Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/599790
November 2015 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 5 FROM THE TRENCHES Note that for each of the consid- erations listed above, there may be additional items from your perspec- tive. Your preferences and situation may dictate your solution. In other cases, there w ill be no clear w inner. You may get frustrated, and simply g ive up by ma i nta i n i ng t he stat us q uo or c onc e d i ng to u se a c loud vendor to solve loc a l i nst a l lat ion issues. You may have f rm politics, v e ndor s a le s pit c he s or phy s ic a l considerations as well. Today's environment is certainly more complex than the early days of DOS and Novell local area networks. It was fascinating to me in preparing this article, with my level of knowl- edge, to try to discern and understand how diferent the solutions are. It is hard to imagine with a knowledge of accounting , and not necessarily of technology, how difcult the decision in this area must be for you and your frm. In trying to simplify and easily portray your choices, it became clear why there is so much confusion in the market. Tere are dozens of right ways to solve the problem and hundreds of wrong ways that won't produce the result you want, possibly even when you spend more money and time. Te big options and providers by categor y for CPA frms look some- thing like this: ] PRIVATE CLOUD • In house network hardware • Remote access with RDS, Citrix, VDI • Maintained reactively with in-house personnel and local support or proac- tively by in-house IT and a managed service provider • Examples include: Network Manage- ment Group, Inc. • Support pricing $100-150/user/month ] HOSTED • You purchase and install your equip- ment in a co-location • Installation and maintenance is done with your personnel or a contracted vendor, which may be the co-location personnel themselves • Examples: NetStandard ] HOSTED WITH MANAGED CARE • Te vendor provides the servers and storage • You may bring the licenses or pay licensing fees • Examples include: CETROM, Cloud9 Real Time, Cloudvara, Infnitely Vir- tual, InSynq, NovelASPect, Xcentric • Pricing $34-300/user/month (yes, there is that much variance) ] HOSTED WITH PRIMARY FOCUS ON A SPECIFIC APPLICATION OR FAMILY OF APPLICATIONS • Te vendor provides the servers and storage • You may bring the licenses or pay licensing fees • Examples include: Right Networks, Skyline (UniData), Qutera, other licensed QuickBooks hosting compa- nies at: www.intuithostingprogram. com • Pricing $17-60/user/month (yes, there is also that much variance in Quick- Books desktop hosting) ] SERVER LEASING • Te vendor provides the servers and storage • You are responsible for the setup and generally must bring all the licenses except server operating systems • Tere is minimal control of confgura- tion issues and speed • Examples include: Amazon, Microsof Azure, RackSpace • Pricing $49-999/user/month ] VENDOR PROVIDED • Te vendor provides the servers and storage • The vendor provides the software, setup and support • Examples: CCH Axcess, Thomson Virtual Ofce CS • Pricing $99-1999/user/month ] SaaS • The vendor r uns a multi-tenant, multi-user data center • Access is through a web browser • You select and license apps from mul- tiple vendors to solve the business problem • Examples: Intuit QuickBooks Online, Intuit Tax Online, Tomson GoFile- Room, Tomson GoSystem Tax RS Yo u' l l f i n d t h a t o u r a d v i c e i s similar to selecting an appropriate accounting sof wa re for your f r m and clients. If you are a larger orga- nization, you might get a beter, less e x p e n s i v e s ol u t io n w it h a D o I t Yourself (DI Y) approach to private cloud. If you are smaller, you're more likely to have success w ith a hosted or m a n aged ser v ic e prov ider. A s f urther guidance, consider the CPA P ra c t i c e A dv i so r R e a de r 's c hoic e awards at: w w w.cpapracticeadv isor. com/12061061 (Listed under ASP/ Hosted Solution Prov iders) or w w w. cpapracticeadv isor.com/12014681 . Is There A Conclusion? One thing learned is that one size does not ft all. A nother key point was t h at no one v e ndor s ol v e s e v e r y problem. Expertise and being clear about the oferings was obvious on some vendor's web sites, while others c lea rl y w a nted to get you on t he phone to eit her u nder st a nd you r needs or to tr y to "sell you". It was also pret y clear that some vendors w e r e n o t c l e a r a b o u t t h e i r o w n o f f e r i n g s a n d t h a t m a n y w e r e u ndersta f fed tr y i ng to prov ide a n ofering without enough resources, while others were doing a wonderful job of providing an excellent service at a fair price. My best conclusion? If you want a hosted solution as a CPA frm, your best options are listed in this article. However, hosted is not for every frm, and going to the cloud doesn't mea n you have to g ive up control by choosing a hosted provider that restricts your choices. However, if your internal IT or local providers restrict your frm, using a cloud pro- vider with expertise is likely to give you a beter experience than poor IT support. THERE ARE DOZENS OF RIGHT WAYS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM AND HUNDREDS OF WRONG WAYS THAT WON'T PRODUCE THE RESULT YOU WANT, POSSIBLY EVEN WHEN YOU SPEND MORE MONEY AND TIME.