans and budgets.  Yet in today’s uncertain economy, operating by the ‘seat of the pants’ is like setting a boat adrift in a stormy sea.  Tools and technologies are the rudder by which to successfully steer a course through the turbulent economy.  Small and medium businesses have taken notice of prior warnings, are batter armed, and are achieving results superior to the upper ranges of mid-size companies.  What have they done and what have they accomplished?

First, SMBs have cut in half their use of spreadsheets as their primary financial planning tool (Aberdeen Group Study April 2008 – April 2009).  Instead, spreadsheets have become a support tool to enterprise financial applications.  Enterprise applications have become the centerpiece of an SMBs financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting as a critical weapon in creating new value, tighter operational integration, and anticipating the future.  The use of enterprise applications has allowed the SMB immediate feedback on the financial transactions and trends, driving quick updates to planning assumptions and re-forecasting of the business – all benefiting the business by being exactly ‘tuned’ to the current and future business climate.

Second, there has been widespread adoption of formalized query and reporting tools along with workflow automation.  Both give the SMB the ‘hands on’ tools to see the exact condition of the business at any point in time as well as to virtually eliminate ‘human error’ within the execution of the business transactions – most notably during the planning and budgeting process.  Together, these two deliver lower business cost, better forecasting and budgeting accuracy, along with the ability to more quickly react to an ever-changing business environment.

Third, “Best-in-Class” SMBs have created ‘end-to-end’ visibility throughout the planning and budgeting process.  Additionally, they’ve continued transparency with respect to performance throughout all fiscal periods.  Doing so has increased the adaptability of the business to change, driven innovation around business process (lowering costs), while accelerating the pace at which business can occur.

So, what can your business do?

• Formalize your planning and budgeting process.  Don’t use the excuse of market volatility or uncertainty to put this off. Rapidly changing business conditions heighten the need to formalize business processes, plans, and budgets all the more important.
• Continually adapt to the changing market.  Don’t enforce budgetary rigidity within the organization.  If need be, reforecast each quarter instead of relying upon the original annual agreed-to budget.  Less than half (44%) of SMBs reforecast more than once a year (Aberdeen, 2009).
• Invest in new tools. Fully exploit the use of technology – specifically enterprise resource planning – across the business.  Such tools add speed and flexibility by allowing more frequent and formalized forecasting.  Additionally, using technology to handle routine business tasks brings lower cost, eliminates redundancy, and drives new competitive value in the market.

SMBs are far better positioned than they were just a year ago.  Now is not the time to slow down or ease up on the ‘throttle.’  As each SMB weathers the current storm, companies of all sizes can benefit from automating and streamlining processes and adding visibility to performance against plan.

By NextCorp, Ltd., Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Doesn’t it seem like everywhere you turn there is a new technology to evaluate?  These technologies promise new levels of productivity, better communication, new ways to market and sell, or simply communicate. It is easy to get overwhelmed or accidentally become a ‘manager of technology’ instead of a manager of the business.

Small and medium businesses are faced with a built-in tension that you don’t have in larger businesses.  That is, how to do ‘everything’ with limited resources and how to level the playing field and compete with larger, more sophisticated businesses.  What is a small businessperson to do?

Business owners are faced with a choice.  Do I focus my efforts and resources on what I do best – taking care of my customer – or do I try to do everything?  How the businessperson answers this question will, at some level, determine future success.  Allowing your organization to become distracted in the evaluation, implementation, support, upgrade, migration, and recovery of technology takes away from achieving the next breakthrough in growth, customer service/care, and revenue and profit.

Instead, think about how you can identify a ‘technology partner’ that can take on these critical aspects of your business – allowing you to get back to running your business – and, getting access to the very best in technology with a minimum of capital expenditure.  Make sure your business is always up and running and never held back by the technology.  It’s easier than you think.

Technology outsourcing is not a new concept.  To the small and medium business, the advantages are many:

1.  Improved Cost Management:  Technology costs become more visible and accountable; technology services are utilized as needed, eliminating overbuying; the business can reallocate, reduce, or eliminate technology-focused resources.

2.  Improved Technology Service Quality:  You can get reports on overall performance and availability of the technology; there are extended support hours – ensuring your business has the support it needs, when it needs it; you benefit through proactive technology planning aligned with your business needs or goals; and, you can establish measurable ‘services level agreements’ to ensure your business technology is always available.

3. Best Equipment, Software, and Tools:  Your business is kept on the latest versions, the fastest platforms and network connections without you having to evaluate, test, implement, or support the technology.  Your business benefits from increased cost savings, better process automation, and higher productivity, keeping you ahead of the competition.

4.  Flexibility/Scalability:  As your business grows or changes, you’re never under-or over-invested in technology. 

5.  Accountability:  Like every other asset in your business, you will know the contribution it makes to the business.  No fuzzy thinking or assumptions of contribution.  The technology becomes accountable to you.

By NextCorp, Ltd., Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner for Texas

Everyone can recall horror stories about mishaps that occur when workers aren’t on the same page. Collaborating effectively to keep business running smoothly and productively.  But, should collaboration break down the consequences can be serious.

Efficient collaboration is rarely simple and it can take many forms. Some needs are internally focused, for instance, keeping employees current on corporate policies and procedures. Others require collaboration with external constituents, such as partners, suppliers or customers. Some needs are short term, as when people need to come together to manage a project, while other requirements are ongoing, like when groups need to access, share and update documents, databases, calendars and directories. And, businesses may need to collaborate within one physical location, or with others at numerous locations around the world.

Because effective internal and external collaboration is vital to a successful business, larger businesses build or buy collaboration solutions that are managed in-house. While this model may work for some, these solutions rarely meet the needs of smaller businesses that often lack the resources necessary to deploy, manage and maintain them. The costs involved, for example, from upfront licenses, hardware and integration expenses, to ongoing expenses for maintenance, upgrades and support are often prohibitive for most small business owners.

Software-as-a-Service – The Small Business Alternative

SaaS allows businesses to subscribe to software over the Web and pay for it on a monthly basis. The services can be accessed online from anywhere with an Internet connection, so remote and mobile workers can always be connected to the home office. Furthermore, because the solutions are hosted, many of the upgrades and maintenance requirements can be automated – a big benefit for small businesses with limited IT resources.

Compared with a traditional licensed software model, software-as-a-service offers businesses many distinct advantages that are quickly driving adoption:

·         Rapid Deployment: Rather than taking months to implement, businesses can be using the solution in a matter of minutes.

·         Less Expensive and More Predictable Costs: Companies pay a set monthly or annual subscription fee, typically based on the number of users. In addition to drastically reducing upfront hardware and software purchases, SaaS also eliminates the need for specialized IT talent, and reduces ongoing costs for maintenance, upgrades and support.

·         Faster ROI: By reducing deployment time as well as initial and ongoing capital investments and staffing costs, small business customers can reduce risk and achieve a faster return on investment.

·         Low or No Risk Trials: Business can test-drive online services over the Internet, enabling a small business to try the application and see if it fits their needs before making a broader commitment.

·         Ease-of-Use: Web-based applications use familiar Web interfaces that are easy for administrators and users to navigate, resulting in higher user adoption and reduced training costs.

·         More Responsive Service and Support: Using a “one-to-many” model, SaaS providers can more easily support, manage and upgrade their solutions. They can see how customers use their services in real-time, get live feedback and fix problems once – for all the customers benefit.

The benefits of SaaS become even more apparent for applications specific to collaboration. Because users can access the service via any Web browser, access is not dependent on using a specific personal computer or mobile device.  All users can access information from anytime, from different locations and desktops.  And because the solutions are scalable and expandable, businesses can start collaborating right away, and then fine-tune processes and functionality as they learn what works and what doesn’t.

So, where is the hidden opportunity?  It is in the ability for your small and medium business to gain the power and functionality of collaborative technologies without the risk and costs normally associated with such solutions. 

By NextCorp, Ltd., Dallas Microsoft Dynamics Patner

Technology industry analysts and seasoned business executives have difficulty putting a hard figure on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of today’s traditional SMB application solutions. In computing the cost of software, businesses tend to focus on the purchase price. Yet even when fully operational, software is never free. It must be supported, maintained and upgraded. 

Software’s “Hidden” Costs

Beyond the purchase price, the ‘hidden’ costs are: implementation, training, support, maintenance and all subsequent upgrades. Also included should be the cost of ‘downtime’ while the business tries to figure out how to fix the software should it fail.  Together, the hidden costs of software can easily exceed the original purchase price by a factor of 100-200%!

How do SMB software costs break down?  The U.S. Department of Commerce study shows that software purchase expenditures account for only approximately 30 percent of the total. The biggest hidden cost is represented by labor expenditures ranging from 37 percent for support and 33 percent related to software getting the software up and running. The numbers translate to a ratio of 1:2, software license to management/labor costs; and 1:1 license fee to implementation.

Getting Rid of Hidden SMB Software Costs

Today’s technology allows small and medium business more choices than ever before.  Today, unlike just a few short years ago, SMB organizations can eliminate all the hidden costs in one decision.  How?  By outsourcing all software via services.

It is as easy as that.  Instead of having all the software ‘owned/licensed’ by the business, SMBs can subscribe to enterprise-class financial software, a whole range of productivity and collaborative applications, even their IT management.  All for one, low monthly price.  No surprises, no hassles, no unforeseen financial impacts.

Outsourcing SMB software services brings you these benefits:

• Expertise — the provider knows software and services better than anyone else.  You focus on your business, not the technology.
• Economy of Scale — software can be maintained, supported and upgraded through standardized processes and automation.  The solutions easily scale up as you need them to, never holding back your business.
• Reliability and Performance — in the highly competitive software industry, software providers have a vested interest in continually upgrading and improving product performance and services.  You are assured of the greatest and best performing solution to propel your business forward.

In the end, the real savings are achieved when your business runs better, faster and less expensively, giving you a competitive edge in your market.

SMB Software without Hidden Costs

SMBs around the world now have access to industrial-strength financial, customer management, and productivity and collaboration solutions – on a subscription basis.  Businesses just like yours are realizing the benefits of predictable, manageable costs, freed up capital for other purposes, and the value that enterprise-class solutions bring.  There is no need to compromise because you’re an SMB!  These solutions, offered via monthly subscription, bring you the best of both worlds:  business power and performance, and easy to manage costs. 

By NextCorp, Ltd., Dallas Microsoft Dynamics Partner

When is it Time to Move to SaaS?
Know if SaaS is Right for Your Business

 
A relatively new concept, known as Software as a service (SaaS), allows organizations to take advantage of critical technical functionality and services without building, expanding, operating, or managing underlying systems.  At its most basic level, SaaS allows a small and medium business to take full advantage of leading edge technology, software, and business processes without having to own or operate it.  You get the advantages that have been largely the domain of large businesses, without the investment.
 
While the benefits are many, SaaS may not be right for your business.  To help you evaluate whether or not SaaS is right for your company, we’ve put together a specific list of things to consider.  The more you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these, the more you need to consider SaaS for your business.

1. IT systems management and optimization are not core competencies central to your business:  Unless one or more of the terms “IT,” “computer”, or “systems” are in the name of your company, it’s unlikely that IT infrastructure management and optimization are your core corporate competencies.

2. IT capital and/or staffing expenditures are rising/continuing to rise at your organization company. If one of the reasons you invest in IT is to increase organizational efficiency, shouldn’t IT costs go down, not up, as the business becomes more IT-dependent?  If your technology costs keep going up, then it may be time to consider SaaS.

3. There are physical limits to your organization’s ability to grow and/or improve its IT resources: Even companies with well-designed, incredibly efficient server closets or data centers are increasingly running out of space, or requiring more power and cooling, or are seeing increased utility bills.  SaaS can eliminate all three of these problems.

4. User demands for IT systems and support are growing faster than your company’s ability to meet them: Rapid growth in demand for IT resources has many causes. Examples include new or expanded web commerce, employee turnover, new customers or partners requirements, added support for mobile-networked device users, mergers, acquisitions, or organic organizational growth.

5. Licensing and/or support costs for business-critical software applications are exceeding available budgets in your company: This is a pervasive issue that just doesn’t seem to go away.  The more technology a business procures, the more budget is consumed on renewing licenses and keeping the systems running.  On average, 63% of all IT budget is spent on maintenance (Gartner & Forrester).  SaaS can eliminate these license maintenance and support costs.

6. IT support requirements are draining limited resources away from your company’s core business activities: You need to spend your $$ on core business activities, not on buying, implementing, upgrading, managing, and optimizing technology.  SaaS can solve this problem, quickly and effectively.

7. Your organization needs to deploy new applications or services quickly, without operational disruption, and with limited or no capex budgets: Business responsiveness and competitive advantage demand a flexible and quickly adaptable business infrastructure. If your systems take weeks or months to adapt, you’re not at an advantage. SaaS-based solutions can be up and running much faster than traditionally licensed options.

8. You need to move critical IT resources to fewer, more modern platforms to improve business performance and reduce dependency on increasingly scarce and expensive support resources: How about getting rid of all your platforms and support resources in one decision?  If you’re at a point where its time to consolidate, upgrade, or if you’re just challenged at attracting and keeping key IT resources, consider SaaS alternatives.  You can solve all three of these challenges, right away.

9. The business needs do not require extensive or frequent customization of critical software or services: If your business requirements don’t require many modifications of technology or if your business needs to take advantage of ‘best practices’, SaaS is the ticket.  SaaS solutions can easily accommodate your general business requirements without the need of significant modification and associated costs.  And, the best SaaS environments automatically build in the best practices you need – right out of the box!  You get the best-of-both-worlds, all without capex expense.

10. You understand and have, or seek to acquire, expertise in process management necessary for business success: Business and IT processes form the backbone of a company.  SaaS doesn’t eliminate the need for such.  However, the very best SaaS providers also have the expertise you need to prepare, adapt, roll-out, and support your critical business and IT processes within your company.  They take on the ‘heavy lifting’ of making sure your business has what it needs while you concentrate on running your business and investing in your core competencies.

Is your business ready to move to SaaS? You can make theTransition easily and quickly.  Get back to managing your business and not technology.  Take full advantage of functionality and benefit that is ‘beyond your budget.’  All with one call.  Accomplish all this with the SMB Suite.  A full solution set bringing you all the outsourced technology advantages you need to lead. The SMBSuite is your answer to technology confusion, lowering It costs, and delivering the tools you need to run the business. Visit: http://www.getsmb.com or call 1-800-525-6398.

So, what are you going to do now?  Maintain the status quo and continue to grow your internal IT budgets? Or, learn more about how to get off the ‘technology train?

10 Things Small Businesses Need to Ask of their Financial Software

Operating a small and medium business is hard work.  Juggling strategies and day-to-day needs seems almost impossible – especially in light of greater competition, customer expectation, and economic change.

Forward-thinking businesses have recognized that technology can help them improve the speed, accuracy and effectiveness of their financial processes. By using the right financial tools in conjunction with best business practices, these organizations are better able to:

·         Plan:  See where and how much to invest dollars, time, and energy into the business.

·         Execute:  Smooth product/services delivery, lower costs, increase customer satisfaction, and drive new competitive differentiation

·         Measure: Understand where to optimize the business for opportunity and profit.

To get these benefits, what questions should you ask of your financial software?

1. Will this technology help me integrate my business processes? The optimal solution will allow you to integrate your purchasing, sales, inventory, customer management, communication, and productivity processes such that you gain the advantage of speed and accuracy.

2. Will this software automatically notify me of business problems and opportunities?  The tool you adopt must be able to help you see financial problems before they occur through advanced reporting and notification capabilities.

3. Will the financial system help me quickly focus on what is important and gain insight?  Small businesses should demand the same capabilities that large business has – insight into expenses, profitability, customers and satisfaction, productivity, new opportunity areas, and the like.

4.  Is it easy to use; will my employees use it?  Financial solutions should be as easy to use as traditional technology-based productivity tools.  Find out about training and help desk options available to you and your employees.

5.  Will the software enhance period/year end closing, tax planning, and audits?  Small businesses never need to compromise on being fully GAAP compliant with full audit capabilities.  The solutions you choose must speed up closing, easily transfer information to your accountant, and provide full transactional audit tracing.

6.  Can I collaborate with my peers?  The finances of a company don’t stand in isolation from the business or financial peers.  A financial system should easily integrate with existing email and collaborative tools allowing easy transfer of information, updates, and accessibility to employees who use the system.

7.  Can it grow with my business?  Small business has a history of being held back by their ‘systems.’  Financial software has evolved such that now there are solutions that are easily able to scale up/down with your particular business needs.  You don’t have to ‘overpay’ or ‘underpay’ at any time.

8.  Is the financial system secure; is my information protected?  With the realities of spam, viruses, trojans, internet intrusions, and disgruntled employees, the financial system you choose must counteract each of these and more.

9.  What happens if the system ‘breaks’?  Unfortunately, technology will occasionally fail. The keys to ensuring your business never stops, due to technology failure, are having the right redundancy, fail over, backup and recovery capabilities.  Also key is making sure that your workers have immediate access to needed help, no matter when.

10.  Will implementing the system disrupt my business?  Adopting new technology and software is not for the faint of heart.  Make sure that the system you choose will easily ‘slipstream’ into your existing operations without disrupting, defocusing, or taking away necessary energy from running the business.

By NextCorp, Ltd., Dallas Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM Partner

You love QuickBooks.  QuickBooks may have been good to you.  But maybe it’s time to move up.

Your business has been using QuickBooks for years to manage customer accounts, keep track of inventory and business finances, create forms for your business use and store information on your customers, vendors and other contacts. You’ve purchased all 20 concurrent licenses, you’ve set into motion aggressive growth plans, and you’re ready to formalize the financial management of your company.  Now is the time to consider why you need to move beyond QuickBooks:

1. Industrial-strength Information Security:  Small and medium sized businesses have the same information security needs as a large business.  You need the peace of mind that your company financial, customer, inventory, payroll and reporting information is proactively managed, backed up, has redundancy/failover capability and protected from external security intrusions. 

2. Full/Tighter Business Integration:  In the global marketplace, it is critical that you consider tools that allow you to integrate your business to save money and integrate to your suppliers and customers for additional responsiveness and profit.

3. Greater Productivity and ROI:  You want all of your employees using the best tools to manage sales order processing, inventory, customer relationships, payroll, and the like.  If you have more than 20 people who need access, it’s time to move up.

4. Special/Unique Business Requirement:  Your customers and business are unique.  You need to have a financial system that adapts to your business, bringing you the greatest benefit.  Small and medium businesses should never have to compromise on taking care of business.

5. Better Business Planning/Reporting:  To compete today, small and medium businesses need to have the best planning and management tools.  You need to understand where your business stands at all times, where your customers are and have access to information to make faster, more informed decisions.

6. More Transaction Capability:  A small and medium business should never be held back by their financial system.  Being able to handle more customers, vendors, inventory items, internal and external customer requirements - and all at greater transaction volumes and speed - are key to your businesses growth and success.

7. Tighter Internal Controls:  Waste and internal process costs rob profitability.  Having tighter internal controls gives you the visibility to reduce or eliminate waste, drive out costly processes and create new incremental profits to your business.

8. Full Financial Accountability:  Small and medium businesses need full audit trails, double entry accounting, rich business reporting and automated processes just like large business.

9. Business Differentiation and Advantage:  As you compete and grow, you need tools that directly contribute to creating advantages that your competition doesn’t have and differentiation that your customer recognizes.  Your fully integrated financial system can provide new levels of responsiveness, customer satisfaction and profitability to your business – making you and your business stand out from the crowd.

10. You Want Help NOW!:  When a problem hits, you want it to go away right now.  Don’t spend time ‘browsing’ for answers or waiting for a support ‘call back’ or get charged by the minute for every problem.  Rest easy by getting the best, immediate application and technology support possible, right now - no waiting!

By NextCorp, Ltd., Dallas Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM Partner

Transaction detail codes are useful in FRx for organizing and displaying GP transaction details, but not all of the available codes work with GP.  DynamicAccounting.net has posted this helpful entry on which codes to use with GP.

In the rush of every day business, small and medium businesses often forget to consider key, important issues that affect their business future and success.  We know this as we’ve been there and know the challenge to keep up with today’s business and customer demands while keeping an eye on the future. We’ve assembled the top 10 financial challenges that small and medium business owners face:

1. Starting Everything at Return on Investment:  Often small and medium businesspeople undertake initiatives or actions based upon what feels right or takes care of the issue/problem at the moment.  Instead, focus on the ‘return on investment’ a product, service, market, technology, or customer bring to the business.  Pay special attention to those that bring the greatest return on investment and driving out low ROI efforts.

2. Understanding, Weighing, and Communicating Risk:  It seems that the pace of business gets faster and faster.  Decisions come more quickly and more frequently.  It is critically important to understand, evaluate/weigh, and communicate business risks associated with investments, markets, customers, partners and all efforts expended in the quest for growth.

3. Choosing the Right Innovation to Help the Business:  Having the right tools to conduct and optimize business is a key to responsiveness, growth, and profitability.  The choices are many.  Having an advocate that knows the business advantages and disadvantages of various technology and operational choices is important.  Making the right choices can propel your business to new levels.

4. Adopting ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) as a Backbone to the Business:  Enterprise Resource Planning solutions ensure small and medium business is on top of their planning, customers, revenues, costs, profitability, and decision making.  Adopting such solutions creates new and vital advantage to outpace the competition and drive new levels of value to the market and your customer.  Notwithstanding providing the platform for accountability and execution excellence.

5. Being Tyrannized by the Urgent, to the Exclusion of the Important:  An age old problem that requires assiduous attention is focusing on the important issues that drive the business forward.  Issues of growth, strategy, customers, revenues, products and services, and profits drive the business.  Eliminating the ‘noise’ through automated business processes and systems returns substantial advantage by allowing you to focus on the important.

6. Chasing the Deal Instead of Building Long-term Value:  In the search for the next deal, businesses often miss driving long-term, sustainable value.  Your business is an asset that grows or declines in value over time.  To create and grow long-term value the business owner/manager must have the ability to see ‘beyond the deal’ to necessary strategies and activities.  Business decision support systems, designed for small and medium business, keep you focused on value over ‘the deal.’

7. Forgetting that the Customer Drives Business Success:  Business survives on profit.  Profit fuels operations and the future.  The key to profitability is ‘mining’ existing customers for new opportunity in the form of new business.  Understanding customer purchase and payment history, your cost of selling, and customer characteristics enables you to identify new revenue opportunity to pursue.

8. Focusing on Revenues Instead of Profitability:  All businesses, including small and medium, want to see all the numbers trends going ‘up and to the right.’  Unfortunately, growing revenues may not mean growing profitability.  Having a view of the cost of doing business, down to the customer and individual product can go a long way toward understanding how to preserve profits while you focus on revenues.

9. Maintaining the Status Quo Instead of Moving Forward:  A common perception is what made a business successful in the past is what will make it successful in the future.  Unfortunately this isn’t true becausethe market, the customer, and competition change the rules every day.  It is imperative that small and medium businesses keep on top of the trends and their business, making required changes in underlying strategies, systems, and processes to stay ahead of the competition and to keep customers satisfied.

10. Empowering People to Do Their Very Best Possible:  The employees of small and medium businesses are critical to the business success.  Make sure employees have the best financial, collaboration and communication tools increases productivity, morale and customer satisfaction.