The inevitable march towards SAAS for everything continues…

Do you bank online? Do you use your smartphone to do it? If not, why not? Of course, Bluedog's own software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering, Workbench, provides knowledge workers with valuable tools for collaboration. But every commercial entity has to deal with money, and on-line accounting is a natural niche to address. Over at Outright, Inc., bookkeeping has been taken to a new level -- and small business bookkeepers should check it out. Outright provides a tool (much like Mint, but geared towards small- to medium enterprises SMEs) for consolidation of finances and accounting services. Regular and accurate bookkeeping enables a business to sustain itself, and expand. Without double-entry magic, one may run the risk of hitting a cash flow crunch, wasting funds, and overlooking opportunities to expand. When devising or revising an approach to bookkeeping, remember that the purpose of bookkeeping is to help manage the business and to enable tax agencies (and verdict providers) to evaluate business activity. If accounting practices achieve these objectives, it should be as simple as possible. Naturally, a SAAS approach facilitates this.

While some bookkeeping functions are best delegated to a CPA, it is important to keep your hands on, and retain an understanding of the health of the business by reviewing the books frequently. While an accountant or bookkeeper can free resources up to concentrate on expanding the business, understanding where inflows and outflows go will keep the the pulse of the enterprise out in front.

Federal IT Reform - on track, thanks to Cloud efforts

Over at Government CIO Magazine, read my thoughts on how the cloud has contributed to successes in Federal IT reform. Obviously, data center consolidation reduces expenditures. But some agencies' utilization of the Cloud has yielded surprising reductions in cost. Government CIO

How ERP and Lean Can Work Together

Enterprise resource planning software is the lynchpin in corralling and centralizing important data in a business's transaction processing. The role of manufacturing and distribution software in supply chain management solutions is growing in impact as businesses attempt to respond faster to market conditions during these difficult economic times. I've been reviewing offerings from TGI (http://www.tgiltd.com/) that could be a radical step forward, when paired with Lean Production. Lean manufacturing aims to eliminate components and processes, whether that is excess stock, inventory, excess parts or handling, or labor. Using ERP software automation to improve operational efficiency makes perfect sense when implementing process improvement. What I've witnessed is that, for Japanese companies, ERP software is more prevalent at the top of a lean process, especially in industries such as car manufacturing (Honda) or consumer electronics (Sony). Japanese companies are less likely to face the need to rebuild ERP software or even MRP systems to support new manufacturing techniques -- something businesses world-wide could emulate to find cost savings and other efficiencies.