{"id":50099,"date":"2016-09-27t00:54:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-27t04:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=50099"},"modified":"2017-05-12t10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12t14:48:34","slug":"hey-get-onto-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2016\/09\/27\/hey-get-onto-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"hey you, get onto my cloud!"},"content":{"rendered":"
cloud strategies mean different things to different people.<\/strong><\/p>\n by randy johnston<\/em> i can make this very simple. do you or your clients need to work someplace other than the office? for most of you, this answer is simple. yes!<\/p>\n the next question is also pretty simple. do you need to run traditional desktop solutions, or is a solution available that runs in a web browser?<\/p>\n more tech: \u00a0soloists, small firms must take software seriously<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 how the smallest firms can make better technology decisions<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 soloists, small firms cite tech challenges<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 soloists, small firms cite top challenges<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n exclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n if everything in your world runs in a browser, then any computer will work, and you can be done reading this blog post. however, if you have any desktop solutions that you need to run remotely, you will need a hosted option for that application. you can host applications privately or publicly.<\/p>\n defining the landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n a few definitions may be in order:<\/p>\n ok, wait a minute, all those definitions make things sound a lot more confusing. yes, they are potentially confusing, but not if you keep your needs in mind. true, there are a lot of options, but you need to ask: what am i trying to accomplish?<\/p>\n what are you trying to accomplish?<\/strong><\/p>\n if you have occasional remote access needs, a browser-based option should be sufficient. yes, there will be some integration issues, screen, and mouse incompatibilities, and \u2013 at times \u2013 delays in what happens on the host machine (where the application lives) and what you see on your machine.<\/p>\n if you have the need for multi-site access most of the time, you\u2019ll have to pick a solution with more capabilities, like myquickcloud or citrix, and you and your clients will have some ongoing monthly charges as a cost of doing business.<\/p>\n a new approach this year is to replicate the data automatically, as\u00a0we see in the\u00a0sage 50c<\/a>\u00a0solution, where applications run locally in multiple locations (office, home, accountant) and the data is updated via the cloud with\u00a0sagedrive<\/a>\u00a0(see illustration). if you have far more frequent access, you should consider one of the public or private cloud (hosting) approaches.<\/p>\n how to gain multiple user\/multi-site access<\/strong><\/p>\n while we like a broad number of saas solutions, many of us make our living with\u00a0quickbooks desktop<\/a>. the primary ways of gaining multiple user\/multi-site access include:<\/p>\n in regard to\u00a0number 4, remember that these are the only companies that have the authorization to host intuit quickbooks. typical fees vary from $30-$50 per user per month. there are some options where you can wholesale the service and resell it to your clients. to keep this in perspective, the typical hosting company charges $50\/user\/month, and in a typical five-user environment, you or your client would spend $250\/month. if the client can run on\u00a0quickbooks online<\/a>\u00a0premier, the charge would be $39.95\/month. other saas competitors typically charge $9.95 per month, so five users would be $49.75 per month.<\/p>\n currently, one real value in the saas space is\u00a0sage one<\/a>, which allows accountants to buy licensing for 25 full-year client subscriptions users for $25. in effect, that means you can give clients access to sage one for $1\/year! alternatively, sage one is sold for $5\/month or $60\/year, similar to the 50% discount intuit offers for quickbooks online clients who are invited into a quickbooks online accountant edition (qboa) portal. remember, you may have to add other saas tools to get a complete solution.<\/p>\n further, since many of you are proadvisors and work in the intuit quickbooks ecosystem, you have some third-party products you have learned to use. only certain products are supported by authorized hosting companies. you\u2019ll want to give careful thought to who you recommend and make sure that the product is supported by the vendor recommended. for example, a popular quickbooks hosting vendor,\u00a0right networks<\/a>, supports many different quickbooks desktop products, including\u00a0results crm<\/a>. however, results crm is not supported by every quickbooks desktop hosting company.<\/p>\n companies like results software are responding by making a saas version of their software available, which no longer requires hosting by an authorized hosting company. on the other hand, companies like\u00a0avalara<\/a>,\u00a0bill.com<\/a>,\u00a0billquick (bqe)<\/a>,\u00a0smartvault<\/a>, and\u00a0tsheets<\/a>\u00a0only have saas versions of their products, and can integrate with premise-based, private cloud, or public cloud hosted versions of the products.<\/p>\n develop your specific expertise<\/strong><\/p>\n one caution on any of these third-party product hosting\/integration approaches: you need to ensure\u00a0that the performance is acceptable for you and your clients. in most cases, this is not a problem, but take enough time to test the combination of products you recommend.<\/p>\n in prior posts, i have recommended that you consider verticalizing your practice and select some third-party products while developing an expertise in specific industries. i still believe this is a viable strategy. if you are completely saas-based, you are counting on the vendors to do the testing and technical work to make the performance acceptable. most of the time this is true, but you should test vendors\u2019 claims to make sure this is the case.<\/p>\n in other cases, not every solution you need for your client base will be available via a cloud service, but some form of a private cloud will allow you to solve the client\u2019s problem while demonstrating that you have the consulting expertise to make this all possible.<\/p>\n cloud strategies mean different things to different people. saas, paas, iaas, hosted, on-premise, hybrid, public cloud, private cloud, and vdi are all examples of options in cloud technologies. are you satisfied with where you are in your cloud strategies? lots of vendors will try to convince you that their way is \u201cthe way,\u201d but don\u2019t buy that. the right way is the best way that fits your business and client needs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\naccounting firm operations and technology survey<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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