Thomas
G. Stephens, Jr., CPA.CITP
At this point, many choose to look
back at what happened – as well as
what did not – in the current year.
Let’s take a different approach in
this article and choose instead to
look ahead at mainstream
technologies that likely should be
on your radar for 2010. These are
not pie-in-the-sky tools, but rather
very practical considerations for
accountants and finance and business
professionals of all stripes. And
each of these technologies is
available right now and can be
implemented with relative ease. So,
let’s get started with a review of
the tools that you should likely
give some consideration to in order
to increase your productivity.
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft released
Windows 7, the successor to the
unpopular Vista operating system, in
October of this year. Windows 7 is
an immediate consideration for every
current user of Windows XP, if for
no other reason than the fact that
mainstream support for Windows XP
expired on April 14 of this year.
This, coupled with new
productivity-enhancing features,
will likely prompt many current XP
users to upgrade to Windows 7 during
2010.
When upgrading, keep in mind several
factors:
Windows 7 is available in six
editions –
Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium,
Professional, Ultimate, and
Enterprise – so be sure to
select the right edition of Windows
7 for you and your team. For most
business professionals, the
Professional or Ultimate edition is
likely the right choice.
If you are planning to load Windows
7 on existing hardware, be sure to
run the
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor in
advance. Following the advice
provided by the Upgrade Advisor
should keep you from loading Windows
7 on a computer that is not capable
of running Windows 7 or will offer
inferior performance.
Consider if now is the time to move
to a 64-bit operating system. Like
its predecessors – Vista and XP –
Windows 7 is available in both
32-bit and 64-bit editions. Moving
to a 64-bit operating system is
likely to provide enhanced speed for
most users and will allow all users
to take advantage of up to 128 GB of
RAM.
If you are planning to upgrade to
Windows 7 on an existing Windows XP
computer, know that Microsoft does
not directly support an
“over-the-top” upgrade – that is,
you will have to backup all of your
data, perform a “clean” install,
reinstall all of your applications,
and restore your data.
Start-to-finish, plan on at least a
day to do this.
Once you have made the transition to
Windows 7, be sure to check out some
of the new features, including
BitLocker To Go, Snap, Peek, Shake,
Jump Lists, and Windows XP Mode.
Microsoft Office 2010
As long as we are talking about
Microsoft tools, we must mention a
2010 release of Microsoft Office.
Though the final release of the
software will likely not be
available until the second quarter,
users can download a
fully functioning beta now to
get a sneak preview of the newest
release of the desktop productivity
suite.
Current users of Office 2003 should
view the upgrade to Office 2010 as a
“major” upgrade. As with Office
2007, Office 2010 makes use of the
new Ribbon-oriented user interface
and offers greatly enhanced
capacities in Excel. Additionally,
it maintains Office 2007’s
transition to XML-based data files,
potentially setting the state for
file compatibility issues when
exchanging data files between Office
2010 and Office 2003 and prior
platforms.
For current users of Office 2007,
several new features may make the
upgrade a wise one. For example,
Microsoft offers Office 2010 in both
32-bit and 64-bit editions; running
the 64-bit edition of Office 2010 on
a 64-bit operating system is likely
to offer astonishing speed. Office
2010 also offers new collaboration
tools through Office Web Apps; these
tools allow for simultaneous access
and editing of data files by
multiple users. New charting
capabilities throughout the suite,
coupled with significant
enhancements to Outlook, and a new
Backstage feature, mean that
Office 2010 offers plenty of new
productivity-enhancing features to
even the most seasoned of Office
users.
Internet-Based Backups
If your company is still backing
data up to tape drives, 2010 may be
the year to break that paradigm and
move to Internet-based backups.
While tape-based backups are likely
the most popular form of backing up
corporate data, that process is one
that if tedious, prone to error and
failure, and expensive.
Internet-based backups, on the other
hand, offer a number of advantages,
including:
The security of putting the backup
process on “auto-pilot”,
• Ensured off-site storage –
typically to redundant, off-site
data centers, and
• Cost-savings, as compared to
traditional, tape-based backup
processes.
There are a number of outstanding
resources and service providers when
considering using Internet-based
backups. Some of the more notable
providers include
Abaxio,
Barracuda Networks,
eFolder
Backup Manager, and
Iron Mountain. Be sure to
investigate the advantages of moving
to an Internet-based backup service
as early as possible in 2010, using
one of these or any of the other
reputable service providers in this
market.
Virtual Servers
If your organization has more than
two servers, you probably have too
many. Most servers suffer from
miserably low utilization rates –
often only 5% to 15% utilized – and,
consequently, offer very low returns
on investment. Couple this with high
maintenance, utilities, and square
footage costs, and we find that
organizations of all sizes are
suffering from bad cases of “server
sprawl”.
Consider consolidating the number of
physical servers in use in your
organization during 2010. Using
virtual server technologies from
companies such as
VMware and
Microsoft, organizations of all
sizes are experiencing consolidation
ratios of up to ten-to-one and
reducing server costs by as much as
50%. In addition, organizations that
have moved to virtual servers have
benefitted in some unexpected ways,
including easier maintenance and
improved up time.
The upcoming year is a great time to
begin reducing the number of
physical servers your organization
has in service and virtualization is
one of the ways you can bring about
this change. As with the previous
discussion on Internet-based
backups, don’t continue to assume
traditional methods are the best –
take advantage of the technologies
that are available to you today to
provide better service, higher
availability of data, all while
reducing costs.
Document Management Systems
Document Management Systems (DMS) do
much more than just store documents.
A properly implemented DMS can help
your organization manage retention
policies, comply with data breach
security laws, and increase
productivity by automating workflows
and supporting scan-and-populate
functions. Many accounting software
applications – including entry-level
applications such as
Peachtree and
QuickBooks – now offer some
basic document attachment/linking
functions. Virtually all mid-range
and ERP-class systems offer some
form of DMS either natively within
the application or through
third-party add-ons. And every major
vendor of tax/accounting firm
software – along with independent
vendors such as
Doc.It and
Interwoven – offers a DMS
solution targeted to accounting
firms.
Remember, going “paperless” is about
much more than just storing
documents as PDF files in a Windows
file folder structure. The term
“paperless” describes the end-to-end
process of document management and
that process is streamlined and
enhanced through a properly
implemented DMS. Best of all, this
is an investment that will likely
pay for itself many times over
during its life cycle.
Summary
The New Year is almost upon us! Will
we make the most of it from a
productivity and efficiency
standpoint, or will we continue to
labor unnecessarily with yesterday’s
technologies. New tools such as
Windows 7, Office 2010,
Internet-Based Backups, Virtual
Servers, and Document Management
Systems offer great opportunities to
all who are willing to take
advantage of these tools.
Wishing a Happy Holidays and a
Peaceful and Prosperous New Years to
all!
________________________________________
Mr. Stephens is a shareholder in
K2 Enterprises, where he develops
and presents technology-related
continuing professional education
programs to accounting and finance
professionals across the United
States.
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