It is that time of year for many people to do their annual major spring cleaning. Out with the old, in with the new, as the saying goes. Yet, as often as I’ve tried to explain to my wife that the family motto is “if you don’t need it now, you might need it later; and if you don’t need it later, it will become a valuable antique”, I still cannot escape from this annual ritual. Every year I spend many agonizing hours in the garage trying to figure out what to keep and what to discard.
Every business does the same thing at some point when it comes to their software.
- Is this current?
- Does it do what I want?
- Is it efficient?
- Is there a better way to manage our business?
For QuickBooks desktop users, the need to look for alternatives is compounded because of Intuit’s decisive attempt to move their customer base to the QuickBooks Online (QBO) platform, yet many businesses find that the core features of QBO do not support their business needs. Thus, sometimes people feel as if there is no alternative other than to leave the QuickBooks platform entirely.
The gap from QuickBooks to the next tier solution can be a massive and costly undertaking. We have seen a number of businesses make the leap to a mid-market product (such as NetSuite, Sage, Acumatica, or Intact). These implementations can take months if not years and are extremely costly, usually starting at six-figures. The worst part is that these solutions do not generally bring over your historical information, so you are forced to use two systems for some time (QuickBooks and the new software).
Often, we find that QuickBooks with an add-on software can fill the gap between QuickBooks and the next mid-market solutions – for a fraction of the cost (when you take into account software licensing and implementation).
At Mendelson Consulting, we work with several such QuickBooks add-on software solutions, covering a variety of industry-specific needs. To become a Mendelson Consulting software partner, we have a very in-depth vetting process. We look at the software offerings from several different critical aspects:
- Features and benefits
- End user pricing
- Customer support
- Software technology platform
- QuickBooks connection, what specific data is shared between the platforms
We have already done the research on these solutions, so you do not have to!
When we work with a client looking to expand their system capabilities, we start with a Needs Assessment to ensure that any proposed solution will meet the needs of your business, both today and into the foreseeable future. We guide the client through product demos and help keep the conversation focused and relevant to their particular business. That is a far more effective use of time. In an unguided software demo, the software partner wants to show all the cool things that their software does, whether it applies to your business or not. At the end of the process, we make recommendations on the appropriate solution(s), allowing the customer to make an informed decision.
With all this said, there are certain times when making a move outside of QuickBooks makes business sense. At Mendelson Consulting, we chose Microsoft Dynamics Business Central as our “beyond QuickBooks” offering. We vetted the main players (NetSuite, Sage, Acumatica, and others), and selected Business Central based upon its robust feature set, and low ongoing operational costs.
We once had a client that tasked their staff with finding a software solution for their business. Among 5 people on their staff, they looked at over 50 different software solutions, and it was impossible to come to a single solution as the benefits were all over the map. They engaged us and in a few short days we were able to pare down the various software offerings and how they related to their business to come up with the correct solution (which was not even in the list of 50 that they looked at!) Can you imagine how many staff hours could have been saved if we had been engaged from the beginning?
Let Mendelson Consulting help you take your business software to the next level by scheduling a complimentary discussion here: Meeting with Business Specialist
While we wait for your call, I am going to go back to my garage… Trying to figure out how long I need to hang onto my old VCR before it becomes an antique.
