Demise of the Euro?

With the likelyhood of the breakup of the euro within the next months or even days. What will this mean for your business systems?
What will it mean for your business?

First we need to ascertain what the new currencies will be:
Northern Euro and Southern Euro?
Euro with New Greek drachma and New Italian Lira? May be even a Spainish and Portugese one thrown in.
Who can say at this stage!

What is certain is that new currency codes will be required at short notice along with conversations rates between the new currencies.
Will your business systems be able to cope?
When the Euro was introduced it was a slow process over several years. A breakup, should it come, will be without warning and will have to be acommodated in a few hours.

What you could be doing now – is
a) reducing your exposure to the Euro,
b) converting Euros bank balances into another currency,
c) invoicing in another currency in place of the euro,
d) trying to get suppliers to invoice in another currency,
e) investigating how to handle the new currencies and conversions of any assets and liabilites to new currencies.

Not all of this is possible as it will depend upon your customers and suppliers. Plus, exchange rates being what they are you can never be sure that a loss now want be much bigger if and when the “euro hits the fan”! Or, in fact become a profit due to market uncertainty being removed.

Therefore, I feel businesses need to be thinking about a strategy for all this uncertainty. Remember a risk managed, is far better than a risk ignored!

Microsoft Office Web Components

Recently I came across the software tool Microsoft Office Web Components.
Basically it allows spreadsheets, pivot tables and graphs to be placed in HTML pages.
It is the last element – Graphs; that I will consider here.

Recognising the power of graphs in a management report, it has previously been possible to prepare a graph; say in Excel; and save it as an image file to be placed in a HTML page. But obviously, this takes time and requires co-ordination.

With Microsoft Office Web Component (OWC) and using your prefered script language – VBScript, JavaScript, etc. web pages can be built to provide management reports that automatically draw data from a background database and at the same time present a graph using that data within the HTML page. Thus, making the process as automated as possible.
With Acceptum Business Software for example it is possible to prepare a HTML page that provides the outline of a management report. Built into the HTML are SQL Select statements and Table Look Up commands that are evaluated prior to the HTML being sent to Internet Explorer. Using OWC and VBScript, graphs can be placed in the management report giving the data more vibrance. Having got the data into a temporary HTML file, it can be saved to a central folder on a server for all managers to review. This way the database is only queried once and provides a “frozen” image to which all can refer.

So lets take a look at an example web page (brackets changed to get it to display).

[BODY topMargin=1]
[script language="VBScript"]

Dim oChart1, categories, bud_get, act_ual, var_iance, c1 ‘***************************************************************
Sub Window_Onload
‘ Clear the contents of the chart workspace.
‘ This removes any old charts that may already exist
‘ and leaves the chart workspace
‘ completely empty. One chart object is then added.
ChartSpace1.Clear
ChartSpace1.Charts.Add
Set c1 = ChartSpace1.Constants

‘ Add a series to the chart.
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection.Add
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection.Add
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection.Add
‘ Set the series caption (the text that appears in the legend).
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).Caption = “Revenue Year to Date”
categories = “Actual”

‘ Set the categories for the first series (this collection is zero-based)
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).SetData c1.chDimCategories, c1.chDataLiteral, categories

act_ual = CLng(“&$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A005′ “, “”)$&”)
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).Caption = categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).SetData c1.chDimCategories, c1.chDataLiteral, categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).SetData c1.chDimValues, c1.chDataLiteral, act_ual

categories = “Budget”
bud_get = CLng(“&$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A001′ “, “”)$&”)
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(1).Caption = categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(1).SetData c1.chDimCategories, c1.chDataLiteral, categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(1).SetData c1.chDimValues, c1.chDataLiteral, bud_get

categories = “Variance”
var_iance = CLng(“&$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A009′ “, “”)$&”)
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(2).Caption = categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(2).SetData c1.chDimCategories, c1.chDataLiteral, categories
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(2).SetData c1.chDimValues, c1.chDataLiteral, var_iance

‘ Format the chart to have a legend
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).HasLegend = True
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).HasTitle = True
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).Legend.Position = c1.chLegendPositionTop
ChartSpace1.Charts(0).Title.Caption = “Revenue Year to Date”
‘ChartSpace1.Charts(0).Axes(c1.chAxisPositionLeft).MajorUnit = 1000
set c1 = nothing

End Sub
‘**************************************************
Sub Window_OnUnload
‘Executed when window is closed.
Set oChart1 = nothing
Set chartspace1 = nothing
End Sub
‘*************************************************
[/script]

[H2]Year To Date upto Period 6[/H2]
Year to Date Revenue is £ &$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A005′ “, “”)$& [br /]
compared to Budget of £ &$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A001′ “, “”)$& [br /]
giving a Variance of £ &$TABLELOOKUP(“results”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A009′ “, “”)$& .[br /]

[object id='ChartSpace1' classid=CLSID:0002E546-0000-0000-C000-000000000046 style="width:200;height:200"][/object]
[br /]
[br /]
[H3]Explanation – Revenue Amount[/H3]
&$TABLELOOKUP(“notes”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A005′ “, “”)$&

[H3]Explanation – Budget Amount[/H3]
&$TABLELOOKUP(“notes”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A001′ “, “”)$&

[H3]Explanation – Variance Amount[/H3]
&$TABLELOOKUP(“notes”, “SCORECARD”, “company = m.gccomp and id = ‘A009′ “, “”)$&
[br /]
[br /]
R. Bean – Accountant[br /]
XYZ Ltd. [br /]
[HR class="pwl cblue" align=left SIZE=1]

[BR][/BODY]

Here is an image of the Html page. It is a basic report, a full management report would of course be more complex. But it gives the general idea of what can be achieved. The classid=CLSID:0002E546-0000-0000-C000-000000000046 clause of the object statement may need to vary depending on the installed version of MS OWC.

Saving ALL your data?

Having just got through a forced and unplanned re-install of the Operating System on my PC, it brings home to me the importance of having good backups of ALL the data required to get a PC back into a workable condition.

Taking backups of application data for a company should be standard practise, but what about all the other marginal elements that a user relies upon – are they being saved in any format. Here are a few of the things I am thinking about:-
- e-mail accounts, passwords and log-on details to e-mail servers
- e-mail folder structures
- e-mail anti-spam rules
- the e-mails themselves within the application
- web browser Favourites, cookies and passwords
- options and preferences for applications that don’t hold databases etc.
- application installs taken from the web
- upgrades and new releases to applications
- registry entries
- file and folder listings
- etc.

Applications like Outlook, IE and RegEdit have built in Export/Import menu options to save/re-establish settings and user configurations. I strongly suggest that you start using them (if not already doing so) and putting the resulting exported files into a location that is backed up and archieved off of the PC.

When installing a new application or an upgrade, don’t run the program from the web but save the file to a suitable folder (C:\Downloads\AppName) and include this folder is your backup/archieve.

Luckily I have been doing this, so recover went well – even so it took 2 days. The only problem I encountered was that I rely on a bit of software that MS no longer supports, thus one of the first upgrades/patches was no longer available from its website. Had to use Google to locate another source before being able to continue. Now I have added it to my backup data.

One of the things that helped the most during the recovery was a list of folders and their files. This I had started creating on a regular basis; for entirely different reasons; a couple of months back using VBScript and the File System Object. The list help me identify missing applications, folders, files and versions.

I strong recommend ensuring that if you encounter a major disk/PC problem you have the necessary information and backups to help recover from it with as little hasle as possible.
Remember, PCs are cheap when compared to the cost of re-establishing all the data they hold!

Use of technology?

So England are out of the World Cup. No surprise there. Played like plonkers.
But, what about the goal that was dis-allowed?
If it had been given, could it have turned the game?
We will never know! But, I for one doubt it.

Can we take a lesson from it – not just concerning football!
Well yes – technology to help decided important decisions, should be used whenever possible in my view. Get rid of the human error element whenever possible.
This also applies to the business world.
But how many businesses are surviving on out of date systems when they could be thriving on new systems that can help to improve overall operating efficiency.
It could be that a new system could e-mail that invoice at greatly reduced cost compared to snail-mail and get it to the customer on the same day as it is raised.
It could be that the new system incorporates management and financial reports that are currently being cobbled together with Excel from various sources. Thus greatly reducing the time and effort required to produce them.

Every business has its own Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Do you know yours? But how often are they monitored. They should be monitored at least weekly/monthly depending upon the business.
Several systems offer KPI modules to help businesses improve operating performance. The important part being that the KPI’s can be run at least every day from current data. So providing timely data for decision making. Timeliness being the important part. Let a bad situation continue and a business can build up losses that could have been averted.

So avoiding replacing your current system on cost grounds could well be a false economy!

Flexible systems

With yet another change in VAT Rate looming at the end of the year, the importance of using a flexible accounting/ERP system that allows for the creation of new VAT codes, rates, etc. is brought to the fore.
Many ‘older’ systems provide little support in making such changes and allowing ‘old rate’ invoices and be processed at the same time as ‘new rate’ invoices. With the consequence that considerable effort is required around the time of actual rate change. With invoices being either to customers or from suppliers.

At least this time around many firms will have recently faced the problem and should be able to cope without major costs or hold ups.

Inflexible systems are those that have codes and rates ‘hard coded’ into the program so that version upgrades are needed to meet new requirements. Where as flexible systems allow users to create and maintain entries to control it. This not only concerns tax rates, it covers all aspects of program control.
Of course with more sophisticated systems, the day to day requirements placed upon users is increased, as they need to understand more about the system and the interaction between various settings. However, this drawback is more than compensated for by the ease of changing the system when required.

My recommendation is to always look for and install the most flexible system you can find. That way you can be independent of the software supplier and still be comfortable in your own mind of being able to meet the requirements of changing legislation and overall business environment.

Back up your data!

Had a scare this week.

Computer failed to boot – screen completely blank!

Feared that the hard drive had got screwed up.
Looked at the option of doing a data recovery from the drive and installing a new hard drive in the machine. Staggered at the current prices – any thing from £450+

Immediately saw that data – or getting it back is more costly than a basic PC.

Eventually got the PC to boot and immediately took a backup of all my data.
Used the CD Read/Writer to create a couple of CD’s – always kept putting it off before. Now I shall do it at least once a month -New Years resolution.

At 75p a disk – that’s much cheaper than £450.

Using VOIP

Still using a standard telephone whilst sitting at your computer?

One of my kids started at Uni. recently and in the Halls of Residence they have internet access and a Freewire telephone.

Freewire is basically a VOIP telephone service that allows calls to be made over the internet free of charge. We’ve made calls lasting over an hour at absolutely NO cost.

So if you have remote workers or clients/contacts that you call daily, look to installing VOIP at both ends and use you PC’s and internet connection to reduce your phone bill.

We have found the sound and transmission quality to be just like a normal phone. No delay and not voice distortion.

So give it a go – what have you got to lose – only a phone bill!