White Squires
Level 34 AMP Centre,
50 Bridge Sreet,
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: +61 2 8084 8244
Email: click here
ABN: 50 131 949 427
Current Business Issues
As sure as day follows night, this economy will turn around, but for now, CFO's are driving changes in their businesses to deal with the downturn. But this requirement to rightsize the business, has to be balanced with the need to manage its exposure to risk. Call us today to find out how White Squires can help you get the balance right.Strap on the Parachute
Brendan Sheehan - 3rd August 2009.
Starting a small business is daunting at the best of times, but when the global economy is experiencing the most severe downturn since The Great Depression, it provides unique challenges for the aspiring business owner. In Strap on the Parachute, David Koch covers all of the important aspects of starting a small business, providing advice from a range of industry experts.....including White Squires.
Title: Strap on the Parachute Author: Alexandra Cain with David Koch Published by: Wilkinson Publishing
Page 119 The White Squires approach to IT |
 |
Brendan Sheehan is the managing director of White Squires, a professional services firm that helps businesses to improve the quality of the information they use to make decisions. Here, he discusses the building blocks of a great Information System for a start-up.
When it comes to basic business software, Sheehan says “you will need an accounting application, a payroll package and a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, which is important to help you keep track of your marketing and sales activity. You will also need email and word processing applications and finally, a spreadsheet application which is invaluable for doing financial projections and budgets.”
In terms of the accounting software a start-up needs, Sheehan says it “can be quite industry specific, but all of them will have the same basic modules – you should be looking for invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, banking, general ledger and reporting as standard, and if you plan to have employees, and you're going to run the payroll yourself, you will need a payroll module.”
“For the small business market the leading solutions are MYOB, Sage Accpac, Microsoft Dynamics and SAP Business One, which will all have the basic modules and more, and they are comparably priced. The most important thing for a start-up business though, is that you get proper training and support, particularly in the first year. Make sure you choose a supplier that is going to help you get set up and will be available to help you, especially around the end of month.”
For CRM software, Sheehan suggests looking for a package that “integrates with your accounting software, which will give you some really powerful information in reports that combine sales activity with financial information. If there is more than one person in your sales team however, and you need to share the data, you will need a shared server and probably someone to look after it for you, and so the costs can start to climb.”
Sheehan says an alternative is to use a Software as a Service (SaaS) option like Salesforce.com or Netsuite where you pay a monthly fee for the use of the system. “Your data is stored on their secure servers and you get centralised access to the data and an impressive reporting suite. SaaS is a huge growth area in CRM at the moment, and it is a cost effective option for small businesses,” he says.
In terms of the biggest mistakes start ups make with their software, Sheehan says “the worst thing you can do with business software is to jump in and start using it without thinking about the kind of information you might want to get out of it down the track. It is very important that you set up your software right at the start, so that it becomes an information system later on.”
“Take the time to draw up a few sample reports that contain the information that will tell you how your business is running throughout the year, and then make sure that you are able to capture that information in the software as you process transactions. A good information system will be invaluable when it comes to making important decisions later on,” Sheehan says.
- Business Analysis
- Solution Design
- Project Planning
- Process Optimisation
- Systems Implementation
- Performance Improvement
- Business Processes
- Offshoring
- Training & Development
- ERP
- CRM
- Business Intelligence