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Seasons Greetings
The end of the calendar year is fast approaching, and in most offices people are looking forward to a well earned rest. We have been busy in the last few weeks with several new accounting bureaus signing up to the Online50 service, with a good number getting ready to go live with their clients on the 1st of January.
It is traditional at this time of year to reflect on the year past, and to make resolutions for the year ahead. Since the start of this year year we have steadily signed up accounting bureaus and helped them enhance the services they offer to their clients. We provide the Online50 service to users worldwide and we have several accounting firms in the top 30 signed up to the service. We are proud to have been part of the success of so many firms, and their clients, and we look forward to serving them into 2005 and beyond.
We end the year as we began - the only licensed provider of Line 50 software over the Internet to allow Accountants and their Clients to work together online. We look forward to being part of your success in the coming year, and wish you every blessing for Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Online50 for Macintosh
One of the key advantages of using a hosted service is that you do not need to purchase the software application for a local installation. This has a number of key benefits. The first is that you can access the application through a browser over the internet, giving you real-time access from multiple locations. An added benefit is that you can often access the application using different operating systems. Online50 are successfully trialing the ASP service with clients using Macs - bringing access to Sage Line 50 to an entirely new market as the following case study suggests.
Herbert Parnell are a Woking based firm of Chartered Accountants offering flexible client-focussed out-sourcing solutions. They handle clients ranging from small start ups to the UK offices of large PLCs, in some cases acting as the UK accounts department and head office. They also provide the traditional range of accounting and taxation services. Andrew Hodgetts, partner at Herbert Parnell, takes up the story:
“We are committed to a continual process of improvement in the services we provide to clients. A significant element of this is the use of technology, primarily to retain and attract clients who need a range of quality services, but also to maintain and grow the profitability of the practice. We are particularly aiming to provide the sort of information and input which they might expect from a larger in-house accounts department, together with practical commercial advice. We also aim to offer real flexibility so that clients can choose which services they want from us, and those it makes sense to handle internally. We often work with fast growing businesses, and are happy to pass things back to them as they acquire the resources to handle them internally.
“With this in mind we decided to try out the Online50 service with a couple of our clients. In both cases we had been asked to maintain the accounting records, but the owners were looking for an increased level of flexibility over the split of duties between us and their own staff. They also wanted real time access to their accounting data. We saw Online50 as an opportunity to solve some immediate problems but also to evaluate the effect of the ASP model on the business.
“Take Client A, for example. Having initially asked Herbert Parnell to cover all accounting and payroll functions their business had developed to a level where they wanted to take back the operation of the sales ledger out of their own office in Bracknell. The directors also wanted real time and out of hours access to some of the general financial information. Prior to Online50 Sage reports were being saved as html files and emailed between the two sites.
“Even though the client is a MAC user it did not take long to get the Online50 system up and running. They now log in through our website and while they are entering their sales invoices we can work on their accounts data behind the scenes so that they always have real-time access to up-to-date information about their business. We take responsibility for backing up the data which we store as before on our office network.”
For another client based near Woking the system has enabled them to provide access to the sales ledger for a team member at their Midlands factory, give the owner flexible access to the full system, while Herbert Parnell maintain the records from their office.
Andrew sees Online50 as an important component for the delivery of value-added services going forward for the practice.
“It is vital that our out-sourcing services are truly flexible to meet client needs which change over time. Online50 is an attractive proposition because there’s no requirement for retraining or data migration.”
Andrew Hodgetts, Partner
Herbert Parnell Chartered Accountants
First Online50 partner in Northern Ireland
Online50 are delighted to welcome Donnelly & Associates as an Online50 service provider. Donnelly & Associates provide a range of services to small and medium sized businesses and are the first practice to offer Online50 in Northern Ireland.
We asked Gus Donnelly to say a few words about what Online50 means for his practice:
“I have always believed that managers and decision-makers in small businesses have the same requirement for access to accurate and real time information that you would expect, even take for granted, in a much larger business. The problem is that it’s never been possible without significant investment in large scale financial systems, architecture and supporting
professional personnel.
"As an accountant I believe that for a modest outlay Online50 enhances an already tried and tested product to provide managers and decision-makers with immediate and direct access
to their business information through the internet.”
The team at Donnelly & Associates are excited about the opportunities that Online50 presents to them. We asked Mr Donnelly to summarise how his firm will develop the Online50 service going forward:
“The product and service combination will appeal to owner managers and support professionals who are serious about maximising business performance. The efficiencies and advantages to be gained by using Online50 will enable us to increase back office accounts function opportunities, reduce duplication of effort between clients and ourselves, and enhance the value of services and advice to clients by making it here and now - not after the year end. In short, we will have the potential to support more clients to a higher level with our existing resources.”
Gus Donnelly
FCMA MCMI MBA
Donnelly & Associates
Under the Bonnet - the Online50 Hosting Platform
We are often asked by people who have tried to implement a remote or hosted Line 50 implementation how we have managed to be so successful with the technical implementation, as there are typically 3 areas with which people experience difficulties:
- Processor Usage / Performance
- Multi User Operation & Security
- Controlled Application Access
We developed the software that comprises the Online50 Hosting Platform to ensure optimal operation of standard Windows applications in a hosted environment. When we first approached Sage to license Line 50 for hosted operation we were told that such operation could not work for technical reasons. We explained that we had already managed to get the system working - although we did not disclose all the details of how we had achieved this. After an extended period under pilot we were awarded an exclusive licence by Sage for hosted operation of their software.
Without going into the specifics of our implementation we are happy to provide an overview of our technology, and to outline areas where we continue to innovate. More importantly we can also summarise what this means for our rapidly growing user base. There are three layers of software running on the Application Servers, with further software running on the Web Servers.
Layer 1 sits within the Microsoft Operating System. We have written Kernel Mode code that runs as part of the Operating System Executive (this is the system code that schedules all other running software and implements hardware device access). Since this software supports all applications and system services we can intercept what they are doing and make them work in a way which is appropriate for our environment. For example, Line 50 uses certain files to store configuration information. Our software allows to change the information that the program reads from these files depending on the context in which it needs to be interpreted.
Layer 2 are System Services. These are programs that run above the Operating System and provide a range of functions. (For example when you share a drive on your local network it is a 'Service' on your machine that provides other users with the ability to access the disk. A 'Service' on another user's machine actually finds and connects to the shared resource). We use this layer to monitor the system, and take any necessary actions to allow the smooth co-operation of multiple users and programs in a shared environment. This layer also provides some support to the Operating System layer for non-critical operations. It also provides services to the next layer.
Layer 3 is the application execution environment. This is the most visible of these first three layers - our unique 'Application Handler' (familiar to Online50 users as the icon bar) sits within this layer. The software allows us to control the way in which applications are run and to monitor their state.
Web Integration the Application Servers which run the hosted applications are monitored from the Web servers, and security is applied by both the Web servers and the Application Servers. User and license tracking can also be checked for consistency, supporting intrusion detection with our own purpose designed software. (See previous Newsletter Articles regarding security).
The Online50 Hosting Platform is continually being enhanced at all layers and our software already represents continued development effort over a period of years. Any practice looking to develop an ASP offering is encouraged to benefit from the skills and experience of our team and the capabilities of our platform by becoming an Online50 bureau. The key benefits provided by our platform to our customers are summarised below:
So in overview the Hosted Application Platform we have developed allows to provide a superior service - maximising performance, scalability and value. And because Sage granted us an exclusive license to operate their software in a hosted environment, Online50 is the only mature, stable, high performance, legally licensed system for hosted operation of Sage software.
Email Without Outlook
As users of Line 50 will know the Email integration available within Sage requires Microsoft Outlook. This has meant that any online users who want to send Emails from the system (statements, invoices, reports etc.) have to pay for a hosted license for Microsoft Office.
We are in the process of completing trials of an EMail solution that will remove the need for the ongoing cost of a hosted Outlook license for those users that want to be able to send documents by EMail. The system allows you to creae PDF files from any print job, and then either send these as EMail direct from our system, or transfer the files to your own office where you can Email them, fax them or file them. And since the system transfers the print job to your office as a PDF file it also means that any printer you can print to from your local machine (including fax printers) can be used regardless of whether or not the printer can be suported on our servers. We have trialled the system with a small number of users who have experienced problems with printing and we are very pleased with the results so far.
Please note that this solution is for single destination EMail. If you want to generate documents and send the pages to multiple destinations (for example when producing a Statement Run) then we recommend you consider Spindle Professional, available on the Online50 platform. This package automates Document Distribution and can support beautifully customised EMail, Printing and Faxing from one document run. More information is available from the Sales Desk.
Any users interested in reducing the cost of their EMail, or in using this product with Fax software or unsupported printers should contact the sales desk. A small one off charge applies to the software.
