Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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12 November 2014 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com HOSTING PROVIDERS Reviews BEST FIT C l o u d 9 h o s t s a v a r i e t y o f accounting , tax and business programs, as wel l as v ir tual ser vers, for many industries, including accounting frms, law firms, and general small busi- nesses. The company reports that 65 percent of its users work w i t h p r o f e s s i o n a l t a x a n d accounting frms. In addition to hosting U.S. versions of the most popular professional and b u s i n es s managem ent p ro - grams, Cloud9 offers hosting Canadian versions, which can be stored on servers located in Canada. STRENGTHS • Ofer custom server hosting of more than 500 programs a n d d a t a b a s e s u s e d b y accounting professionals, law f ir ms, non-prof it organ iza- tions, and other businesses. • A standardized app hosting p a c k a g e i s a l s o a v a i l a bl e , prov iding a bund led option t hat i ncludes Qu ick Book s, S a g e 5 0 , M i c r o s o f t Wo r d a nd E xcel 2 010, a s wel l a s Spring A head, Bill.com, and SmartVault. • C l o u d 9 's i s h e a d e d b y a f o r m e r a c c o u n t a n t w i t h experience operating his own practice. • T h e c o m p a n y p r o v i d e s host i ng to f i r m s a nd t hei r clients, with the income from cl ient Quick Book s hosting ofseting the frm's total IT expenditures. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • New user setup would beneft from more automation, and may require tech support for some frms when frst imple- menting the system. SUMMARY & PRICING S t a n d a rd i z e d o f f e r i n g s f o r Q u i c k B o o k s a n d S a g e 5 0 hosting are priced at $39.99 per month per user (Basic) and $49.99 per month per user (Plus), and do not include Intuit hosting fees of $5 per user per month. Users who prepay for these standardized hosting ser- vices receive a year of service for t h e p r i ce o f te n m o n t h s o f hosting (e.g. $399 and $499 for Basic and Plus hosting, respec- tively.) Since Cloud9's virtual servers are configured to meet indi- v i d u a l n eed s , t h e co m pany pr ices these ser v ices on an individualized basis. www.cloud9realtime.com BEST FIT Firms that use professional tax and accounting applications f r o m m u l t i p l e p r o v i d e r s . InsynQ has a good reputation for successfully managing the challenges of hosting Lacerte Tax and ProSeries Tax Profes- sional, which challenge many prov iders. Also, as the only provider in this review which o f f e r s h o s t i n g o f U. S. a n d Canadian tax and accounting applications (Canadian versions h o sted o n ser ver s ba sed i n Canada), frms with operations in both nations may be atracted to this feature. STRENGTHS • InsynQ ofers many tools that automate company and user set up. Sta r ted i n 19 97, t he company is well established and ex perienced in ser v ing accounting professionals. • Te company ofers hosting s e r v ic e s f or Q u ic k B o ok s , S a g e 5 0 , S a g e 1 0 0 E R P, n u m e r o u s Q u i c k B o o k s extensions, Microsof Ofce, M i c r o s o f t P r o j e c t , a n d Microsof Exchange. InsynQ c a n a l so host v a r iou s c u s- tomer m a nagement/C R M applications, including Sage AC T! , G old m i ne , R e s u lt s C R M , a n d M i c r o s o f t Dynamics CR M. • T h e c o m p a n y s u p p o r t s a broad range of ta x sof ware, i nclud i ng U. S . i ncome t a x oferings from Intuit, CCH, Drake, and Tomson Reuters, Canadian income tax applica- tions, and sales ta x calcula- tion and f iling applications from CCH and Avalara. • I n s y n Q h a s a n e x t e n s i v e library of self-help documents and white papers explaining com mon ter m s a nd i ss ues surrounding hosted desktops. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • InsynQ's primar y data cen- t e r s a re i n t he Nor t hw e s t U.S., which may represent a d r a w b a c k t o f i r m s i n t h e Southeast. SUMMARY & PRICING In s y n Q i s o n e o f t h e m o s t m a t u r e h o s t i n g p r o v i d e r s ser v ing ta x and account ing p ro f e s s i o n a l s , h av i ng b e e n founded in 1997. Te company can host a wide variety of tax and accounting solutions for b o t h e r U. S. a n d C a n a d i a n accounting frms. Pricing varies by implementation and is listed on the company's website. www.insynq.com BEST FIT Accounting frms and service- based businesses that need to host a small number of non- standard applications in a high availability env ironment for access in multiple locations. Te co m pany co n s i d er s i t s e l f a " boutique" hosting firm that understands clients' needs. STRENGTHS • Technical support is available 24 hours per day, 365 days a yea r f rom person nel in t he U.S. and India. • A broad range of applications ca n be hosted w it h Cloud- vara, including Quick Books, Microsoft Off ice, Windows S er ver, S a ge , SQL S er ver, Dra ke Sof t wa re, ProSer ies Ta x, Lacer te Ta x and other business programs. • C l o u d v a r a 's s e r v e r s a r e hosted in a major U.S. data c e n t e r d e s i g n e d f o r h i g h availability. • A t approx i m ate l y $37 per m o n t h ( p l u s t h e c o s t o f l ic en s i ng), t he c ompa ny 's single application hosting is afordable for those who want to hos t a sm a l l nu mber of applications. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS Te company is not a member of the Authorized Commercial Hosting Program for Quick- Books. SUMMARY & PRICING Cloudvara offers a number of hosting plans, beginning with a Starter plan (1 user, 1 applica- tion, 3 GB storage) for $37 per month, and goes up to a Corpo- rate plan (10 users, 4 applica- tions, 30 GB storage) for $349 per month. Additional applica- t i o n s c a n b e a d d e d t o a l l accounts except the Star ter account for $10 per month per application, and extra users can be added for between $34 and $37 depending on the plan selected. www.Cloudvara.com Cloud9 Real Time QuickBooks Hosting InsynQ Cloud Hosting Services Cloudvara Cloud Hosting Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12013940 Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12013960 Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12013957