Why does a resort need timeshare specific software?

There are a few, extremely important reasons why resorts should use timeshare software.  Some of these are: 

your business has grown and is too big for manual processes
you want to automate processes and increase staff efficiency
the processes that you want to implement are too complex to be done manually
you need to work in real time from remote locations 

But most importantly, software should save you more than it costs you in time, money and frustration.  

So, when deciding on which software to use to run your resort or indeed when analysing your current software to audit its suitability, you need to consider the following: 

Core Features 

Timeshare Software should cover four core areas or modules: 

Marketing Module 

Your timeshare software should have a marketing module that allows you to: 

build a database of leads and clients
record all of your marketing activities
track responses to marketing activities
determine response rates, cost per lead and cost per sale
Profile clients
track sales 

It should also allow you to mine your database and build complex cascade marketing campaigns that allow you to continue to market by: 

direct mail
email
telephone 

Sales Module 

The sales module should cater for all types of timeshare including:

fixed weeks
floating weeks
points
multi destination clubs
packs and trial membership or entry level products  

It should allow you to: 

build your inventory of products to sell
maintain control over unsold inventory
record new sales as well as changes of ownership when existing owners sell to new owners 

It should interface directly with the other modules so that you can: 

identify the marketing campaign that induced your new client to purchase
have the sale reflect in the appropriate ledger in the accounting module
calculate commission on the sale and credit this commission to the relevant sales agents’ accounts in the appropriate ledger
have the ownership updated so that the new owner is billed for the maintenance fees at the appropriate time
link the new owner to the front office module so that their reservations are made for the periods when they can occupy

Front Office Module 

The front office module should deal with all aspects of: 

reservations
front desk check in and out
housekeeping
room maintenance 

It should allow you to: 

keep track of the reservations of all fixed, floating, multi destination and points owners
provide reservations for packs, trial owners and entry level members
manage rental pool and exchange inventory
check owners in and out at the front desk
interface with housekeeping to keep track of room cleaning and maintenance 

Back Office Module 

The back office module should: 

handle multiple companies and allow you to keep separate accounting records for of each of them
include a fully functional accounting package that integrates with all other modules or allows you to easily export data to control accounts in your stand alone accounting software
cater for multiple currencies
record sales and track sales debtors as well as internally financed debtors
bill owners for their maintenance fees when these are due and track collections 

Reporting 

Everyone wants a different report and while most software vendors provide a set of standard reports, you will probably want something that nobody else wants and that is not in the standard set of reports.  Waiting for the software vendor to provide you with the new report you want can be frustrating and even costly. 

Your software should allow you to create all the reports you need yourself by exporting to you the data that you need.  From there you can use your favourite reporting tool to create your own reports. 

Web Interface 

When the Internet started web pages simply provided words and pictures embedded in the page.  Since then websites have become data driven with most content now being served from a database.  In addition most web sites are also capable of allowing users to transact on them as well. 

The Internet is everywhere and you will be left behind if you are not able to give controlled access to your data to staff and clients alike.  Being able to transact on your web site is almost a must. 

For Staff: 

this will allow them to access your data and to work from home or a hotel room on the other side of the world if necessary
it will also allow your remote resorts and head office to work in real time on the same data 

For Clients: 

clients should be able to access their own personal data that you want them to have access to using their own log in name and password
update the fields that you give them rights to
transact in real time by seeking availability, making reservations, etc

Support 

Support and training are essential when introducing new software.  Sadly, while it would be great to “Keep It Simple” the reality is that most software caters for the diverse and complex needs of many clients and you will need ot be guided and trained to use the new software you have installed. 

Make sure that the software vendor knows and understands how timeshare works and that they can provide you with intelligent support rather than pure technical support. 

General 

All modules of your timeshare software should integrate with all other modules using a normalised database that will allow you to have features such as: 

contact management
marketing automation, management and implementation
sales force automation
office automation
full CRM functionality 

Finally, your new software should understand the way that you do business and not force you into inefficient processes that do not make sense.  Software has to be flexible.

The only software that can provide all these modules, is truly interactive by its very nature, uses the latest cloud technology and has been developed by industry specialists is Merlin Software for Vacation Ownership.

Face it, you don’t need more headaches – property management is hard enough by itself. Now you have to find a good software program to get your growing business organized. Hand scribbled notes and mountains of paper are a thing of the past — hopefully.

Get the important stuff first, and then sweat the details

You can rule out 50% of the property management software on the market if you focus first on what you ‘really’ are looking for. The two main mistakes many people make is (1) buying software that is overkill for their needs (thus wasting money and time) or (2) going for the cheapest alternative and getting software that has defects and doesn’t fit their need (thus wasting money and time). Let’s look at the differences:

Overkill: Do you need software to manage your properties and your office too? Let your property management software do what it does best – manage property. For your office accounting and payroll, there are plenty of inexpensive products that are perfectly good for both large and small businesses. However, if you use another accounting software for your office expenses, you may want your rental property software to export your bank deposits and checks to your office management software. Other features that add to the cost that you may not need include budgeting, double-entry accounting, asset and liability accounting, and tenant background checking. Some features, such as tenant background checking are really done by well-known Internet companies, but the software vendor just buys the service first, and marks up the cost to you. The prices for property management software can range from 0 to ,000 (or more), so don’t buy more than you need. However, if you do buy a version that supports a smaller number of rental units, make sure that you can easily upgrade to the larger version at a reasonable cost (hopefully the difference in cost between that smaller and larger versions) and won’t be required to re-enter any of your precious information again.

Underkill: Anybody with some web software can make an impressive looking web site. But underneath may be a piece of junk software. Look at the product, make sure you can run a full demo, and better yet a ‘trial version’ that allows you to ‘try before you buy’. Make sure the software can do the basic things you need: (1) maintain a separate ledger for each Tenant and each Owner (2) write bank checks and deposits (3) maintain a vendor file (4) automatically post rent, management fees, and late fees (4) easily update your information. Make sure the software will handle a mixture of single family homes, multifamily homes, condos, and commercial without having to buy extra modules. Look for the ability to purchase add-ons, such as work order modules, online rent payment modules, or tax related modules — you may need them in the future as your business grows. Be sure to check the cost!

Then, go for the details

Some things may not be critical in your property management software, but are great to have. These are features, such as a reminder system to keep track of appointments, log conversations and interactions with your tenants, and to pop up a list of tenants and owners that owe you money. Look for the ability of the software to transfer your tenant information to an inactive file, so that you can later look up your tenant info for credit references and to log back payments. Look for features such as the ability to automatically update rent amounts, automatically post amounts to each ledger, and to update your account names. Speaking of account names, you might want to find a software that uses ‘real’ names for your accounts like ‘Rent Received’, instead of an account number, such as ’300021 – Rent Received’.

Don’t take the Technical Support bait

Free Support! Most tenant management software companies don’t even offer it, but even if they do, there may be big conditions. Some vendors force you to buy their expensive software updates in order to receive their technical support. Others offer free support for a short period of time then charge anywhere from a dollar per minute (with a minimum amount per call) to well over 0.00 per hour for support. You should get at least a 60 to 90 day free support plan as part of the purchase, but better yet find an experienced vendor that offers free unlimited support. Yes, there are actually some vendors that back their products with free phone and email support.

Desktop or Web based?

Desktop property management software is definitely the best option right now. You have complete control of your precious data, not a server in another state or foreign country. When they go down, so does your business. No tenant rents, no owner statements, nothing. Plus you will end up paying a monthly fee that will quickly outpace the cost of a one time desktop software cost. Most good property management software can accept tenant rent payments over the Internet, email your clients, and perform other web based services already. Additionally, web based software currently runs much slower than desktop software, slowing down entry time and wasting money.

Hidden costs

If you spend a frustrating hour doing battle with your property management software, what is that worth in dollars? Difficult, unfriendly software costs you time. And, if you have employees trying to figure out how to do something, you are paying them to read the 2 inch thick manual, and paying again if they have to call for support. Make sure your software program is easy to install, easy to use, and has plenty of help. You should always receive a printed user’s guide with the program, a comprehensive built-in help file, and an online help page. Another big cost is the ‘update’. Are you forced to buy it even if you don’t need the new features? What have the last 5 updates cost the user base? Will you still receive any technical support if you have an older version? These are important questions you should always ask when shopping for property management software.

Follow these simple guidelines, and your property management software investment will help your business run a lot more efficiently, smoothly, and stress free.

In the world of wonderful business growth, Indian business channels are facing so many problems. A business house can face problems

regarding manufacturing, supply, finance, customer relationship, human resources or decision-making. On the other hand, these

companies are formulating new solutions to various business problems. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a key to many business

problems.

Two noteworthy elements of ERP system are

·    Common database and

·    Modular software design

The implementation of ERP can change the way the business is viewed. An efficient ERP platform would enable anyone to get overall

picture of business by just clicking one button without having to go through complex exercise of collecting and analyzing data from various

sub systems and then making it compatible for study.

Sometimes going for a new ERP can be a wise decision as a new ERP can boost up scale of business growth by reducing costs in effective

way. You have so many ERP software options in the market, one have to be very choosy regarding the acceptable ERP. A business house

should make a proper strategy before going for any appropriate ERP. A business house must be able to pin point problem generating

modules as well as strength points.

The second step after analyzing weak points and strength point is evaluation of the technically best-fit ERP. This can be done with the help of

the market review. The evaluation study includes cost and risks study analysis. Correct cost estimation embraces implementation charges,

hardware up gradation, and maintenance. After the cost estimation, develop a realistic and the best-suited CRM is implemented.

Implementation can be done partially or it can be a total transform of the old system to the new CRM.

A university in the Southwestern U.S. is one of best learning institutions that have taken advantage of ERP offerings from IBM by putting ERP

in practice.

The university wanted to replace their old administrative operations system, and add a Web-based interface. Their new ERP system would

have to have the capacity to handle student administration, expansion, funding and payroll, all as quickly and efficiently as possible and they

selected PeopleSoft for Higher Education software to run on IBM servers, IBM Global Services was brought in to implement software

modules and incorporate them with their existing software. As a result, the new system removes the difficulties of the older system and

increase efficiency and performance.

There is one more example of such implementation is Icreon, an Offshore Outsourcing Software Development Company in India offers two

ERP solutions to organizations across domains: Microsoft Dynamics NAV – a business management solution that integrates all facets of a

business – Planning, Finance, Materials, Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing, Human Resources etc. and SAP Business One Solutions – an

integrated and affordable business management solution that is specifically designed for small and midsize businesses.

In the crux, I can sum up my article by giving these following tips that should be taken care, while choosing a suitable ERP solution for your

organization: 

1.    First , know what you really need in ERP software.

2.    Choose the most qualified ERP software vendor.

3.    Recognize the uniqueness of your business.

4.    Give attention to ERP software implementation.

5.    Invest in ERP software for the long-term

ABSTRACT
Today’s utility bill tracking software can deliver excellent results for energy managers who want to gain a comprehensive understanding of utility usage and costs in their facilities. All of the major commercially available utility bill tracking software programs are good at what they do, however, they are distinctly different in functionality and capacity.

Savvy energy managers have discovered – sometimes the hard way – the importance of selecting the appropriate software package to meet their needs. Before reviewing software packages, it is best to understand the needs of your organization and the resources available. Then you can compare each program’s capabilities (such as budgeting and forecasting, temperature correction, rate analysis, report generation, etc.) against your needs.

Making the wrong choice can result in wasted time and hours of frustration, or worse – dissatisfied clients or management.

This paper will help you to identify what tasks you want to accomplish with your utility bill tracking software.

WHY NOT JUST USE SPREADSHEETS?
If you are tracking energy usage and costs for a handful of meters, a spreadsheet may be adequate; however, if you are tracking for a large organization with many facilities, or tracking savings from energy efficiency measures, then commercial energy accounting software may be the best and easiest way to track your utilities.

INTRODUCTION TO UTILITY BILL TRACKING SOFTWARE
All the major utility bill tracking software packages are good at what they do. However, they are all different and have different capabilities. Although you can track your utility bills effectively in any of the software packages, depending upon what your specific needs are, there is likely a program that is more suited to your needs than the others. Choosing the correct software package the first time can save you hours of work, and help you avoid the frustration of discovering too late that it does not produce what you wanted.

NARROWING DOWN THE SCOPE OF OUR ANALYSIS
In order to narrow down the scope of this presentation, we have made two rough classifications, which are detailed below. This paper covers desktop (not web-based) utility bill (not interval data) software programs.

Web vs. Desktop Applications
Using the web to track your energy usage is useful for large organizations. Large companies dispersed around the globe can enter their utility usage, and see reports comparing the usage in Lubbock to the usage in London. Central energy managers can then easily allocate energy costs across the enterprise and locate high usage facilities and concentrate efforts there. However, enterprise web applications are usually relatively expensive and often offer only basic analysis functionality. There are a great number of web applications available, most of which focus on interval (e.g. 15-minute) data.

There are also some internet bill tracking services that are relatively inexpensive. These applications will present your data to you on the web in a number of ways, but at present appear to be limited in analytical capacity and functionality. For example, these web services typically will not weather normalize utility data, which results in faulty year over year comparisons of utility bills.  These web services are not addressed in this paper.

There are only a handful of utility bill software programs in the desktop market. Desktop applications usually offer more sophisticated analysis than their web brethren, and usually at a much-reduced price compared to web software. Many desktop packages offer some interface to the internet, such as downloading bill, interval or weather data, and creating html reports.

Interval Data vs. Utility Bills
Although there is considerable value to be found in analysis of interval data, there do not appear to be enough interval data experts to go around. Some organizations have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for interval data enterprise software, only to have it go unused, often due to lack of trained and available staff that can gain meaningful information from it.

Interval data can be used for several purposes, some of which are listed below:

-    Determining when equipment is turned on and off
-    Discovering and diagnosing equipment and controls problems,
-    Load shedding,
-    Aggregating energy usage across an enterprise into load profiles which can be used when procuring energy supply contracts,
-    Applying rates to the interval data to get a better understanding of the hourly cost of running the facility.

Viewing utility bills in monthly (or billing) increments is a simpler discipline which is more comprehensible to management, more familiar to energy professionals, and more commonly practiced. Plenty of useful information about a facility can be gleaned from utility bills, some of which are listed below:

-    Determining whether the facility is saving energy and utility costs
-    Identifying the most wasteful facilities
-    Identifying controls and equipment problems
-    Budgeting and Forecasting
-    Understanding where utility costs are going
-    Performing rate analysis
-    Verifying that the utilities are billing correctly
-    Identifying changes in facility usage patterns

As the topic of this paper is Utility Bill Tracking, we will not cover interval data analysis here, however it is important to note that some desktop packages can handle both your utility bill and interval data, and can reconcile your utility bills with interval data.

SOFTWARE SELECTION CRITERIA
Perhaps the best method of determining the software program for your specific needs and budget is to clarify what you would want to use the software to accomplish. Below we have listed some of the tasks that utility bill tracking software can help you perform.

There is a comprehensive questionnaire at the end of this paper which will help optimize your software criteria.

-    Are you more interested in utility accounting or energy analysis and saving energy?
-    Do you need to identify the most inefficient facilities?
-    Do you need to measure energy savings from your energy conservation projects or from performance contracts?
-    Do you need to streamline your utility bill payment system?
-    Do you need to create an incentive system to encourage employees to save energy?
-    Do you need to verify that your utility bills are correct?
-    Do you need to allocate costs from master meters to submeters and subsidiary accounts?
-    Do you need to identify anomalous changes in utility usage?
-    Do you need to understand the relationship between production at your factory (or occupancy at your hotel, etc.) and utility usage?
-    Do you need to create budgets and track your utility costs against the budgeted costs?
-    Do you need to evaluate different rate structures on your utility data to find the best rate?

Once you have determined your specific needs and budget, you can identify which software features are necessary accomplish these tasks. This section lists features and selection criteria with which you can sift through the software programs to find the one best suited to your needs.

Capacity: How Large A Project Will You Be Working With?
The software packages currently available represent a wide range of capacity – from a low end of several hundred meters to a high end of nearly unlimited accounts. If you are putting together a utility bill tracking project with thousands of meters, then the smaller software packages may not be applicable. Some of the desktop packages have SQL databases that can handle virtually an unlimited number of accounts. Some energy managers get around the database size limitations of the smaller desktop packages by keeping several databases, each corresponding to a different section of the organization. If you are responsible for hundreds or thousands of meters, you might find that it is not necessary to track all of your meters. Tracking fire protection and street lighting meters may not result in any analytic value at all.

Energy Accounting Method: Year to Year Comparison vs. Temperature Correction
There are different ways to view your utility data. You can compare your usage from year to year to see if you are using more or less energy, or you can correct your energy usage for weather data, or other factors, such as occupancy or production.

If you compare utility usage from year to year, you can quantify the change in usage and costs. However, you cannot tell if the change is due to fluctuations in weather, changes in rate, changes to the facility itself (such as new additions, new equipment, or extra shifts), or due to reduction or increase in energy usage (which is what you are trying to determine). Energy analysts often prefer to normalize their data to weather, so that they remove these factors, and get a truer picture as to whether the facility is using more or less energy than it used to. Without weather normalization, they may not be able to tell if their project is truly saving energy, or instead, if the change in weather from year to year is responsible for changes in utility usage.  This same type of normalization can be done with other factors as well, such as production, occupancy or calendar.  

Be aware as well, not all weather normalization is the same.  Some software packages will have extensive normalization capacity, which allows energy analysts to extract the maximum from their utility bills, whereas other programs offer very little in reporting or analysis along this line, treating normalization as an afterthought.

Ease of Use
Most of the programs are relatively simple for such tasks as data entry and report generation. These simple tasks can usually be performed by clerical workers. However, the more complex tasks are best executed by energy professionals. These more complex tasks (such as weather correction, budgeting and forecasting, creating custom reports, modeling rates, etc.) are associated with concepts (such as demand, ratchets, weather regression, and prorating) that may require some technical knowledge and analytical skills. Untrained staff may be able to run the more complex software routines but may be unable to assess the reasonableness of the approach or results.

Knowing that the more complex tasks may be more difficult to learn, it is probably best to judge general ease of use on the simple tasks, such as laying out your site and account information, entering bill data, and producing reports. The more complex functions, such as modeling rates, weather normalization, or budgeting and forecasting, by their very nature, will be more difficult in all programs.  Some people are intimidated by these features in the more sophisticated programs thinking that they are just too difficult.  Remember, you can grow into these advanced features in time, just as most of us did with MS Excel.  In fact, it is probably a wise long-term decision to purchase software that has some features you don’t yet understand, as then you have reason and tools with which to grow, and increase your skills.

Before buying the software, it would be best to take a “test drive” and see how intuitive the user interface is.

General Orientation:  Energy vs. Accounting
Some software packages are more oriented towards accounting than analysis.  Accounting programs will stress things such as entering all charges in the bill (which sometimes can be more than 6 different line items per bill), interfacing with accounting systems, aggregating data for payment, and creating bills for your tenants.  Analysis programs will stress weather normalization, allow you to identify and cast out anomalous bills from your analysis, provide graphs displaying the relationship between weather (or production, etc.) and usage, and generally are mostly concerned only with usage, demand and total cost, but not all the little charges on the utility bill that make up the total cost.  If your background is accounting, and not energy, then you will likely be more comfortable with an accounting-oriented program, rather than an analysis oriented program.  If your background is energy, you will likely be more comfortable with an energy analysis-oriented program.

Interfacing With Your Accounting System
Some software packages can interface with Accounts Payable for bill payment. Typically utility bills for a utility vender are aggregated and then can be exported for Accounts Payable.   Some packages will create an export in any format you choose to accommodate existing accounting procedures.

Importing and Exporting Data
All software packages offer import and export of data. Usually you will have to properly format your data before importing it. Some packages will allow you to import data from the text format in which you receive it from the utility. This custom import format is usually created by the software provider or a consultant.

Baseline Modifications
Buildings occasionally change their usage patterns. These changes can lessen the usefulness of annual comparisons of usage and costs. For example, if you were trying to track savings on a building for which you had installed energy efficient lighting, and if the building subsequently adds a new computer lab (or a new addition, or a third shift) your building usage may increase. If you were trying to determine whether the building was saving energy from your lighting retrofit, you would no longer be able to separate out the reduction in usage from the lighting from the increase in usage from the new computer lab. Some software packages will allow you to make “modifications” to the baseline to account for the new computer lab (or new addition, third shift, etc.), which then allows you to determine what savings, if any, are attributable to the lighting retrofit.

Rate Analysis
There are four main reasons analysts may want to include rate analysis in their utility bill tracking project:

-    To assure that costs are correctly applied to changes in usage and demand. Since using blended rates can introduce large errors, modeling rates is the most accurate method of assigning costs to usage and demand.
-    To verify that the utility is costing bills correctly.
-    To assign some agreed upon cost to utility usage and demand, such as is sometimes done in performance contracting, or
-    To determine which rates are best suited for your accounts.

To analyze rates, the utility rate must be entered into the program. This can be done by the analyst himself, a consultant, or oftentimes by the software provider. Many utility rates have become very difficult even for energy professionals to decipher. If you are planning on performing rate analysis in your organization, you might want to have a plan for who is going to enter the rate into your software, as this sometimes can become time consuming.

Not all desktop software packages can model utility rates, and of those that can, some may be limited in how detailed a rate can be modeled. If you want to investigate rate issues, then determine if your own rate schedules involve provisions such as demand ratchets, fuel surcharges, time of use periods, load factor tiers,  etc. and then see if the softwares you are looking at can handle these provisions.

Allocating Costs to Submeters
Some analysts use their utility bill accounting software to allocate costs from master meters to submeters or subsidiary accounts. For example, a mall that charges each different tenant for their energy usage could use the software to allocate costs and usages based upon submeter readings (or other criteria such as square feet), and then create bills for the different departments.

Reporting
Once you know what tasks you intend to accomplish with your utility bill tracking system, you should have a fairly clear idea of the type of reports that will be required to fulfill these tasks. However, the quality of reports, and the ease of creating reports varies from program to program. In addition, in most programs the reports are in crystal reports, or some other canned format in which the data and the reports are not easy to modify.  Countless users of one package used to create reports, then export them to Excel, then manipulate the reports to get them just so.

Emissions
Reporting on emissions (CO2, CO, NOx, etc.) being released into the atmosphere is becoming more popular. While most energy managers think it terms of usage and dollars, management may be also interested in reporting CO2 reductions to shareholders or the media.

Software Cost
The utility bill tracking programs currently available are priced from about ,000 to about ,000.

In addition, you might want to consider the cost to set up your database, which is usually extra. If you are busy, then the easiest and perhaps best method of starting your utility tracking database is to have an expert set it up for you. That way you can learn the program little by little as you enter data and make reports, while still having time to do the rest of your job.

Services
Consider your vendor as well.  There are different types of vendors.  What is their overall orientation?  Is your vendor grounded in energy efficiency or energy accounting, or is your vendor primarily involved in just selling software?  The vendors associated with energy efficiency are the ones who will stress analyzing your bills, finding problems, and saving energy.  Some of these vendors will teach you how to analyze your usage, how to spot problems, and what actions to take to correct them.  Those vendors grounded in accounting will focus on integrating with accounting systems, and will have little help or advice when it comes to energy management decisions.

Some software vendors will sell you software, perhaps bundled with some services, and you will never hear from them again.  Some vendors on the other hand will go the extra step to make sure that your utility bill tracking project is a success.

OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER
Some factors to take into account when selecting a utility bill tracking package have nothing to do with the software itself, but rather with your own organization or the software provider.

Staff Capability and Availability
How sophisticated is your staff? How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking? Having the best utility bill accounting tool in the world is not helpful if your staff does not have the knowledge or time to get the most out of it. Be realistic about your staff and who will actually be using the software. Software training by itself may not be enough. Understanding how to run the software, but not having a good grounding in energy could lead to underutilization of the package.

In addition, it is very important to consider beforehand who will be doing what functions with the software. For example, clerical workers could input data and produce reports. Analysis and other heavy lifting might best be done by energy professionals. Do not expect your clerical staff to do more than they are capable of, or your bill tracking experience could end in failure.

Support and Ongoing Costs
Be sure to consider the availability and quality of technical support, and the associated costs. You might want to contact technical support with questions before purchasing the software, so as to get an idea of the quality of the support you will be getting. Most of the software packages come with the first year of support for free, and an additional annual fee thereafter.

Software Selection Questionnaire
If you answer these questions before you investigate different software packages, you are more likely to end with the software that is best suited to your organization.   Don’t be swayed by sales people and bells and whistles.  Get the right software for your organization.

General
-    How many meters will you be tracking?
-    What is your budget?

Analysis
-    Do you need to identify the most inefficient facilities?
-    Do you need to measure energy savings from your energy conservation projects or from performance contracts?
-    Do you want to compare year to year bills or use weather normalization?
-    Do you need to identify changes in utility usage patterns and spot outlier bills?
-    Do you need to understand the relationship between production at your factory (or occupancy at your hotel, etc.) and utility usage?
-    Do you want to have the ability to modify your year to year comparisons for changes in usage patterns such as new equipment or building additions?

Accounting
-    Do you need to streamline your utility bill payment system?
-    Do you need to allocate costs from master meters to submeters and subsidiary accounts?
-    Do you need to create budgets and track your utility costs against the budgeted costs?
-    Do you need it to interface with your accounting system?
-    Do you want to enter in every charge associated with your bill?

Data Manipulation
-    How are you going to get data into the system?  Importing monthly data files or hand entering?
-    How fast can you manually enter data into the program?

Rates
-    Do you want to verify that your utility bills are correct?
-    Do you need to evaluate different rate structures on your utility data to find the best rate?
-    Do you want to apply the current rate to before and after comparisons of utility costs?

Reports
-    What type of reports do you want the software to generate?  
-    What are you going to do with reports when you get them?  Print them? Email them?  Modify them on your computer?  Save them?
-    Do you have special reporting needs?  Will the software allow customized reports?
-    Do you want to report on Emissions? (CO2, CO, NOx, etc.)

Staff
-    How sophisticated is your staff?
-    How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking?
-    Do you have trained staff to use software?

Services
-    Are you going to want to create your own bill tracking database, or are you going to have it done?
-    How is technical support?
-    Will the vendor be available to partner with you,

Also, be aware that most likely none of the packages available will have all of the features you want, or all of the features you want at a price your organization is willing to pay. In this case, you are going to have to prioritize the features in the questionnaire, and from there pick the software that handles the most important tasks your organization requires.

CONCLUSION
All of the major desktop utility bill tracking programs can be used to successfully track utility usage and costs. However each of the major desktop utility bill tracking software programs has useful features especially designed to fit certain situations. To ensure that your utility bill tracking project is successful, it may be best to understand exactly what you need to accomplish and who will be doing the work. Once you are clear on your objectives and personnel, you can select the program that best suits your needs and budget.

Related “accounting Software” Articles

Choosing Payroll Software for Your Business

When choosing payroll software for your business, the most important factors are the simplicity of use, compatibility with other platforms, the ability to evolve to your business’s changing and growing needs, and customization of fields to accommodate your business’ unique structure. Payroll software is much more reliable than the traditional paper-based payroll methods which are becoming extinct.

If your business has less than 500 employees, then the choice to use payroll software will suit you well and take care of your accounting and payroll needs seamlessly and automatically. Being able to afford the option to hire individuals to keep up with payroll is a nice luxury, but for the rest of us, payroll software is a much more practical choice.

Saving time and money are very important aspects of payroll software. Payroll software should be simple to use so that inputting employee time is effortless and calculations can be performed at the click of a button. Ensure that the payroll software you choose has the most up-to-date calculations, as outdated calculating can ruin your efforts to be organized while making your data obsolete.

Your software should be compatible with many operating systems so that invoices, checks and statements, payroll tax forms and printable catalogs can be ported over to other systems if needed. If your payroll and accounting are separate, then it will be necessary to ensure the compatibility of your payroll software to your accounting software unless you have an integrated accounting and payroll system.

Ensuring that your software will allow you to make multiple files under one operator will allow you to organize regular hours as well as over time, bonuses, commissions and other miscellaneous benefits for your employees under one heading to keep you organized. Obtaining graphs or charts of the previous weeks sales, comparing the last 5 years or the inventories of the last two years is a handy tool, so be sure your payroll software includes these functions. Software that uses the input of partners and customers is very useful, because it ensures that the updates to the software are based on human use.

Payroll software should include bookkeeping in the form of payroll accounting, general ledger, accounts payable and checks as well as accounts receivable, after-the-fact journal and payroll systems. The payroll software you choose should have flexible formating and easily customizable fields as well.

Related “accounting Software” Articles

INTRODUCTION

This paper describes a tough, disciplined process for choosing the right CRM vendor for your company. It does not push a predefined laundry list of functionality, but describes how to define your own set of requirements and find out which vendors really meet them.

This paper addresses the following key selection criteria:

Functionality: Why it is essential to gather quantitative information from potential vendors and how to find the right questions to ask.

Responses: How to obtain detailed responses from the best-qualified vendors and avoid wasting time with non-starters.

Demos: The fatal flaw in most demos and how to avoid it.

Pricing: How to negotiate pricing with potential vendors and set realistic expectations about ongoing costs.

Before discussing the selection of a CRM vendor, let’s spend a moment to review why it is so important. The reason is pretty simple – the failure rate for sophisticated CRM implementations ranges between 25% and 80% and the difference is not so much in the facts, just their interpretation.

If you only include the most abject belly flops in the definition of failure, the success rate probably is 75%, but if you include major cost overruns, production delays, failure to meet expectations and soaring post-production costs, the failure rate may actually be higher than 80%.

Choosing the wrong vendor is both the biggest single reason for the failure of CRM implementations and the easiest to avoid.

SELECTION STYLES

There are several styles that companies use to choose a vendor and these can broadly be characterized as: Safety in Numbers, Standard Analysis, and Enhanced Analysis. Let’s take a brief look at each of them.

Safety in Numbers:

In this approach, the buyer simply looks for the vendor(s) with the biggest market share. It aims for safety, but can actually introduce severe risk factors. In particular:

The larger the vendor, the less likely they are to listen to your needs.
Vendors typically achieve a large market share by concentrating on selling to the typical customer. If your company does not fit that profile, the solution will not fit either.
Given two vendors with similar resources, the one that spends money on marketing will, at least over the short term, achieve a higher market share than the one that spends the money on developing a robust product.
Market leaders charge a price premium precisely because so many companies take this buying approach.

Of course, the long term viability of the vendor is a critical consideration and will factor into your evaluation. Vendor size, profitability, years in business and of course product quality are linked with viability. Further, these factors do not compete with, but are complementary to the analysis techniques described below.

Standard Analysis and Enhanced Analysis:

The basic steps for Standard Analysis and Enhanced Analysis are identical, but the details of how they are implemented provide completely different, even opposite, results. Let’s start by summarizing each step.

1) Produce a detailed RFP
2) Send it to possible vendors and narrow the list down to 3-5 strong candidates based on their responses.
3) Ask each of them for a demo that illustrates the desired system.
4) Negotiate pricing

br /> DETAILS

1) Produce a detailed RFP and send it to a wide range of vendors

The Standard approach is to talk to the administrators, managers, users and other stakeholders, find out what the need and describe these in a document.
For example, the a manager may note that the business is continuously changing and anticipates having to manage additional information in the future, leading to a line item in the RFP such as: “The system must allow the creation of custom tables”

This is fine as far as it goes, the problem is what the requirement has been stated in purely qualitative terms and omits critical information. For example:

How long does it take to create such a custom table and what expertise is required?

The answers can range from 30 minutes to 3 months of consulting time from specialists who charge 0 per hour. The latter answer will cost you over 0,000 per table and CRM companies will not warn you of this in advance. In fact, they may make most of their revenue from such services.

Do custom tables behave like native tables?

If the answer is “Yes”, you should follow up with more detailed questions to confirm the truth of this statement, such as: Can you create links between custom tables and native tables? Can you search on fields in custom tables? Can you create reports and business rules on them? Are they included in exports?

Does the presence of custom tables create any obstacles to upgrading your system?

The additional cost of upgrading a system with custom tables may range from zero to exporting all the data, redoing the entire custom table from scratch, re-importing the data and praying that nothing goes wrong.

As we see from this example, the quantitative answers can show whether a given feature provides essential functionality that your company needs to grow and adapt to changing conditions or is simply a useless checklist item designed to satisfy RFP’s from naïve customers.

The above example focuses on a single item, but the same general principals apply throughout and here’s a simple trick for finding out what questions to ask:
If you are not sure what quantitative questions you should ask, contact the vendors who support the desired functionality and say: “I am pleased to see that you support feature X. What questions do you recommend I ask the other vendors who are competing for this sale to determine how fully they support it and whether there are any limitations or additional costs associated with their implementation”?
Then sit back and watch as the vendors fall over themselves to supply you with the questions that expose weaknesses among their competitors. Sometimes, they will even expose their own weaknesses.

Enhanced process:

A standard RFP just asks whether a vendor can meet the requirements but the enhanced process will arm you with additional quantitative information:

a) How long it will take to implement this feature?
b) What are the immediate and long-term costs associated with using it?
c) Are any limitations in the resulting solution?

2) Send the RFP to possible vendors

It can take weeks, or even months of hard work to produce a detailed, probing RFP.
But it’s all for naught if you do not get responses that are equally detailed and it can take a long time to respond to a detailed RFP. If it has been sent to 50 vendors, the only ones that will take the time are those who are desperate and/or planning to recoup their costs once they have you locked in as a customer. Of course, they will need to recover not just the cost of making the sale to you, but also of all the sales they failed to make. That is why most vendors will simply ignore such an RFP unless you follow the enhanced process.

Enhanced process:

First narrow down the list of potential vendors with a mini-RFP that asks your top ten questions. It should be possible for the vendor to respond to this document or online form, in 20 minutes or less. The exact questions depend on your needs, but they should certainly include: How much will it cost over the next couple of years, how long will it take to implement and can you try the system before committing to a purchase?

The answers should enable you to narrow down your list to 3-5 vendors and by taking the time to respond they will be partially committed. Now tell them that they have made the short-list and hit them with the full RFP. Knowing that they have a 25% chance of making a sizable sale, they should be willing to respond.

3) Ask each vendor for a demo that illustrates the desired system.

At this stage, many companies tell the vendor what the finished system should look like, ask them to implement as much as possible and schedule a demo to see that they have accomplished.

The problem is that this process does not measure how efficiently the vendor’s software can be used to create the system you need, but how much time and effort they are willing to spend chasing the business. As a general rule, the more a company is planning to charge you, they more they will be willing to spend to get the business.

In brief, the standard method will result in your choosing the company that is planning to hit you with the highest possible costs over the life of the contract.

Enhanced process:

The solution is simple – do not tell the vendors exactly what you want to see in advance, but hit them with your detailed requirements during the demo itself and ask them to demonstrate, live, how they would configure the system to meet those needs.

You should be upfront about this – warn them in advance that you will be asking them to configure the system during the demo so that they can have technical resources standing by, but do not accept excuses during the demo itself or give them information they can use to prepare the system in advance.

This may sound brutal, but you are betting your reputation and quite possibly, you company’s future on making the right choice. Making life easy for their sales team is simply part of your job description and you can also use this exercise to measure their honesty.

Suppose your RFP asked two vendors how long it would take to create a custom table, the first responded “5 minutes”, but struggled to actually get in done in 15. The second responded “25 minutes”, but completed it in 20. You might consider the second vendor a better potential partner, or at least adjust the first vendor’s RFP responses in light of the discrepancy between their promises and reality.

4) Negotiate pricing

Some people seem to delight in getting a deep discount on expensive software and would rather pay ,000 for a 0,000 system than ,000 for a ,000 system.

The problem is that unlike buying a house, the implementation and ongoing costs can easily exceed the initial purchase price. Once you are locked into the 0,000 system, the vendor has all the leverage and you can look forward to paying full price for implementation services, support, upgrades and additional licenses. In fact, they probably already have a strategy for recouping the 5,000 “discount” with interest.

Enhanced process:

Be realistic. Look at the list price and assume that after any initial discounts, this is close to what you will be paying.

When negotiating a discount for the software, try to get one that will cover additional licenses and upgrades for the first year or even longer if possible.

Ask for a fixed price bid on the implementation itself. You may not get it, but it can make for an illuminating conversation when a vendor who estimated 2 weeks in the RFP response will not commit to actually doing it in 2 months on a fixed price basis. If they estimate that it will take 2 weeks, but request payment for 2 years for a fixed price implementation, then assume that it will take 2 years.

REMARKS

This paper may seem antagonist to CRM Vendors but that is not the intent. The evaluation process in necessarily tough and you need to safeguard your interests, but the goal is to find the right partner for a strong long term relationship. Your tactics throughout this process should be tough, but transparent and ethical.

SUMMARY

Choosing the right CRM vendor is a tough job and requires an equally tough mindset, but by following a disciplined approach that focuses on your needs and demanding detailed quantitative as well as qualitative information from potential vendors, you will make a well-informed decision that maximizes your chances of success. The result will be relationship that is built on a stable foundation and a technology that fits your business.

Complete product information, as well as demos and free CRM software trial downloads, are available at http://www.enterprisewizard.com

.

White papers on customer relationship management software are available at http://www.enterprisewizard.com/white.htm.

ABOUT ENTERPRISEWIZARD INC.:

With headquarters in Silicon Valley and resellers worldwide, EnterpriseWizard, Inc. is the leading provider of powerful, affordable, and easily deployed 100% web-based business process automation (BPA) solutions for organizations of all sizes.

Our company has attracted customers from industries with vastly different needs, ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Chevron, Merrill Lynch, and NEC since we were founded in 1991.

Based on its award-winning predecessor product SupportWizard, EnterpriseWizard CRM is a top-rated, out-of-the-box J2EE solution for issue tracking, helpdesk, customer support, sales, email, and marketing automation. Organizations can get up and running quickly with its default templates, and easily enhance and extend the application through an intuitive browser-based interface. Clients have adapted the system for Sarbanes-Oxley and Government Regulation, Project and Time Management, Change Management, and other specialized applications.

CRM can be intimidating it actually refers to Customer Relationship Management which is essential to any online success. The internet has many packages and CRM solutions available. What you need to do is find a package that suits your needs.

An ideal CRM solution for a small or large business whether online or offline is one that serves efficiently customer needs. The CRM must provide customers with the best service available. Before adopting CRM software you need to evaluate impartially factors like budget, user-base, company size and projected growth, and customer needs. The CRM solution must be compatible with your office systems and integrate back-office and third party applications. If your budget is not large consider a hosted CRM solution.

According to experts it is best for you to create goals and have a requirements-driven approach. It is not important to have a CRM in place. What you need is a workable solution. A CRM system must create for you an in depth understanding of the preferences and buying habits of your customers. CRM must build and strengthen customer relations and improve product development and service delivery processes. Most important is your IT team and staff must receive CRM training and believe in its efficacy.

Since most business websites online are not tech savvy it is important to:

1. Determine specific business needs as far as CRM is concerned. Research on what customers seek and how their needs can be met. The CRM solution needs would be based on this.

2. Find out how a CRM works and how the system will apply to your business.

3. Determine whether your business needs an on demand solution based online or just a run-on-windows application.

4. Search on the net for CRM solution providers who have handled business similar to yours.

5. Outline your needs and ask for a quote along with suggestions on the proposed system. Use the help of a CRM expert to evaluate the proposals. Make a comparison of price and services offered.

Always insist on trying the CRM solution out. Most CRM vendors offer an evaluation copy of the software which is to be installed and used for 3-6 months to test the suitability. The test will establish:

• Functionality of software.

• Technical ease of management within your company.

• Adaptability of system to your business.

• Efficacy of the system within the organization.

An efficient CRM solution must escalate business efficacy as the customer will get immediate attention due to the CRM solution. A CRM solution will not just save time but enable the company to offer personalized service of a high standard. The CRM software will maintain records, help you plan marketing campaigns, and increase profitable through increased customer base and satisfaction.

Find More “crm Software” Articles

If you are looking for a CRM solution for your company, it can be a very complicated task. Many times it can seem quite daunting, no matter what type of a business you may be involved in. You know that it is so important to have a good CRM solution implemented into your company so you can enhance the way that you deal with customers and work on streamlining your sales processes. However, for smaller businesses particularly, choosing the right option can seem to be a huge task. If you are looking for the right technology to use for your company, there are some simple questions that can make your search for the right CRM solution much simpler. So, before you decide on a particular CRM solution for your company, here are some of the most important questions that you need that will help you remove any doubts and make the right CRM decision for your company’s needs.

What are Your Company Goals?

First of all, when you are choosing a CRM solution for your company, you need to ask yourself what are the goals of the company. You want a CRM solution that is going to meet your particular needs, so you need to consider the goals of your company, since not all solution are created to be the same. Look at the way your company operates, where you want the company to be in a few years, and the primary focuses of your company. Do you have growth objectives for the future; do you need something that is going to drive your business? Does your business have customers that contact customer service through email or by phone? It is important that you make this decision to purchase CRM solutions a business decision that is based upon your business goals so you are sure to pick out the best one for your company’s needs – both now, and in the future.

Do You Want Web-Based Software or on Premise?

When you are choosing CRM options, you’ll be able to choose web based software hosted solutions or you can choose in house solutions as well. You’ll have to ask yourself what type of solution is going to work the best for you. Online CRM definitely does have a whole lot to offer, and usually they are very secure and easy for your company to implement as well. However, if people within your company do not always have access to the internet, this option may not be the best one for your company. In house solutions are often a great idea for businesses that need something to integrate into the applications that they are already using, such as Outlook. Also, you often can get more customization out of a solution that is on premise as well. So, consider the benefits of both types of CRM software, and then decide what is going to work the best for your company.

What’s the Total Cost?

Of course you’ll definitely need to think about the total cost of implementing the CRM solution as well. You’ll need to figure out what kind of budget you have for this project, and then you’ll need to look at the total cost of implementation and operation of the CRM software. Of course you won’t just want to look at the initial costs of installation, since this is only part of what you’ll be paying long term. After you make the CRM software purchase, you’ll be investing money in integration, customizing the software, training your employees, maintenance for the software, and upgrades over the years as well. So, the question includes a whole lot more than the cost you will be paying up front. It’s important that you take all the costs into consideration and then go with the option that offers you the best long term cost over time.

As you can see, these three things are very important questions to ask when you are thinking about implementing a CRM solution into your company. Make sure that you consider these questions deeply and come up with the right answers so you are sure to pick the best CRM software solution for your company’s needs.

Selecting the accounting software for a business organization is a daunting task. The application must be just right. Ideally, it should have all the necessary features that streamline business organizations while being easily customizable to accommodate unique organizational requirements. At the same time, it should not contain more functionalities than what is required because it adds to the cost and makes the application more difficult to use.

Finding the right financial software for your needs is never easy. You have to look beyond the software’s specs to see what features and functionality it has. Knowing what kinds of functions you need your accounting software to perform is also of utmost importance. A number of software solutions exist that are easy to confuse with each other and tough to differentiate, they key is knowing what solutions you require and what modules you can do without.

Two modules that are a part of nearly all accounting software solutions are accounts payable and accounts reveivable. These are two of the most important financial management capabilities and can be found as parts of complete software packages or can be sold as individual modules.

Purchasing a complete package has the benefits of being easy to install and generic enough to fit most applications. However, the all-in-one functionality is also one of the pitfalls of these complete systems. Some businesses do not need all the functionality that these systems provide and can actually end up with software that is harder to configure and slower to use due to the excess baggage that the software must always work around and through. If you do not need all of the functionality that a complete system offers, you may be better off with a module based system that integrates with other programs that you use.

There are some all-in-one solutions that come in different editions. Usually, certain editions contain greater functionality in certain areas or permit a higher number of users. Note that if you decide to support more users, you will need to acquire separate software licenses for them.

On the other hand, module-based software systems allow businesses to select the functionality they want from the software. If your company is unsure about what functions they need right now or may need in the future or is working within a tight budget with specific requirements, module based systems provide the flexibility they may need. Module based systems allow room to grow by simply adding new modules. So long as the modules are from the same manufacturer/vendor, the data should be transferable and compatible.

The catch with module based systems is compatibility. Generally, once you begin to build an accounting software system with modules from one software vendor, you will have to purchase future modules from that same vendor. As such, it is important that you find a vendor that you are comfortable working with for years to come.

Before you buy an accounting software module, determine if their operation depends on other modules. For example, in an accounts payable module, the software requires that the general ledger and system management first be installed before it works.

Related “accounting Software” Articles

When it comes to spreading the word around about your business, nothing is quite as effective as providing a good customer service experience. Each time a client walks out of your store happy, you are that word would get around to at least seven more people. This is the reason why may companies make it a point to have a customer relationship management procedure in place.

One way to ensure that your customer is at least satisfied with your product or service is to give them what they want as well as attend to their complaints in the fastest time possible. This can only be achieved if you have a centralized and accessible database of all your clients as well as all your products. This is where CRM software applications come in.

With so many CRM application out in the market today, choosing which software application to go for might seem to be a challenging task. In truth, you only need to know what to do in order to get the most suited CRM application for your business. You can begin by ascertaining whether you have the needed infrastructure for a CRM application. If you have a limited space or do not have enough computers to run the program on, you might want to consider web-based software applications. Keep in mind, however, that most of these applications might have limited capabilities.

You also need to check what you need the application for. Oftentimes, business owners jump at buying a CRM application because that is what other business owners do. Ask yourself what other features you would need your application to have aside from an easy access to customer information. Software applications such as the ACT Contact Management Software allow you to have access to your current clients’ information as well as keep tabs on your prospective clients. It can also give you feedback on your client’s buying habits giving you an idea on what products and services to offer them.

Make sure also that you have the budget to buy the application you have in mind. If your business is strapped for cash, you can consider going for applications that allow one-user installations. Just like with any other Sage product, ACT Contact Manager is pocket-friendly and allows for up to 10 users. Other versions such as the ACT Premium and the ACT Corporate Edition can cost more as they cater to bigger organizations that have a need for more features and greater scalability.

Lastly, go for a CRM application that could be integrated easily with your existing software applications. CRM solutions such as the ACT Contact Management software make it possible for you to easily create reports and import and export data to any Microsoft format.