Tag: Management

Non for Profit .. What options are there out there for you using Dynamics GP

Fund accounting by definition is an accounting system emphasizing accountability rather than profitability. This is used by non-profit organizations and governments. Most ERP systems are designed to emphasize on profitability not accountability. Dynamics GP has options for this that will assist you in spending less time managing funding and accounting processes and more time on your mission. The modules available in Dynamics GP are interfund accounting, control account management, encumbrance management, commitments, and grant management. Below we will give you the details of each module and how it can help.

May 26, 2015

Make the Most of Your CRM System; Engage Your Staff to Engage Your Customers

We are not talking about the obvious such as how much of your budget to spend or about technical considerations, we are talking about what questions to ask and what decisions to make before searching for the Customer Relationship Management system that best suits your organization.

May 20, 2015

Five Tips on Understanding SQL Server Better

Being a developer I often find myself in situations where I need to troubleshoot SQL queries that are not performing well and generally need optimizations. I would like to share some interesting tips on how SQL Server handles queries and what execution plans might be better than others. A query execution plan is an ordered set of steps that are used to access the data in SQL server. If you are working with SQL Server Management Studio once you have started a new query window click the following button (or CTRL + M) so you can enable execution plans. In the examples below I will be using tables from AdventureWorks database which is a sample database provided by Microsoft.

May 20, 2015

Conflict Management – Yes, every project has some and what I can do to help resolve them.

On any complex ERP project the risk is not if you will encounter conflict but when you will encounter it. Conflict on a project is imminent and if handled and facilitated correctly can lead to the surfacing of new ideas for the issues on hand. Therefore, some conflict can lead to actually improving your project delivery.

Some major contentious issues that lead to conflict on an ERP project are:

May 8, 2015

CRM Service Module: Part 1

Often when discussing a Dynamics CRM it is not uncommon to think of the application solely in the terms of how it can be used for the Sales and Marketing departments. As marketing to prospects and building potential sales are the first interactions companies usually have with a customer it is easy to see why these tend to be focal points for a CRM system. However, critical interactions with those companies do not stop after the sale, they continue on well beyond closing the opportunity and invoicing the order. If you have heard the adage, “It is easier to retain current customers than to acquire new ones,” you know I am speaking of customer service. The customer service module in Dynamics CRM is often forgotten in conversations when speaking of the capabilities of the application yet it is quite a robust piece. To bring light to this often overlooked module of Dynamics CRM over the next few articles we will highlight some of the features.

April 1, 2015

3 Reasons Why You Need a CRM System (Customer Relationship Management)

Here are three pertinent reasons your business needs and can benefit from having a CRM.

1. YOU NEED METRICS
How many successful projects have you had in the past week, month or even year? What is your conversion ratio and what are the best methods to make sure you are reaching your customers? Knowing your business metrics is critical to your business growth and success. A CRM will give you instant metrics of dozens of aspects of your business plus it allows you to create custom reports to better track metrics to your specific needs. Once you have those reports at your fingertips, you will never look back. Just think. No more time wasted on excel spreadsheets!

March 18, 2015

Making Your Software Work for You: Dynamics CRM

Part of our job here at KTL Solutions is to show or demo business solutions to our clients. These solutions can range from Budgeting/Reporting, AP Automation, Warehouse Management, to Customer Management software. One of the first requirements we hear from most customers is that they need the software to work for them, not the other way around.

All businesses are unique, and everyone has a different way of conducting business. Established organizations have processes already in place. These processes can be extremely difficult and disruptive to the entire business if they have to change to accommodate a new software solution. More to that point, it does not make sense to purchase a “solution” that requires you to change the way you do business. Software is an investment. It takes money, time, and man power to implement a solution so at the end of the day it should work for you, not the other way around.

January 29, 2015

Signoffs, what are they? Why are they important?

They (signoffs) play a very significant role in the project lifecycle and add tremendous value and leads to an overall positive outcome to your project. But like everything else, there is a time and a place to use signoffs. Using a signoff should not cause and be looked at as an unnecessary burden.

I have seen that using signoffs during a software implementation that is using a waterfall methodology is most appropriate. There are distinct phases, each phase is broken out into more granular tasks and everyone is aware going into the project on what happens next.

January 23, 2015

A 40 hour week in 60 minutes – The Status Report

In college during a project management class the instructor was looking for 2 volunteers to act as scribes and present an executive level status report of the course being taught that day. When we met the following week each of us had a 5-page document that covered every aspect of the previous class in great detail. The detail part is a superb quality for a project manager but the instructor actually went around the class, collecting everyone’s copy of the report and promptly dropped it into the recycle bin.

The moral of the story was clear to us: Most people do not have enough time to read what is already on their desk so why clutter their “To Do” list with a 5 page thesis.

December 29, 2014

How to Balance Your Consulting Life Without Going Crazy

A long time ago I started a family and after taking some time off work completely, I was ready to get back to into the game. However, being a mom, I did not want to have a typical 9 to 5 job because I needed to be available to take my kids to school as well as continue to be the main caregiver. I eventually took a job doing consulting work. Consulting, to me, makes me think of having some freedom within your schedule and not the typical 9 to 5 hours. (A testament to this statement is that it is currently 9pm on a Monday and I am writing this. The down side is that I left my house to go to work at 7am this morning and am still working.) But I do enjoy my job. It consists of new implementations, software upgrades, training, and support. Something new that challenges me everyday. But the question still remains (and sometimes, I still struggle with) is how does one handle the process of juggling the demand of multiple clients, multiple projects, and a family life outside of work?

November 24, 2014