The file based accounting system dominates almost all small to medium size accounting software in the pass, only big corporate with hundred of thousands can afford SQL Accounting, but this is not the case any more, as SQL database server getting cheaper (even FREE!), more and more accounting system are built on SQL database server, and I think you should seriously consider SQL Accounting for your company and yourself!

The Advantages for software developer:

1. Scalable architecture.

User can easily expand their connection and scale to a larger system, conventional file based accounting will only allow multi-users connections up to 20 or less. The database powered accounting system will always take more resources than the file based accounting, but modern computer is powerful enough to run any database application, even on desktop computer.

2. Realtime processing.

SQL Accounting with stored procedure support can process calculation on the fly! Support both realtime and batch processing.

3. Separate Business rules from interface.

With proper software design, developer can separate business rules from software interface; The database stored procedure will handle all business rules and processing related matter, while the software will handle all validation and user interactions. Such design allowed developer to port existing software code to web based or other platform easily.

4. Faster product delivery.

Separation of user interface and business rules will greatly reduce testing and debug time, deliver the project more faster.

The Advantages for end user:

1. Faster response time.

Powerful database will speed up processing time.

2. Store more data without performance decrease.

The real database storage allows over 100 GB of data while maintaining a fast response time, file base will start to decrease in performance when data grow over 1 GB.

3. Less cost to integrate.

Standard SQL database will be easier to integrate with the existing system, any business software vendor should be able to communicate with the database and automate the data exchange process with minimum support from accounting software vendor.

There is no reason not to select SQL Accounting, functionality can be easily extended, but the based architecture of the business system must be flexible and scalable to save money in the long run of the development.

(C) Copyright 2008 CYNICS SOFTWARE – Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

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According to Penny L. Sherrod, Director of Enterprise Systems for The Babcock & Wilcox Company, the three most powerful product features to Visibility ERP for Babcock & Wilcox:

• Financial integration across all modules
• Transactional capabilities, i.e., sales orders, purchase orders, work orders
• Process consistencies on how we develop, manage, collect, and execute information to satisfy our various businesses.

Sherrod noted that, “Currently we have 1460 active users in our Visibility ERP application. We implemented the General Ledger in 1996 and then continued with planned implementation of other modules throughout 1999. We eliminated over 15 different systems that stored and maintained data. We established process consistency across the organization especially in the areas of procurement, order entry and reporting.”

One of the specific areas of “visibility” available to the firm due to the Visibility ERP system is the integration of VendorServer with the backend Visibility database that provides the web front end to extend E-Commerce capabilities to the firm’s suppliers.

Sherrod said that the firm selected Visibility because, “It fit nicely with our Engineered-To-Order business model and afforded the flexibility that is so critical to the way we conduct our business.”

Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility’s Enterprise Application solutions help midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively.

VISIBILITY.net is an integrated ERP solution and more. Offering unparalleled functionality and integrated workflow, this browser-based solution cost effectively delivers the power of .NET-based Web services for use with either a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any time, any where is a reality, deployable with unprecedented flexibility.

CRM software gives you the benefit of automating your marketing. This makes you more efficient, and helps you to gain this new level of effectiveness in your marketing.

Customers are smart, they need to be, as they are bombarded with all kinds of marketing messages throughout a single day. Customers have developed a built-in filter to filter out messages that they don’t care much about. How are you going to communicate to them effectively? How can you make sure they take notice of you?

CRM software holds important information about your customers and leads. As each customer makes contact with your organisation, your CRM software can keep a record of the details of the conversation, including their interests and the problems they want solved. Problems that need solving equals sales, you can use this information to effectively market to your customers, tell them how you can solve their problems and walk away with the sale.

Let’s use a simple example. As a part of your business you provide technical support for the product that you sell. When a customer contacts you, CRM software will track whether the customer was calling for technical support. Over the course of a year, your business probably handled hundreds, maybe thousands of technical support related queries.

Continuing the example, you find out of your great service, your business is expanding. Based on customer feedback, you decide to add a section to your website that features a knowledge base that acts as a first point of call for customers needing help. Having this new offering helps to lower the number of technical support queries your staff need to handle, and it assists customers in having their query answered quickly.

Now, you realise that this is a great marketing opportunity! Customers want to know that you’re looking after them, and building them a knowledge base is just the type of thing that you want them to feel good about. You want them to know you’re looking after them.

The old, ineffective way of marketing would be to draft an email and send out the same email to all of your customers. All of your customers would sure know about your new knowledge base, but surely you can make more of this opportunity! If you’re using CRM software, it would contain information about your customer history that you can use to personalise your message.

Using the new, effective way of marketing and your trusty CRM software, you could give a special message for customers who have called for technical support in the last year. An example of this message might be:

“Thank you for calling us this year for technical support for the product XYZ. We hope that we were able to give you the help you needed at the time. We have been listening carefully to our customers, and realised that we have had multiple customers are call with the same question! Responding to this feedback, we have created an online knowledge base just for you. This means that you can get your problems solved quicker in the future!”

CRM software can help you to find a list of these particular customers through its built-in search functionality. This will give you a targeted marketing message to these particular customers. Effective marketing like this lets customers know that you’re really paying attention to them, and that you value their business and their time.

Of course, you’d still want your other customers to know about your new feature:

“We’ve noticed that you haven’t needed to contact us for technical support this year. However, we would still love to hear from you if you have any problems. If you do need technical support in the future, we have created a knowledge base on our website to resolve your problem as fast as possible. We know that your time is precious, so we want to make sure that we help you get back on track as soon as possible.”

By investing in CRM software for you business, you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing, and that means more sales and happier customers!