7 Steps for Moving to the Cloud Without Creating a Tornado.

Transcription

1 Session 7 4 4:50 pm 2014 California Accounting & Business Conference LAX Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles 1 CPE Credit 7 Steps for Moving to the Cloud Without. Doug Sleeter, President The Sleeter Group, Inc., Pleasanton, CA

2 7 Steps to Moving to the Cloud Without Doug Sleeter Follow on sleetergroup The Sleeter Group 800 Member Accounting Consulting Group Author Textbooks and Reference Guides Consultant to Software Developers Doug Sleeter CPA Practice Advisor Columnist, Successful Small Business Consulting Top 25 Thought Leaders, Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting for Follow on dougsleeter Small Business Influencer Small Business Influencer Champion 2013 Doug Sleeter 1

3 Opportunity Knocks Are you prepared to walk your clients through the move to the cloud when they ask for it? 85% Of SMBS want proactive, strategic advice from their accountant but only 24% say they receive it. 57% Of SMBS want business planning and strategic advice in addition to tax and accounting. Source: What SMBs Want, March 2014 Research Report, The Sleeter Group, Inc. 7 Steps to Moving to the Cloud without 1. Lead & Build a Team 2. Take Inventory 3. Evaluate 4. Plan 5. Deploy 6. Measure 7. Decommission, Document & Archive Doug Sleeter 2

4 OPT IN And LEAD Step One: Opt In and Lead FORM A CHANGE TEAM Get Buy In Find Strong Leaders Involve Front Line Employees If you skip this step, you may find yourself a lone crusader in your firm. Doug Sleeter 3

5 Step One: Opt In and Lead Create a CLEAR VISION Be succinct Why Change is Necessary What Pain You re Solving Envision Success Make sure the whole team embraces the vision. TAKE INVENTORY Doug Sleeter 4

6 Step Two: Take Inventory Make a complete list of all your business processes. Nu. Process Current Solution Premise Cloud Pain Point 1 Accounting QuickBooks remote 2 Online Bill Payment Bill.com 3 Document Vault/Storage SmartVault 4 Ecommerce Bigcommerce Secure Digital Downloads 5 Payroll ZenPayroll 6 Tracking Customer Activity Zoho CRM Integration & Analytics Be thorough. List Interdependencies of each solution. Where could they break? HR Solutions Bill Pay Ecommerce Marketing Analytics Payroll Online Banking Merchant Account Campaigns General Ledger CRM TAKE INVENTORY Business Processes & Solutions Doug Sleeter 5

7 FOCUS BEYOND ACCOUNTING External Add ons Merchant Account(s) Service Based Time, Billing, Projects, Job Costing, Subscription Billing Digital Plumbing Product Based Inventory Management, Fulfillment, Order Management Ecommerce Non Profit Funds, Programs, Grants, Projects Project Location 57 Step Two: Take Inventory MEASURE COSTS (PAIN) $ and people costs of maintaining systems Doug Sleeter 6

8 Step Two: Take Inventory Focus on the areas for improvement General Ledger/Accounting CRM Payroll Payments Desktop Accounting System Desktop Contact Management Desktop Payroll Software or Service w/ Paper Checks Enter Bill, Pay Bill, Print Check Hosted Desktop or SaaS Accounting Fully Integrated CRM, Social and Online Payroll Solution Digital Invoices, approvals, Scheduling payments via web portal Step Two: Take Inventory Focus on the areas for improvement Online Sales Expense Reporting Collaborative Documents Manual Data Entry Brick and Mortar Storefronts Expense Reports on Paper and Excel File Sharing PC to PC ( or LAN) Software Tricks in Desktop Apps Ecommerce Shopping Carts Online e travel and Expense Management Cloud Document Sharing Managing Automated Web based Data Flows Doug Sleeter 7

9 Step Two: Take Inventory Focus on the areas for improvement Communications Access to Information Remote Worker Access Secure Data Transmission Letters and Brochures in the mail Paper Documents in File Cabinets VPN Access Certified Mail of Printed Documents , Tweets, Blogs, Facebook and enewsletters Digital Documents in Web Vaults, attached to transactions in the GL and the CRM Multi tenant Cloud Based Apps Encrypted Secure Transmission of Files via the web Recheck Your Assumption Can you stick with desktop or is just not working for your business? Multi Location? Remote Workers? Mobile Access? Mired in Manual Solution? Lack of visibility/control on business? Are you constrained from growing the business? Are your current processes impeding your success? Doug Sleeter 8

10 Evaluate Solutions Step Three: Evaluate Solutions EVALUATE NEW CLOUD SOLUTIONS Doug Sleeter 9

11 Step Three: Evaluate Solutions Marketing Departments Say what products do Step Three: Evaluate Solutions But quite often products don t do what they say. Doug Sleeter 10

12 Step Three: Evaluate Solutions The Buck Stops with You. Step Three: Evaluate Solutions Resist Intoxication of Great Demos EVALUATE RESIST STRESS TEST Don t Underestimate Impact on: The whole System Process Reengineering Staff Training Doug Sleeter 11

13 Step Three: Evaluate Solutions TALK TO THE PEOPLE Plan Implementation Doug Sleeter 12

14 Step Four: Plan Implementation Smart Phone 44 Which Processes will Change? Which Data Sets will Change? What Order to Make Changes? Which Staff to Involve at Each Step? Timing for Each Conversion Testing Staff Training Step Four: Plan Implementation Business Process Changes: Which, How, Who, When? Process AR Which Businesses Processes Who is Affected Old Solution Sage 50 QuickBooks Pro QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop New Solution Sage One Xero QBO Hosted Desktop New Process Bank Feeds, New Reconcile Process, No Classes Bank Feeds, New Banking Process, No Job Costs, Limited Sales Tax Bank Feeds, New Banking Process, Limited Sales Tax Log on to remote server, software remains the same Staff Affected Bookkeeper Bookkeeper Bookkeeper Bookkeeper None (or Excel) Wave Online software to track all transactions Bookkeeper QuickBooks Desktop Bill.com AP Sage 50 Bill.com Payroll QuickBooks Basic Payroll Zenpayroll Paperless, Electronic Invoicing, Reminders, Payments, Sync with Accounting Paperless, Approval Workflow, Sync with Accounting Paperless, Employee Portal, Direct Deposit, New Workflows for liability payments Timesheets None (or Excel) T Sheets Web based time and attendance Job Costing QuickBooks Desktop QBO Similar functions, Different Reports, Tricks for Estimates Bookkeeper, Approvers Bookkeeper, Approvers Payroll Admin, Employees Employees, Approvers, Bookkeeper Bookkeeper Doug Sleeter 13

15 Step Four: Plan Implementation Conversion Dependency List Identify Chicken Egg Scenarios Make Conversion Dependency List 1. GL 2. Merchant Acct 3. Payroll 4. Shopping Cart 5. AR/AP 6. Timesheets 7. Recurring Billing or 1. Recurring Billing 2. Payroll 3. GL 4. Merchant Acct 5. AR/AP 6. Timesheets 7. Shopping Cart Step Four: Plan Implementation Preparing the Data for Transition List Cleanup Customers, Vendors, Accounts, Items Clean Up Financial Data Before Moving Decide How Much Old Data to Convert Just Opening Balances? 1 yr? 2yrs? Reduce Data Set in Original Program? (Condense.) Inventory Cleanup Physical Inventory Print GL, and Other Reports to PDF and Store Export Data to Format Needed by New System Complete Backup of Original Data Doug Sleeter 14

16 DEPLOY New Systems And Verify Step Five: Deploy New Systems and Verify DEPLOY NEW SYSTEMS Schedule Go Live (Slowest Business Days/ Weeks) Ensure Staff Availability (Overtime may be required) Have a Fall Back Plan (In case Murphy s Law applies.) Doug Sleeter 15

17 Step Five: Deploy New Systems and Verify VERIFY ALL CORE BUSINESS PROCESSES ASAP Transactions Digital Plumbing Merchant Accounts Bank Feeds Reports (financial and management reports) MEASURE Results Doug Sleeter 16

18 Step Six: Measure Results Measure Changes and Evaluate Is Staff More Efficient? Is Data More Reliable? Are Manual Processes Reduced/ Eliminated? Stay Agile, but be Patient (If it s not better, adjust.) Decommission, Document & Archive Doug Sleeter 17

19 Step Seven: Decommission, Document & Archive Decommission & Document Wait for a Full Business Cycle to Complete At least 1 Calendar Quarter After All Reconciliations, Tax Reports, Etc. After Stress Testing New Archive Old Systems Decommission Hardware as Appropriate Stop Automatic Fees/Charges in Old System Document the Transition Note significant changes to old vs. new processes Document the Process Make it Repeatable Go for DISCUSSION THANK YOU Continue the conversation Doug Sleeter 18