Davesbs Blog

I was at an Edinburgh SBS user group meeting last night with a presentation about Microsoft Office Accounting.

I have been on the beta test of Microsoft Office Accounting since the beginning and hoped it would kick the traditional accountancy software market up the bum! 

Looks like it has.

Apparently, double the expected amount of accountants have signed up since the November launch and the official consumer launch is in early March.

It really looks to be a Sage and Quickbooks killer. It is somewhat in between the two of them regards ease of use and functions but is so much more intuitive if you use Outlook 2007, BCM and MOA together.

Many thanks to Duncan from Icelantic for the excellent presentation.

He has been using MOA (with BCM and Outlook 2007) for over a year in a production environment and is having excellent feedback from clients regards MOA. Many are accountants who say they will swap from Sage.

Also Angus from Amber Computing has been installing the Express version and again getting very good responses from clients.

I use Quickbooks 2003 at the moment but will be swapping over to MOA in April for the next tax year.

All we need now are some bookkeepers to really get to learn MOA and offer accounts setup services etc and I think this will really take of in the UK.

There has been a lot of chatter in the newsgroups recently about Microsoft licensing and what to do if you think the legality of clients software is suspect.

Here is my opinion. Funny that, it being my blog

Simple, get them to become legitimate (or legal) or walk away.

Let’s clarify this. Why I said legitimate or legal is because these can be two seperate things. Why? well frankly, just because Microsoft and it’s lawers say something should be the case, it doesn’t mean that it is the law.

It is Microsofts opinion, in their favour, of what it’s lawers interperit the law to be. For it to be seen as legal, it must be put through the proper judicial process. Yes, a court case. Some Microsoft license agreements have been through this process whilst others haven’t.

As a responsible business partner of your client (and business partner of Microsoft), you sell them the product and should do everything in your power to make sure they are buying and using it in a legitimate and/or legal fashion. Simple. You are not the Microsoft police like some have suggested and no-one really expects you to be so… but you also have to be a proper business partner to the client.

Would a solicitor or accountant turn a blind eye to a bit of ‘you didn’t see that did you’? Some might but I don’t want to do business with them and neither do I want to do business with clients who expect me to go against my own advice and potentially leave myself and the client open to legal action. That’s why I said walk away. The slight loss in revenue from this now grade c or d client is not worth the hassle.

Choose the right clients who want your advice for a reason, who see the value in their IT infrastructure and see you as a businees advisor and you can build on this.

Then again, Microsoft have to look at simplifying their licensing………Oh god don’t start that one

I was having a friendly discussion in the pub at the weekend and was introduced to a college lecturer. He spoke quite fluently about IT in his college even though he admitted he is not very technically minded.

Then it came…Why Vista he asked, it knackers things, so his techie people tell him? Windows 98 which he has at home is fine GRRRR!

Except, it isn’t fine. His PC was falling apart at the seams, things just weren’t working. The more I questioned the more it became like a broken record. Why had Microsoft not left things alone. The fact that his quite clearly 18million year old dial-up modem wasn’t working was obviously Microsofts fault. They only update things in order to screw money out of poor victims like him. (This did stay friendly I hasten to add and many more pints were sunk during the discussions!)

And then the explanation of why Vista is so bad. According to his techie department, Vista had made printers stop working! Oh really. How about the fact that the printers in question were well known branded lasers of years ago vintage. Who makes them? It doesn’t bloody matter, it is not Microsoft thats for sure!

Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious but love or loathe Vista, it is not Microsofts fault if half-arsed software and hardware companies do not bring out updated product for this operating system.

It has been on sale for over a year, beta’d for many years etc etc.

Like all operating systems before and probably in the future, people just do not like change and moan.

Get over it, buy a decent specced PC with Vista on it or seek out XP if you must but remember, would you choose to drive around in an old bashed up car that has been patched to the hilt or a new shiny ‘reliable’ one

The biggie!

Business goals. All the time I am asked what goals I have for my business. Where is it going in 2, 5, 10 years? How do you want to grow your business?

Well, lets get this straight. I own and run a Lifestyle Business! See http://www.vladville.com/2007/02/vladfire-20-david-scrhag.html and you will see what I mean.

The goals I have are to become a proper business partner with my clients. Like a solicitor or accountant. They get on the phone to run anything technical by me BEFORE they buy or even consider looking at a solution.

They should want me to sit in on board meetings, go to training seminars in their line of business applications and see me as part of the company.  As David Schrag puts it, to become the CTO of an organisation. Americanism but valid.

As a lifestyle business, I want to work with people and companies that make me feel good. It also makes me feel good when I help these people and companies. See where I am going with this….

My company grew from back to basics, breakfix stuff (getting rid of adult orientated spyware on little johnny down the road’s PC) with me putting flyers through doors. Three years on and I am running down the amount of breakfix to only good clients that I have known for ages and a few great monthly maintenance/managed service clients who pay my mortgage. Two of which are charities. I love to work with charities. I got these through networking and referral in BNI. This is how I grow my business.

There is no rocket science involved here. I speak to people about how I can help them. If we find a fit, I get to do this, if not I can pass them on to other SMB IT partners. My clients get the service they want, I feel good, pay my mortgage, go on the piss at the weekend and feel good about the whole thing.

My clients talk to other people who then ask me to help and it all starts again. It may need to happen more often but I am working on this!

BNI’s motto is Givers Gain and I think this really suits how I do business. BNI is not for everyone but there are other great networking groups out there i.e. Chambers of Commerce etc etc, the point is, GET OUT THERE! Let people know who you are, to a lesser extent what you do and help people. Remember the old saying: People buy people. Well, I have found this to be so true that it is almost a mantra if I believed in that sort of thing.

My business growth will be what I am comfortable with. Simple. I don’t have a huge plan to be able to sell it for millions in a few years, nor may it still be going when i am no longer running it. I just don’t get the traditional business growth model of money/employees/bigger projects ad infinitum.

To me business is simple. If I enjoy it but don’t get paid it is a hobby. If I do get paid it is a business. If I don’t enjoy it I will move on or change it. If I like the people I work with, that is not a fluke…that is essential.