The Management Consulting Group

The Windows registry is the nerve center of your PC its made up of information called Keys and strings which simply put are directions for your software so it knows how to run.

Installing an application is an easy task for most users. But what about uninstalling? Do you know how to completely remove an application from your system? Did you know that most applications leave permanent files or registry entries on your system? In order to keep your system clean, you need to properly install and uninstall applications. Correctly uninstalling an application can ensure that it will not cause you any problems in the future.

The right way to uninstall software is definitely not the delete key. And it’s not always the familiar Add/Remove Programs dialog. In many cases, you need to follow a series of steps in order to completely remove a program from your system.

Add/Remove Programs: This is the familiar application you can find on your Control Panel. It is (obviously) the most important tool that you use to remove an application. It is primarily intended for applications that don’t offer an Uninstall program on their own. Most of the times however, it can be safely used to uninstall these applications as well, since their own uninstall program will be started by the Add/Remove Programs dialog. It can be found at Start - Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.

Many applications tend to leave permanent files laying around on your hard disk. Your system does not need these files and so, apart from wasting space, sometimes they may adversely affect the performance of your system (e.g. an older version of a library may cause compatibility issues with newer applications). On the other hand, there are also programs that leave useless registry entries on your Windows registry that can cause similar problems.

A Registry cleaning program can be used to find and delete all registry keys, strings, files and folders that the program has left on your machine. This will result is a faster PC and a PC less Prone to errors.

For more information visit about registry cleaners visit http://www.yourpcprotection.com

Glenn Munn is an IT professional with many years of experinece with PC Threats. Qualifications include Microsoft Certified Professional Comptia A+ hardware Comptia A+ software Website: PC Protection

Current business situation shows that to outsource means to
benefit, i.e. to make profit from international trade in products and services.
Witnessing high quality companies that have helped to improve the global
perception of the “brand”, lots of producers have stuck to the idea of
partnership with offshore development teams. Participating in such business does
not necessarily take away from them market share, but it is a 100% key factor in
maintaining customers and acquiring new business i.e. providing a quality
product or service.

To run business above and beyond the limitations of production methods is
essential nowadays. No doubt, this task is not an easy one taking into
consideration that companies try to keep inventories low, overhead costs and
capital expenditures to a minimum.

Being not able to keep up with the upgrade of technological advances, nor the
expense of keeping employees up with these improvements, most companies start to
use outsourcing as on of the essential ways to upraise any product or service
one has to offer.

According to statistics, more than 85% of companies participating in IT
development business and outsourcing abroad, usually do it in CIS countries:
half of that number takes risks to establish ODC (Offshore
Dedicated Center) that allows to benefit from the expertise of another
company, without accumulating the expenses of new equipment and training.

An ODC is a dedicated, customized, and secure development center established for
a customer that needs to outsource application and maintenance work for a long
period of time. ODC model gives the customer better control over the process of
product development, and helps to have higher resource efficiency (cost saving
up to 70%).

Being a branch of offshore business, Dedicated Center does not require any
up-front investments or long-term commitments: the company chosen handles
incorporation issues, establishing IT infrastructure, legal fees, payroll, legal
compliance and office leases. Being not obliged to pay office expenses, internet,
electricity, infrastructure and many more, the employer can be sure that each
dedicated member of this team works 180 hours per month making profit.

With companies all over the world everyone can gain access to talented engineers,
experienced developers and trendy designers. Leveraging the dedicated team means
that customers who risk can handle their own IT projects quickly and efficiently,
utilizing cost-effective equivalent in-house resources.

At the same time, management team that is a must in every modern
IT development company is
always at client’s service to provide a level of convenience and security that
one would never get by working within some local development departments.

With roots in all continents and countries, IT development companies are
utilizing close relations with local universities, the development community and
educational centers to quickly fill the need for qualified engineers. Local
business connections also work for outsourcing companies’ benefit.
ODC BENEFITS:

1. Focus on Core IT Competencies - Save on Cost of Applications Development
2. Avoid Long-term Investments
3. Lower Business Risks
4. Best Practices from Leading Web Development Company
5. Quick Return on Investment
6. Full Operational Control
7. Established IT Infrastructure
8. Access to the Best Talents
9. Improved Product Release Time

Peter Melnikov
http://www.moveyourweb.net

Peter Melnikov is COO of MoveYourWeb web development offshore company

In the first article, “Why Should Your Company Outsource?” I summarized two major types of outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT Outsourcing (ITO). In this article will describe the unique benefits of outsourcing for small to mid-sized, growth oriented companies with sales ranging from $20 to $250 million.

Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource

1. Reduce and control operating costs

2. Improve company focus
3. Gain access to world-class capabilities
4. Free internal resources for other purposes
5. Resources are not available internally
6. Accelerate reengineering benefits
7. Function difficult to manage/out of control
8. Make capital funds available

9. Share risks
10. Cash infusion
Source: Survey of Current and Potential Outsourcing End-Users
The Outsourcing Institute Membership, 1998

Let’s briefly examine each one of these benefits and highlight the unique benefits to middle market companies.

Reduce and Control Operating Costs

Outsourcing in general, and offshore outsourcing in particular, can be a powerful way to reduce administrative and production costs. By leveraging an outsourcing company’s size, specialization and lower wage rates, small and mid-sized companies can drive down costs in their non-core business functions.

Improve Company Focus

By concentrating resources on core businesses, a company will become more efficient, drive costs further down, provide better service and expand its market share.

Gain Access To World-Class Capabilities

Outsourcing organizations take non-core administrative functions and make them their core businesses. They are experts in such business process as Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Customer Service, Procurement, Business Administration and IT infrastructure, eCommerce, Data Processing, Network Management, Telecommunications, Data Security and Software Development. A well funded outsourcing company will invest heavily in people, technology and process engineering to provide state of the art services to their clients. This level of investment and commitment is beyond the abilities of most middle market companies.

Free Internal Resources For Other Purposes

Outsourcing frees key management from day to day routine and permits them to focus on priorities. Staff utilizes more of their skills; they have more interesting work and overall productivity increases. Boredom is the biggest enemy of productivity.

Resources Are Not Available Internally

In 2005, Bill Gates complained about Microsoft’s difficulties in finding skilled programmers and opened Microsoft India. Finding qualified skilled workers is also a problem for small and mid-sized companies. Outsourcing permits a company to rapidly field an expert team and implement financial, marketing, manufacturing and distribution programs.

Accelerate Reengineering Benefits

Sometimes an executive needs to make a major change to save an organization and the staff does not have the skills or the interest to execute a plan in a timely manner. Outsourcing offers immediate access to qualified staff that may be more experienced and receptive to change.

Function Difficult To Manage/Out Of Control

Executives often seek to reduce excessive costs for IT, legal, marketing, customer service and HR. The costs can be measured in hard dollars and the time that these non-core businesses take to manage which can take focus away from the core business. Before a non core business becomes a bottleneck to growth, it may make sense to scale back and outsource.

Make Capital Funds Available

When properly implemented and executed, outsourcing improves cash flow in four ways:

• Outsourcing, especially offshore outsourcing, is cheaper than running the operation internally.

• By focusing more resources on the core business it becomes more efficient and profitable.

• Capital expenditures and fixed costs are lowered and are transformed to variable costs driving up operating margins and lowering break even points.

• Because outsourcing increases the value of a business, the capital markets place a higher multiple on future earnings.

Share Risks

A well thought out outsourcing partnership will provide for the outsourcing company to adopt new technology, methods and productivity increases. Small and mid-sized companies can develop a partnership with a better founded provider who shares the risk of innovation.

Cash Infusion

Some outsourcing companies will purchase staff and infrastructure for cash in exchange for a long term outsourcing commitment ranging from 7 to 10 years.

Robert Newman is an attorney at the Business & Technology Group @ Jones Garneau LLP. Mr. Newman helps executives in the technology and biotechnology industries successfully raise money and purchase other companies by providing practical legal advice about securities, M&A and technology law. Prior to becoming an attorney, he served for over ten years as an IT consultant and executive at various major banks and financial institutions. He may be reached at: RNewman@jonesgarneau.com or at 1-800-989-8260.

In any small to medium-size business, there comes a time when you don’t know exactly what to do or how to do it. That’s when you need an outside appraisal of your business and the way it operates. Too many businesses fail as a result of insular thinking. Sometimes, you’re so close to the trees, it takes an outsider to see the forest. Don’t let your business succumb to stuck-inside-the-box thinking. Read on to find out how to recognize the need for a consultant.

Hiring a consultant in the following situations can grow, or even save your company.

1. When you don’t know exactly what to do or how to do it.

2. When you need an outside appraisal of your business and the way
it operates.

3. When you need a special talent or desire an exceptionally high-level of competence in some field.

4. When you want to review some special issue in your business.

5. When you need help in long-range planning.

6. When you want to project or predict the effects of possible expansion or diversification.

7. When you are looking for new ideas or a fresh approach.

8. When you need help preparing a proposal.

9. When anonymous representation of your company by an outside party is advantageous for negotiations, mergers and acquisitions.

10. When a short-term project requires special expertise that no one on your staff possesses; but you do not want to hire another full-time employee.

Consultants offer other hidden advantages for your company.
Consider some of the other advantages that consultants offer: Often times, consultants see situations that have gone unnoticed by regular staff. They can also upgrade the education and experience of your staff. A consultant is specifically oriented toward producing results; and you only pay them for the time you use them.

How can a consulting service benefit your company?
Don’t miss Part 2 of this RK Auto Group series: Using a consultant to help your business grow.

© 2006 RK Auto Group

Tom Kline is Controller of RKAutoGroup.net (RK Buick, RK Chevrolet, RK Subaru, RK Scion and RK Toyota).

During his 15-year tenure Kline has worked in the Sales Department of RK Auto Group, Parts, Service and Body Shop, Leasing, Collections, and Management Information Services.

RK Auto Group, located in Southeast Virginia, has been recognized as one of the top 100 Chevrolet dealerships in the nation. Founded in 1964, this award-winning dealership sells approximately 9,000 vehicles per year.

RK Chevrolet is the recipient of Chevrolet Motor Division’s coveted Service Supremacy Award four years in a row. This is an award which less than 8% of the nation’s Chevrolet dealers have won. In 1998, RK received the prestigious “Genuine Leaders Award” for excellence in sales, service, and customer satisfaction.

Idaho payroll has some unique aspects and conditions. Some of the details and laws are set out in this article including information concerning: tax withholding and reporting; unemployment insurance taxes and reporting; wage and hour laws; and child support withholding.

ARTICLE

The Idaho State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:

State Tax Commission
Income Tax Division
800 Park Blvd, Plaza IV, Box 36
Boise, ID 83722
(208) 334-7500
www.tax.idaho.gov

Idaho allows you to use the Federal W-4 form to calculate state income tax withholding.

Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Idaho cafeteria plans are: not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are: not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes.

In Idaho supplemental wages are taxed at a 7.8% flat rate.

In Idaho supplemental wages are required to be aggregated for the state income tax withholding calculation.

You must file your Idaho state W-2s by magnetic media if you are have at least 50 employees and are required to file your federal W-2s by magnetic media.

The Idaho State Unemployment Insurance Agency is:

Department of Employment
317 Main St.
Boise, ID 83735-0910
(208) 332-7451
www.labor.state.id.us/lmi/wagehour.htm

The State of Idaho taxable wage base for unemployment purposes is wages up to $27,600.00.

Idaho requires Magnetic media reporting of quarterly wage reporting if the employer has at least 300 employees that they are reporting that quarter.

Unemployment records must be retained in Idaho for a minimum period of three years. This information generally includes: name; social security number; dates of hire, rehire and termination; wages by period; payroll pay periods and pay dates; date and circumstances of termination.

The Idaho State Agency charged with enforcing the state wage and hour laws is:

Department of Labor
317 Main St.
Boise, ID 83735-0910
(208) 332-7451
www.labor.state.id.us/lmi/wagehour.htm

The minimum wage in Idaho is $5.15 per hour.

There is also no general provision in Idaho State Law covering paying overtime in a non-FLSA covered employer.

Idaho State new hire reporting requirements are that every employer must report every new hire and rehire. The employer must report the federally required elements of:

• Employee’s name
• Employee’s address
• Employee’s social security number
• Employer’s name
• Employers address
• Employer’s Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)

This information must be reported within 20 days of the hiring or rehiring.
The information can be sent as a W4 or equivalent by mail, fax or electronically.
There is no penalty for a late report in Idaho.

The Idaho new hire-reporting agency can be reached at 800-627-3880 or on the web at www.labor.state.or.state.id.us/newhire/

Idaho does not allow compulsory direct deposit.

Idaho requires the following information on an employee’s pay stub:

Idaho requires that employee be paid no less often than monthly.

Idaho requires that the lag time between the end of the pay period and the payment of wages to the employee not exceed fifteen days.

Idaho payroll law requires that involuntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay within 10 working days or next regular payday and that voluntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay within 10 working days or by the next regular payday or by mail if employee requests it.

There is no provision in Idaho law concerning paying deceased employees.

Escheat laws in Idaho require that unclaimed wages be paid over to the state after one year.

The employer is further required in Idaho to keep a record of the wages abandoned and turned over to the state for a period of 7 years.

Idaho payroll law mandates no more than 35% of minimum wage may be used as a tip credit.

In the Idaho payroll law there is no provision covering required rest or meal periods.

Idaho statute requires that wage and hour records be kept for a period of not less than three years. These records will normally consist of at least the information required under FLSA.

The Idaho agency charged with enforcing Child Support Orders and laws is:

Child Support Program
Department of Health and Welfare
450 W. State St., 5th Fl.
Boise, ID 83720-0036
(208) 334-2479
www.idahochild.org

Idaho has the following provisions for child support deductions:

• When to start Withholding? Immediately after receipt of order.
• When to send Payment? Within 7 days of Payday.
• When to send Termination Notice? Promptly.
• Maximum Administrative Fee? $5 per payment.
• Withholding Limits? 50% of disposable earnings.

Please note that this article is not updated for changes that can and will happen from time to time.

Charles J. Read, CPA has been in the payroll, accounting and tax business for 30 years, the last fifteen in private practice. Mr. Read is the author of “How to Start a New Business”. For Professional Payroll services at a Budget Price go to http://www.PayrollonaBudget.com a Paperless Payroll Company. Go to http://www.CustomPayroll.com For a full service payroll service bureau with CPA’s on staff. See an excerpt of Mr. Read’s interviews from William Shatners “Heartbeat of America” television show on the websites linked above.

Think about the following project to initiate. A company is to select a new software system; for example an Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP system.

Finding ERP suppliers is not that hard. Internet is a willing environment to organize this preliminary step in the selection process. Then (or before) you need some requirements and selection criteria. In the next step you should filter the initial group to a shortlist of high potentials.

Both in the initial long-list phase as in the next sequence with the short-list, you need to match your demand characteristics with those of the suppliers. The challenge pops up in asking the (right) questions – this is usually done in a Request for Information (RFI) or in a later stage the Request For Proposal (RFP). This is the challenge to set the questions up in a form that all participants understand the same format.

This is a knowledge management problem. You request information, but behind this information is a huge amount of knowledge hidden. Even if you ask the suppliers to draw some pictures you are not able to compare these. All picture, models and schemes are most of the time proprietary.

The solution…

The solution is to direct to an independent third party. This could be an independent advisor, not offering (software) solutions.

The external advisor is to prepare a format in which not only the most essential information is gathered (from the suppliers), but also the essential (explicit) knowledge behind it.
The demanding company could still setup its own requirements. The management advisor — in the role of knowledge broker — is to translate these requirements to a universal (not proprietary) form and have the suppliers respond to it.

The Benefits…

• objective and independent advice
• scalable: the advice could be up to any level of detail
• It takes care that all participants (including the initiating company) provide accurate information.
• reducing time and (other) resources

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
You can apply for a free demo account

MPEG, or Moving Picture Experts Group, is a jointly working group comprised of the International Standards Organization and International Electro-Technical Commission (ISO/IEC) to standardize the coding of moving pictures and the associated audio in a digital compressed format.

MPEG-2 uses very sophisticated compression techniques to compress audio and video in order for it to be burned on a DVD. You can purchase and download hardware and software MPEG Encoders to burn a DVD.

MPEG-2 is the process needed to encode video and audio information for a DVD burner, by burning the information onto a DVD disc with time stamps. The process of an MPEG encoder for burning DVDs is done using codec’s to encode the video and audio and save it in smaller pieces to be transformed into a frequency space and then quantized.

MPEG-3 is one of the discontinued encoding processes for digital media, and is often confused for MPEG-1 (what we know as MP3). MP3 encoding has quickly become the standard for digitizing music around the world, and listening to it on your computer, laptop or personal MP3 Player. Most people burn mp3 songs to CDROMS, however for digital archiving, some people burn the files to DVD as well.

To burn a DVD, you need a DVD burner, an MPEG Encoder, a blank DVD-R (recordable) disc and the audio and video that you wish to burn onto the DVD-R.

MPEG Encoders can be bought as hardware or software and downloaded to transform and compress your audio and video file into MPEG format so that it can be burned onto a DVD using a DVD Burner. The process itself is quite complex and took a team of specialists to perfect. However, the process is streamlined where you as the end user are only expected to follow short, simple commands by the software to burn your encoded data.

You can search the internet for a suitable MPEG encoder and also for a DVD burner that will best suit your needs. Your local computer shopping store will also have a variety of DVD burners with some expert advice on which products will best work for what information you are looking to encode and burn.

And lastly, when in doubt about which MPEG compression algorithm to use to encode your data, “google” it. Chances are that you are not the only person who has had a question regarding MPEG encoding and DVD Burning. By doing your research early, you can ensure your next burn will go smoothly!

Mansi aggarwal writes about MPEG encoder.

Software development in Microsoft Access is relatively simple and almost anyone can do it but if you want to be taken seriously by professional database developers then there are some mandatory rules that you must follow whilst developing your database. One of the first aspects professional developers will look at when reviewing your work will be the naming standards you are using for your Microsoft Access Objects. Microsoft Access allows you to use, what is considered in the professional database development world, poor naming standards. For example in your field names, you can have spaces however in the professional world that is a major no no.

One of the reasons we don’t use spaces in Microsoft Access is that when you start creating complex queries and functions that refer to fields, if you have spaces in the field names it is possible to put two spaces into the field name but it only appears that there one space. What this means is that your query won’t work and can sometimes take many days to find the mistake. The key issue is that you must never use spaces in your field names, database names or any of the seven different object types. There are in fact two ways that you should be naming your fields, database names and so on.

Naming Fields

Let us say for instance you wanted to create a field to store the Postcodes for the suburbs your customers live in. We could write this field in two ways, the first thing you must do for fields is to add the prefix fld at the start of the field. Then add the field name as required -

fldPostcode or fldPost_code

Either technique is quite acceptable. If you were developing a field for Post Codes, that is codes on posts, then the recommended way for writing the field name would be -

fldPostCode or fldPost_Code

You will notice that in the second example the second word is in capitals rather than in lower case. The use of capital letters signifies that each word represents a separate aspect of the field, so in this case the code in capitals means you are referring to codes on posts. The same naming principles apply to database names, and each of the seven Microsoft Access object types.

Naming Tables

When naming tables, there are three prefixes that you can use. The first prefix tbl is used for the core tables you will be storing your good data in. The tmp prefix is used for tables that will be storing temporary data. It is also recommended that you import your data into a temporary table before inserting the data into your good data tables. We do this for two core reasons; the first is that testing your data in a temporary table is much easier than doing it on the fly while you are trying to import your data.

The third table prefix I recommend being used is bck for backup tables. The key advantage of using these prefix’s on your tables is that Microsoft Access will automatically group them by the prefix, which means you will keep all your good tables together, your temporary tables together and your backup tables together.

Naming the Seven Access Object Types

When you are working with the seven different object types that make up Microsoft Access, each of the objects has its own prefixes. A list of those prefix names you should be using for the Access Object Types are shown below -

db - Database

tbl - Tables

qry - Queries

frm - Forms

rpt - Reports

mcr - Macros

mdl - Modules

One of the key reasons we name our tables and queries with a prefix is that when you are working with these two object types in the query window, Microsoft Access simply lists all tables and queries together without differentiating them. By using the tbl and qry prefixes on these two objects, it always ensures that the tables are shown first and then the queries because t comes before q.

Other objects that need to be named include the bound and unbound controls found on forms and reports. When you create a form or report using the wizard or AutoForm or AutoReport each of the controls are named the same as the field names. Now whilst this is by default, it is not really an acceptable way of naming controls. One of the key reasons we don’t want to do this is that sometimes when we are working with forms and reports we want to refer to the control rather than the field. By having the field names the same as the object names, you can often have a situation where the wrong control is referred to. The way we overcome this, is by naming our controls based on the control type. For example if our field was called fldPostcode and the control we are using for this field is a text box, then we would name the text box txtPostcode. Below is a list of prefixes for the forms and report objects.

frm - Forms
rpt - Reports
lbl - Lables
txt - text boxes
cmd - command buttons
lst - List Boxes
cmb - combo boxes
opt - option buttons
ole - ole objects
chd - Child Objects (Subforms or subreports)

For a full list of all prefix names that you should be using in Microsoft Access Development is shown below:

Microsoft Access Objects

db - Database
tbl - Tables
qry - Queries
frm - Forms
rpt - Reports
mcr - Macros
mdl - Modules

Table Objects -

tbl - Core Data Store
tmp - For temporary Tables
bck - Tables that you have backed up

Forms & Reports Objects -

frm - Forms
rpt - Reports
lbl - Lables
txt - text boxes
cmd - command buttons
lst - List Boxes
cmb - combo boxes
opt - option buttons
ole - ole objects
chd - Child Objects (Subforms or subreports)

Report Names -

rpt - For General Reports
cht - For Chart Reports
lbl - For Label Reports

Variables -

str - strings
ole - ole object types
int - integers
dec - decimal
dte - dates

Module Objects -

sub - Subroutines
fn - Private Functions
pfn - Public Functions

Using the naming standards shown above will assure that if you do require assistance from a professional database developer that they will take you far more seriously than before because you have shown a professional understanding on how to name your database object. This will certainly give you credibility in the eyes of professional database developers.

Chris Le Roy is a professional software developer and has been developing software applications for over 20 years in Visual Basic, VB .net, VBA, C++, Microsoft SQL Server, Transact SQL, ASP, PHP and Microsoft Access. He is the Managing Director of One-on-One Personal Computer Training that trains over 2000 people per year across Australia and Overseas from basic Microsoft Office functionality to advanced Database Design and VBA. You can access some of his many training manuals and programs by visiting his website - http://www.1-on-1.biz or at his online shop – http://microsoftofficespecialist.1-on-1.biz

CRM Software is an integral part of a businesses Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

So what is “CRM Software?”

In simple terms a CRM Software is software that a business uses to improve the relationship it has with their customers.

It’s hard to define everything CRM Software can do. So I’ll outline the uses of CRM Software then give some examples.

CRM Software is a vital component to a businesses overall CRM strategy, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM work.

An effective CRM will include methodologies, strategies, software and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Software?

CRM Software is used to help businesses:

(a) understand their customer, and
(b) understand their customer’s wants and needs, and
(c) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively.

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let’s talk about these three different areas.

A CRM Solution to understand the customer

A CRM Solution allows the user to collect as much information about the customer that they can. They’ll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children, etc. A CRM Solution does this to, amongst other things, help ‘classify’ their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Solution is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer ‘ types’ are best they can then market to them in a ‘personal’ way - using the information gained about them.

A CRM Solution to understand the customers wants and needs
As information is collected about the customer’s personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM solution information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying ‘red apples’ in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it’s something they like to do at that time of year, and you’re offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

A good CRM solution will allow you to do everything that I’ve just mentioned. You’ll be able to bring up reports, write letters and then print them or e-mail them to a define part of your database.

A CRM Solution is useful to also target new customers

Information gathered in the CRM will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using a CRM solution could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing toward them.

The CRM solution activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

A CRM Solution to help efficiency and effectiveness of business

A good CRM Solution application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customer’s file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM solution saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Solution software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a ‘cold’ list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Solution could do.

On this web site you’ll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM for your business.

There are many providers of CRM Solutions, I suggest you get a demo and work out what you’re looking for in your CRM Software and then try a few to make the best CRM solution decision for you.

Copyright © 2006 by Casey Gollan. All Rights Reserved

Casey A Gollan, The Business Growth Specialist for CRM Software Center - CRM Software Center- All the general information and resources for everything CRM - Customer Relationship Management. Visit http://www.crmsoftwarecenter.com for more articles and info on CRM.

Remember nice and prosperous Clinton era? When you implemented innovative those old days accounting application – Great Plains Dynamics. And did a lot of customizations to fit your business requirements precisely. You still remember the names of consultants and programmers who did the job and probably the name of the company – Great Plains reseller in your business metro. This company more likely doesn’t exist in the same form – either closed the doors or merged and transformed to something else. When you tried to contact former programmers – they more likely nicely let you know that they do not do this any more – they got completely different job and profession. Great Plains Software was acquired by Microsoft and not part of Microsoft Business Solutions. In old good days Great Plains Software was taking care of popularizing its customization and growing Great Plains Dexterity programming expertise. Nowadays Microsoft Business Solutions has more concerns on merging all its ERP applications: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta and making them run together as a set of modules (project Green).

• Dex Programmers Pool. Well, you may say – anyway let’s place ad and look at five Dex programmers to choose from and make an upgrade to our really advanced customization for Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive SQL. We’ll move it to Microsoft Great Plains on MS SQL Server 2005. In about month you may realize that nobody actually replied to your ad and you got only couple of Indian offshore development companies general offers to contract them software development you might need. Where are all the local Dex programmers. The answer is – they more likely do not exist anymore

• Great Plains Customization Partners. Programmers were laid off and transformed their career to something else. Dexterity programmers still exist but they had to move and get a job with nation-wide Microsoft Great Plains Customization Partner. The same should be said about Great Plains Modifier/VBA, Continuum for VB and Delphi, ReportWriter and Great Plains Integration Manager VBA programmers. These technologies, especially Dexterity source code programming and require substantial dedication. In some cases these people become project managers and lead offshore development force

• Offshore Developers. Even in the time of legendary Great Plains Software – a lot of third party modules were programmed and designed in Philippines – if you remember Match Data Project Accounting – this company was purchased by Great Plains Software (interesting enough that the rival was Intellisol International – Australian based company, later on moved to Fargo in hope of the luck). Then Great Plains subdivision was transformed into Microsoft Business Solutions Philippines and then closed around 2002. Nowadays the best Dexterity source code programming pool is concentrated there and in Australia. You may ask – how about tradition offshore places, such as India – yes – you can find a lot of MBS development companies in India, but in the case of Great Plains they might be short of Dex source code programming expertise.

• How do I recover my Dex custom piece? You should in our opinion look for inexpensive nation-wide Great Plains customization partner, who has Dex project managers and offshore developers.

You can always appeal to our help with your customization upgrade or modification, we use regional project manager and developers in Philippines and Brazil! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in
California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia