Articles

Automation, Workflow and Alerts for SMEs

One way to significantly reduce costs for SME businesses is to automate internal processes. This includes automated workflow, alerts and the like. Examples of these include: * Automating tedious processes, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly recurring sales and purchase invoices and general ledger accounting entries.

Shadow IT seduces CFOs

The lure of cloud computing for CMOs is well understood and has seen more of the IT budget head to that department – now it’s the CFO’s turn… Delays and “chaos” in the planning cycle is driving chief financial officers to seek alternatives to the trusty spreadsheet,

The why, what and how of business agility

Fifty years ago, running a company was much more predictable, with less competition and customers content to buy based on what you had on offer. But things have changed, writes Nat Tanner, and so should you… In the digital age, new companies regularly emerge from nowhere and

Mind the knowledge gap – IT in the boardroom

Following a number of high-profile project train wrecks last year, we ask if there is enough understanding of IT at board level. Clare Coulson spoke to those in the know to get some answers… “This topic is actually a very timely one,” says Paul Matthews, CEO of the Institute of IT

When Time Tracking by Spreadsheet is No Longer Good Enough

If you have a small to medium sized organization and you need to track your employee time, you probably started simply enough. Using a spreadsheet method to list each employee, every project or client and the associated hours worked. At some point you will find it is

Ever wondered which ERP vendor is best?

Panorama Consulting Solutions ranks ERP vendors for 2017 and comes up with a winner… That winner is Epicor – but at iStart, we have a nagging suspicion that the very notion of ‘the best ERP vendor’ is something of a ‘how long is a piece of string’

Assessing Various Time Billing Arrangements and Time and Attendance Software

Your choice of a time or time billing package should be tailored to your business and the billing, time reporting and fee requirements you must accommodate. Let’s look at the various types of fee systems encountered in business today. If your enterprise manages fixed fee projects, your

Know your ADCs and get more from the hybrid cloud

When cloud computing first appeared on corporate radar screens in the mid-2000s, it brought with it the promise of big business benefits – but, asks Benjamin Hodge, have those been realised?… The shift from on-premise infrastructure to public cloud providers has not been as swift or complete

How to Choose Timesheet Software

If you are in the market for timesheet software your research may leave you uncertain about what type of package you need. You can demystify the choices by considering your budget, business requirements and other basic factors. First, make a list of the things you want to do with

Online or On Premise?

The interesting thing about online solutions is that, although the lingo changes, the concept is not new. For the last 10 years evangelists of the “hosted” solution have been banging down doors trying to get people to believe that you are better off as a business if