SMEs Appear Confident

At Online50 we find that our busiest times of year for enquiries are the Spring and Autumn - and 2010 is proving to be no different.  Enquiries have increased as the summer holiday season has drawn to a close and we see confidence in most of the businesses we are dealing with.  We recognise that opinion in the media remains divided over whether the business environment is improving, and if the UK will experience a 'Double Dip' recession.  However we can see that the businesses we are dealing with are still confident.  Doubtless there are areas of the economy that are less confident, and we have not yet seen the full effect of public sector cuts.  However there are good reasons for businesses to consider using an online managed service provider like Online50:

• Opportunities to reduce costs within the business
• Opportunities to work more effectively from multiple locations
• Opportunities to work more effectively with your accountant

Online50 Accounting Partners also remain confident as they can offer a wider range of accounting services to clients, allowing a mix and match approach to the implementation of the client's accounting function.

For more information on how Online50 could help your business, call the Online50 Sales Team on 0800 195 0835.

In This Issue:

Online50 to be Repositioned within Sage

The Online50 service is provided by IT Inside Out Limited - a private company that is independent of the software vendors whose software we provide.  Our most popular software is Sage 50 Accounts and we work extensively with Sage and with accountants who provide accounting services to companies using Sage's market leading small business software.

From the start of October Online50 will be repositioned within Sage.  Our account will become part of the Accountants Division.  although this will make no difference at all to the provision of our service, it allows our offering to align more with Sage's strategy for accountants in practice.  We will be able to co-operate with the Accountants Division more closely and this can only be good news for us, for Sage and for the accountants that we both work with.

As we remain independent of Sage we continue to offer software from other software vendors, but we expect that we will be able to offer more Sage software as a result of this change.

Document Management with Online50

Document Management - the process of electronically managing your files - has been a hot topic with accountants for some time.  We are delighted to announce that DocuSoft Document Management software is now available on the Online50 platform.  This system allows you to adopt a paperless approach to business, with paper documents scanned into the system and routed between different users.  DocuSoft uses a template based implementation so that a working system can be rapidly implemented and then adjusted as necessary for your own business.

DocuSoft is available on a per named user per calendar month basis.  When coupled with our Universal Scanning Solution users can also scan straight into DocuSoft using TWAIN scanners they have available at their workstation.  If you need multiple users of DocuSoft you may find that you only need one user to scan documents per location, so our per named user per calendar month licensing allows you to only pay for what you need.

In addition to DocuSoft, if you have a simple requirement, you can use the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program on the Online50 service when you have a subscription to Microsoft Office and the Universal Scanning Solution.  Thius does not offer any of the rich indexing and routing capabilities of DocuSoft, but may be suitable for basic requirements.

Online50 is the only commercially available Managed Service that provides subscription based access to DocuSoft, Sage, Microsoft Office and supports Universal Scanning to your own workstation.

You do not need to have all of these to implement Document Management - you can choose which licenses you need and only pay for what you need on a per user per calendar month basis.

Universal Scanning Solution

To support the use of Scanners with the Online50 platform we have introduced a Universal Scanning system that is designed to allow any TWAIN compatible scanner on your workstation to be used from the Online50 service.  When you subscribe to the Universal Scanning service the software you use on the Online50 platform will be able to use a TWAIN scanner attached to your workstation.

You do not need the Universal scanning solution to run software that works with scanned files, only to actually capture the image using a scanner.  This means that if you have a group of users, only those users that will be using scanners need to subscribe to the Universal Scanning solution.

We have also made the licensing terms very attractive.  We license the solution on a calendar monthly basis by named user and you can use the solution on any workstation^* provided it is the same user accessing the system.  You can access any scanner that is available from your workstation, including network scanners, provided there is a TWAIN driver available on your workstation.

^* There is no cost for a user to switch between workstations but you may require assistance from our helpdesk.

Sage 50 Accounts version 2011

In keeping with our policy of hosting multiple versions of Sage 50 Accounts we have now made Sage 50 Accounts 2011 available on the Online50 service.  Users who are paying for the Sage license under our monthly licensing terms may upgrade to this version whenerver they choose free of charge.  Users who have a qualifying desktop license for 2011 can have the new version hosted on the same terms as other qualifying licenses since version 2009.

We host multiple versions because not everybody wants to upgrade to the latest version.  In particular, users often do not want to upgrade to the latest version as soon as it comes out, they like to allow some time for service packs to be released first.  As Online50 is a managed service offering multiple versions of the program users can choose which version is right for them.  Accountants can use multiple versions to access client datasets in different versions as required.

If you are an existing Online50 user and you would like to talk to us about upgrading the version you use, please contact the Online50 Service Desk on 0871 384 3511.