CODA2go almost ready to go
April 30, 2008
Yesterday I got a sneak preview of CODA2go, CODA’s on-demand solution that builds onto Salesforce.com’s force.com platform. It’s impressive. I’ve written a good amount of detail here but my take for this blog is somewhat different.
A bit of history - I’ve known CODA for more years than both of us care to remember. They pioneered the highly scalable world class, single ledger financial accounting system. While they’ve been through a few owners’ hands in the last 10 years, they’ve come out smiling and stronger. In Jeremy Roche, the company has a strong leader, always necessary for companies going through transition. They’re able to take all that experience and apply it to the new platform.
Anyone who has not seen business process deisgned into an application system will get something of a shock when they look at CODA2go. You don’t naturally enter through a ledger but into a process. In this case sales order to cash. CODA is picking up the accounting end of the process from the order point onwards. In other words it’s handling the transaction elements.
Since it is built on the force.com platform, there’s a lot of ’stuff’ CODA doesn’t have to do that other vendors would need to build. This means it’s cost to getting the service out to market is relatively low and has allowed them to develop in an incredibly quick time frame. It also means that the incidence of bugs should be much lower than a traditional Version 1.0 product. This is not a half baked solution. It’s the real deal, including the kind of reporting with which professionals will be familiar for both sales and the general ledger.
Just as important, CODA is going to build in support for its Excel products which already provide fine graimed control for reporting.
You really have to look at CODA2go in action to get a feel for what the service can deliver and to that end, they are offering free 30 days trials. That may seem odd when thinking about enterprise class software but it’s in keeping with the Salesforce.com method of going to market. It also means that professionals considering this approach can run some quick tests to get a feel for what they need to do.
I will be following this story very closely because for me, CODA is showing us a new way of business computing that holds the promise of low cost, easy to use, manage and control software. We’ve been craving it for years and this may just be the first iteration. I’m excited.
Once CODA has this bedded down, they plan on moving to purchase ledger. That will be a harder nut to crack because Salesforce.com is only handling one side of the overall transaction. However, if (or when) Salesforce.com understands the notion of vendor relationship management - which is really the flip side of CRM, then it will be onto something interesting.
Disclosure: CODA isa sponsor for this site. That doesn’t guarantee I’ll be nice to them.
My del.icio.us bookmarks for April 29th through April 30th
April 30, 2008
These are my del.icio.us bookmarks for April 29th through April 30th:
- Techdirt: The Smear Campaign Against Larry Lessig And Free Culture - If you care at all about the thinking behind open source then this smear campign is a disgrace. You have to ask who funds these nut jobs.
- Oh. My. God. Marvel Moves To Shut Down Our Iron Man Screening - This definitely goes down to 'moron of the year' award: Legal.
- Rogue trader lands job in computer security | Defense in Depth - computer security, hacking, crime, viruses - CNET News.com - It always happens this way. And I'll bet he got a substantial raise in the process.
- Behind the Scenes: The Enterprise Octopus — Jim Goings - You have to laugh
- Another reason Microsoft should give up on Yahoo: Morale | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com - That's not a huge surprise but then others think that there is enough 'fat' in the system to justify the acquisition and still come out OK. As always, nobody really knows.
- The Obvious?: The power of the well asked question - Quality questions about how technology does (or does not) fit into the overall equation of change
- VIDEO: Web 2.0 Expo 2008: Sam Lawrence breaks his leg from Twittering » Spark Minute - Making elmonade out of lemons with Sam Lawrence
- The Joy of Tech comic… laughter is the best tech support. - You have been warned.
- E L S U A ~ A KM Blog by Luis Suarez » Blog Archive » Giving up on Work e-mail - Status Report on Week 11 - I love Luis tenacity with his email redux experiment but there is a simple cure. Bounce the lot of 'em
Steve Pipe’s take on the best and worst
April 30, 2008
When I saw Steve Pipe’s analysis of practice performance my initial reaction was ‘thank goodness, someone gets it.’ Now I’m not quite so sure. Here’s what he said about the worst and best performing practices and action for the future:
On the supply side, many firms don’t make full use of leading edge systems and technology for managing and running their businesses. So their productivity is too low, their costs are too high, and their turnaround times are too slow.
And on the demand side of the equation, many firms simply aren’t giving their clients enough of what they really want – ie proactive input that makes a real difference to clients businesses and bank accounts - and low fees, low growth and low profits are the market’s way of punishing them for it.
Research shows that, more than anything else, business owners want their accountant to be more proactive. And because it is what clients want most, being more proactive is also the most fundamental and essential key to sustainable profit improvement…Rather than leaving proactivity to chance, the real breakthrough comes when you develop systems for identifying and sharing proactive ideas, suggestions, advice and input so that every single client benefits fully from them.
All of this should be fairly obvious stuff - except perhaps for the last part. However, he misses one thing - the manner of billing. Nowhere is there mention of pricing models that dispense with timesheets. A closer look at the numbers might indicate why. In all cases, whether good, bad or indifferent, the reported margins are in the range 31-34%. That hasn’t changed in years. However, I know of practices making margins closer to 40% and in one case, a margin of 48%. They don’t use timesheets.
Steve also doesn’t give any clues about the best practices used to generate quality income. That’s easy. Start with communications. Get conversations going with clients to figure what it is they need. We have the tools and technology, it’s just a matter of putting it into practice.
C’mon Deloitte, time to pay up
April 29, 2008
A Counting School has the full details of three out of the Big Four finally poneying up for overtime they’ve illegally witheld from non-CA staff in Canada - those outside of skinflint Quebec that is. The only firm conspicuous by its absence is Deloitte? Why? You can’t tell me that they’ve been paying up all along and have nothing to do. Krupo’s incredibly unscientific summary of reactions to date:
- Well that sucks, because I’m a CA so I get nothing, and will continue to get nothing extra
- I’m from Quebec and I’m not a CA - my provinces rules mean that I’m not getting anything anyway. Oh nuts.
- I’m happy for my non-CA friends - good for them!
- Well the firms are just doing what they’re supposed to do, no big deal - they should’ve known about it already and done this sooner.
- The firms are doing what they’re supposed to do, but they’re doing it well - addressing the problem as soon as they learned about instead of wondering if it would go away.
I’d add a final one: The firms are doing it before the bad publicity gets out of hand and the legal fees top the payouts.
Finally - congrats to our intrepid correspondent who is now officially a CA. As we say in tech circles: w00t!
