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Who says Microsoft can't be toppled?

In a circular email I received from AccountingWEB, tech editor John Stokdyk said of me:

"More than 120m people use Excel, even if many of them, like Dennis Howlett, seem to resent the fact."

In the editorial, it said:

"Somewhat ironically, wikiCalc was brought to our attention by Dennis Howlett, who in recent years has styled himself as an anti-spreadsheet crusader."

I've known John a long time and so I don't mind the occasional, if overly editorialised opinion. But at the end of the email he said:

"Thanks for the tip, Dennis. But I don't think wikiCalc will topple Goliath just yet. And neither will OpenOffice (see below)."

That doesn't get a pass. This article talks about Microsoft vowing to make its XML formats available to Ecma. It notes the opposition from the likes of IBM and Sun. It then completely misses the point by not offering editorial. I reckon John and the lads have been supping a bit too much of the Microsoft Kool-Aid. So - in the absence of a discussion - here's my 2p'th.

Anyone who thinks that Microsoft is being Mr. Nice Guy doesn't know that the Redmond Giant is in the fight of its life. On the opposite side this time around is IBM, Sun (usual suspects then) joined by Google. This is where it gets very serious. Gartner says:

""Companies have been unsuccessful at competing (against) Microsoft Office for at least 10 years with other products," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. "Now they are trying to use the file format as a wedge issue to try to unlock Microsoft's hold.""

Google has an enormous number of friends. It is spawning an entire industry geared towards getting bought out by a Google or Yahoo! Along the way, there are some fantastic tools, widgets and other great consumery things being brought into existence. When it comes to standards, the article goes on to note:

"Andy Updegrove, partner at Boston law firm Gesmer Updegrove, called Microsoft's Ecma submission "a naked request to rubber stamp a vendor-specific solution." Updegrove is an attorney for OASIS, the standards body developing the OpenDocument standard, which was ratified in May."

Regardless of what Microsoft says in public, there are enormous pressures on the company. Making its de facto standards the real thing gives Microsoft the power to kill off what is happening right now. But it will have a monumental battle on its hands.

At organisations like the BBC, black-projects...ones that are under the radar and are very low cost, are having an enormous impact on the business. These are services that run on the Internet and don't require Microsoft technology. Why else is Microsoft desperate to make an integration play at media organisations around the world? It's already got its claws into MTV as it tries to reduce the growing influence of Apple.

Let's not write off the contenders just yet.

You think you've got troubles?

I often use this site as a way of calling software vendors to account. There is a reason. Many professionals act in loco parentis to their clients when it comes to record keeping and they know effective software is crucial. So I was fascinated to read Vinnie Marchandani's insights into software failure. Bear in mind he's talking about BIG projects but there are important lessons here for any practitioner engaged in technology advice or who is considering how to use technology as a way of delivering 'utility model' compliance services.

The part that caught my eye was where he says:

"The thinking was the emerging client/server ERP software reflected best practice processes. Did not matter that it mostly changed the user interface and the database from previous generation transaction engines - the check processing, the credit approval and other steps did not change much. Implement it and magically you became "world class" was the thinking."

In other words, software vendors like SAP and Oracle in concert with consultants like Deloitte, Accenture and PwC were selling snake oil? Many of us felt that was largely true. But that may not be the whole story:

"Not too many companies did what Ford did - obliterated the process, not just automate it. We allowed software vendors and consultants to define what process should be - not the customer."

So yes, business was sold down the river, but  customers were strangely complicit. I witnessed this at many a trade show where say the SAP oil and gas customers would vie with one another as to who was the 'best' member of that club. Today, many of those same companies are shelling out fortunes trying to integrate the mess left behind. But it gets worse:

"Then post 2001, we have been burdening our processes with security steps...Then we have compliance. SOX across the board."

Sounds familiar. So, where's this leading:

"And while we have been clogging our processes, we have been patting ourselves on the back. Many corporations benchmark themselves using data like that found in Hackett Group's databases. Hackett has some of the best process benchmarks around but till recently mostly had data on Western corporations and Western labor rates - not the new economics emerging from China and India. Even the first-quartile performers in Hackett's benchmarks look sluggish in this global race."

In other words, the emerging technology giant nations are not just showing us the way, they're WAY more savvy about knowing what needs to work and what doesn't. Hackett cannot be blamed. They've measured what's available to them and if that's crap, then it remains hidden until something different comes along. In this case, the performance of emerging players.

I've felt for a while there are many ways in which practitioners can offer real value to clients through judicious technology use. I predict that over the coming 5-10 years, you will be outsourcing routine work of all kinds to offshore centres while you concentrate on the more pressing matter of business services that more accurately reflect local need. I'd even go so far as to suggest that you might airfreight books and records, because you'll be able to cut an economical deal with FedEx for shipment.

If you're a smaller practitioner, then maybe think also about this. If you need time and expense applications, then think about getting an integrated suite of practice management applications - preferably with the ability to use as a service - if not now then in the future. You really don't want to be dealing with integration further down the track.

But to paraphrase comments Vinnie has left in the discussion: become masters of what you want, press the software vendors to deliver. Explain the process problems you want to solve and don't take no for an answer. Your future competitive position might depend upon it.

Baker Tilly doesn't get Sanctuary's tune

It's a musical day. Earlier, AccountancyAge reported that Sanctuary Group, which counts Morrisey, Nancy Sinatra, Elton John and Kelly Osbourne among its portfolio of artists:

"Is understood to have treated advances to artists as assets rather thanexpenses. The company also recognised revenues from rights to its back catalogueup front, even though the cash was only due over a longer period. Sanctuary isworking with auditors Baker Tilly to review its accounting policies and toestablish the extent, if any, of capital loss."

This is wrong, wrong, wrong. Baker Tilly are the auditors of record. Surely the company needs an external review. If the allegations are correct then what on earth was it thinking? Advances as assets? Come on. A quick reading of the latest interim accounts should have been enough to send out alarm signals. Amounts advanced total £39 million out of  total net assets of £133 mllion.

In its trading statement released June, chairman Andy Taylor said:

"The Group’s Recorded Product Division has suffered from a greater degree of slippage of releases than previously experienced, particularly in Sanctuary Urban...The Board views the underperformance and reduced profitability as regrettable and unacceptable but also as the result of a set of issues that are being urgently addressed."

Nowhere is there any hint of a potential capital loss although its share price has slumped 90% since July.

When I was involved in the 'bizz' during the early 1980s, keeping finances under control was extremely difficult. It needs an iron hand and attention to detail. In this case, it looks like Baker Tilly has allowed itself to be persuaded to agree a dangerous course.

There's a genuine lesson here. We all want to satisfy clients. But at any price?

Technorati Tags : Baker Tilly, ethics

Final analysis re: Microsoft

In previous posts, I've talked about the dichotomy between services and software inside Microsoft's business model. This (Wednesady) evening, Robert Scoble has pretty well confirmed what I was thinking - at least about witnessing a tipping point:

"Yesterday will be remembered not because of what we announced. But because of the direction we’re now headed in. Microsoft is no longer an applications company. It is a services company. Don’t get caught up in the badly-pulled-off demos yesterday."

What I hesitated in declaring outright is the announcement validates the software service delivery model and tacit acceptance of the value delivered by 'free' software. This changes the way professionals will interact with clients. It is profound, it is deep. It leaves huge questions for those that have already invested in desktop applications, server infrastructures and the support paraphernalia that goes with it.

How does Microsoft plan on explaining its position to the developer community? No idea. Equally worrying is Scoble's complete ignorance of problems in the transportation and logistics supply chain. That's because he's a dreamer and not a realist. 

He wants to stay at the 'geek' end of the business. He may also be an idealist. But in the real world, idealists don't tend to have a good track record in making a turn. He may be right about the direction from a pragmatic perspective, but the fallout could be horrednous. For everyone.

Technorati Tags : Microsoft_Live

Technology ain't perfect - today

Last night, the system I use for this site - TypePad - was off for a good couple of hours. It was flaky for a couple of hours earlier. That meant the x million sites powered by TypePad were only avbailable to view.

It also meant my two attempts to get a story out on the ICAEW/CIPFA merger were lost. Today, it means the spell checker is not working properly. So if you find typos, it's because I can't see mistakes and the system is playing up.

It happens. Technology sucks from time to time. This is one of those days.

Software as a service - your saviour?

Earlier today, I had a conversation with David Terrar, UK MD of D2C. This company offers accounting software as a service (SaaS). We talked about the barriers to adoption and I cited 'ownership' of  data and 'security' as the two most common objections I come across. David said:

"Yes, but that ignores the wider question of disaster recovery. Most don't believe it will happen to them and cannot afford a robust solution. SaaS solves that problem because it's a pre-requisite to 99.6% uptime."

I'd not thought about that but David has an excellent point. The other is that SaaS doesn't require a server infrastructure so there's nothing to buy, manage or go down at your end. What's more, you're not stuck with a massive capital investment in machines and product.

The big question for me is usability. Is the software intuitive? Can I make sense of it in 5 minutes? If not then I'm not going to use it.

From your perspective, SaaS is a great way to get out of the morass of compliance work. If you can get your clients to buy into this then you're part way there. The problem is getting them to understand double entry book-keeping, so they don't create more work than would be the case if they left you with a carrier bag of paperwork.

What if?

• Clients could OCR documents and the system recognised what they are?
• The system pinged you when a posting session was completed so you could give it a once over?
• There was something in software so the client could say if an item is income, expense or asset - including a 'don't know' account that could then be re-allocated at your end?

These features would solve the perennial problem of clients not understanding double-entry book-keeping. David thinks it's possible and is discussing it with the software architects. I have a few other ideas that could make such a service a potential winner.

From a practice perspective, it would be a great way to tie in clients, while offering a differentiated service.

I'd recommend checking out Twinfield. They've had huge success in the Netherlands (10K users and 6/10 of the top book-keeping services using their stuff). I wish him well in the UK. David can be contacted at: dt@d2c.org.uk

Cool application

Light posting recently as I've been up to my neck in developing a new site. In the process I found a great little utility application that can be used inside any website. It's called  SayBox and is very similar to an instant messaging application like AIM. While I wouldn't recommend it for everyday external IM communications, it would be great for an internal site where there is project work going on or where you need to kick a quick message over to a colleague - or client, or anyone else involved in a project. A good example might be the sale or acquisition of a business where you are collating documents into a website repository for sharing among colleagues. You could all be acting remotely and remain in easy contact. The beauty of SayBox is you don't have to fire up another app if it's already in the web application

This is one of an exploding class of lightweight applications that can be tacked into any website with the addition of a single line of code. The app is free (isn't that the best part) so there are some limitations on the number of messages you can store and it's not a fully fledged IM program. But for most purposes, the limit (300) is more than enough.

Try it out-I really like it.

Best customer service - ever

This site is powered by TypePad. I have a love, love, hate relationship with them. Earlier today they had an outage that screwed up a few important sites. Like Steve Rubel's.

They fixed it and compensated customers immediately. SixApart is a fledgling company that may or may not fly in the current technology climate. Delivering customer service like this gives them an edge over all those other internet service of whatever providers who wouldn't know a customer if they came up and smacked them in the face.

What lessons can *we* learn about delivering against client expectations? Or have we set the bar at an inappropriate level in the first place?

Email an inhibitor?

Here is a quote from a Corante case study at a pharmaceutical company about email compared with other technologies:

"Email is getting out of hand and people use it in suboptimal ways. They
write back and forth, sending documents over and over again, with the end
result that nobody knows whether they are working on the correct version of
a document and everyone has lost track of where they stand and what the
last resolution was on a particular issue on a particular discussion point.
"It has come to the point where individuals are receiving anything up to 200
emails a day, yet a lot of it is just copies of content that is of absolutely no
interest whatsoever to them. It's becoming counterproductive and it's not an
appropriate medium for many types of communication, so we need to find a
way of replacing email. Clearly blogs and collaborative platforms are two key
ways of doing that."

As knowledge workers, accountants are constantly wrestling with email. Since using blog technology, my reliance on email has plummeted. Where I am involved in collaborative projects, this medium along with others like wiki has cranked up my productivity by an order of mangnitude.

So now we have a medium we can fruitfully use internally to improve productivity and, along the way, get to know one another better. Not a bad idea?

Service message

FeedBlitz, which distributes my posts to subscribers has got a glitch. It shouldn't affect our community too much because of the time difference between their servers and Europe. Check out the support message here.

To my mind, the logical action for FeedBlitz is to move to a fresh hosting provder but apparently that's not on the menu - at the moment. I've complained.