Cloud Accounting - From Spreadsheet Misery to Affordable Cloud ERP. David Russell W.

Acquisition Regulations, supervised by from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

      “Good,” said James after Victor came up with the seventh point. “Now, let’s think to the future. What might we need our system to do in one, two or five years from now?”

      “We need it to be scalable,” offered Travis. “The company’s grown from your one-man operation to about 75 employees. Once we resolve this issue then our growth should even happen faster. Multiple departments and people will need to have access to the business accounting software simultaneously without experiencing longer wait times between screens. Right now, only a limited number of people can access small business accounting program before it noticeably slows down.”

      Victor also chipped in. “We also need a system without spreadsheets, or one that makes certain we are working on the most recent version. We’re getting to the point where we there are literally hundreds of spreadsheets. It’s too many to manage. People keep accessing older documents accidentally and updating the wrong versions.”

      James nodded as he wrote this last idea on the whiteboard with the other most critical needs. He then started passing out the folders that were in front of him, keeping one for himself. “Good. Alright, this is the research I have done on alternatives to our small business accounting program during the last few months. You’ll find profiles of five different companies I selected that offer alternatives. These are the solutions we will be considering, unless you come up with alternatives.”

      Esther might have been surprised James had already begun researching months ago, but his team took this discovery in stride. They knew James preferred to extensively research projects before making major decisions. The fact he had already done a lot of investigation meant one major hurdle to James making a decision was out of the way. It also clearly communicated they should not waste time on researching their alternatives. James was extremely thorough and not typically open to information he overlooked unless he asked for it, like he had done in this meeting to clarify their needs.

      “Obviously, time’s an issue,” said James. His associates continued to flip through their folders. “However, we can’t afford to rush ahead with a decision only to trip up in a year’s time. We must tread carefully and consider all of our options. When we go with a software solution, it needs to stick.”

      James went on to check if everyone could meet consistently on Tuesday afternoons to interview potential vendors and discuss their views and impressions afterwards. Once this was confirmed, James asked Travis to schedule the vendor meetings.

      “Just as a point of interest,” mentioned James. “While I was conducting my research, I came upon two of the largest companies that offer alternatives to our small business accounting program. One offered an on-premise solution, the other offered a cloud solution, however, I took both out of consideration because they do not make outside sales calls. They only demo their solutions online.” James did not need to do any more explaining for the sake of his team. They understood James did not buy from vendors he could not meet in-person.

      After the meeting, Sally and Travis were chatting as they headed back to their offices. They were both excited and thankful James was including them in on the decision for this new software.

      “We won’t have to worry about any more ‘surprise’ invoices,” mused Sally.

      “Yep,” agreed Travis. “Plus I think James’ competition with Esther will help speed things along. He must have some answers to bring back to Esther and Peter in their meeting next month.”

      “That’s where we’ll come in,” said Sally, pausing in front of her office door. “Even with the preliminary research he’s done, he’s going to need us to help him dive deeper and share responsibility for the decision. The problem is too big for him to turn it into another ‘fact finding mission’ that never arrives at its destination.”