Rewind ten years and recall that sales tools such as Sales Force Automation were just seeing the light of day.  Today, there’s a plethora of new sales-oriented technologies promising to help teams sell faster, better, and smarter.

But how do you know which sales innovations and best practices are the most effective and can give you the best results and how do you evaluate their potential impact on your sales cycle? Join this FREE live webinar to hear the experts present the 7 biggest sales innovations of the past decade and learn how to unlock their value for your sales team! Join this webinar and find out:

• Top 7 sales innovations from the last decade: unlock their maximum value for sales
• How to use social media effectively to improve prospecting, gain insights, and close deals faster
• How to further leverage timeless sales techniques using new technologies
• How innovative technologies and solutions can help you build greater customer loyalty and service
• And much more…

Date and time—March 25, 2010 at 1:00 – 2:00 EST

Register Now!

Industry Expert and Sage Representative:

Chris Selland—Industry Expert

Independent Contributing Analyst, Focus

Chris’ Profile

Bio:

Chris Selland is an Independent Contributing Analyst for Focus. Mr. Selland is an experienced technology ‘insider’, having spent many years as an Industry Analyst as well as a Business Development and Marketing executive. He has deep domain expertise in the areas of enterprise software, service & CRM strategies as well as technology industry economics, alliance strategies, and corporate development/M&A. Mr. Selland founded Reservoir Partners L.P., a CRM/enterprise software advisory & consulting firm in 2001, which merged in 2004 with Aberdeen Group (acquired by Harte-Hanks) where he served as Vice President of Sell-Side Research. Mr. Selland also served as an M&A/market advisor for Covington Associates, an Investment Bank specializing in Mergers & Acquisitions in the enterprise software and services industries. He also served as Vice President of e-Business Strategies at the Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm which was acquired by Reuters. In addition to his role as a Focus Expert, he blogs frequently on technology trends and companies for StockTwits and SiliconANGLE. Mr. Selland is past President of the Customer Relationship Management Association (CRMA). In addition, he has been frequently quoted in major business and industry publications, and is a past member of the CRM Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. He is an accomplished public speaker and presenter, having chaired and spoken at numerous leading industry conferences.

Bill Hoffman—Sage Representative

Bio:
Bill Hoffman is the CRM Evangelist for mid-market ERP products at Sage. A veteran in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Bill has spent the last 18 years focusing on business process management. He is responsible for the strategic development, deployment, and management of SageCRM partner training and sales.

In his prior role as director of hosted services and partner development, Bill was responsible for establishing the operational infrastructure of the hosted product line to increase partner sales success. More recently, Bill turned to time management, productivity enhancement, and social networking as they relate to CRM/ERP technology in his quest to help businesses and people fulfill their goals.

He has extensive experience in team building and leadership, customer service, sales, marketing, product management, and most recently the sales of end-to-end business applications. During his 12 years with Sage, Bill has rounded out his experience by serving as director of customer support, product management, and partner development, as well as roles in marketing, technical support, and sales.

Register Here.

How Businesses Can Innovate, Become More Efficient & Drive Real Growth in 2010

FREE Webinar – Register Now!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

10AM PST / 1PM EST

A streamlined, highly responsive IT organization that saves money and increases the value of technology investments is no longer an aspiration but a business imperative.  Join us to learn how your organization can deploy and use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software effectively to improve performance and consistently put the right information into the hands of decision makers.

Join this free live Focus.com webinar and hear from industry leaders as they discuss 3 strategies for using your ERP to improve productivity, increase efficiencies, control costs and unlock visibility across your business.

You will learn:

• 3 game-changing strategies for using ERP to drive innovation, efficiency and revenue growth this year
• How your business can maximize an ERP system to adapt more quickly, develop and manage new and innovative business models and processes, and compete in the new economy
• Practical tips to improve performance across your Sales, Finance and IT teams

A Chance to Win
Live attendees will be entered for a chance to win an iPod Nano. One winner will be selected from the audience by random drawing.* If you’re interested but can’t attend the live event, register today and we will send you a link to the on-demand archive when available.

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Katherine Jones is President of Independent Consulting Services, a Bay area company focusing on marketing content, strategies, research and analysis. Her current research covers strategies in workforce planning and optimization. Previously, Dr. Jones has held Director of Marketing roles in the ERP business, providing integrated ERP solutions as a hosted service to middle market enterprises. She was a research director at Aberdeen Group in Boston for eight years, focusing on research on ERP and mid-market companies. Her focus there was on the fundamental processes of business operations and strategy, and the effects of technological change and innovation on these processes within the global organization. She has written widely on many areas of technology and business practices. A veteran in enterprise applications, Ms. Jones has been responsible for technical product marketing and strategic alliance management in several computer companies since 1984. She founded Independent Consulting Services in 1994 to provide marketing services to high tech companies. Prior to a high technology career, Dr. Jones was a university dean, involved in academic administration, research, and teaching. Dr. Jones is a frequent speaker and is widely published in the U.S. and abroad.

Erik Kaas is Director of Product Management for Mid Market ERP products at Sage. He is responsible for managing the product life cycle from strategic planning to tactical activities. Erik manages a team of product managers responsible for specifying market requirements for current and future products. The product management team conducts market research supported by customer visits to ensure that engineering develops and releases products based on the needs of customers. Prior to Sage, Erik was responsible for product management at Pivotal Corporation, a provider of CRM solutions for mid market enterprises. He holds a Master in Computer Science degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands) and a Master of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University (Canada).

Michael Oliver-Goodwin is a Contributing Editor for Focus. He is a widely published writer and an experienced editor for publications, including PC World, MacWeek and InfoWorld.

*Employees of associated companies are not eligible for drawing. Person must live in the US or Canada to be eligible. Winner is chosen at random. Winner will be notified at the conclusion of the live webinar. One prize will be given out per person selected from the drawing.

With so many anti-forensic tools and tricks out there, how can you be sure data is really deleted? While most people can delete a file, empty their recycle bin and uninstall programs – many don’t realize that the files they think are gone can be easily recovered with the use of ‘data carving’ tools. So, how can you permanently delete files? If you plan to sell or recycle a computer this is information you need to know.

In an article on csoonline.com, Corporate Investigations Manager Brandon Gregg lists the top three free programs you can access via the internet to ensure you are safe from the future users of your old computer. CCleaner, Eraser and Darik’s Boot and Nuke will each ensure that old files and information are gone for good.

CCleaner is a freeware program with multiple helpful tools. It can:

• Locate and remove unused files from your system, freeing up disk space and making your computer run faster.
• Permanently delete your internet history.
• Completely clean your registry using advanced features.

Eraser is a free and advanced open source security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Additionally it can wipe your ‘empty’ hard drive space. With this program you can set up instant or regularly scheduled erases of individual files, folders and drives.

Derik’s Boot and Nuke, or DBAN is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers by automatically and completely deleting the contents of any hard disk it can detect. In his article Brandon warns, “Please do not use Boot and Nuke if you aren’t knowledgeable about computers; you can turn your computer into a brick.” Therefore we also do not recommend you use it without professional assistance unless you plan to recycle and never use the computer again.

Like any good habit, these and other system cleaning programs only work if you use them consistently. Additionally, don’t forget about your external hard drives, thumb drives, and other storage devices where you may keep sensitive information.

To read the article, “How to Protect Your Privacy from Computer Forensics”, click here.

Disaster Recovery. This is a great topic for this week when much of the country has been inundated with severe winter weather. With earthquakes, tsunamis and blizzards, not to mention fires, floods and thefts – Disaster Recovery plans have become a non-negotiable necessity for companies today.

In their 5th consecutive annual report, Symantec’s 2009 Disaster Recovery Report shows improvement in the numbers of organizations who are implementing, testing and even using their DR plans. Of those surveyed, 93 percent said that they have had to put their DR plans to work, and that on average it takes 3 hours to achieve skeleton operations, and four hours to be completely up and running. This is a dramatic improvement over 2008’s report which showed 3 percent of respondents achieving skeleton operations within 12 hours, and 31 percent believing they could have complete operations within one day.

The number of CIO, CTO and IT Directors on DR committees increased from 33 percent in 2008 all the way up to 70 percent in 2009. That’s an excellent improvement.

With budgets for Disaster Recovery reportedly much higher in 2009, more companies are prepared for the unexpected. However the main issues that still remain are the testing and back up of virtual systems. Of those that tested their system, 25 percent failed. Additionally one third of those surveyed said that they don’t test their virtual environments regularly, and even more noted that they don’t regularly back them up. The only way to ensure your Disaster Recovery Plan will work is to be consistent, back up your data and test your systems and plan. Those that do will have a distinct advantage over their competitors.

To read more about the findings in an article on csoonline.com, click here.
To read Symantec’s Disaster Recover Research Report, or the key findings, click here.

On Monday, January 4th, Salesforce.com’s customers experienced some unscheduled downtime. This is another glitch in the arena of Cloud Computing / SaaS (Software as a Service), which may make some already weary users even more uncomfortable. While the technology and the idea behind Saas are good, we need to remember that it is still relatively new, and there will be some challenges to work through before it can be perfected.

In a post last year we discussed Saas / Cloud Technology and would like to revisit it here…

Recently Microsoft® and their subsidiary Danger (a cloud computing service) sustained a major blow when their new Smartphone, Sidekick for T-Mobile, suffered a service outage causing an unknown number of users to lose all of their data. While at first it appeared as though the data would be unrecoverable, Microsoft was apparently able to create a tool with which customers can restore their contacts, however they are continuing to work around the clock to help customers restore the rest of their data including photos, notes, and to do lists. With this recent scare, added to the list of growing cloud computing glitches including: two outages for Google Gmail in September; PayPal’s crash in August; and Window’s Azure in March, users are concerned about data safety.

However, there are many advantages to using a hosted solution including web services integration, analytics, offline access, automated upgrades and real time reporting, to name a few. But there is good news! With Sage’s ‘Freedom of Choice’ option, you are able to move easily form hosted to on-site or even back to hosted again. Choose from an on-premise implementation which includes front to back office integration, the ability to support a large number of users, off-line access, and a virtually limitless scope for customization, or a hosted implementation which provides a risk free application with predictable budgeting and a limited amount of necessary configuration – and the added benefit of the option to convert to a server at any time.

Ultimately if the Cloud Computing and SaaS industries can work through the glitches they have been experiencing, they will be of great benefit to small businesses who can save a good deal of money with reduced costs on expensive hardware, software and maintenance. While the technology and the idea behind Saas are good, we need to remember that it is still relatively new, and there will be some challenges to work through before it can be perfected. It is also important to note that any company can experience similar operational problems internally. Hopefully Saas and other Cloud Vendors will be able to overcome their current challenges and increase their uptime rates, provide better information to consumers, and invite and act on customer feedback.

To read more about the Salesforce.com outage, click here.

In today’s competitive environment, sharing information and expertise can be critical in driving organizational success. To foster innovation, it’s important to create collaboration communities of employees, as well as customers and partners “outside the firewall.” The Culture of Collaboration is about changing business models and organizational DNA. Collaborative organizations promote sharing over hoarding, trust over fear and community over isolation. With these and other values, we can more easily replace linear, serial business models with concurrent, real-time approaches that are infinitely more compelling. Managers may blame the lack of collaboration on technological shortcomings. And, in fact, technology plays a role. In most cases, however, the overwhelming reason why collaboration eludes organizations involves culture. The fundamental premise is that maximizing time, talent and tools to create value requires a Culture of Collaboration.

An excellent example of a company with of this kind encouraged collaboration is 3M. Quite possibly best known for Post-its and tape, 3M is actually in the business of just about everything from health care, to safety, security and protection services, display and graphics and consumer, office business products and more. 3M is a science-based company producing thousands of imaginative products worldwide and bases their success largely on the collaboration of their employees, applying their technologies to meet real-world customer needs.

In an article on Businessweek.com, we found an inspiring story of how this encouragement produced some fantastic results when Sumita Mitra, a corporate scientist working in the research lab of 3M ESPE (the company’s dental products division) recognized a need in the marketplace for a dental composite material that was both strong as well as polishable. At that time there were materials that had one attribute or the other, but not both. Due to the encouraged collaboration environment at 3M, not only did Sumita find the information she needed, but she was actually able to meet another scientist, William Schultz who was able to help her develop the new product she had in mind.

Some of the great ideas implemented by 3M which allowed Sumita to achieve success included: a web-based social network that helped her find someone she could get more information from as well as the ability to work with a scientist from another department for several months in order to create the new product.

To read Business Week’s article, click here.
To read more about 3M, click here.

Don Thomson is one of the co-founders and lead developer of  the former Accpac Internationl now Sage Accpac ERP. An insightful blog article from Don is is referenced here:

Today’s press releases, such as “MySpace dumps server hard disks for flash drives” may not seem to have any relationship with Accpac. It does. If you follow certain lines of reasoning, flash drives could mean massively faster performance characteristics for Accpac.

Use of solid state technology (flash drives) is another example of a sea-change in the software industry being driven by iPod users’ insatiable demand for more storage. The personal computer (IT) industry no longer drives storage technology. It is all about iPods capable of storing more music and more movies – using solid state (flash drive) technology.

You may say that new technology is also driving down hard drive prices. Yes, you can get a terabyte drive for a few hundred dollars. Who uses tape backup systems anymore? Just kidding – half of our customers still do. But Accpac users don’t typically need a terabyte. Many of our clients run Accpac quite happily with 2Gb or 4Gb or 10Gb databases. Hello – you can buy a 16Gb flash drive for less than $200. Okay, MySpace is not using $200 data-sticks – but the technology is the same.

Why has MySpace switched to solid state? They have a need-for-speed. Rather than bulking up on RAM caches for their databases, why not just have faster solid state storage? The RAM can only really speed up queries – database updates still need to be “written through” to non-volatile storage – and at some point, a larger cache means slower, not faster performance. Does it make sense to have 16Gb of RAM for a 4Gb database?

How much faster could Accpac be in a flash drive configuration? It could be a lot – as well as hardware transfer speed and latency, there is another line of reasoning based on relational database optimization strategies. Times are changing and it’s always fun to watch”

Source: Thomson, Don. “Faster Accpac Performance.” donthomson.wordpress.com October 20, 2009.

Repetitive patterns in sales and after-market response can be a great focal point when making crucial business decisions. Unfortunately, today’s ever changing business conditions prove that it is anything but repetitive. With business and economic leaders competing for a bigger share of the market, it is vital that you gain the upper hand by making more informed choices with the use of a reliable business analytical tool, such as Sage Accpac Insight.
When you talk about predicting sales patterns, it goes without saying that you also have to look at past performances. Analyzing key points in market behavior allows business owners to formulate a strategy, thus improving their chances of getting a bigger slice of the pie, so to speak.
This is where your reporting and analytical tool comes in. The ability to review and analyze metrics gives your business that much needed edge.
As such a tool, Sage Accpac Insight, for example, allows you to do just that. You can gather critical sales and operational data, customer and vendor information, product and marketing performances, and integrate them into any variable number of flexible reports that can be easily distributed all throughout your business organization. These operational reports are vital in making well-informed business decisions.
In today’s extremely competitive market, the ability to analyze and distribute sales and operational data quickly and effectively the way Sage Accpac Insight can is a definite plus. From capital investments to return of investments and even up to after-market evaluation, fast and efficient reporting through business intelligence solutions like Sage Accpac Insight can really make all the difference.
In addition, Sage offers business owners the ability to incorporate and streamline Sage Accpac Insight with Sage Accpac or any other related accounting software conveniently and effectively. This allows business owners to make financial reports and perform accurate budget analysis, which is of equal importance as managing their sales metrics comprehensively.
As the leading business moguls demand more insightful information about the competition and market patterns, the need for business intelligence software such as Sage Accpac Insight has become increasingly widespread. Knowledge through skilled information gathering and efficient reporting is the key to achieving a considerably huge advantage in today’s ever changing business and economic conditions.

With many companies putting off their much needed IT upgrades over the last few years due to the recession, it’s no surprise that a recent poll showed a large percentage of CFO’s looking to spend their recovery money in that area. A poll by Robert Half Management Resources surveyed 1,400 CFO’s and 40% of them said they were likely to invest in IT once the economy stabilizes.

An interesting note is that while putting off investing in IT may seem like a good idea up front, many can save money and improve several operational processes – putting them at a greater advantage in this economy. Paul McDonald, Executive Director of Robert Half Management stated, “While finance executives may remain cautious about making bold new expenditures, updating their IT systems can help improve risk management, increase operational efficiencies and regulatory compliance.” Ultimately, the big picture should be considered when looking at current and future business investments.

For more, click here.

SystemLink has drawn the map you need to help you ensure your year-end processes arrive at their destination. Below is your Year-End Sage Accpac Road Map. We encourage you to read through this and contact us if you need any assistance along the way.

• Back up your data!
• Update your date. Before processing transactions in 2010, be sure to create a new fiscal calendar in Common Services.
• Double-check your settings (to avoid deleting your history). Before closing your fiscal year in the General Ledger, check your settings for the number of years of fiscal sets and transactions that will be saved. Any fiscal sets and transactions that are older than the number of years noted will be deleted. You can find this setting in your General Ledger Setup Options.
• Import your budget. You can import your budget into the Sage Accpac General Ledger using an Excel Spreadsheet. Save hours of tedious data entry by using this feature in Sage ACCPAC.
• Prepare your 1099. Print your 1099’s right out of the Sage Accpac Accounts Payable. Use this time saving feature even if your 1099 amounts aren’t correct as you can easily correct the values prior to printing.
• Update Your Payroll Tax Tables. If you subscribe to the Payroll Update Plan, you can download the current payroll tax tables for 2010 by visiting www.sageaccpac.com.
• Activate the latest Tax Tables. Be sure to go to Administrative Services and activate your tax table after you downloaded and install the latest tax tables!

Budgeting for 2010? As you may have read earlier in this newsletter, the new version of Sage Accpac ERP v.5.6 was released this month. It’s chalked full of enhancements that will be extremely beneficial for your company in the coming year. Additionally, if you need any help with your planing, or would like our assistance in regards to your backup database, creating a new fiscal calendar, closing out your fiscal year, or any other year end processes – give us a call. We’d be happy to help!