The purpose of this blog is to educate clients and potential clients about issues we have run into broadly but also how we have addressed those issues with the Dynamics SL software we support.
Kurt Bradley has been a friend of mine since the late 80’s. His business, Bradley Consulting, was one of my accounts as a Solomon Software Regional Manager. Kurt worked and lived in Houston at the time and still does.
Kurt has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Boston University. He worked for years as a financial analyst and corporate planner at Fortune 500 firms before tiring of corporate life and starting an accounting software consulting practice. Kurt really knows Dynamics SL.
Jack Boyer: Kurt you were speaking to me about a client of yours that used an old, unsupported version of Dynamics SL with a maintenance plan that expired in 2006. You mentioned that there seemed to be little hope for them in upgrading until you rethought the problem and found one of the hosting firms for Dynamics SL that helped you solve their issues. Can you explain what happened and what you offered?
Kurt Bradley: They were in a bad situation. And to exacerbate the problem, everything about their IT environment was no longer supported by the various hardware and software vendors. Obviously, this put their ability to process key accounting functions at risk, including payroll processing. Maybe vendors can be stalled, but not employees. I have seen firsthand where employees will not go home until they have their check in hand. Nobody is happy and the employer/employee relationship is strained. However, for various reasons, they did not want to invest in the purchase of a “current” IT infrastructure, a Dynamics SL upgrade, and a new software maintenance plan that included penalties.
What really scared me was when they called and said that a virus had spread through their system and SL was not working. I told them to have their IT team eradicate the virus first. If that did not work, then we would have to rebuild the system. The problem is that it is almost impossible to rebuild an old system. It is far more expensive to recreate an obsolete, unsupported system than to upgrade one. Fortunately, eradicating the virus was the solution.
In summary, they could not stay in their current situation, but they could not afford to do anything about it. So we had to rethink the situation. Recently, Microsoft introduced a new SaaS (Software as a Service) license agreement that truly creates a paradigm shift. It makes things possible that were not possible before in the Microsoft Dynamics SL world. We could upgrade them to Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 in a “state of the art” IT infrastructure with the security that they needed – at a very reasonable cost. The upfront cost was very little, the monthly cost was very little, and there was no long term commitment. It created a solution where previously there was none.
Jack Boyer: SaaS or Software as a Service has many definitions. What is your definition of SaaS?
Kurt Bradley: I generally look at the terms “SaaS”, “hosting”, and “cloud software” as renting the use of software on a monthly basis with reduced upfront cost; while the software resides on servers that the end user never sees. But these are loose interpretations. For example, you can own Dynamics SL but have a data center “host” it for you on their IT infrastructure.
Jack Boyer: Being the financial analyst that you are, you must have done some analysis for when this would make sense for an organization and when it would not make sense? Can you share with us any of your worksheets or insights on how this would affect various size clients?
Kurt Bradley: It varies; however, the smaller the user count the higher the return for the end user. In this case, disregarding the time value of money, the SaaS solution for a three user system was less for at least the first 110 months – 9 years. For five users, it was 25 months. And for end users that use the Project Series and the Service Series, the savings is even greater. And note that in this case, the end user already owned the license to Dynamics SL. The cost of the license was not included in the analysis below.
Jack Boyer: You mentioned that you believe it is better for us as consultants but also better for clients to have their Dynamics SL license running at a serious data center versus some of the hardware environments we see at smaller clients. Can you elaborate?
Kurt Bradley: When you look at a computer, especially a server, you might think that the total replacement cost is the cost of the hardware and the software. If it is old, then the value is low. But the biggest replacement cost is the cost of the data. If the data is gone, it is extremely difficult to replace. And extremely expensive. So it is extremely important to guard that data and any customizations to the system, such as custom reports. Did I emphasis the word “extremely” enough? So how is that data protected?
Many of our clients rely on contract IT support to maintain their IT infrastructure. Is it part of their contract to makes sure that security updates are applied and security software is running properly? That they are running “supported” versions of the software? I have never seen either answer to be “yes.”
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the Office Manager or perhaps the Controller to switch out backup tapes on a daily basis. But do they remember that duty along with all their other responsibilities? What if they are on vacation or sick? Are the backup tapes good? Are they even backing up the critical directories? Do the tapes ever make it offsite? Too often, nobody knows. It is not their main job, it is not important until it is too late. But this is critical. Stuff happens. Since Oklahoma City and then 9/11, everybody has to worry about manmade threats. Disgruntled current and former employees probably pose the greatest threat to onsite IT resources.
And an “unsupported” environment makes a consultant’s life miserable. A client might try to force an upgrade with hardware and software that cannot support the upgraded version of Dynamics SL, but it will result in failure and expense. Because Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 relies on some advanced technologies, operating systems such as Windows XP and Server 2003 will not work with it. So the consultant is faced with telling the client to spend more money when money is tight. Nothing happens, the data remains at risk.
More and more, I am finding the solution to be contracting with a large data center to “host” your software and data. The beauty of this solution is that these data centers are experts in IT infrastructure. They have bright people handling tasks that onsite resources consider “back burner.” Data is backed up. Offsite. The latest versions of operating systems, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Project Server, Office, and Dynamics SL are offered at an extremely reasonable charge.
And how do they do it? Volume. They do this all day long; whereas, the average IT consultant has dealt with Sharepoint or Project Server once or twice. It is similar to having a car built on an assembly line by craftsmen and engineers versus having a bright auto mechanic assemble one by hand. Which offers more value? Which one has a better chance of working