Last week, Joe Woodard—an expert in the field of QuickBooks Hosting, use and support—wrote an interesting piece on the future of Intuit for the online tax and accounting news website Accounting Today. Woodard is the president of Creative Financial Software (CFS), a company that provides QuickBooks implementation, training, and consultation services for small businesses, and he has a lot to say about what Intuit is doing now and what it should do going forward in order to maintain its position as the leading company in SMB accounting technology.

In his article, “Projecting the Intuit QuickBooks World of Tomorrow,” Woodard argues that Intuit’s decision to partner with hosting companies (like NovelASPect) rather than to offer QuickBooks hosting services directly is the right one. For one, he says, Intuit’s core business model does not include hosting—and there’s no reason that it should right now. The technology is already completely developed and is readily available within the market, he explains, and Intuit’s decision to forge partnerships with the strongest hosting companies out there means that rather than insisting upon building its own hosting capabilities (thereby delaying access for its clients), they’ve already managed to make QuickBooks hosting the mainstay of their cloud strategy—a move that has not only benefited Intuit, but its customers as well.

As one of the companies that has been approved by Intuit as a hosting partner, we’ve seen firsthand at NovelASPect how beneficial their program has been for everyone involved. For one, NovelASPect employs a third-party company, MSPAlliance, to review companies and ensure that their facilities, technology, and services are secure, private, and reliable before granting them accreditation and entry to the Commercial Hosting Program. Not only does this give clients peace of mind, it rewards those companies that have worked hard to build and maintain a safe, secure hosting environment by allowing us to announce ourselves as authorized Intuit partners.

In addition to Intuit, we also partner with Citrix, whose technology enables us to provide a more scalable, on-demand computing model. With our Intuit partnership alone, we would be able to provide our customers with full anytime, anywhere access to their QuickBooks data; with our Citrix platform, we are able to offer our clients all of that plus an incredible amount of IT control and flexibility. At the end of the day, this translates into increased productivity and reduced expenses for our clients.

Since day one, NovelASPect has been changing the way small businesses access data around the world, and that continues to be our mission. As long as we’re here, we’ll keep on growing and evolving to meet the needs of our current and future users.

(To see what else Joe Woodard has to say about the future of Intuit, you can read the full article discussed above here.)

Do you run a small business? Have you moved to the cloud yet? If you haven’t, you’re one of a quickly shrinking minority—every day, more and more small businesses are turning to cloud computing as their new IT solution. Here’s why:

For large companies, locating the capital required to build an infrastructure, license software, and hire extra personnel to run an in-house IT setup is not an obstacle; small companies, however, can find those costs to be prohibitive. Cloud computing is the one technology that has managed to open the door for small businesses to improve their efficiency while simultaneously cutting their computing costs by more than half. With a hosting provider like NovelASPect, a small company simply pays a set monthly fee, and they gain access to a higher-performance system than they would ever be able to afford on their own—and they pay only for what they’re using, when they’re using it, since our cloud services are entirely scalable and individualized.

Since NovelASPect was formed, we’ve seen how dramatic savings can be for companies that we help move to the cloud. One of our clients, for instance—a San Francisco-based biotech firm—saves more than 70% on their IT costs as a result of their decision to utilize NovelASPect’s hosting services. Because there’s no need for server room buildout, office wiring, or servers with NovelASPect, they have benefited from hugely reduced capital costs; and because the desktop support, server maintenance and support, email exchange, and account management we provide comes at a fraction of the cost of the in-house model, their operational costs stay low as well. On top of all that, they can rest safe with the knowledge that we automatically provide all of our clients with disaster recovery at no extra cost—so no matter what, their data is safe.

If your small business is spending far more than it can afford on IT services—or even if you simply want to increase productivity and streamline the way you run things—consider cloud computing. With your IT infrastructure in the cloud, you’ll discover a greater flexibility, efficiency, and security than an in-house IT setup could ever offer—at a remarkably affordable price.

What is QuickBooks Online?

QuickBooks has long been an ideal choice for an organization’s bookkeeping needs.  As the demand for Internet-based access to applications has grown in recent times, Intuit has released a Web-specific version of QuickBooks that is known as QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE).  At first glace this seems like a logical progression; if bookkeepers and accountants have anytime, anywhere access to QuickBooks they will be able to provide better service to their clients.  Unfortunately there is much lost in the transition from the desktop to online version of QuickBooks and the result is a mediocre experience for the user.  For example, you cannot perform the following functions with QBOE:

-Inventory Tracking

-Purchase Orders

-Company Overview

-Currency Calculator

QBOE also charges you based on the # of company files you have which can become costly for accountants and bookkeepers who have several clients.  While this web-based application seems like a great option in theory, the program has far too many limitations to be considered a practical option.

Why is QuickBooks Hosting Better?

QuickBooks Hosting provides a best of both worlds solution; it gives you the full functionality of the regular version of QuickBooks with the convenience of QBOE.  A hosting provider installs the desktop-based edition of QuickBooks on their server, which grants the end-user access from any Internet-enabled device.  All client information is safe as data is transmitted over the Internet with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and 128-bit encryption.  Files are also backed up at various points throughout the day to further ensure this.  As businesses are becoming increasingly cloud-based, it is obvious that QuickBooks Hosting is the ideal solution for accountants and bookkeepers.

NovelASPect will  now be hosting an application called PlanGuru—for those of you unfamiliar with PlanGuru, it’s a budgeting and forecasting software that is compatible with QuickBooks and Excel. Use this program for high level forecast or for a detailed multi-departmental operating budget to produce a more accurate analysis, and to present the information in [insightful/discerning/informative] reports quickly and easily.

NovelASPect has partnered with PlanGuru to host their application and make it available through our Citrix enabled environment. As always, your data is stored and backed [present tech details on security/up on the70 SAS type 2 data center]. In this partnership, both PlanGuru and NovelASPect aim to better serve the needs of our clients by allowing universal access to this powerful software. Learn more about PlanGuru and how your company can gain access to it on the cloud. With NovelASPect, there is no need to compromise.

NovelASPect Announces Membership in Microsoft Certified Provider and SPLA Service Provider Programs

NovelASPect announces its participation in the Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program, bringing customers the best value at the lowest cost.

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“Our goal is to be a one-stop hosting solution for our clients,” says Fallahee. “Through our involvement in the SPLA program, we’re making that goal a reality.”

South San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) July 05, 2011

NovelASPect, a leading ASP Provider, recently became a part of Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program, making it one of the few application service providers to offer legally hosted Microsoft products.

An application service provider must be a part of the SPLA program in order to offer Microsoft Office; it’s the only program that allows Office to be installed in a shared environment and leased on a per-user basis in compliance with Microsoft licensing standards.

Outside of the SPLA program, there are only two licensing options for Microsoft Office: it can be individually purchased from a retail location (which allows for installation on a maximum of two devices), or purchased under a corporate volume license (which allows for installation on a dedicated server). In both cases, users are obtaining Office on a limited, per-device basis. The SPLA program’s unique, per-user model offers much greater accessibility to users than either of these two options.

The SPLA program offers more than accessibility with its authorized per-user licensing, however—it also allows its partners to tailor service to each individual client. Benefits of participation include a flexible cost structure, no startup costs, no monthly sales minimums, and no required term of commitment.

“Our participation in the SPLA program is the next step up for us,” said Rick Fallahee, CEO of NovelASPect. “We’re very excited to be one of the few companies out there to offer these improved services to our clients.”

Since Microsoft SPLA is the only Microsoft Volume Licensing program that allows commercial hosting of Microsoft products, its partners are also able to offer the most current Microsoft software available. Additionally, as an SPLA program participant NovelASPect is given the opportunity to test and evaluate new software before offering it to clients—ensuring quality and functionality.

“Our goal is to be a one-stop hosting solution for our clients,” says Fallahee. “Through our involvement in the SPLA program, we’re making that goal a reality.”

ABOUT NOVELASPECT

NovelASPect is changing the way small businesses access data around the world. Dedicated to providing reliable, exceptional service and flawless security, NovelASPect allows small businesses and accountants to utilize application hosting to access their data anytime, anywhere.

NovelASPect is a 100% employee-owned and -operated business founded in 2005 by a CPA and a certified Microsoft and Citrix professional. With clientele spanning 5 continents—from Johannesburg to Canada to Brisbane to Beijing to Paris to San Francisco—NovelASPect is a leading expert in providing application delivery to companies through a Citrix client.

For information about application hosting with NovelASPect, please call (888) 228-0143 or visithttp://www.novelaspect.com.

 

This week we attended the Sleeter Conference in Las Vegas and came away with some great new relationships and ideas. We met with Jake Matyas and Jeff Lyons from BigTime Software and agreed on a new partnership. The partnership will allow users to be able to integrate their Quickbooks files with BigTime’s practice management software. You can find out more about BigTime by visiting their website at http://www.bigtime.net/

We also listened to some great talks given by industry leaders like Himanshu Palsule, Executive Vice President of Strategy for Sage North America. He spoke about the importance of customer service and the emergence of P2P or People to People business practice. This is idea is focused on how customers are moving away from impersonal business practices and towards businesses that provide a more personal and communicative experience.

Doug Sleeter put on a great conference and we look forward to attending again next year.

QuickBooks, as many businesses know, is the premier small business accounting software in the world. Many small businesses utilize the power and versatility of QuickBooks to keep their finances in order easily, conveniently, and accurately.

No matter what version of QuickBooks you operate – Pro, Premier, or Enterprise – you have one of the leading tools for accounting and bookkeeping available. Now, you can take this service to the next level by taking advantage of key add-ons hosted conveniently by NovelASPect – not only making your QuickBooks software more robust and capable, but also more convenient and efficient through cloud computing.

Here are three must-have hosted application add-ons provided by NovelASPect that most small businesses can’t do without:

1. AutoReporter

Every small business needs reports created, and doing so can be very time and resource-intensive. With AutoReporter, you can automate the entire process and schedule, customize, and create reports using any data set or database. AutoReporter integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks and creates reports automatically based on the schedule you create – even when QuickBooks isn’t up and running.

NovelASPect hosts AutoReporter and allows you to deliver this terrific capability to your entire office using the power of the cloud – which means fewer resources tied up by running this essential software.

2. FishBowl Inventory

For small businesses that use QuickBooks and need to manage their inventory in an efficient and cost-effective manner, FishBowl Inventory is there. FishBowl is the premier inventory management software on the market today for small businesses, and works beautifully with QuickBooks. It can provide inventory control, bar coding, inventory search over dispersed locations, order management, detail tracking for parts, variable pricing, and more. Plus, with AutoReporter, you can create customized inventory reports as well.

Connectivity and data access are both musts for true inventory management, and NovelASPect offers both with our top-notch, highly-available application hosting services.

3. CS QuickBooks Data Utility

Finally, for offices that have multiple users that collaborate often with QuickBooks files that need to be integrated and collected, there is the CS QuickBooks Data Utility. This nifty piece of software allows users to quickly and seamlessly transfer transaction and list data to and from QuickBooks files – without erasing or overwriting any existing data in the files themselves. If you have ever had to merge two or more files, you understand how liberating it can be to have a tool that does it for you.

All of these excellent additions to QuickBooks are hosted by NovelASPect, which offers connectively, uptime, flexibility, and data security. Using QuickBooks has never been easier – or more productive – for your organization.

If there is one rule to managing risk for a successful business, it is this: Expect the unexpected. Every year, disasters happen – and they always seem to strike when we are least prepared. For a business that depends on servicing its customers day in and day out, with troves of invaluable customer information and business data that needs to be kept safe, disasters can wreak havoc and ruin a company.

If it didn’t happen every year, it wouldn’t be such a concern. Unfortunately, disaster recovery has become a necessity for any business – especially a small or medium business that depends on its data stream to exist.

With NovelASPect’s managed IT services, businesses can take advantage of 21st-century cloud-computing technology to create a fully-functioning disaster recovery plan without the cost of an entire IT center.

Daily Data Backup: The Key to Solid Disaster Recovery

When a disaster strikes, the only way to really safeguard your data is to have it stored off-site. Even the most robust storage devices, after all, can’t withstand a tornado, earthquake, hurricane, flood, or major fire. Every year, priceless data is lost because they aren’t being stored properly.

NovelASPect takes care of this for your business by automatically backing up all of your data, each and every day, no matter what. Data is backed up hourly between 6am and 8pm EST and encrypted at our Tier 2 data center named Herakles in Sacramento, California. The backup data is sent off-site and retained for 90 days. All procedures are handled by our company, which is a major convenience for our customers.

This is essential because a business needs to have access to its data – and its customers need to understand that their vital records will be secure no matter what.

Quick Recovery: The Key to Maintaining Continuity

In the IT world, continuity is a big deal. Being able to run a business’s operations in the event of a disaster is of paramount importance for many organizations. By using a cloud infrastructure to host applications and offer software as a service to our clients, NovelASPect can allow a business to maintain that crucial continuity – restoring operations by making available the services and applications a business needs.

Using cloud computing and disaster recovery through managed IT services is a proven way a business can protect itself and its data – and, thus, its relationship with its customers – no matter what may happen.