Month: August 2017

Microsoft Dynamics 365 – 6 Signs You Need To Upgrade Your Business Accounting Software

Bobby Varghese

Business leaders are so focused on growing their business that they often neglect the infrastructure needed to support their growing business needs. But, how do you know that you’ve outgrown your current system? Business leaders experience a number of pain points which communicate that it may be the time to upgrade to a more scalable solution, such as Dynamics 365. We’ve compiled a list of 6 such signs and how Dynamics 365 helps you overcome it:

Data Entry, Reporting, and Updating is slow

With the continuous increase in demands, the software systems become slower. A slow performing software acts as a hindrance to your business growth. If you’re continuously waiting for your information to process or reports to be generated, there is a good chance that your software is not able to handle the pressure. Also, if your system freezes occasionally for no apparent reason, that is another sign of your accounting system being outgrown.

Manual entries take up a lot of time

When businesses grow, teams spend most of their time in re-entering sales orders in their accounting software or copying any kind of data between different systems to work on budgets, forecasts and cash flow. These are the signs of accounting systems being pushed out of their capabilities. You should only need to rely on a single system to perform all tasks independently if you want to reduce the heavy drag on time and resources. Also, re-entering the data manually increases the risk of user error.

Reporting is inadequate

An accounting software can store all kinds of information but faces challenges when it comes to presenting the information in the right format. The template-based reporting functionality is very limited to the basic information and as the business grows, the need for a sophisticated, comprehensive, customizable and easy to interpret reports increases in order to suit different business units and purposes. The answer is a fully integrated business management system, like Dynamics 365, that stores and presents the information in the easiest way possible.

Real-time reporting is difficult

Having access to the real-time data is critical to the success of every business. Not having the ability to view your data in real-time increases the risk of errors and missing opportunities to correct errors before they cause too much damage. The right ERP solution can give you your real-time data at your fingertips. It helps business managers make important decisions, effectively manage cash flow and continue to support future growth.

The Data is scattered across multiple systems

The basic, entry-level systems can only support a small number of users. If your accounting system prevents multiple users from operating simultaneously or if it freezes when multiple users are working, there is an urgent need to upgrade your software. Microsoft Dynamics 365 can integrate with 3rd party programs for you to access all your customers, vendors, supply chain, manufacturing, inventory, project, HR and financial data from a single platform.

Lack of useful insights

For any business to succeed in the long run, managers need to know exactly what’s working and what’s not across all operations. If your current accounting system doesn’t integrate with business functions like warehousing, inventory, CRM, etc. there is a chance that it’s holding your business back. An integrated business management system will give your business a 360-degree view of your business while allowing you to perform a detailed analysis to turn information into useful insights which can be used to make important decisions for business growth.

Did you determine that you’ve outgrown your accounting software?

Contact one of our experts today and we will help you find the perfect solution for your business. Write to us at info@sysfore.com or give us a call at +91 (80) 4110 5555.

6 Top Advantages of Cloud CRM services for SMBs

Bobby Varghese

Implementing a Cloud CRM introduces many new ways of doing business. Moving the customer and project data to the Cloud brings multiple benefits that were not accessible with traditional, on-premises CRM solutions.

Before we move on to the advantages, let’s first understand exactly what a Cloud-based CRM means. A Cloud CRM System is any Customer Relationship Management technology where the CRM software, CRM tools, and the organization’s customer data reside in the cloud and are accessed by end-users via web-based tools or a web browser. It is a platform which offers the fastest and most competent way to put the customers at the center of everything a business does. It helps the businesses in sales, marketing, after sales support, community building, etc. In short, it manages your business’ single most important goal – satisfying your customers.

 

So, what are the advantages of Cloud-based CRM?

Easy Installation:

IT leaders feel that the installation process of Cloud-based CRM services is long and complex. It is, in fact, simple and the system can be up and running in no time. All it requires is an internet connection and can be used with a simple sign-in. It saves the costs incurred on hardware, servers and maintaining software. And, as the complex installations, data migrations, upgrades, etc. are done remotely, it also saves on the cost of hiring a permanent IT person on site.

Seamless Access:

One of the greatest advantages of a cloud-based CRM is round-the-clock accessibility. You can maintain a centralized database which can be accessed remotely by you or your colleagues at any time from any device. This helps in better collaboration and offers more flexibility and freedom to keep up with your customer needs on-the-go.

Affordable:

You can pay for Cloud-based CRM services as and when you use them.  This requires minimum upfront investment and reduces risk. Moreover, there are no hidden charges when it comes to buying additional hardware or license fees. All you have to pay is a set monthly fee for using the service. This makes Cloud-CRM the most preferable and optimal solution for small and medium sized enterprises.

Highly Secure:

Customer data security is one of the major reasons why most of the enterprises are wary of adopting a cloud solution. According to Forrester Research, about 51% of the firms don’t opt for a cloud solution only because of security concerns.

Cloud CRM service providers take the responsibility to protect your customers’ confidential information and therefore, take these security concerns very seriously. In fact, the information security levels offered by Cloud servicing companies are higher than any other on-premises server. They offer advanced backup policies and also have clear data recovery plans to fight data breaches.

Flexible:

Businesses with smaller customer base prefer to prefer to start with the limited features that can help them in the current work which is relevant to customer needs. However, as the customer base grows, the company might need more features and advanced modules in their CRM system. In this case, companies can get a bigger, better and more innovative CRM system which can be updated instantly without the need to write a new program.

Enhanced Compatibility:

Today’s IT world demands flexibility in integration and standalone products have little chances of success. Especially in a small business environment, information exchange between already available technologies is of utmost importance. Thus, compatibility with other programs is the key to ensure a CRM system’s longevity and effectiveness.

A Cloud CRM can be easily integrated with email clients, software, and other Microsoft office products making it an appropriate choice for small businesses.

 

The role of cloud-based CRM should be considered as a strategic business enabler. A good cloud CRM system will lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and improve the profitability of the business. And, the right partner can not only make cloud CRM happen for your business but can also fuel your competitive edge in the process.

Do you want to find out how cloud-based CRM can impact your business? Write to our experts at info@sysfore.com or give us a call at +91 (80) 4110 5555 and get free consultation to implement cloud based CRM for your business.

Cloud Implementation Strategy For Legacy Apps

Bobby Varghese

The last decade has witnessed a tremendous growth in Cloud Migration. Today, Cloud Computing has become one of the most disruptive phases in modern IT and an increasing number of enterprises are adopting the trend to realize cost and scale efficiencies. But, CIOs and other technology leaders face numerous challenges while developing a cloud implementation strategy for their organization in order to meet their business goals.

In this article, we will discuss a Cloud Implementation strategy for legacy applications focusing on the common benefits and challenges of these migration processes.

Assess Individual Application Requirements

Before moving a legacy application to the cloud, it is important to assess the requirements of individual applications taking users and organizational needs into consideration. As the migration process is largely invisible to the users, moving a client-server application to the cloud without assessing the outcomes carefully can lead to higher angst among users. This will affect the productivity and can put future application migrations at risk.

Consider the Application Architecture

Move your traditional applications to cloud only if you see an obvious benefit. Cloud offers operationalized economics, improved simplicity and instant scalability but simply moving a traditional client-server based ERP infrastructure to cloud – as a lift-and-shift operation – without taking appropriate connectivity decisions can have disastrous consequences for users. Most database applications handle network latency poorly and shifting just the server side of a client-server application to the cloud will often increase latency beyond tolerable levels. Also, these types of applications were designed with private data centers in mind and rebuilding so much surrounding infrastructure in the cloud can often negate the financial and simplicity benefits.

Decide a Migration Process

Moving your legacy apps can be done in two different ways:

  • Copying the VMs to cloud and restarting them at the provider: This yields the best outcomes when the speed of deployment is the main concern. But there may be some complexities due to the surrounding infrastructure as mentioned earlier.
  • Rebuilding the application environment from scratch: Legacy App migration is a good opportunity to clean up and ensure that the application operating environment adheres to the latest best practices. Thus, it makes sense to rebuild the application environment considering the organizational goals and budget.

Prioritize the Applications before Migrating

Before you migrate your applications to the cloud, decide the order in which you want to “make the move”. Generally, very few organizations can simply migrate all their applications at once. Thus, prioritization is critical. These suggestions will help you prioritize your applications effectively:

  1. Start with non-critical services: Starting with non-critical services will help your staff get an idea about the overall process and learn lessons that can be applied to move critical workloads. You will also learn about how your cloud service provider supports your workloads. This will help you make the required changes as you move your critical applications to the cloud.
  2. Migrate appropriate services to SaaS: For many companies these days, operating local collaboration environments isn’t effective. Moving to SaaS passes the responsibility of managing servers to the service providers and reduces costs by great extent. But, at the same time, many providers might not offer all the features which the companies are currently using. If your company is running a heavily customized environment, do a feature-by-feature analysis and decide if your company can survive after losing a particular feature. Otherwise, prefer to stay local.
    Likewise, cloud-based reporting services can be scaled to almost unlimited capacity and you won’t have to worry about scaling the local compute and storage resources. Thus, replacing your local data analysis services with cloud-based ones would prove helpful.
  3. Decide the applications that will stay local: Finally, account for those applications that need to stay local. It is important to keep the services like DNS, DHCP, and print servers for infrastructure support and one to two domain controllers for authentication purposes. Many companies prefer keeping the critical items local as a risk management strategy. However, this is starting to change with an increase in the robust and secure working environments.

One of the most critical parts of this migration process is choosing the right vendor to work with. It is important to ensure that your cloud vendor has the capabilities to manage and host your cloud enabled applications whilst helping you to control costs, SLAs and security that your business needs.

Sysfore offers your organization an abundance of cloud-relates skills and insights, covering all aspects of the transition to an environment in which legacy systems and cloud services co-exist. Write to our experts at info@sysfore.com or get in touch with us at +91 (80) 4110-5555 to get free consultation!