TCTL World of Business Software

This Blog Has Moved..

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:29:00 +0000

Please follow my new blog at http://turnkeystephenmalloy.wordpress.com/

Thanks for following.

Steve Malloy - Turnkey Business Software Limited

The Cloud is coming.. really!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:36:00 +0000

A recent article in an Irish newspaper reported on a 'stramash' (Scottish for 'bust up'; I don't know the Irish equivalent but I'm sure it’ll be something similar) in the council chambers of a small county in the south of Ireland.

The head of business development was being castigated as an ‘Eejit’ (no explanation necessary, I trust) for suggesting that the council should invest heavily in cloud computing. His reasoning was simple as he explained to fellow councillors, “This county is covered in clouds for most of the year so there’s not much investment needed and it’s also going to raise our environmental credentials with the green lobby!”

Now, I will swear to you that I did indeed find this on a BBC news website, I bookmarked it and I sent the link to a few friends including, unsurprisingly, a very good Irish friend who works in IT. He scoffed that it could not possibly be true and then triumphantly emailed that, having tried the link, it didn’t work. Sure enough, when I did as well, the story had been pulled. So, someone somewhere had managed to fool the BBC. Shame, but what a great story though.

When it comes to cloud, I’ve not been as great an advocate as our Irish friend (see past posts) having spent much of my time dismissing the annual hardy perennial IT industry story that ‘This is the Year of the Cloud’, particularly as it relates to accounting software. However, shock horror, I do think we may actually be getting there.

Why? Firstly, because the software industry wants it to happen and when the big boys decide this is the way forward for you and me, they generally get their way – eventually. It has taken longer than they would have hoped but I shall quote that old mantra ‘It’s the economy stupid’ by way of explanation. Slowly but surely, as the recession weighs over us, users are waking up to the fact that they can avoid upfront costs, expensive IT staff and constantly trying to manage upgrades, backups, anti-virus etc by shifting to a cloud model. And, so long as the costs per user per month keep falling, that shift will build into larger and larger numbers.

To date, the major take up has been in the less than 5 users sector where many are abandoning their old Sage solutions and either adopting Sage’s own cloud-based software or defecting to a number of lesser known newcomers who are under-cutting Sage. Those newcomers often have the advantage of offering a solution that was built exclusively for the web and is simpler to use. They have also been designed to overcome many of the pitfalls that arise from logging in to a system that’s remotely located who knows where. And, the final nail in the old guard’s coffin, many have a ready-made converter that takes your existing Sage data and painlessly transfers it to your new cloud solution.

What will bring along the new wave of larger users is similar price competitiveness and both Microsoft and the hosting companies appear to be recognising this. So, when users can buy a Microsoft Dynamics solution such as NAV (‘Navision’ in old money) for similar prices to the new kids on the cloud block, and combine it with a range of integrated and compatible Microsoft software, then we have a game changer. Later this year, NAV2013 is launched, and a huge amount of time, effort and Microsoft’s dollars has gone into ensuring this is a comfortable web experience. Add to the mix products such as Office 365 and CRM online, which integrate to NAV, and we have a very rich web experience on our hands.

Meantime, the hosting companies in the UK are also embracing the commercial realities of the situation by offering prices that reflect a sincere desire to see that this may yet be the year of the cloud. Indeed, one or two software resellers who dived in a little too early and had their fingers burned have abandoned their own hosting environments and signed up with the major hosting companies, it being so much more cost-effective.

So, a reality check, a recession, a desire to play catch up in a market that’s running away from them and a desire to establish a long and healthy pipeline of regular payments have all combined to offer larger accounting software users a more compelling proposition. When Microsoft launches NAV2013 later this year, expect to see a major step change in the number of users adopting the cloud platform.

As the kids used to say “Are we there yet?” Not quite but it is coming ever closer.

Cloud Computing – 3 key things customers and suppliers need to understand

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:03:00 +0000

A recent masterclass by industry guru Guus Krabbenborg issued a "wake-up call" to Microsoft ERP resellers identifying 3 issues that they must get their heads round now, or risk extinction in the long run. Whether or not we agree that ERP solutions are heading to the cloud just as quickly as Microsoft would like us to think, the issues are worth considering by us all, INCLUDING customers:-

1/ The big upfront licence fee will disappear and be replaced by a monthly subscription thereby causing an dip in reseller revenues (and, by default, easing the cashflow of the customer).

Is that really a huge disaster for the reseller and great news for the customer? The revenue from licences, over the typical 5 – 7 year life of an ERP system, represents quite a small percentage of the total cost of ownership. Savvy customers measure TCO not initial cost. However, Krabbenborg argues that the nature of the system delivered might affect this. So, read on..

2/ Mainstream customers will expect a generic system that does most of what they expect from an accounting solution and crucially, where it doesn’t, they will expect to just work around these deficiencies. Thus revenues a reseller expects from the associated services necessary to deliver a fully-fitting solution will also dip (and customers will pay less for their system, again).

The counter is that actually maybe they won’t! Customers are a lot more demanding of their computer systems than they once were. They know that changes can be made; they’ve been getting it done for quite a few years now. We installed our first NAV site in 1996 and EVERY site since has had changes to suit the customer’s own business model. Why would they accept compromise now? But Guus has some thoughts on this as well, so read on again…

3/ Non-mainstream customers, i.e. those is specialist areas, will demand industry-specific solutions that suit their business and won’t require change. An off-the-shelf solution for EVERY conceivable industry. So, even in such vertical markets, revenue streams will dry up as the customer logs in to his fully-functional industry-specific solution (and, once more, pays a lot less for the privilege).

Hmm – we do a number of vertical solutions such as hire, professional services, log management and builders’ merchants and while we would love to think we’ve covered all the bases, that’s just not realistic. EVERY customer, in each industry vertical, has their own ideas on how their business works. Now you can either say “No, this is what it does, live with it” or provide chargeable services to deliver exactly what the customer wants. Customers will make up their minds.

Lots to think about.

Award Dinners - Don't Get Me Started!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:30:00 +0000

Is it just me or is the award dinner industry running away with itself? Open any business magazine these days and you’re faced with page upon page of glossy articles and ‘grip and grin’ pictures of award dinners, ‘awardees’ and their so-called ‘awards’.

Another chunk of the same magazine will be taken up with details of dinners you could attend and urgent entreaties to vote for someone or push your own company or self forward, blinking, into the limelight as a winner of some spurious award – most green, most innovative, fastest growing, best or smartest or youngest or most entrepreneurial man/woman/child, best use of a plastic bag in the pursuit of carbon reduction…. and on and on. If it’s not magazines, it’s emails or websites. All pushing the same ‘awards’ agenda.

Who benefits? The hotel? Most certainly. “That’s a table of 10 at £100 a head, excellent sir and would you like to pre-select from our over-priced wine list?” The award ‘hosts’? I’d like to think they do it out of the goodness of their hearts; but really? Usually it’s a bank rewarding their loyal, but barely solvent, clients; a magazine rewarding their subscribers; a software company rewarding their biggest (and not necessarily best) resellers; or a recruitment agency rewarding anyone they can persuade to come along on the flimsiest of pretexts (see ‘plastic bag’).

I worked for a software company once. We won an award. We all trooped off to the USA, to Fargo, North Dakota (now there’s a BIG clue for some of you) and stood on stage, a few thousand pounds the poorer for the journey, and grasped our award proudly. When we returned in triumph, the company owner, who was paying for all of this, was unimpressed. “Awards are all very well”, he said “but they don’t jingle”.

So, if anyone out there thinks we deserve an award, just stick it in the post. If it adds anything to our status in the world , we’ll tell people about it and perch it on a shelf in reception – honest. But don’t force us to come to a dinner somewhere (unless you’re picking up the tab!).

The 3 Marketing Rules that made Apple Computer such a success

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:51:00 +0000

I'm about 12% (that's the Kindle for you!) through Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. It makes for fascinating reading particularly as I'm at the chapter on the birth of the Apple II, the first micro I ever sold commercially (yes, I am that old).

What really caught my attention and led to me re-read a section was a piece that described the early marketing philosophy of Apple Computers. Written by their first ‘proper’ marketing man, Mike Markkula, it was a one-page summary of their marketing principles and applies just as much TODAY and to ANY business as it did back then.

The 3 principles are:

Empathy: This concerns having an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer. As Markkula wrote “We will truly understand their needs better than any other company.” Who would argue that Apple won out more often than not by getting the product absolutely right, even when technically better and cheaper products existed?

Focus:“In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities.” Steve Jobs was possibly one of the most focussed, driven men on the planet. His turnaround of Apple when he returned was testament to this trait.

Impute: This emphasised that people form an opinion about a company or product based on the signals that it conveys. As Markkula explained to a youthful Steve Jobs, “People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.”

These 3 became known collectively as “The Apple Marketing Philosophy”. It worked pretty well for Apple so should be well worth considering for your own organisation

Support or Die

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:03:00 +0000

Microsoft recently posted some stats that broke down the average business software system costs. The most interesting stat was that the actual purchase of the software represented about 5% of the overall system cost and expenditure on hardware was roughly the same. That probably comes as a bit of a surprise to many but, if you examine the figures, it's actually pretty self-evident.

A business purchasing a new ERP system will expect to get somewhere between 6 and 10 years out of their new software. We have many customers who have been on Navision with us for at least as long as that, and a number who have been with us since the 90's so we concur with Microsoft's findings.

Over that period, the majority of the expenditure will be on annual support charges and people costs - installation, training, ongoing development and so forth. So, extrapolate the numbers over the life of the system, and the initial costs of buying the software and hardware quickly drop to a fraction of the total expenditure.

Software companies who understand this should also understand that if they fail to provide good levels of support or be perceived as not providing value for money, then all of the good work done in winning the initial sale will be for nothing. Microsoft also revealed that the average time to win a new software site was 6 months. That could be 6 months hard work wasted if someone else picks up the ongoing revenues.

Looking after customers and constantly monitoring feedback of our services is a fundamental element of our business plan. It has served us well bringing us well over 100 Navision sites and the income from those is set against the cost of a dedicated support department and support systems to ensure we maintain satisfaction levels and customer numbers.

The result is a strong and loyal customer base and a regular stream of defections from competitors. Someone somewhere spent 6 months winning those customers but then passed on the revenue stream to us. Not good business and certainly not sustainable.

Economic Indicators Just Got Weird... But Oh So Credible!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:42:00 +0000

The Economist recently reported a raft of 'alternative' recommendations on how to gauge upcoming economic conditions. One reader suggested monitoring the sale of suppositories as "financial worries and austerity changes in diet cause intestinal disorders".

Meantime, a vet reports that he believes he's six months ahead of the market as he pays attention when pet owners start to cut back on non-essential ops for their little furry loved ones.. if neutering ops start to drop off, start selling those shares.

Others think we should be watching the hairdressing world. A rise in the use of basic barbershops combined with news that sales of badger bristle brushes are going through the roof is apparently a result of a return to old-fashioned masculinity as a response to troubled economic times.

Me, I preferred a more telling sign. Edward Ritchie, an investment analyst, tracks some particular Google searches. His analysis of the search term 'gold price' indicated a worrying correlation with the peaks and troughs of economic uncertainty in the US. And, what's really scary is that the searches are now way beyond the previous peak in 2008, a portent of a double dip to come.

For Turnkey, in the world of business software sales, the indicator we look for is more basic. While our new business sales continue to show year on year rises that defy the doomsayers, an ever present discussion point is annual support and, in particular, does it represent value-for money? The more people querying support, the more likely that times are tough and likely to get tougher.

Fortunately, we keep a very detailed log of work performed for clients and can provide chapter and verse on the services provided in the last 12 months. This confirms that the support contract is an essential not a luxury. And our cancellation rate on support is the best in the business i.e. non-existent!

Sage Line 100 Being Dropped - farewell old friend but buyers beware..

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:50:00 +0000

Sage has announced that Line 100 is being ditched, dropped, dumped, kicked into the long grass and generally written off as being of a bygone age. As of September 2012 it is, to borrow an old line, an "ex-product".

This should not come as a great surprise to many. I mean, how many software packages can a company support before its own support people, never mind the thoroughly baffled and overworked support teams among the reseller base, cry out - "Enough is Enough"?

For their customers, no doubt we will see a stampede of discounted offerings as Sage resellers rush to fill the gap. 20% is the going discount rate to move on to another Sage product. But users should resist the temptation to simply accept the next offering (a mistake many make when renewing car insurance, for example) and should really take a long, hard look around them. The buyer should be very careful. To extend the car analogy... trading cars usually involves the customer trying to establish the net cost of his new shiny vehicle while the car salesman does his or her level best to baffle the customer by proposing a simple £x per month figure which extends 3 or 4 years into the future (and may even have a nasty big final payment). And so it will be with the Sage 'upgrade' paths.

So, I would be extremely surprised if the established industry players such as Microsoft, Pegasus etc don't offer similar discount terms off their products to trade-in that old Sage system. It's a great opportunity to poach existing Sage users into their fold.

As a Microsoft Dynamics NAV reseller, I'm obviously keen to push that product and its differentiators which, if we talk competitiveness v Sage, are many. Here are a few off the top of my head:

1/ Buy one user and you buy one of the most extensive, function-rich accounting suites available (no seperate costs for Accounts and CRM). Value for money.
2/ Add users one at a time. No requirement for 5, 10, 15 etc. Great for cashflow.
3/ Buy 'lite' web users for less than a 10th of the cost of a full user. Customers have to start thinking user types, not just numbers, when they buy a new system. We often have twice as many low cost web users inputting POs or time/expenses via the web as full users. Use low spec PCs and save even more money.
4/ It's Microsoft - so it's fantastically well integrated with Office, Windows, Sharepoint etc. Future proofing? In the computer industry? How novel!
5/ It's Microsoft - so they're investing massively. Software development costs exceed the combined turnovers of their UK rivals. How long will their smaller rivals last?
6/ And, we don't demand that you sign up for three years support - it's always baffled me that customers accept such stringent contracts from suppliers, especially those they have barely met! Trust me, I'm a software saleman?

So, think again before accepting that wonderful Sage upgrade deal. There are some rather tempting alternatives out there.

To help you decide, we have an unbiased guide to selecting a new accounting system. Just drop me a line at stephen.malloy@turnkey-bs.com and I'll send you a copy. It's free, and it might just save you a few years sleepless nights.

Office 365 and MS Dynamics NAV Getting Closer?

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:55:00 +0000

A recent post at MSDynamicsWorld.com cast some light on when and how we might see NAV reach the clouds.. at no extra cost to NAV users.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV made its first move to demonstrate viability with Office 365. At the Directions EMEA conference, Microsoft announced a new version of Equisys's Zetadocs for Dynamics NAV, dubbed Zetadocs Express, that will work with Dynamics NAV in combination with Office 365.

According to Andrew Levey of Equisys, Zetadocs Express will be delivered as a downloadable module in October 2011. The module will allow customers to capture inbound documents via a drag and drop interface for storage in SharePoint online, and also email documents from NAV.

The module will be no additional cost for customers on a Business Ready Enhancement Plan with a Microsoft Office 365 subscription.

Customers will then be able to upgrade to the Essentials and Plus editions of their Capture and Delivery modules to gain access to more advanced functionality, as well as customisation and automation opportunities.

And so ends another year at Turnkey. A success? I think so.

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000

In a year when the doom mongers were talking down the industry, we've just had our best year ever.

New customer adds well up on last year. Revenues up, margins up and levels of optimism well up. And looking forward, we've a steady order book which takes us well past Christmas.

So why are we doing so well when others in the IT industry all around are muttering darkly, tightening belts and predicting the end of the world?

If pushed to give a one word answer, I'd say 'care'. We might not get it right every time but customers, both old and new, know that we care and we want to do the right thing by them. So, even when we hit a blip which is invariably caused by work arriving in the occasional deluge rather than an easily-managed steady stream (chance would be a fine thing) they stay resolutely supportive.

Thus as new sites come on board, upgrades are requested, support calls and development requests arrive by phone, fax, email and the web support portal, we can find ourselves apologising as we seek to re-schedule. But as long as we show we do care about getting it right and communicate that sense of caring, customers are very forgiving people.

Ups and downs in service are tolerated and even recognised as inevitable to some degree, but any sense that nobody cares is not.

The proof of the pudding? In the last 5 years, I can recall only one site that felt moved to take its support elsewhere and 10 times that who have moved to Turnkey. In this industry, these are exceptional statistics.

Try Curling in the Workplace! Turnkey did!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:27:00 +0000

I’ve just won my first ever curling competition as a ‘skip’. 7 teams fought out a league, 4 reached the semis, and my team, with me as ‘skip’, eventually triumphed in the final. Joy oh joy unbounded!

If you’ve ever chanced upon a curling match on television, you’ll have seen the skip. He’s the guy standing at one end of the rink calling the ‘plays’ and screaming at his team to sweep or not sweep the stone as it slides down the ice towards the ‘house’. The house being the various coloured circles in which your stones and the opposition’s stones nestle. The more stones you have nearer the centre of the house, the more points you gain. ‘Marbles for grown ups’, my wife calls it.

There are four players in a team. The skip is normally the best player, and the first or ‘lead’ player is generally the weakest in the team. Though, whenever you play lead, a good skip will always enthuse about the key role that the ‘lead’ plays in building each ‘end’ i.e. each player throws 2 stones, 16 in all, makes one end of curling and a match will consist of 7 or 8 ends.

Why on earth am I blogging about this, rather than some business thing? Well, because there are parallels with coaching the sales staff and building their skills and confidence. This particular league competition is about reversing the normal rules of curling so that the not-so-good player has the opportunity to skip the team and develop his skills. I might normally play at lead or at second which, within my club of very experienced players, is my real level. But, by letting me skip and giving me a very experienced skip to play at 3 alongside me and offer advice, my playing skills and overall understanding of the game are improved. And, who knows, maybe one day I will be a ‘real’ skip?

We should all be looking for opportunities to take this into the workplace. For the next sales meeting you have with a prospect, take along one of your sales team and see if you can sit back, bite your tongue and let them lead the meeting.

And, only if things are going slightly awry should you find yourself screaming at the top of your voice - SWEEP!!

Turnkey at Business Growth Show - Edinburgh Feb 23rd - tips and tricks for advisers

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:08:00 +0000

Our business software team will be attending and presenting at the Business Growth Show in Edinburgh on the 23rd February. The event is being held at the King James Thistle Hotel, at the east end of Princes Street, from 9am to 3pm. This presents a great opportunity to meet some of the people from Turnkey.

Importantly, if you're a business adviser involved in assisting clients to computerise their business - whether for the first time or as part of an upgrade process - it's also a chance to hear how working closely with a trusted supplier can actually help!

We've produced a useful guide for business advisers which takes you into the world of the supplier and explains some of the good, and not so good, practices you might encounter when seeking a new system.

So, rather than bore everyone to death about how great we are, we thought we'd use the occasion to talk about some of the things to look out for when choosing your new software and/or supplier.

The guide is free to independent consultants - just come along to the seminar. Or you can contact us directly using info@turnkey-bs.com for a copy of the guide.

Turnkey as "The Good Guys" - why being one makes long term sense!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:33:00 +0000

Having been involved with the supply of business software for some 30 years, I reckon I have a lot of experience to share. But how to share it with the people who need it most?

Well, firstly, who are the people who need it most? In my experience, it's the poor soul who finds himself talking to an aggressive software supplier, and as the market has become tougher, there are a lot more of them out there.

How is aggressive defined? Simple, he or she is a salesperson who is committed to one simple thing - commission. This manifests itself in a number of ways but the cancer this engenders is a lack of respect for the prospective customer's actual needs.

Typical actions will be:

- Overselling by quoting for higher level modules than the customer requires;
- Overselling by suggesting higher cost user licences when low-cost 'light' user licenses are available;
- Underselling (yes, I did say 'underselling') by casually omitting to mention that certain modules are required or that additional licences or infrastructure will be needed to run some of the functions proposed (you'll be billed for these later, trust me); or
- Locking a customer in to a protracted contract e.g. 3 years.

In my view, the last one is the worst offence since a customer doesn't truly understand how good, bad or indifferent the supplier will be in delivering or supporting the system as presented by the salesperson. The first year of delivery is crucial but, even if it's been a complete disaster and all of the 'extra' costs necessary to deliver the solution are then revealed, the customer has two more years of this pain to endure before he can escape to a more professional partner.

So, what advice can I give? I spent a lot of time thinking about this over the festive period, and have put together a publication which is of benefit to both the prospective system purchaser and his or her business adviser. The 'Guide to Business Advisers' is free of charge and available by sending me an email with your name and address. Or follow the link here to request a copy:

http://www.turnkey-bs.com/c_Contact.aspx

And why does doing it right and being the good guy make long term sense? Well, at Turnkey we've carefully analysed our business successes during 2010 and around 75% of our revenues from new business sales can be attributed to reference sales. Simply put, people choose us on the back of recommendation from our customer base. So, the more help we can give them to find us, the better!

It's Christmas here at Turnkey so it must be quiz time.

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:50:00 +0000

It's started . We've reached the festive period and it's time to reflect on the past year and, inevitably, time to do a few quizzes. For businesses it's probably a chance to review what went right, what went wrong and what we can do to improve things in 2011. So, here's a quick quiz which is designed to make you consider whether you have the right business system to take you forward in 2011.

How many of the following statements have you made or heard your staff make in the last 12 months? You can check your score at the end.

“Our company is using multiple software systems that do not talk to each other, so we key in the same information many times (and make a few mistakes along the way).” YES/NO

“We have outgrown our basic accounting software, it just doesn’t have the capabilities we need; it is slow and it's increasingly unstable.” YES/NO

“We can’t get financial reports quickly or easily with the level of detail we want to make strategic business decisions.” YES/NO

“Our software system is no longer supported and we can’t get the help we need or it is too expensive to upgrade and maintain.” YES/NO

“Tracking new regulations/compliance issues is causing us headaches.” YES/NO

“Our sales and customer service reps constantly have to ask accounting for information—we need single screen visibility into sales, inventory, purchasing and customer history so we can give our customers immediate answers.” YES/NO

“I wish we had a system that was easy to learn to use and worked with programs like Word, Excel and Outlook, programs that we use every day.” YES/NO

If you answered YES to at least three of the above, then make a New Year's resolution to speak to Turnkey and see how you can achieve seven perfect 'NO's!

Meantime, have a nice festive break and don't dwell on it too much!

At Turnkey we're wondering if the IT industry pull a rabbit out of the hat in 2011?

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:42:00 +0000

2011 is being marketed as "The Year of the Cloud" meaning that the hosting of IT systems off-premise is set to take off. For someone who has experienced more 'The year of' stories than I would care to mention in my 25+ years in computing, I have become a tad cynical whenever the industry hypes the 'next big thing'.

However, when major suppliers like Microsoft tell you that the vast majority of their R&D expenditure for business software is targeted on making it available as a hosted solution, then you have to take notice. Taking notice not perhaps for the best of reasons i.e. that it's the right way to go, but more because a company with the clout of Microsoft will inevitably have a major say in how these things pan out.

That's not to say there aren't good reasons for moving to hosting - no upfront capital spend, identifiable and manageable expenditure, no expensive IT people to employ (and struggle to comprehend), upgrades and updates delivered seamlessly, you-focus-on-running-your-business-and-we'll-look-after-the-IT etc. It all sounds eminently sensible, but.... there are always the 'buts'.

For the number crunchers there's always this nagging doubt that it's actually going to cost them more. And for the business owners, the worry that 'their data' i.e. their customers, contacts, prospects, profitability, cash flow and so forth is not locked securely within their building but is floating about somewhere up in that 'cloud'.

2011, in Chinese terms, will be the 'Year of the Rabbit' which I have to say sounds a tad unexciting. So, is the Microsoft alternative, '2011 - the year of the cloud', likely to generate some excitement in the IT industry?

For it to really take off, we have to address these concerns and convince the sceptical number crunchers and business owners that we really do have a value for money, credible alternative to a roomful of servers and lots of sophisticated, expensive PCs scattered around the office.

And, perhaps most importantly, we have to convince them that it's not another of the IT industry's cunning ploys to part them from their money. I mean, it's 10 years on and they still haven't forgiven us for the Y2K debacle!

Should we be so surprised when someone says to Turnkey.. 'thank you and well done'?

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:29:00 +0000

While out of the office earlier this week, I picked up an email on my phone letting me know that I had received a letter from a customer. Immediate reaction - something's gone wrong!

How pleased I was to read an extremely pleasant letter congratulating us on a job well done. The letter went on to highlight the fact that our perfomance had been measured on how well we had reacted to a difficult start to the project. To quote "The true value of a company, and the reputation it has, can often only be measured when things go wrong and how the company deals with the situation."

Now, you can probably read into this that we didn't exactly cover ourselves with glory early in the project but two key actions saved the day. First, we put our hands up and advised the customer we had made a mistake with the initial software proposed for them. We were wrong and we would now redouble our efforts to put things right. And second, we delivered on that promise such that the customer is now doubly impressed with us.

We all make mistakes and doing the right thing, being honest and accepting the blame is the best starting point for sorting things out. However, it is a sign of the times that so few customers do stop and sit down to write a well constructed letter, never mind a brief thank you note for a job well done.

NAV Customers have their say on Reporting and Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:39:00 +0000

A worldwide survey of Microsoft Dynamics customers has detailed their use of reporting and analytics.

Conducted by MSDynamicsworld.com, the survey’s 432 respondents offered insight into their desire for improved analytics, challenges in analysing and reporting Dynamics data, problems with offline spreadsheets, highlighted areas for organisational improvement, and barriers to business intelligence.

The survey reveals the challenges Dynamics users face in making better use of data, including reliance on technical staff, the time taken to perform this work, and not having the right tools. “Business users have a clear desire to perform analysis themselves, without relying on technical staff, but aren’t sure how to make this a reality,” the survey concluded.

Significantly, 84% of NAV customers agree their organisation needs to improve its analytical capabilities to remain competitive. 40% of NAV users say achieving growth and recurring business would have a big impact on organisational performance, with achieving operational efficiency, and growth and recurring business, also ranking at 40%. Currently, 25% of NAV customers use reporting tools to analyse their data, 25% use offline spreadsheets, and 18% a business intelligence (BI) solution.

Those NAV users without a BI solution say they don’t have the budget for BI (26%), and BI takes too long to implement and gain a return on investment. 55% of NAV users say using offline reporting and analysis causes problems with accuracy and data integrity.

ZAP Business Analytics has been written specifically to work with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and this cuts the delivery time to days rather than months. To learn more, download our report here – ZAP BI

NAV Customers speak:

Does your organisation need to improve its analytical capabilities to remain competitive?

Top areas where improvements would have the biggest impact on organisational performance:

Important: Those NAV users without a BI solution say they don’t have the budget for BI (26%), and BI takes too long to implement and gain a return on investment. Yet, 55% of NAV users also say using offline reporting and analysis causes problems with accuracy and data integrity.

ZAP Business Analytics has been written specifically to work with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and this cuts the delivery time to days rather than months. As a ZAP Business Partner, Turnkey can assist you to make the most of your data.

To learn more, download our report here – ZAP BI or call us for a demonstration using YOUR data!

Why don't more people use Business Intelligence tools?

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:19:00 +0000

Only 15% of ERP users have a BI solution according to a recent survey.

The well respected ERP portal MSDynamicsworld.com has just completed a survey on business software users' attitudes to BI tools. The survey was a success, with 432 respondents offering insight into their desire for improved analytics, challenges in analyzing and reporting Dynamics data, problems with offline spreadsheets, highlighted areas for organizational improvement, and barriers to business intelligence.

Respondents said that huge amounts of data from Dynamics ERP and CRM applications aren’t being used to effectively solve management challenges. Users want more from their data, with over three-quarters saying they need to improve analytical capabilities to stay competitive.

Dynamics users also said they face challenges in making better use of the data, including reliance on technical staff, the time taken to perform this work, and not having the right tools. “Business users have a clear desire to perform analysis themselves, without relying on technical staff, but aren’t sure how to make this a reality,” the survey concluded.

For example, nearly 72% of respondents said they use spreadsheets for analysis and reporting, but problems arise because they are not connected to the original Dynamics data source. The problems include human errors and data accuracy; the integrity of the data with users having multiple ‘versions of the truth’; and the time it takes to extract the data.

The three big areas identified as most affected by a lack of data access are operational efficiency, containing costs, and managing inventory. Not surprisingly, this differed for CRM customers, who focused on sales improvement.

In other results, the survey found only 15% of respondents actually have a business intelligence solution. The main barriers to getting BI include lack of budget, and a belief that BI takes too long to implement and gain a return on investment. Businesses are also worried about working with their IT departments to implement BI; and are concerned that software be user friendly to minimize the reliance on IT.

ZAP Technology's BI tool was developed specifically for Dynamics NAV and includes a wizard which means that deployment takes no more than a few days. Any schedules in NAV can be ported straight into ZAP and, using drag n drop, users can quickly build a series of dashboards which provide focus on what's going right, and wrong, in their business.

Download the ZAP overview at http://www.turnkey-bs.com/p_BS_KPI_Dashboard.aspx

Fed up receiving emails about non-existent malware? Read on..

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:58:00 +0000

If you work in IT, you probably get a bit fed up hearing about supposed viruses which turn out to be nothing but harmless hoaxes. We've all received those emails marked "URGENT" imploring you not to open such and such a message as it will destroy your hard drives, infect everyone in your contact list, cause the PC monitor to explode, ruin your marriage and eat your children (OK, I made up that last bit).

Well, things seem to have just become a wee bit more serious - word from our infrastructure colleagues here at Turnkey is that there is a particularly clever programme circulating across the world at present.This programme takes on many guises such as XP Anti Malware, XP Defender Pro, and about 20 other different names.

They are picking up instances where users systems have been compromised and their anti-virus and internal software firewalls shut down, even where they had a reasonable level of protection in place. So if you haven't been too concerned about potential attacks, think again and take some extra precautions. Now might be a very good time to speak to TIS (Turnkey Infrastructure Solutions to you and I). Not that I want you diverting any of your IT budget away from software to hardware but, if your system is trashed, then nothing will work. So, be safe.

To verticalise or not to verticalise, that is the question.

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:51:00 +0000

Most long-term Navision resellers (and we've been with NAV since 1996) will tell you that historically it didn't really matter what the client wanted, we could pull it together in Navision. The development environment was just THAT good. Quick to develop and with such great underlying functionality already in place, nothing very much fazed the NAV reseller. So, when we were all urged to go vertical, most of us thought why? We can deliver whatever ANY client wants and at a great price.

But, I have to confess that the last couple of years have changed my view somewhat. Not because the product is any less effective; in fact it's even better now with the introduction of the web tier. No, what's changed is the competition. At one time we would compete with Sage, Access, Sun, Pegasus, Exchequer etc, none of whom could touch NAV as soon as the client's requirements went beyond their "buy it. add a margin and sell it" comfort zone. And, when Microsoft bought NAV, that added to the sense of confidence an organisation could place in its long term IT purchase - it wasn't future proof, but it was as good as you could get!

No, what's changed that there's been a seismic shift of the "if you can't beat it, join it" type. And now, on any bid, we will inevitably find at least one, if not more, 'new' NAV resellers competing with us as well. We're fortunate in that we have around 150 NAV sites so we know our way around the product and have plugged the inevitable functionality gaps. Our standard NAV rollout to customers starts with those gaps filled in i.e. all those little annoying things that, with a bit of NAV know how, we can eliminate from the customer's snagging list before they even realise they exist. However, we have accepted that to win more business, going head to head with the new boys who are trying to make their mark in the NAV marketplace might not be the most efficient use of our skills.

So, we have to take to market some of our bigger, better, tried and tested vertical solutions - tool hire, builders merchants, log management, HR & payroll and professional services. See http://www.turnkey-bs.com/p_BS_VerticalSolutions.aspx

It's all a question of focus now and we have come round to the conclusion that it is time. Time to "get big, get vertical or get out" as they used to say.

See us at the Executive Hire Show - 3rd & 4th February!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Turnkey will be exhibiting our NAV4HIRE rental software at the Executive Hire Show, Ricoh Arena, Coventry from 3rd to 4th February. Further product details are available on the "Solutions for Your Industry" page of our website. See us on stand B105. You can register for tickets at http://www.eventdata.co.uk/Forms/Default.aspx?FormRef=EHS20Visitor

VAT2010 - just when we thought things were settling down!

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Just in case you thought things couldn't get more complicated, along comes another bundle of legislation - VAT2010.

If you buy from or sell to EC companies then be aware your software may not be up to the new legislation. Fortunately Microsoft, the power behind our main accounting product Dynamics NAV, have released the changes necessary to ensure compliance with new rules. Another reason to stick with the main software players it seems.

See more at http://blogs.msdn.com/uknav/archive/2010/01/11/vat2010-report-part-for-nav-2009-sp1.aspx

New Website Launch

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:48:00 +0000

The new website reflecting our discrete business units, all held under the auspices of Turnkey Group Limited, should be live this week. The TCTL World of Business Software blog is unique to Turnkey Business Software Limited but you may well also be able to subscribe to blogs by our IPS team and our Infrastructure team. These should be available for access on their respective micro-sites.

2010 And All That

noreply@blogger.com (DynamicsTCTL) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:11:00 +0000

Major changes are afoot as Turnkey moves into 2010. A reorganisation of the business into 3 new streams means that each unit can focus on what it's good at, while maintaining (and leveraging) the support of the other parts of the organisation. So, we in the Business Software company can work hand in hand with our Infrastructure company and also benefit from the status that Turnkey holds within the accountancy profession - 5,000 users of our IPS software among the leading accountancy firms such as Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, Delotte Touche, KPMG et al means that we're doing something right! So, as we head into 2010, Turnkey Business Software Limited will focus on our status as one of the UK's leading providers of Microsoft Dynamics NAV (or 'Navision' in old money). So, let's believe it's a V shape dip and not a W!