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35 Questions Every CFO Needs To Ask About ERP Software In the Cloud

Cloud Definitions

Let’s get started with the basics. One size doesn’t fit all and fortunately the cloud offers a variety of options that can support your organizational drivers. Cloud models work together, so you can use the right models for different applications in your organization

1. What is cloud computing? At the basic level, “the cloud” or “cloud computing” refers to the method of delivering software, from e-mail to accounting to customer relationship management, to users via the Internet.  Public cloud refers to infrastructure comprised of multi-tenant servers. With private cloud services, servers are dedicated to one organization. The term hybrid cloud refers to the combination of public cloud, private cloud or on premises infrastructure services.   

2. What is IaaS, Infrastructure as a service? Users run all their own applications, including operating systems, storage and backup on a cloud provider’s infrastructure. The cloud vendor does not supply any operating system license or support, only hardware and connectivity. 

 3. What is PaaS, Platform as a Service? Users access purchased or internally developed applications that are housed on the cloud provider’s infrastructure with provider managing the operating system, storage, hardware, and networking. The cloud vendor provides the additional layer of operating system and supporting services, to allow the users to focus on supporting their custom or purchased business operating applications.  

4. What is hosting? The term hosting “hosting” or “hosted” is commonly associated with ERP and LOB software. In addition to the hardware and operating systems, the cloud provider houses and manages the installation, upgrades and user configurations for the ERP application. The ERP application licenses may either be subscribed to or owned.

5.  What is SaaS, Software as a Service? Users subscribe or rent access to the software application functionality over the internet. The software publisher delivers the application to many customers, storing customer application related data on public cloud servers. Also commonly referred to as “on demand.”

What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016

System-wide changes

Web Client enhancements

Ability to scan multiple pages

Word templates for batch approval workflow

Workflow condition mangement

Workflow reassignment notifications

Configurable OData Service points added

OData Service deployment enhancements

Business Intelligence enhancements

Import and export SmartLists from SmartList Designer

Export numbers to Excel, formatted as numbers

Power BI reports can be added to home pages

Create SmartList from the Favorite using SmartList Designer

10 Steps to Avoiding Small Business Insanity

Creating new outcome and opportunity.

Insanity is defined as, “doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. “If this holds true, then there are some logical steps that SMBs can take to avoid insanity. Because of their daunting nature, SMBs often ignore business challenges and continue to conduct business in the same manner as they always have. Partaking in this behavior is strangely similar to the definition of insanity. So, consider the following steps… and keep from joining the ranks of the SMB insane:

7 Ways to Work Smarter in the Cloud: Parts 5 through 7

Welcome to the final part of the Office 365 platform, integrated with Microsoft ERP and CRM blog series.

Meetings, Simplified

Meetings are an important part of business, providing valuable opportunities for people to brainstorm, collaborate, strategize, and share information. According to information compiled by Atlassian, most employees attend 62 meetings a month, including the 31 hours they spend in unproductive meetings. Those unnecessary meetings carry a high price, costing US businesses $37 billion annually.

New communication and collaboration tools like Skype for Business make it easy to conduct modern meetings that are more efficient and productive by providing familiar, easy-to-use features plus enterprise-grade security, compliance, and control.

7 Ways to Work Smarter in the Cloud: Parts 3 & 4

Welcome back to part three and four of our blog series covering the Office 365 platform, integrated with Microsoft ERP and CRM.

Synchronize Your Business

It’s rare to find a busniess todaythat sticks to strict 9:00-to-5:00 operations. The most successful businesses have become much more fluid, using cloud and mobile technology to broaden their reach and compete within the market. These businesses often need to communicate and share information with customers, partners, and suppliers in different time zones or different countries.

Cloud storage synchronizes information across different devices, so you and your colleagues are always viewing the lastest version of a file no matter where you’re working or what device you’re using. When you use cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools, you can stay on the same page with distant partners and offsite employees, who can seee the most up-to-date content. The cloud also provides high-level security and privacy while ensuring the access control you need.

7 Ways to Work Smarter in the Cloud: Parts 1 & 2

Join us for our blog series covering the Office 365 platform, integrated with Microsoft ERP and CRM, to enable organizations to better manage their business.  It’s easy to see all the information you care about in one place and use it to make faster, better‑informed decisions, all built on the power of Microsoft ERP, CRM, and Office 365.  With a single sign on, integrated cloud ERP and CRM solution set, you can gain real-time financial, sales, and operational visibility throughout your business.

Efficient collaboration and communication are vital components in the success of every business.  Luckily, Office 365 makes it easier than ever to work smarter, not harder, so you can do your best work. With Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as other productivity apps, you can redefine how you communicate and collaborate. Features such as coauthoring in real time, instant messaging (IM), video, and voice make it easier to create, share, and work together wherever you are, across your favorite devices.

7 Tips to Improve Your Cash Flow with Financial Accounting Software

Cash flow. Two little words that are the source of huge amounts of stress and frustration for many SMBs. Invoicing quickly and accurately is key if businesses want to have enough money to pay their employees and their own bills. But invoicing quickly isn’t as easy as it sounds.

To improve your invoicing, SMBs need to focus on three key areas – keeping all their financial data in one place, avoiding manual re-entry of data and efficiently collecting information from the business so invoices can be sent out quickly.

And just like accounts receivables, accounts payable also benefits from using an integrated system that eliminates manual re-entry and offers better controls. With improved visibility into your accounts payable and accounts receivable, SMBs can make sure they’re optimizing their payments to take advantage of discounts for early payments and maintaining a stable cash flow.

3 Ways To Shorten Your Invoice Cycle

For many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), longer invoicing cycles cause confusion, accuracy issues and serious cash flow problems.

Without powerful financial accounting software to rein in these complications, SMBs wrestle with maintaining the integrity of their bookkeeping. This struggle makes it difficult- if not impossible- to forecast or make sound business decisions without questioning the validity of the data.

Here are three key invoicing issues that SMBs frequently deal with, along with an explanation about how financial accounting software helps to eliminate these problems, effectively speeding up the cycle time and saving the company money. 

Dynamics GP 2016 Feature of the Day: Import/Export in SmartList Designer

Welcome to the Feature of the Day!

Import/Export SmartLists from Designer

• User will be able to export and import SmartList definitions created with SmartList Designer from one install to another.
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Streamlining Business Processes: 10 Common Pitfalls to be Avoided

Market, competitive, and customer pressures are relentless. Each requires businesses to seek new areas of unique advantage and cost savings in order to remain competitive. Process improvement and re-engineering can provide great advantage. No longer the domain of large enterprises, such endeavors have shown to return new opportunity to SMB’s.

Unfortunately process re-engineering and improvement generally suffer from a pervasive recognition that such activities haven’t completely delivered on promised benefits. Additionally realized benefits seem fleeting, or not sustainable over the long haul. In general, this perception has contributed to cautiousness when adopting new technology or tackling new process improvement initiatives. Individual project studies over the past ten years, by organizations such as Forrester Research, the Gartner Group, and businesses, indicate that the process re-engineering/ improvement initiatives weren’t bad but that the problem lay more in the implementation. Unfortunately, many businesses succumb to these common pitfalls:

What Obstacles Do I Face in Considering an On-Premise Alternative

A. I’m Comfortable Operating My Business As I Currently Do!

Perpetuation of the ‘status quo.’ By this, continuing to acquire, install, manage, and support business technology ‘in house.’ Or remaining comfortable with where the business is and what they’re doing; not paying attention to changing business environments, customer need/requirement, market and competitive pressures, and technologies that increase business velocity or reduce cost.   Cloud Computing and SaaS put your business on a solid foundation that allows you to do business as you wish, without any ‘lock-in’, and change as external conditions demand. 

B. I Don’t Want My Business Information Kept Elsewhere!
 A perception of the loss of control. When all company information, processes, reports, and communication is kept ‘in house’ it is generally deemed safe and secure. Safe from the competition and secure from theft. Unfortunately, neither of these are true. Studies overwhelmingly show that a decision to keep business information and processes in house doesn’t increase safety and security but, in fact, often compromises critical business information and processes.   Cloud Computing and SaaS actually give you more control over your information while substantially increasing the safety and security of your business. 

C. I Have a Certain, Unique Way of Doing Business. 
 Assuming that your business is different than every other business. Over decades of working with businesses of all types and sizes, it is clear that businesses are more similar than different. Sure, there are subtle nuances in some discrete processes, products, or services that provide differentiation or benefit. But these represent a small part of the business and not the ‘core’ or mainstream transactions and processes. The bulk of transactions and processes that your business conducts are very common to businesses in general.