10/17/2015 2 COMMENTS
1 is Better than 20
As I have kicked the tires on various accounting systems over the years I’ve come to realize that the software just doesn’t matter that much if people don’t use it. It seems obvious, but so many business owners, including myself, have gotten lost in a rabbit hole trying to make a bespoke solution for their business rather than using the boring version out of the box.
Before founding my current business, The Books Right, I owned and managed Goedecke and Associates, an international IT Distribution Business. The accounting needs were much more complex than those faced by most of my current clients: multiple currencies, thousands of unique inventory items, global customers and vendors and affiliated businesses across three continents. But at the end of the day, accounting is about cash management, tax filings and noticing when someone steals from you.
The problem we faced with Goedecke was that our accounting system could be about so much more. KPIs for employees tied to their purchases (as they were mostly in procurement), analyzing buying trends of the large Fortune 500 companies who bought from us. True story, NCR and IBM buy a lot of ATM parts in the spring in Europe because so many people vomit into ATMs during carnivale!
We transitioned from an outdated Enterprise system called Everest to an open source ERP solution, Adempiere, now Ipiere. This is great software out of the box (well as much as you can have a box with open source), but we also knew it could provide incredible managerial accounting tools. And it has done so. But looking back, I’m not sure it was worth it. If I had it to do over, I would much rather do the necessary first and then add on the sparkles. I believe the trend in API rich environments shows I’m not the only one.
I believe we are transitioning into a phase when software really is about the customer. And, frankly, the customers don’t care about cool software as much as cool software engineers do. I’m a smart person but I freely admit that I would rather push buttons on my phone than scroll through page after page of report on a complicated enterprise system. And I’m someone who professionally works with complicated enterprise systems!
Ultimately it is about the user, even in B to B. Wiill we click a button or will we follow the link to the complicated interface? Will we consistently count one thing or inconsistently count twenty? Because ultimately, if you have unsuccessfully managed 20 data sets, you have 0. If you have successfully managed one data set, you have 1. And you win.
Before founding my current business, The Books Right, I owned and managed Goedecke and Associates, an international IT Distribution Business. The accounting needs were much more complex than those faced by most of my current clients: multiple currencies, thousands of unique inventory items, global customers and vendors and affiliated businesses across three continents. But at the end of the day, accounting is about cash management, tax filings and noticing when someone steals from you.
The problem we faced with Goedecke was that our accounting system could be about so much more. KPIs for employees tied to their purchases (as they were mostly in procurement), analyzing buying trends of the large Fortune 500 companies who bought from us. True story, NCR and IBM buy a lot of ATM parts in the spring in Europe because so many people vomit into ATMs during carnivale!
We transitioned from an outdated Enterprise system called Everest to an open source ERP solution, Adempiere, now Ipiere. This is great software out of the box (well as much as you can have a box with open source), but we also knew it could provide incredible managerial accounting tools. And it has done so. But looking back, I’m not sure it was worth it. If I had it to do over, I would much rather do the necessary first and then add on the sparkles. I believe the trend in API rich environments shows I’m not the only one.
I believe we are transitioning into a phase when software really is about the customer. And, frankly, the customers don’t care about cool software as much as cool software engineers do. I’m a smart person but I freely admit that I would rather push buttons on my phone than scroll through page after page of report on a complicated enterprise system. And I’m someone who professionally works with complicated enterprise systems!
Ultimately it is about the user, even in B to B. Wiill we click a button or will we follow the link to the complicated interface? Will we consistently count one thing or inconsistently count twenty? Because ultimately, if you have unsuccessfully managed 20 data sets, you have 0. If you have successfully managed one data set, you have 1. And you win.
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