tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310Sun, 08 Sep 2024 01:47:56 +0000Blog of Jamie Sutherland, Vice President and General Manager, Sage Small Business Canadahttp://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)Blogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-5514331518530487900Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:27:00 +00002010-03-11T15:34:05.359-08:00If you want to know the value of Twitter, sign up for HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com). Twitter in and of itself isn't useful to me, but HootSuite is. It allows someone like me to track emerging trends and competitors using keywords. For example, I use the words SaaS and Accounting and have found out about three players in the SaaS Accounting space that I was previously unaware of.Yes, you can put http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/03/hootsuite.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-5168899309061344580Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:23:00 +00002010-02-24T19:27:20.708-08:00Record attendance in Kelowna! Thank you Jennifer for bribing your fellow Kelownians :). What a city and what a great bunch. Thank you all for coming and providing great feedback on ways to improve our business. Right from the get-go the discussion started and just got better as the day progressed. There were definitely some key themes that reared themselves again. One of the key topics that http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/kelowna-9th-and-final-stop-on-simply.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-896966834794013578Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:38:00 +00002010-02-12T17:39:22.361-08:00Every organization I have worked for has struggled with effective communications.One simple way to increase to flow of communication is through “huddles”. Huddles are very short meetings where quick updates are shared and key decisions are made. It is not always necessary to host a 30 or 60 minute meeting when you can accomplish your purpose in 2 minutes or less. At Simply Accounting my http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/huddles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-6366506326073904699Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:45:00 +00002010-02-08T21:48:05.241-08:00It was great to be back in Toronto and we had our biggest turnout yet! There were also a number of attendees that traveled a fair distance to get there—Sudbury, St. Catherines, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Burlington. Thanks for coming and making this such a great session.We had a great mix of “new to Simply Accounting” customers as well as long standing customers who wouldn’t dare use a competing http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/toronto-stop-8-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-8176530212744600624Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:27:00 +00002010-02-08T08:52:31.342-08:00Ottawa was fantastic! What a great day with loads of new ideas! Whether it was Paul asking a straightforward question about the font sizes in Simply Accounting (as well as where to get the magnifying glass tool!) to more strategic discussions about training resources for our customers, attendees were engaged, vocal, and very frank. We loved it!In the morning, there was a ton of interest in http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/ottawa-stop-7-on-simply-accounting-2010.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-4951691330148425772Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:39:00 +00002010-02-05T18:45:09.168-08:00Just ducky! That’s how Dave felt about the stop in Halifax and I think that’s how I’d sum the stop as well: just ducky! Dave is a long-standing Sage Accountant Network member who flew in from St. John’s. Now that’s commitment to the program!The day started off with warm coffee and a warm welcome from our Halifax customers. We learned that the citizens of Halifax are some of the nicest people on http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/halifax-stop-6-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-5779142057716380139Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:54:00 +00002010-02-02T10:58:07.534-08:00Wow! This was a vocal bunch. We started at 9am sharp and the discussion was non-stop for the rest of the day. Nice work Calgary—apparently you have a lot to say! The Simply Accounting team always gets excited when our customers are engaged.I am still surprised by the number of attendees that have their own bookkeeping or accounting consulting practices that are not on our Sage Accountant Network http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/02/calgary-stop-5-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-4261545378751562629Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:08:00 +00002010-01-31T22:14:02.259-08:00Another great stop on the tour and while we kept the conversation tailored to Simply Accounting it was hard not to speak about the elephant in the room: the Oilers. What is going on?! I won’t dwell on that though.Each stop has presented us with new ways to improve our business and Edmonton was no exception. We are also hearing some recurring themes around training and education. Marge suggested http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/01/edmonton-stop-4-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-2288386965514472439Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:25:00 +00002010-01-23T14:34:31.660-08:00Vancouver is buzzing with anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It was also buzzing on Thursday as the host of the 3rd stop on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour!As always, it was great to connect with so many small businesses on our home turf. For those that aren’t aware, Simply Accounting is developed in Richmond, British Columbia. Unlike many of our competitors, Simply http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/01/vancouver-stop-3-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-2301849827085494119Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:44:00 +00002010-01-19T21:02:16.892-08:00Another great day on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour in Winnipeg. Thank you for attending and thank you Mabel (one of our long-standing Sage Accountant Network members) for scheduling the seasonably warm weather!We arrived in Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon, checked out the venue, settled in for some comfort food at Dalton’s and had a relatively early night. I got a little caught up http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/01/winnipeg-stop-2-on-simply-accounting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-8556024124087189254Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:56:00 +00002010-01-17T15:05:32.032-08:00What a day! It was the first stop on the 2010 Simply Accounting Tour and it was the best stop yet!From a Simply perspective, yesterday’s event fully exceeded our expectations. We had a fantastic dialogue and collected some great feedback and suggestions about our business. It was constructive, humbling, and at the end of the day exactly what the Simply team needed. Both customers and Sage http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-day-it-was-first-stop-on-2010.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-8286323823904379901Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:34:00 +00002010-01-15T07:47:58.481-08:00The Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour is one day away from its debut and the team is incredibly excited to get on the road and meet some customers and partners!We named it the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour because that's what we're going to do - Listen! In each city we have a jam-packed day planned - full of dialogue with our Sage Accountants Network members and customers alike. Our http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2010/01/simply-accounting-2010-listening-tour.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6849657560993656310.post-1159979356109655089Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:49:00 +00002009-12-28T17:58:53.793-08:00I am very excited that registration is finally opening for our Simply 2010 Listening Tour! I am looking forward to meeting with hundreds of partners and customers from across Canada this January and February. It will be a great way to hear what matters most to your business, and to learn how we can strengthen our partnership with you.We will be asking for your feedback on our programs, services, http://simplysutherland.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-am-very-excited-that-registration-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jamie Sutherland)0