Practice Development News
September 2008
In this issue

 
  • Growing Software for a Growing Enterprise
  • With Security and Privacy for All
  • Where are You in the Connected Universe?
  • CPAASP is Awesome
     

 
Quick Links

  Nobody Uses Just QuickBooks
 
When InsynQ first got started with managed application services, we clearly recognized that businesses would only adopt the service if there was a compelling reason to do so. We went looking for the pain points - the technology issues facing businesses that could be solved by outsourcing certain IT functions. What we learned was that, for most businesses, the initial expenditures on computerization and the reason for having technology in the business was in support of the accounting function.

Whether it is large or small business, the single common denominator for every business is in the requirement to keep score. InsynQ, based on this realization, created our CpaAsp services, offering managed QuickBooks and other application services for accountants and their clients.

Over the years the service has grown. Our recognition of the market's appetite for new applications and integrated services has caused us to continuously test and deploy new software which integrates with the QuickBooks financial applications and other systems. We continue to develop our expertise in hosting and managing the QuickBooks products, and have become experts at implementing and managing solutions in the hosting environment that work with QuickBooks.

Intuit's recent announcement about the focus on connected services is not at all surprising to us. We've been offering on-demand, connected services for over 10 years. We understand the market's desire for full, rich functionality and extended features, and we recognize the requirement to support integrating and extending the QuickBooks hosting platform to incorporate them.

Whether you use QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise, you can trust that InsynQ e-Accounting can get your software installed, integrated, and running smoothly in the hosted platform so you can focus on the many other things your business does. We help you work smarter, not harder.



 
View Past Issues of the Practice Development News
 
View issues of the Practice Development News dating all the way back to 2002. As you can tell, we've been at this for a while.


 
Tools to Help You Communicate with Clients and Peers
 
e-Accounting has developed a series of useful and informational fact sheets to help you educate clients and peers about the benefits of working in a managed IT environment. From online accounting solutions to Virtual Desktops, we have documents that you can use when discussing the different technologies.


 
How Does It Work?
 
As part of our sponsorship of the 2008 Accounting Software Consultants Conference, CPAASP e-Accounting presented a webinar where we discussed our solution and demonstrated how it works.

View the recorded webinar, and see for yourself exactly how e-Accounting hosted applications work, and how you can apply them to your business.

 



 

Environmentally Responsible Computing
 



 

 
 
The availability of broadband Internet access was once a barrier to getting us all online, but not any longer. According to WebsiteOptimization.com, June 2008 marked the first date where US broadband penetration jumped to 90.5%. This means that, of those who use Internet services, more than 90% access via broadband connections rather than dialup or other narrow-band connections. Speed of connectivity and availability has helped to make Internet use and Web services part of our daily lives. The adoption of web-based services, along with their acceptance in business, has clearly demonstrated to the entire market that this trend is not simply a short-lived fad. The Internet and Web services have truly become the basis for transforming how we do business - and how we operate our businesses. This is a shift that could easily have as far-reaching impacts as the initial introduction of the PC.

 
Historically, the small business market tended to follow the mid- and enterprise markets in terms of technology adoption. The view of technology for the small business has been seen somewhat less in terms of strategic use and more in terms of simply facilitating a process. While enterprise views technology as a strategic element in differentiating their business, the smaller business views technology simply as a tool required to do a specific job. To some extent, this has been the result of cost and complexity of systems available for small businesses as compared to those available to larger enterprise. It wasn't that a smaller business wouldn't benefit from the features and capabilities of the enterprise-class systems - it was that the benefits to be derived were easily outweighed by the cost. But the Internet, Web services, and a "connected services" strategy can change all that.

 
The computers we use in business are a barrier. They seem to be wonderful tools which provide us with capabilities we wouldn't otherwise have, but they are a barrier in terms of cost and complexity. In order to do more, a business had to buy more - more computers, more software, more technology and the expertise to support it. With the advent of the Internet and a new generation of Web applications and services, businesses are now able to advance their use of technology without the typically-associated costs and complexities. Even the smallest of businesses can take advantage of systems and solutions which facilitate a wide range of business processes and which return a volume of business intelligence. Using tools not previously available to gain deep insight into their business processes and performance, and by making adjustments as the market and operational requirements demand, the small business is able to benefit at the same levels as even their largest competitors.

 
Recognizing that the computer on the desk represents a barrier, Intuit identified the Web as the "place" where true innovation and extension of their products could occur. As the QuickBooks product line grows with vertical market editions and Enterprise solutions, the demand for more and richer functionality and intelligence in the product becomes greater. The simplicity of using the product gained the adoption of the small business user, but the requirements from the product have grown as the target customer has also grown. In order to keep the customer, QuickBooks must grow with the business. This proves a daunting task when the solution is best-known for affordability and ease-of-use. Using Web services and a SaaS (software as a service) model to deliver new features and functionality to the QuickBooks product line is a way for Intuit to continue to deliver on the promise of capability for reasonable cost.

 
 

Recently I had dinner with an old friend, who happens to be a hospital administrator. Inevitably the conversation turned to regulatory compliance, which for hospitals is an especially tender issue, as most front-line caregivers are greatly resistant to anything which can be perceived as a barrier to their primary mission of providing often life and death services. Her point, which I have myself made many times, was that she had never met a single doctor or nurse who had entered that profession because of the cool equipment they would get to operate, or especially the love of the vast amounts of paperwork and documentation required by regulations and hospital administrators like her. It made her job doubly difficult because of the perceived addition of red-tape that in many cases was difficult for her to explain to the folks most affected by it.

 
 
 
 
 

 2008 Accounting Software Consulting Conference
 
 
 
 


 
practice development news | 2008