Insight eNews
A Monthly Newsletter from AVF Consulting, Inc.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Solution Center &
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
August 2006
- In
this edition:
From the President: Stay in Control of Licensing and Maintenance
Product Focus:
Collections Management
ChargeLogic: Version 2.1
AVF News: Serenic Customer Conference and AVF's IT Services!
From the President: Andrew Fass
Stay in Control: Tools Aim to Cut Costs and Ease the Burdens of Licensing and Maintenance
When Ian
Crawford arrived at Lovitt & Touché Inc. last year as manager of IT, he
was on a mission to bring all IT functionality in-house. While the
challenge seemed simple enough, he faced an immediate stumbling block:
asset melee.
"Software licenses were overdue, laptops were out-of-date, and many
users were running programs that they had brought from home or bought
from consumer stores," he recalls. "How could we know what skills to
bring on board when we didn't know what we would be supporting?"
Crawford turned to asset management tools to determine what PCs, laptops and software existed across the company, one of the largest insurance agencies in the U.S., with nearly 200 employees and five locations in Arizona and Nevada.
For midsize companies, asset management tools afford a unique
opportunity to centralize information about hardware and software, such
as licensing, warranties, memory, BIOS and configurations, in a single
database.
"This gives you two advantages: to know where assets are and how best to
reuse them. That way, no resources, including equipment contracts and
software licenses, are ever wasted," says Andi Mann, a senior analyst at
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) in Boulder, Colorado.
Asset management tools come in different variations, including those
that track software and hardware, those that track software only, and
those that use RFID to locate and track equipment. They often integrate
with other network components such as Microsoft® Systems Management
Server and Active Directory®.
According to ARC Advisory Group, the enterprise asset management market,
which includes IT assets, is set to grow 5 percent each year over the
next five years to reach $2.8 billion by 2010. "Every midsize company
needs asset management tools to keep equipment running and to avoid
interruptions in business," says Houghton LeRoy, research manager at ARC
in Dedham, Massachusetts. "It's easy to overspend on unnecessary
maintenance or overbuy licenses. If you're a midsize company, you don't
have that leeway in your budget."
To read the complete article,
click here. Article was found in Microsoft Momentum, a newsletter
for mid-sized businesses, and was written by Sandra Gittlen. For more
information regarding Asset Management, contact Rob Waples at
443-279-1020 or
rwaples@avfconsulting.com.
Product Focus: Collections Management
Collections Management for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
In this ever growing competitive economic
environment, cash flow management is becoming critical to a mid-sized
business' success. The single most important cash investments for
most businesses are receivables, yet in the past the only available
tool to manage this critical asset was an aging report.
The Collections Management Solution for Microsoft Dynamics NAV will
allow you to systematize your collections process, reduce your
receivables significantly, and generate a substantial cash flow.
The Collections Management Solution has several key features to help
manage your collections including:
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The ability to define who is going to be responsible for the collections.
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The ability to define when overdue invoices will be passed to the application.
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Access to all the information you need to discuss an invoice with a customer in one place.
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Record of who has been contacted, what was said, when they hope to pay and when to call back.
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The ability to collaborate with other people in the organization to collect on the account.
Virtually every firm should
be using some form of software driven collections process. Depending on
the current status of your outstanding accounts you could reduce your
receivables by 5% or more. While this may not sound like a
significant amount, multiply your current receivables balance by 5% and
consider the resulting cash flow.
Collections Management is an extremely versatile system that is not at
all complicated, but can become very sophisticated if required.
Otherwise, the system can literally be set up in less than an hour with
an initial set of target invoices and customers identified.
For more information about collections management, or to schedule a
product demonstration, contact Jeremy Fass at 443-279-1019 or
jfass@avfconsulting.com.
ChargeLogic Version 2.1
ChargeLogic version 2.1 will be launched on September 6, 2006. Version 2.1 is packed full of new features all designed to bring more functionality and efficiency to your electronic payment processing.
Key new features include:
Check verification helps merchants separate good check writers from bad ones. Check verification scans a customer check and sends the account information thorough a national, real-time updated database. This way, bad checks can be identified and rejected on the spot, saving the merchant time and money.
Electronic check acceptance allows merchants to accept checks over the phone or through the Internet to be processed electronically. For those merchants who have regular monthly or weekly billings to customers, it can also be used to automatically deduct funds from a customer's checking account on a periodic basis.
Automated reconciliation downloads the transaction history from the payment processor and updates Microsoft Dynamics NAV with the most recent transaction status, settlement date, and settlement amount. Once the settled transactions are reconciled, they are automatically added to the Cash Receipts Journal for easy posting.
A more detailed list of new futures will be available on the ChargeLogic website, www.chargelogic.com, in early September.
Want to learn more about ChargeLogic?? Contact Jon Cooper at 443-279-1025 or visit www.chargelogic.com.
AVF Welcomes New Customers
Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care is a non-profit located in Washington, D.C. and was established in 1988 to provide Spanish-speaking maternal and pediatric services for the local Latino population. Today, Mary's Center focuses their efforts on families who have jobs where health care is not available (www.maryscenter.org).
Angerstein's Building Supply & Design Center is a family owned retail store carrying an eclectic variety of products, from ready-mix concrete and paving stones to outdoor lights and casual furniture (www.angersteins.com).
Dirak designs, manufactures and distributes modular systems in latching and hinge technology as well as gaskets and edge protection profiles. Dirak products are sold and distributed globally through a network of authorized sales representatives (www.dirak.com).
Clean Earth, Inc. is a leading waste logistics company providing solutions for the treatment, disposal, and beneficial re-use of soil, dredge and other non-hazardous contaminated materials (http://www.cleanearthinc.com/).
Innovative Timber Ideas (ITI USA) is recognized in Australia as the number one choice in exterior wood products. This February, ITI – Australia started ITI – USA to introduce Design Pine to the United States. Design Pine is an engineered wood product that will soon be available throughout the United States through a comprehensive dealer network.
Fox Pool Corporation has been serving the world with quality pools that have earned a reputation for excellence and superior performance since 1957. Fox Pools has a large network of dealers which service customers all across the U.S. (www.foxpool.com).
Attention Non-Profits: Serenic's Customer Conference, Explorations '06, will he held October 3rd through the 6th in Charlotte, NC. The conference offers four different tracks for attendees to explore. Serenic has planned activities to facilitate community networking and allow customers to have input with the Serenic team and their partners. In addition, Serenic has planned a NASCAR event to incorporate local flavor. There will be an AVF representative present at the conference to address any of your specific questions. For more information click here and to register, log onto http://www.serenic.com/SerenicCorp/events/explorations.html.