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In today’s electronically connected world information security is vital to our financial security both in the workplace and at home. This means we have to juggle multiple user names and passwords. Here are a few ideas on making your passwords hard to crack and easy to remember.

First - don’t make it obvious (like leaving the combination to your brief case as “0000”). “P@ssword” or “passw0rd” or even “p@ssw0rd567” will be guessed.

Second - don’t use words and numbers that are easily associated with you. If you were born in July of 1985 “0785” is a bad pin for your bank card. “julie0785” is and equally poor password for your online credit card accounts.

Third - Don’t share your passwords. Many hackers use social engineering to obtain access. Rather than trying to pick a lock they will ask for the key. This could be as simple as a phone call from someone claiming to be with your bank asking you to reset your password.

Fourth – Don’t make them all the same!

So what makes a password good?

One – use lengthy passwords.

And two - mix lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and special characters. If my password is four characters long and contains only lower then there are 23,751 possible combinations. It won’t take long for a quickly written program to try 23,751 possibilities even if it has to wait 15 minutes after every three tries. If I include uppercase characters then the number of possibilities becomes 341,055. Make it an eight character password with upper case and lower case letter and the possible combinations increases to 2,217,471,389. Adding numbers and special characters only increases the possible combinations.

So how do I remember that password? Make it something you can remember. If my bank is Applewood State Bank then I might think “Applewood” is like “apple seed” like “Johnny Appleseed.” Then I might make my password “Johnny”. To make it more complex I can choose to replace the “o” with a zero, the “y” with an “i3” (using the 3 for the “e”) and capitalizing the “H”: “j0Hnni3”.

Pick simple substitutions.

Another trick is to pick the lyrics from a song. You can even use a song you don’t like. I’m not a fan of “Hotel California” by the Eagles. I could use the line “This could be heaven or this could be hell.” mangle it a little; “This could be Denver or this could be Cleveland.” (Sorry Cleveland, nothing personal) Take the first letter of each word, “tcbdotcbc”. Mangle that a little “tcbD0tcbC”.

A little imagination can make passwords easy. And, the only downside is that you may start typing numbers for characters.

Ch33rs,

Tud0r

Why do we care about Cloud Computing and Mobility?

Where are you now?  Are you at your desktop?  Are you reading this on a tablet?  A phone?  What is your preference?

The same considerations need to be made when considering your consumption of business data.  Let's face it, we are all (or at least in my circle of friends and colleagues) afflicted with some sort of attention disorder.  Most of us, as business people, will be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that we live, breathe and eat business.  That means that during our business meetings someone will bring up a topic and we'll wonder to ourselves "how is my cash position?" or how are my "receivables"?  How we answer that depends on where we are at and which device we have at our disposal.  

Microsoft at their highly successful Convergence 2012 with a record attendance of 10,500 people, announced that their strategy is to provide many new applications that are development platform agnostic in order to answer your most pressing questions.  Microsoft announced an 'all of the above' strategy that means that they will no longer limit their apps to just one platform or development environment.  This means that Microsoft will no longer box themselves in with just the tools that they, themselves, have created.  

Instead, as you will see with Windows 8 and other deployments of the OS that Microsoft will deliver to you the content most meaningful and in the most used platforms.  Therefore, you won't be limited to consuming the information on a Windows device but instead, on any device.

Couple this with increasing scrutiny of Droid and iPad applications and you will find that the future of mobile applications will change the way you perform your work today and well into the future.  Stay tuned for additional reviews of Microsoft apps and how they affect business today and tomorrow.

I recently came across an article called “Building the business case for a server refresh,” written by Daniel Eason, an IT Executive who strategized how to justify a hardware refresh to stakeholders and decision makers. A typical refresh should take place every 3-4 years, however, when the economy dipped in 2008, many companies have put off upgrading hardware. In this blog article, I will discuss that although his reasoning for a server refresh is sound, moving to a Cloud environment better answers his points as well as providing a solution to where a server refresh never has to be considered again. First, let’s look at an excerpt from his article and his main points when presenting the argument for a server refresh. To see the whole article click the link below: http://searchvirtualdatacentre.techtarget.co.uk/tip/Building-the-busines...

“Server refresh strategies can be difficult to justify to business stakeholders. And when your existing servers were approved only three or four years ago, building a solid business case for new purchases gets even more difficult. Another challenge is gaining trust among stakeholders, especially when the perception is that a server refresh strategy has been proposed purely for technology’s sake and not to benefit the business.”

“When building a business case, consider the following factors:”
• Operational cost reductions
• Maintenance cost avoidance
• Service reliability
• Better server consolidation ratios
• Application licensing
• Breaking the vicious cycle

I do not disagree with this article in that the typical server refresh time frame should be every 3-4 years. Hardware, like anything else has a lifespan. Pressing it beyond that, in the long run, costs you more money because it needs more maintenance and is not as efficient as it could be. With all of the advances in technology including servers and computer hardware, each of the arguments are grounded in fact and in the long run will benefit the company. However, what this article does not touch on is that in another 3-4 years the company will have another large capital expenditure negating the savings you gain. The main objective of his article is to give pointers to IT professionals to break the vicious cycle of putting off server refreshes past the recommended 3-4 year time frame. I argue that you consider breaking the vicious cycle of refreshing hardware ever again by moving your business applications to the Cloud. In this article, let’s take each of his arguments and apply them to Cloud Computing and prove why moving to the Cloud is a better answer than just a server refresh.

Operational Cost reductions
Moving to the Cloud means you pay a monthly per user fee for business applications on hosted virtualized servers. This also means that you no longer have to house servers on premise and can reallocate your IT staff while diverting cost savings to another area of your business. This has a much greater impact on operational costs than simply refreshing servers for lower power consumption and connectivity costs.

Maintenance Cost Avoidance
By moving business applications to the Cloud, in most instances you no longer have to pay maintenance costs. Maintenance costs are usually necessary when applications are deployed on premise. In a cloud hosted environment, the service provider is responsible for all maintenance costs and upkeep to the system.

Service Reliability
All Cloud environments have an uptime guarantee through a SLA (Service Level Agreement). For example, our NjevityToGo Cloud environment guarantees 99.9% uptime. That means that during a given year, there can be no more than 8.75 hours of unscheduled downtime. This is provided by redundant power sources, redundant connectivity and failover processes that provide users with maximum uninterrupted service. When you really think about it, you probably experience more downtime than this when hardware is housed on premise being serviced by a full time IT staff.

Better server consolidation ratios
One of the biggest advantages of Cloud Computing is gained through economies of scale. Economies of scale refers to reduction in costs as the size and usage levels of other inputs increase. In cloud computing, through pooling application users and maximizing server space through virtualization, costs are reduced and savings are passed along to the users.

Application licensing
Through advances in virtualization, the ability to pool application resources allows for monthly pricing opposed to having to actually purchase software licenses. Rather than owning the software, you pay for software as a service for a low monthly fee. Another advantage of deploying in the cloud is the ability to scale users as needed. In addition, upgrading business application software to the current version is simpler and more cost effective in the cloud than having to purchase and re-implement the latest version of software on premise.

Breaking the vicious cycle
Server refreshes are a vicious cycle that should be done every 3-4 years. The author’s point is once your business puts off a server refresh, they will continue on the vicious cycle of thinking it is ok to keep putting it off. However, you can break the vicious cycle of a server refreshes all together by moving to the Cloud where you will never have to worry about another server refresh again.

The takeaway is that although refreshing servers is important if your business has an on premise deployment strategy, Cloud Computing is a much simpler and more cost effective way to deploy business applications. Even with the significant advantages presented, IT’s biggest objection to moving to the Cloud is, “data is not secure.” Check out the link to a previous blog article I wrote that addresses these security concerns and why IT may not be as objective as you think when considering the Cloud. http://njevity.com/blog/how-secure-your-premise-application

Professional Services employees make up a large demographic of our workforce.  They are architects, engineers, contractors and consultants like me.  We are a highly mobile workforce, often flying to work on projects or working at our client’s offices.  This creates a need for us to be able to manage our work, projects, resources and time from anywhere.  However, most solutions for project management, until today, have been legacy technology with very little mobility built in.

Today, Acumatica’s version 3.0 is available.  Acumatica has significantly augmented their application with numerous new features that improve business intelligence, customer processing and most notably Project Accounting.  Project Accounting and its associated capabilities such as time and expense entry, allocation processing, billing and project management are critical functions for someone in a professional services role.  For the professional, mobility is critical. 

The typical workday of a professional begins with reviewing the tasks he or she must complete.  In Acumatica 3.0, this is accomplished by viewing the Activities that are assigned to the professional in CRM.  Yes, I said, in CRM.  Under Business Accounts we now have the capability of assigning professionals to a project and task, identifying the date and time due and its billable flag.  These activities will drive the daily work of a professional and give them one-stop guidance on what must be completed today.  Once the activity is marked “complete”, the billable time is automatically transferred to the professional’s timecard.  This productivity advantage is sure to improve the lives of consultants and others who have previously been frustrated with having to duplicate activities into timecards for billing purposes. 

Acumatica, the company, has spent a considerable amount of time and energy with this release.  Upon my review of the project accounting system, it is apparent that true to their reputation, they have released a functionally complete system.   The system includes projects, tasks, account groupings, resource management and billing.  This is critical to the cash flow of a professional services firm.  Routinely, billings are only processed once or twice a month.  Therefore it is essential that professionals are able to quickly enter their time, accounting can quickly allocate and bill thus giving the project manager the best information on budget vs. actual reporting. 

From Project Templates to full integration of GL, Inventory and all classes of billable and non-billable time, you will instantly recognize the value of the features added for project accounting.  The advanced billing, enhanced revenue recognition and updated allocation engine will provide your business with automated billing as well as revenue recognition based on completion percentage or on completed tasks.  Further visibility will give you the management of unbilled revenue and ultimate markup flexibility. 

Natively, Acumatica is browser-independent.  The Acumatica user interface will run equally well in Safari, Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer.  The true power is the delivery of business intelligence to the tablet, iPad or any other device that a project manager or executive uses.  The project executives can login and track the project profitability in real-time on the device they are most familiar.  Combine the browser independence with the Employee Portal and now the professional has no reason to delay their timecard and expense entry.  This means that the accounting department can bill quickly and improve the cash flow of the firm.  

For marketing, advertising and promotional firms with a Mac platform, Acumatica is your best option for a project accounting system that will run fast, in your Safari browser and will not require any special software.  This means that finally, your business can standardize on Macs, without exception, while still providing the entire project accounting functions needed.

In conclusion, Acumatica 3.0 is the real-deal in project accounting in the Cloud.  My recommendation for companies considering a new project accounting system is to work with a trusted advisor who can help you determine what your requirements are and how well Acumatica will meet those requirements.  For complete information and online demonstrations, visit www.acumatica.com

About The Author

About The Author

Robert Houdeshell is an ERP and CRM Expert with experience in Dynamics SL (Solomon) and Acumatica.  He has provided product management leadership for Solomon Software, Made2Manage Systems, FRx Software and Njevity, Inc. 

Robert’s implementation experience includes clients with complex implementations of ERP and CRM in the professional services industries.  Having a unique knowledge of product development gives Robert the ability to understand product functionality as it relates to client specific needs. 

Robert has taught numerous classes on ERP and CRM software while working as a Business Process Expert at AccuNet in Columbus, Ohio.  He created an Ohio Accountancy Board Certified training program which provided all attendees with CPE credit for the class.  

Presenting to large groups of over 1,500 attendees, Robert captivates audiences with his style, humor and informative approach. 

Robert has led large development projects for the US Department of Interior as well as the rollout of numerous ERP product releases.  He has provided technological insight into complex business problems for civic and political organizations in Colorado.  Robert is currently Vice President of Cloud Services for Njevity, Inc., an Acumatica partner and implementer in Aurora, Colorado.  

The anticipation of my first Convergence had been building up since January.  Convergence is a gathering of Microsoft Dynamics users, partners and ISV’s who come from around the world to crash a city for a few days to learn more about the Microsoft Dynamics family of products and network with fellow business product users.  As a first timer, I was warned that I would be going nonstop from early morning to early morning with a few hours of sleep in between.  That was not far off from the truth and after coming home and having some time to finally sit and reflect on the past five days, I want to share some of my experiences and takeaways from Convergence 2012. 

After an already solid two days of GPUG events, meeting up with customers and networking put behind me, Microsoft opened with their keynote Monday morning.  Upon entering the arena, it became clear how big the event was with a record attendance of over 10,000 users, partners and vendors.  The other surprising fact was that out of the Dynamics family of solutions, nearly 75% of the attendees were there for Dynamics GP as users, partners and ISV’s.  We were shown GP 2013 scheduled to release Q4 of 2012 and the improvements Microsoft has made to version GP2013 including flexibility of deployment into the Cloud.  I recently read an article put out by NetSuite titled “Time to Put GP Out to Pasture.”  Companies like NetSuite will be going on the offensive big time as GP is moving into their arena with even more deployment flexibility.  Trust me when I say this, Dynamics GP is not going out to pasture; it is going out to capture more market share.

It was also nice to hear the direction Microsoft is headed from Kirill Tatarinov, President of Microsoft Business Solutions Division and B. Kevin Turner, Chief Operations Officer.  The main theme of the morning was simplifying Business Intelligence through connectivity and mobility creating a “World of Opportunity” for everyone, not just Microsoft.  It was clear to see Microsoft’s focus was on complete business solutions that can be taken anywhere and shared with anyone.  Among the featured product releases were Windows 8, Dynamics GP 2013, SharePoint and Office 365.  It was demonstrated how you can use any of these products on any device, anywhere and the value that is created being able to connect personal and professional environments.  

Between sessions, there was plenty of time to visit the expo hall to wander and look at all of the solutions available for Dynamics products.  There were a few that I was very impressed with for both Dynamics GP and CRM.  Here is a little insight into my top two ISV’s. 

Click Dimensions is the top rated email marketing and marketing automation solution for Dynamics CRM. Click Dimensions is able to build a database of information in CRM about your prospects so your sales team can market proactively and determine the best way to approach prospects and leads.  They are a solution that I recently became familiar with and immediately saw the value they add to CRM.  It was already simple to create automated workflows and campaigns within CRM, however, at the show, they were showing me how they have simplified that process even more into a very user friendly drag and drop solution.  It is truly a product I would like to see more CRM customers using to grow their business because of the value it adds to CRM.  http://clickdimensions.com/

BI360 is a business intelligence solution for Dynamics as well as many other ERP platforms that is very impressive as well.  Recently, I have been hearing business professionals talk about the need for more insight into their business.  With all the technology available, they want a real time, simple diagnostic tool that they can use to answer the “why is this number like this” and “how do we fix it” questions.  Out of all the BI solutions I personally saw at Convergence, BI360 seems to have the best functionality and ability to provide answers by drilling down into data and information real time.  This immediate insight is extremely important for business professionals in the world we live in.  Even better, they demonstrated how easy it was to build reports in less than a minute and dashboards in less than two minutes.  http://www.solverusa.com/products/bi360

My takeaway from Microsoft and their supporting ISV’s is that technology is there to provide businesses the complete solutions they require to help their teams capture more market share and react quickly to the obstacles and challenges they face, no matter where they are in the world.  Through collaborative products and the freedom to work from anywhere, Microsoft proved their point that we are living in “A World of Opportunity.”