It used to be that your work and personal time had clearly defined separation. You spent the day at work focused on your job and at the end of the day you’d turn your brain off, go home, cook dinner and relax. As a collective whole we seem to have lost our ability to focus. We spend most of our days worrying about the work that needs to be done.

It’s time to reclaim our focus at work and here are seven tips to help you do so.

1. Practice productivity wind-sprints. While at work, we’re normally doing work while browsing Facebook or chatting. This can be harmful for productivity and shifts your focus from important work related activities. Interval training is a great way to increase your focus. Get a timer, set it for ten minutes, and focus solely on your work. When the timer goes off take a two minute break.

2. Defensive scheduling. Our days are filled with commitments and we struggle to keep up with our projects or find time to work uninterrupted. Schedule a meeting with yourself at a convenient time. Treat this meeting like a real meeting, no interruptions. This is your time to focus on important tasks or projects.

3. Socialize with your tablet. Separate work from social activities with a tablet. We’re often just hitting our stride with work when BING, we get a chat message. What do we do? Immediately reply to the message. When we do that we lose our focus and struggle to regain it. Why not use use your tablet for all social activities and work computer strictly for work? Combined with tip one, this could really help you focus.

4. Realize your unconscious focus. The vast majority of managers often aren’t sure what the top issue in their mind is. It comes with multitasking, we’re always making less important ideas critical, and this takes our focus off the most important issues. To realign your focus take some time, let your mind wander, and make note of the ideas you keep returning to. These are your most critical issues.

5. Focus on most important tasks first. When you get into the office in the morning switch off your phone and email alerts. Focus on your most important priorities, this will give you time to get your most important work out of the way, before you shift your focus onto other less important projects.

6. Disconnect. Many of us don’t take time to give our brains a rest, we’re always thinking and possibly worrying about work. It’s beneficial to your mental and physical health if you take time each day to disconnect from the office. Temporarily sever all ties with the office and focus on something you enjoy doing. Remember, this is your time don’t think of work, focus on the activity.

7. Can’t focus? Consider if what you’re doing is right for you. If you find that you really can’t focus, even with the previous techniques, it might be time to consider that what you’re doing is actually something you don’t care about or enjoy. If this is true for you, then it’s time to start looking for a change.

With these tips you should see an increase in your focus and productivity. If you would like to know more about how to improve your productivity please contact us, we can help.

According to IBM, nearly 90% of the data available at this time has been created within the past two years. When you stop and think about it, it boggles the mind. What makes this more intriguing is that the amount of data will continue to exponentially grow and threatens to overwhelm us. This sheer amount of information available to us and the related issues have been termed Big Data.

You’ve probably been reading technology blogs and have seen Big Data mentioned in conjunction with large companies, maybe even dismissed it as something, “for the big guys”. While Big Data is currently the focus of large companies, it won’t stay that way for long and it will pay to know about it.

What is Big Data? In recent years the amount of data available has exploded and companies have reached a point where there’s so much of it available they can’t physically store or analyze it using existing means. This quandary is called Big Data.

Frank Moss, former director of MIT Media Lab, describes Big Data as coming from, “Computers, smart phones, GPS devices, embedded microprocessors, sensors...[which] are forming a ‘societal nervous system’ that is generating a cloud of data that’s growing at an exponential rate.”

This growth has overwhelmed many companies causing a need for Big Data solutions. These solutions provide businesses with a way to immediately make sense of vast amounts of information, make informed decisions and exploit data.

What can I Do With Big Data? The uses of Big Data are near limitless. For small businesses the best deployment, currently, is for market research. You can use Big Data to help decrease the risk of decisions by increasing your knowledge of current trends, your target market’s demographics and customer buying patterns. Research that would normally take weeks can be done in minutes or seconds, allowing your company to make better marketing decisions quicker and with a higher chance of success.

Are SMEs Ready for Big Data? Large companies are utilizing Big Data because they simply can’t keep up with the incredible amount of data generated. At the same time, smaller organizations have simply not reached the point where they are being overwhelmed by data, therefore there’s no pressing need to look into it. This is rapidly changing though, so it’s beneficial to keep your eye on developments.

If you have any more questions regarding Big Data or Business Intelligence and their uses within your organization please contact us, we will be happy to sit down with you.

Microsoft is one of the largest software companies in the world, offering a product catalogue that has something for everyone. With products like the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft all but dominates the desktop office business. The next step for Microsoft has been to move their business services to the cloud.

Microsoft’s cloud based office suite for businesses is called Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote - and Microsoft Server products e.g., Lync 2010 and SharePoint Server. All programs are accessed via a Web browser, offering users the ability to access the programs from the office, home or anywhere in between.

On March 14, 2012 Microsoft held a press conference announcing that the price of Office 365 subscriptions will be reduced by up to 20%. This decrease will apply to all new and renewing direct customers.

The price cut is a great advantage to many potential customers as it makes Office 365 more competitive with other cloud based office solutions such as Google Apps. This is also beneficial as many businesses already use the desktop versions of Microsoft Office. If they switch to Office 365, employees will be comfortable with the cloud version, as the software is exactly the same as the desktop version.

It’s the perfect time to look into Office 365 and see what it can bring to your organization. If you’d like to learn more about Microsoft Office 365 or other products from Microsoft, we are your go-to experts and will be more than happy to help.

Privacy of information is important to all people. Granted, some are a little freer with it than others, but there’s a limit to what people are willing to share. Over the past few weeks a disturbing trend has come to light: some companies have been infringing on potential employees’ privacy by asking for a little too much during interviews.

News agencies have been carrying stories about companies that have been asking job applicants for their Facebook logins and passwords before or during an interview. This is a slightly unsettling trend when observed from the job interviewee viewpoint.

It’s become a common practice of employers to look at the social profiles of potential employees to get to know the job seeker on a more personal level. Users have responded by ensuring that their profiles are private, much to the chagrin of would-be snoopers. So what have companies done? Some have started asking potential employees for access to their social media usernames and passwords. This new practice has the masses wondering, “Is this legal and am I protected?”

Currently there are no laws (in the US) that state that it’s illegal for employers to ask employees, potential or otherwise, for their social network usernames and passwords. There are however lawmakers in California, Maryland and Illinois who have introduced legislation that will bar companies from asking for account information. But this is by no means law yet.

Facebook has weighed in on this as well, “This practice [asking for passwords] undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.”

What Facebook means by this is that if a company does check into a potential employee, sees they are part of a protected group e.g., LGBT, and does not hire a person on those grounds the company could face claims of discrimination. Beyond that, Facebook also pointed out that giving out or soliciting passwords to your or another user’s account is a breach of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

According to most articles, this is a fiasco. But if you look at it from an HR point of view, you want to know that the person sitting across from you really is who they say they are. You are protecting your interests as much as the interviewee is protecting their privacy. Short of asking people for their passwords there are five legal actions you can take to find out more about an interviewee.

• Basic Internet search: Your results may return hits for other people with the same name. To get around this, narrow the search by adding an email address, phone number or address.
• Facebook: It’s perfectly fine to use Facebook to search for a job seeker’s profile and do a little social snooping. Don’t forget, there are other social media sites out there, LinkedIn is a particularly good source for discovering a person’s work history. A big boon of Linkedin is that users tend to be free with their work related information on this site.
• Conduct background checks: It’s a good idea to conduct checks, especially if you work with money or other high value items. If you don’t have time to conduct checks, there are companies that will conduct checks for you. It’s important to be aware of the law regarding background checks in your region.
• Ask for, and check references: Companies just don’t do this anymore. It only takes a few minutes to call or email each reference provided. If you call the referrers and ask the right questions, you could learn a lot more about the applicant this way.
• Prepare ahead of time: We are all busy, but it’s important that you look over a resume before the interview. Pay close attention to employment history and take note of gaps in employment or short stints (less than one year) at companies.

You will be able to find just as much information about a person by using legal means to research as compared with asking for their social media accounts. If you would like to learn more about Facebook or other social media sites let us know.

By Robert Smith of eIS Business Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM Partner out of California

Accounting software was created so businesses can keep close tabs on their financial management. Beginning versions of accounting software wasn’t as advanced as it is now, but it still had its value. Back in the day, most of the accounting process was done with pencils and ledger books. As technology advanced, we worked with spreadsheets and entry-level accounting software. Each step in the process made it easier for us to enter data, access it when needed, and removed some of the risk for human errors. Accounting software has continued to advance and make it even easier for us to manage our business finances.

Many businesses today have found success with current business management software, like Microsoft Dynamics® GP. This particular software solution offers robust management of financials, as well as supply chain, manufacturing, project and service management, and much more. It is scalable so that you chose the features that match your business today, and flexible so that you can add the features you may want in the future.

Microsoft Dynamics GP automates and streamlines even more of the accounting process by integrating the financials with the other parts of your business – outside of the accounting department. Different departments can enter important financial data that accounting can use to manage accounts payable and accounts receivables, for example. This saves time for the accounting team that would have to track down the information they need, eliminates the need for double-entries, and gets tasks completed much faster. The automation removes even more of the risk for human error and calculation mistakes. In addition, the real-time data in Microsoft Dynamics GP can be accessed at any moment, giving you the important information you need to drive your business.

As technology continues to advance, so does our accounting software. Software solutions like Microsoft Dynamics GP add productivity and accuracy to our ability to manage the accounting, as well as visibility into our other business operations. For more information about accounting software, please contact eIS Business Solutions.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0 has the advanced functionality, sophisticated reporting and flexibility to grow with your needs. Welcome to the next big step for your growing company-QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0!

A client was recently reviewing their sales process with the goal of better managing the allocation and fulfillment of sales orders. One of the questions to came through to our office was “What can we do to keep inventory from becoming allocated as soon as a sales order is entered?
The starting point for the answer to this question is one of the Sales Document Setup windows. From the screenshot of the Sales Order Setup window below you can see that there is an option to “Allocate by”.

There are three options available:

Line Item – with use of this choice items will be allocated as they are entered onto an order. Any quantity shortages must be addressed as the data entry occurs. This is the default setting for new document setups.
Document/Batch – with use of this choice items will be allocated as part of a document allocation or batch allocation process. There is an Allocation-Fulfillment Options window that can be accessed from either the Sales Transaction Entry window or the Sales Batch Entry window where Allocation and Fulfillment can be initiated for multiple line items. Items will only be checked for quantity shortages at the time of allocation and not during data entry.
None – the use of this choice will result in no allocation taking place and is only available for order document types. Once the order is transferred to an invoice or fulfillment order the allocation will happen in accordance with the setup of the destination document type.
Our client had all of their order and invoice types set to “Allocate by” Line Item, so my recommendation to them was to create document types that would allocate by Document/Batch. There may be a follow-up question regarding fulfillment, but that the answer to that one will be addressed separately.

Feature Highlight: Budget Modification in GP 2013

When you open the budget maintenance window, you have the ability to modify one account at a time, however the method button brings up the ability to do a mass modify on all accounts in the budget.

If you hit Calculate and do not understand the implication, you may corrupt your entire budget. Not so bad with an increase or decrease, that you can reverse, but pray you didn’t use Set Amount, or start looking for your backups.

FYI

Budget ID table is GL00200, Budget Details table is GL00201 for fast dumps of your data.
The Safe way to modify a single account using the calculation method is on the Single Account Budget Maintenance screen, which can be found linked to the account maintenance screen

• Revenue Expense Deferrals
• Revenue/Expense Deferrals allows you to defer revenue and expenses into the future. It’s sometimes abbreviated as RED by consultants.
• This module is included with Business Ready Licensing Advanced Management and it’s available for purchase for those still on module based licensing. It is not expensive for the pain it saves.
• The module is a separate checkbox on the install so companies may own it but not have it installed.
• Deferrals can automatically post into the future into closed periods.
• Deferral profiles can be used to simplify and provide consistency to the deferral process.
• The original transaction can be distributed to a prepaid account or to an expense account. Revenue/Expense deferrals can be configured either way.
• You defer a DISTRIBUTION LINE amount. You can defer different lines differently. You can also choose to not defer the entire amount.
• DO NOT DEFER THE AP or AR line. You won’t be happy.
• There are some small setup steps in Tools-Setup-Financial-Deferral & Deferral Profile

Today’s social connectedness, mobile devices and instant interaction, “any time, any place” are changing the way your customers live and work. To remain competitive, your business needs to adapt to the new reality.

Connect People Inside and Outside of the Organization Traditional business management applications are passive, backward-looking systems that report on the results of past activity. That’s no longer enough for businesses that want to actively engage with employees and customers. Systems need to connect information to provide insight into performance, as well as the interactions between people.

Business management systems of the future need to incorporate communication with transactions, helping customers to make the right decisions. Collaboration must be linked to production to coordinate workers who are not in the same room. Reporting has to evolve from tracking past results to visualizing future opportunities.

Unified Business Management From email to voice to video, from presence to social - business management solutions, including ERP and CRM, should help connected organizations to:

• Leverage the exploding number of channels to connect with customers, at the time and place of their choosing.
• Create an inclusive, listening organization by extending collaboration scenarios that exist internally to include customers.
• Evolve from an organization that engages with individual customers, to one that leverages the crowd to benefit the brand.

Connected organizations remove impediments that separate information from the people who need it. They foster internal and external connections that inspire innovation and improve productivity. Unified business management systems support connected businesses by providing insight that people need to make better, more informed decisions.

Microsoft has just released a white paper entitled “Dynamic Business: From Aspiration to Reality” to share the vision of how businesses can adapt to the new social realities. Download the white paper and let’s talk about how business solutions built to support innovation could help you build a connected organization.

In order for your IT department to be successful, you need a strategic plan that will both optimize your workflow and help to define your practice’s needs. The well thought out and executed plan will exhibit a focus on the experiences of your staff and patients. Here are five considerations that can help you develop your strategic IT plan.

1. Improve the patient experience. Many healthcare practitioners consider the patient experience a major challenge, yet don’t give much thought to how IT can improve it. Consider what you can do electronically to support patients, whether they're in your facility or not. Electronic forms? Email and text message reminders and confirmations? Kiosks?
2. Consider best practices. Technology can help you get to know your patients better. The Web, for example, can be used as a first point of engagement. Ask a few questions of visitors, then tailor your responses to their needs. A patient interested in a first consultation would receive different information than one preparing for his or her first round of cancer treatment.
3. Don’t forget the staff! Your staff needs successful workflows to interact effectively with patients. Common errors are multiple devices and different logins. Keep in mind how clinicians work to develop efficiencies. Your staff needs to be able to provide clinical care without being tied to a PC.
4. Use social media. Social media often isn’t included in IT planning, as it’s usually more of a marketing consideration. Without thinking about how it will be used, it will become difficult for patients and staff to have a singular experience. Your IT department needs to work with other departments to develop a social media plan that will yield a consistent presentation to the end user.
5. Use integrative planning. Typically, IT does its strategic planning in isolation. Ideally though, IT would plan with other departments. This “integrative planning” allows for a consistent plan supported by all parts of the practice.