Technology in Practice

How do the most agile, responsive and successful businesses become that way? They effectively leverage what is arguably their most critical resource – accurate, complete, consistent, secure and timely information. This webinar will show you how ERP solutions can help to transform disparate information silos into coherent, integrated and actionable forms that can improve the operational aspect of your organization. You’ll also get advice and practical tips for what to look for in an ERP system in the context of your information needs. Learn how to: Ensure both high information quality and effective presentation of that information to enable better decision making across your organization Manage the distribution of information and the high speed of data transfer in a way that reduces information failures, security risks, and poor decision making Look for the practical features and core functionality that enables an ERP solution to meet your information requirements Extract the maximum value out of today’s ERP solutions to improve process efficiency, reduce costs and drive revenue Sign Up Here for this FREE LIVE event Thursday, June 10, 2010 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT Featured Speakers: Michael Oliver-Goodwin is a Contributing Editor for Focus. He is a widely published writer and an experienced editor for publications, including PC World, MacWeek and InfoWorld. He recently published his New Orleans book, Heaven Before I Die – A Journey to the Heart of New Orleans in December 2009. Alexandre Attal is a General Manager for Sage North America, a subsidiary of Sage Group PLC, the world’s leading vendor of business application software for midsize enterprises. Attal manages Sage ERP X3 North American operations and is responsible for strategic product and marketing development, sales and professional services. With more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the technology industry, Attal has a proven track record of developing business value for both large and midsize customers in various industry segments. Prior to his current position, Attal held multiple management responsibilities at IBM. After becoming IBM France General Manager in 1995, he moved to IBM Corporation in the US in 1997. His career at IBM includes leadership positions in product marketing, distribution channel sales and services management. He operated Freelance.com, an Internet venture offering technology services, before becoming CEO of X3 developer Adonix in 2001. Adonix was acquired by Sage Group in 2005. Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to reducing technology implementation failures. Asuret’s suite of software tools improve the success rate of enterprise software deployments by quantifying and measuring governance issues that cause most project failures. Michael led the research effort underlying Asuret’s model of collective intelligence and its practical application to reducing IT failures in consulting environments. He is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures and is frequently quoted in the press on IT project and related CIO issues. He is considered an enterprise software industry “influencer” and provides advice to technology buyers, vendors, and services firms. Previously, Michael served as CEO of Cambridge Publications, which develops tools and processes for software implementations and related business practice automation projects. Michael has been involved with hundreds of software development projects, for companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 organizations. Michael graduated with an M.B.A. from Boston University and a B.A. from Bard College. He is a Board member of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, RI.

MAS 90/200 users please join us for our quarterly complimentary User Groups. Key topic for discussion for the June groups: I didn’t know MAS 90 /200 could do that! Sage has been busy providing new functionality in the quarterly product updates. We will review some of the newly available methods for using MAS90/200 to solve some common business issues. In addition, we will take a sneak peek into the new reporting tool included with MAS that will unlock the information in your MAS data. There will be a networking breakfast to start and an open discussion/roundtable/Q & A on using MAS 90/200 day to day to close. We hope you can join. Dates/Locations: June 9 – Raleigh, NC June 16 – New York, NY June 17- Newark, NJ RSVP Required. For more details and to RSVP visit: http://bit.ly/95mcxS

Now is not the time to waste money on excess hardware, service contracts or energy bills. Now is the time to improve your bottom line through virtualization. Over 150,000 companies, including all the Fortune 100, already rely on VMware Virtualization to lower their CAPEX – so isn’t it time you did too? Discover how to reduce your server costs, management and energy expenditure by up to 50%.

MAS 500 users please join us in New York on Wednesday, June 9 other for our quarterly complimentary User Group at the New Yorker Hotel on 34th and 8th Ave. This meetings featured topic is Crystal Reports: a) Amending MAS 500 Crystal Reports: What I can and cannot do creating my own reports b) Using Business Insights: What I can and cannot do. As always, there will be networking/breakfast to start and an open discussion/roundtable conversation to close the meeting. We hope you can join. RSVP is required: http://bit.ly/M500June21010UG

Good customers are hard to find, especially in current economic conditions. This makes retaining the customers you have more important than ever, and one key to retaining them is to provide excellent customer service. Your SageCRM system is more than a powerful tool for tracking and closing leads. After the sale is fulfilled, the tools within SageCRM Customer Care give you the ability to provide superior customer service, increase customer satisfaction, and preserve your loyal customer base. Letís take a closer look. Case Tracking At the heart of Customer Care is Case Tracking. You can track everything from technical support questions to items missing from shipments. To create a new Case you simply click on the New Case action button, find the customer, and enter the details. The screen can be customized to collect the specific data you need to quickly resolve customer issues. Depending on the workflow you define, workflow action buttons appear, allowing you to advance the case to the next step. Workflow Automation The flexible workflow automation capabilities of SageCRM allow you to fully define customer service processes and escalation points for your organization. Typical statuses or steps you set might include: Logged, Investigating, Waiting, and Resolved. If the case remains inactive longer than the period of time you predefine, SageCRM will escalate the case, sending an e-mail notification to the manager you designate, alerting them to the condition. This powerful automation ensures that each case is handled expeditiously. Real-Time Monitoring Of Service Levels The current service level for each case is easily visible with a traffic-light monitoring column in the Cases Tab. This makes it easy for customer service staff to identify cases in need of immediate attention. Customer Communication It is important to communicate case status to customers. Customer Care enables you to view all previous communications related to a case, and schedule calls, record notes of conversations, and send e-mail updates. A 360-Degree View Customer service professionals can be more effective when they have fast access to every detail relating to the current customer. SageCRM provides 360-degree visibility into customers by bringing together sales data, customer service information, and transaction data from your Sage Accpac system. Central Knowledge Base Solutions to common problems or questions can be stored centrally in the Knowledge Base, providing easy and immediate access to this bank of information. Once a case is resolved, you can link the Solution or Knowledge Base article to the case. Powerful search technology enables users to find Knowledge Base entries quickly and easily, ultimately resulting in improved customer service. Reporting Tools Built-in reporting provides for easy analysis of customer issues, and allows you to quickly identify open issues requiring attention. For example, the Cases Open By Company report lists all the open cases for a customer, and includes a graphical depiction of case status. All reports include hyperlinks where appropriate, allowing you to drill down to uncover further details about a case. Existing reports can be fully customized, and new reports can be created from scratch using wizard-based report customization tools. Customer Self Service The SageCRM Self Service Portal allows customers to interact directly with your Customer Care system. Many customers prefer to search for their own answers using your Knowledge Base, and they can add their own cases and review the status of their open cases without waiting on hold. SageCRM Web Self-Service can be incorporated into a companyís existing corporate Web site, providing a seamless customer experience at a lower cost to your business. This article appears in our May Newsletter.

Here’s some information on Sage MAS Intelligence which has been identified as the ideal FRx replacement product for Sage MAS ERP solutions.Read the Sage MAS Intelligence FAQ

In this New York Enterprise Report (link) “Tuesday’s Tip of the Week,” I explain why using email spam and anti-virus cloud technology can not only reduce spam and virus threats, but can also save your business money. Bonus – it’s easy to install. Learn more about Cloud Computing

The five major credit card networks established the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) as a set of requirements for merchants to use when configuring their IT and payment-processing environments. If your company stores, processes, or transmits card holder data you may be subject to these requirements. If you are, you must comply by July 1, 2010, or you risk losing the ability to process credit cards. We encourage all relevant parties to educate themselves on PCI-DSS and the steps required to ensure your business is protected. These standards require that merchants: Build and Maintain a Secure Network Protect Cardholder Data Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program Implement Strong Access Control Measures Regularly Monitor and Test Networks Maintain an Information Security Policy If you have questions or concerns about PCI-DSS and your systems please contact our Helpdesk. There are also Webinars on understanding PCI Critical Compliance and how it affects your business. Click here to register. Mas90 Pci Faq

The 32 attorneys and staff of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams, & Sheppard LLP (CDAS) represent and counsel clients in the areas of entertainment law, publishing, art law, copyright, trademark, trusts and estates, real estate, commercial/corporate transactions, digital media and litigation. The technology infrastructure required to handle this successful law firm’s transactions is substantial, and CDAS trusts its infrastructure to the technology professionals at Net at Work. A Hot Issue As the New York-based firm grew and added attorneys and staff including offices on the U.S. West Coast and in New Zealand, the need for enhanced accessibility and connectivity grew with them. CDAS knew it needed to phase out its offsite hosted e-mail service and replace it with Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as centralized onsite systems to manage an increasing need for users to log in remotely. However, doing so would have required the firm to bring in additional servers and cooling issues in the server room proved difficult to surmount. The firm explored purchasing additional air conditioning for the space, but the expense extended far beyond the cost of the equipment. “Changes in the cooling systems called for negotiations with the building owners, permits, architects, and renovations that would have tripled the cost of the server project itself,” explains Kenneth Robinson, Manager of Operations and IT for CDAS. “Also, it would have been an investment the firm would lose if we ever changed offices.” Cool Thinking Prevails Robinson proposed that the firm move to a virtual server environment where less equipment would be required. The servers themselves can be virtually split to perform the work of two or more servers and the remote terminal workstations would be traded for virtual workstations running on the server. “At the time, we were working with another IT provider, but they didn’t have enough experience with virtual servers,” Robinson recalls. “We went looking for an IT firm with the required expertise and found Net at Work.” The team at Net at Work impressed Robinson from the first meeting. “I’ve dealt with a lot of IT providers,” he says. “Often there is a real disconnect between sales and engineering. You start by talking to the sales representative and some of what you communicate is lost by the time it reaches the engineers. These are just walls that block problem-solving. Technology changes so quickly and we cannot afford crossed signals as we plan and deploy scalable, integrated systems that need to fit each other, our needs, and our budget piece by piece,” says Robinson. “At Net at Work, there are none of these walls. Their sales representatives and engineers are highly qualified consultants who know what they are talking about.” Virtual Victory Net at Work designed, installed, and configured a virtual server environment for CDAS. Net at Work also implemented Microsoft Exchange Server allowing the firm to manage its e-mail internally. New, centrally administered virtual workstations support the increased number of employees working off site. “We invested in our systems instead of the building’s,” Robinson says. “Even if we brought in cooling equipment, we could not have kept adding to our hardware footprint and heat output to support our growth – there just wasn’t room or cooling capacity. Instead we moved to a scalable virtual environment that will meet our needs for a long time.” Net at Work deployed a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) to support CDAS’ growing number of handheld devices. “The use of BlackBerry devices had quadrupled and BES gives us real-time synchronization between the devices and our Exchange server,” explains Robinson. “This is about the day-to-day operation and long range planning of a business that never sleeps. We deal in many time zones, and with many clients and attorneys in and outside the office, all of whom depend on secure, mobile, full-uptime systems to maintain a demanding pace for collaboration and turnaround. The system power to hold that edge and to be scalable enough to enhance it as we grow is not a luxury, it’s a critical part of our success.” Positioned For The Future “Net at Work helped us overcome our existing limitations,” Robinson concludes. “Now our network is more flexible, powerful, and secure. With Net at Work’s help, we maintain that competitive edge.”