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In 2013, Michael Krigsman estimated that the global cost of failed IT projects was around $3 Trillion. The stats from the year before, according to the Standish Group, estimated that 1 out of every 6-7 IT projects ends in failure.

These numbers, collected by Adam Bluemner for FindAccountingSoftware.com, might make you question whether you should risk upgrading your digital tools. Certainly such a major decision requires a sober look at the realities, with the possible expense of a bad software roll-out being measured against the ongoing expense of less effective tools. But even more consideration should be invested into preparing for success.

That's the help provided by Bluemner's article, "How to Ensure Success in Your Accounting Software Project." He points out that a company doesn't have to stress out if they don't have a giant-sized budget or a brute-force legion of tech staff to make an accounting software implementation go well. Concentration on solid project management is the key. Bluemner highlights the Standish Group's MVP factors: executive management support, user involvement, and optimization.

Executive Management Support

This is more than just getting permission. Support from top members of your organization will not only help remove roadblocks for a software upgrade, but will also ensure that any planned upgrade is lined up well with the larger vision of the company's progress. It's never good when the shiny, new accounting program zigs, but the company overall needs to zag.

To help get this executive support, you can explain a few vital factors about upgrading an accounting software. Modern tools maximize efficiency, automating repetitive processes. This can create an impactful cost reduction, which most decision-makers will find attractive. (For help in estimating this ROI, you can use FindAccountingSofware.com's calculator.) Also, while some IT projects deal with unproven technology that makes it hard to predict the results, most accounting software packages have been deployed many times, making this a low-risk upgrade.

User Involvement

While high-level employees can offer guidance on direction, the front-line employees are often the best source of information about benefits that can come from automation. The repetitive or complex processes they deal with each day are what you'll want the new accounting system to address. So these folks are the best place to get input on what the ROI from an improved software package can be. Also, you can invite them to participate in software demos. These users will be able to point out weaknesses and strengths, and respecting their expertise will increase their interest in helping the project succeed.

Optimization

This refers to an optimized project — one with careful plans and focused scope. These preparations might seem to delay getting things done, but they can have a crucial benefit once the ball starts rolling. You should organize a needs analysis interview to verify the key requirements for the new accounting system. This also enables you to identify the fundamental baselines:

• Scope — What functionalities are high and low priority for your company? What benefits will each of these features bring to your business?
• Cost — To meet your functional needs, what is the estimated cost?
• Timeline — How long will the deployment take, including installing, configuring, and training?

Bringing experts into this conversation is one of the best ways to make sure these measures are relevant and accurate. And the best vendors will provide this type of consultation as a free service.

You don't have to leave your project's success or failure up to a roll of the dice. With diligent preparation, you can be sure that deploying a new software system — whether it's accounting, CRM, or ERP — will be a win.

One of the complicating factors for a new system is integration with other legacy software; not being fully integrated is also one of the most common causes of inefficiencies. While updating the accounting package will have definite benefits, bringing all the operational software up to par at one time greatly enhances those benefits. aACE 5 is a robust yet affordable business operations suite that includes accounting, CRM, ERP, and more. As an easily customizable, cross-platform solution, aACE 5 can help streamline the flow of information for companies in professional services, wholesale distribution, light manufacturing, or other industries.

If this information we've shared makes sense to you, as sharp small and mid-sized business owners will recognize, then the next step is to find out more. Our past clients are almost unanimous in calling aACE 5 a five-star product, as you can see in our Capterra reviews. We've devoted many hours to understanding and supporting their unique business needs and we're willing to do the same for you — SME's like yours are a vital part of the American economy. So before the distractions of the day make you lose track of this opportunity, contact our sales team for more information.

"In 2008, our company began searching for a technology partner that could help us migrate our 'closed' accounting software to an integrated, FileMaker-based solution. Our project required a high level of detailed data conversion with tens of thousands of records. The success of this migration was highly dependent on finding the right skill-set. [aACE Software's] attention to detail and ability to understand our goals was exactly what we needed. With insight and understanding, they helped us make one of the most significant technology updates in our company history!" ~ Bryant Wilson, CEO, On Hold Co.

The worst thing you can do, when your customers want to talk about one thing, is to force a conversation about something else. And it's obviously not a very nice way to talk with your co-workers, neighbors, or family. However the tech industry may be making this kind of gaff with its marketing.

According to one observer, there seems to be a significant disparity between what companies are trying to promote for technology improvements and what customers feel would actually be a valuable enhancement. Code is a company based in Manchester, England. They specialize in helping companies offer the most valuable digital products and services possible. To do this requires staying in touch with what makes a digital product/service valuable — that is, what customers are interested in. At the end of 2016, they made some observations and predictions about tech trends. Then they had the humility at the start of 2017 to double-check their claims against reality.

The resulting infographic shows a noteworthy disparity: digital promotions are talking about one thing while the actual consumers sampled want to hear about something else. The most striking example of this disconnect is a comparison of the number of late 2016 news mentions versus the level of customer interest about augmented reality tech:

• 24,200,000 mentions in news coverage — the most prominent topic
• 12.9% of customers interested — the least interesting topic

 The immediate conclusion is that folks who spend their days watching the tech scene aren't the most in-tune with customer interests. This means that if your small or mid-sized business isn't already developing a virtual reality aspect of your products or services, you're probably just fine. No matter what the hype, buzz, and gurus might say.

In fact, the survey by Code gives some excellent advice on what you should focus on. The clear majority of customers said they want to see improvements to existing offerings. For different companies, this will mean something unique. Obviously, a light manufacturing company, a professional services business, and a retail organization won't be able to make the exact same improvements. But every SME can use the same principles to start gathering input from your clients and use that feedback to guide improvement.

From the Code survey, some additional, generally applicable findings are that consumers want:

• more responsive customer service
• better information about what they're buying
• less intrusive tech
• more convenient interconnections between their various online accounts

This final preference from consumers is just as relevant to your own staff. Outside of work, they are consumers, so they understand that technology can be designed to be clean, clear, and easy to use. Those expectations transfer over to the tools they use on the job. If your business operations software doesn't facilitate their work, then its causing needless friction and reducing your team's effectiveness.

aACE 5 is an outstanding example of software developed based on user feedback and organized for clean, straightforward functionality in accounting, CRM, and ERP. It integrates every aspect of your business, ensuring that information from the warehouse is usable by staff in the accounting office and the leaders in the strategic planning session. aACE 5 is built on FileMaker, so it runs smooth on Mac and PC, on desktop and mobile. It can be customized easily to integrate the unique, hard-won expertise that you've accrued through your past years of business.

This powerful functionality is paired with competitive pricing that makes it a compelling alternative to open-source solutions like xTuple, browser-based solutions like NetSuite, or client/server solutions like QuickBooks, Dynamics, and Sage.

Get more answers about how aACE 5 can accelerate your business velocity today.

"Their system covered our work process from start to finish. aACE has the ability to support our company, help us manage our business as we continue grow, and be easily customized to our workflow." ~ Lili Hall, President, KNOCK Inc.

Editor’s note: Bryan Anderson is a Managing Member of AS360, aACE’s longest-running partner. We are delighted to share his 20 years of experience implementing software upgrades for QuickBooks users with our audience.

When you started your business, you probably found that QuickBooks was fantastic at meeting your early needs. It’s affordable, easy for one person to manage, and adequately handles the volume of financial transactions a typical new business needs to make. But as your business grows, you might find that your software is beginning to fit less like a glove and more like a cheap suit — one that’s a size too small.

Clear signals that your business has outgrown QuickBooks include:

• Data that’s spread out haphazardly across several solutions and spreadsheets
• Multiple users having trouble trying to work in the system at the same time
• Complex reports that take too long to pull or require the use of outside spreadsheets

Don’t ignore the signs. Read on for key questions to ask yourself when determining whether your business is ready to take the next step in software solutions.

Data, Data Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink

Do you feel like your data is stranded on isolated islands? Does your software act as a bridge between each department, or is your information spread out across multiple spreadsheets and solutions that don’t talk to each other? If you’re faced with the latter, you may find that you’re struggling to get day-to-day work done efficiently. Storing information in multiple places means that each system needs to be updated separately every time something changes that can’t be tracked entirely in QuickBooks — and all of that extra data entry creates more opportunities for human error. Imagine trying to take a complete picture of your company’s finances. If you’re pulling information from a patchwork of scattered sources, can you really be sure that what you’re seeing is accurate?

Too Many Cooks in the Software Kitchen

While QuickBooks is excellent for an owner-operator scenario, offering an easy-to-use solution that isn’t too complex for one person to handle, a multi-user environment brings added complications that could put stress on your software. As you scale your business, your growing company may find itself constrained by the limitations of its accounting solution. Are your employees tripping over each other trying to enter transactions throughout the day? Do you find yourself paying thousands of dollars for outside accounting services that still don’t provide the kind of visibility into your data that you need to make the best possible decisions? If you’re thinking of bringing on a CFO in the near future, you’ll also want to ensure that you have the tools they’ll need to succeed. And if you’re not quite ready to add a C-suite executive, a more robust accounting solution could help you operate more effectively without the added expense of a senior-level hire.

The Shallow End of the Reporting Pool

The larger your business grows, the more intricate it becomes and the more information you need in order to stay on top of it. Calculating complex sets of data — for instance, to forecast inventory requirements based on what’s quoted in your sales pipeline or pay your sales staff commissions based on actual margins — may be another trouble spot, forcing you to add even more islands to your sea of disparate information. Do you find yourself relying more and more on Excel to support multiple sophisticated workflows like made-to-stock inventory, drop shipping, or back orders? Are financial statements that were once a snap now taking longer to pull together as the system struggles to keep up with larger volumes of information? And if you want to report on multiple companies at the same time in the same report, are you wasting time mixing and matching data from different reports to make it happen?

Does any of this sound familiar? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the questions I’ve posed, it could be time to reconsider your company’s relationship with QuickBooks. It might be a little overwhelming to realize your software solution has become more of a problem. The good news is, you have options — yes, even ones that a small or midsize business can afford. Contact me to learn more about how to select the business management software that’s right for your growing company.

About the Author

With 20 years of experience in implementing ERP and CRM solutions, Bryan Anderson is committed to helping every business, from the smallest Mom-and-Pop shop to the largest multinational corporation, find the tools they need to thrive. He has worked with over 200 clients using solutions such as Microsoft Navision and Great Plains, Oracle Financials, SAP, aACE Software, Salesforce, and more.

Bryan has spent the last several years developing custom application solutions and implementing ERP systems in the manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and field service industries. He’s now the managing member of All Solutions 360, LLC, an information technology consulting firm dedicated to implementing the best technical solutions to nagging business problems.

Bryan has an MBA in Marketing, Logistics & Transportation from the University of Tennessee and a BS in Finance & Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. In addition to starting his own companies, he has previously worked for General Motors, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and Microsoft Value Added Resellers.

Bryan can be reached at banderson@asthree60.com.