Support for Sole Traders

SSEs (Small Small Enterprises)

I have been a member of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce for quite a few years. I have learned a lot that has helped me, via some of the courses and events that they run.

I don’t know whether all Chambers in New Zealand are as good. But recently I talked with them about an idea, which they immediately offered their support for.  Here is the notice that they will shortly send out to their mailing list:

Interested in a “Focus Group”?

Maybe you work alone, or as a partnership.

Maybe your business is just you, or just you plus an assistant.

Maybe you work from a home office, maybe from a rented space somewhere, or maybe no office at all.

Such business owners often have a lot in common, regardless of the industry you work in.  For example:

• It can get a little lonesome sometimes;
• The line of accountability can be a bit flimsy;
• Because you’re in charge of doing everything, sometimes you can’t exactly play to your strengths;
• Compared to a larger business, it can be harder to find the time and resources to access professional input;
• Etc…

So… we propose to establish a group to help meet some of these needs.

The plans are a bit loose around the edges at the moment – how it turns out will depend on who’s involved.  But ideas so far include:

• Monthly meetings;
• Informal, flexible, self-regulating;
• Revolving facilitator;
• Emphasis on mutual support, sharing, learning.

A lunch-time meeting to discuss the formation of such a group...
Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, Daly Street, Lower Hutt
Monday 1 March 2010, 12:00 – 1:30pm
Lunch provided.

If interested, but unable to attend the meeting, please let us know.

For myself, I know that I often find that problems and priorities become a lot clearer, and decisions a lot easier, if I have an opportunity to just speak out the thoughts instead of trying to grapple with them silently buzzing around in my head.

So I think this “focus group” idea just might lead to an opportunity to reduce some of the isolation that I and other “home alone” small business people experience.

Technorati Tags: chamber+of+commerce,small+business,Micro-ISV

Real World Access (43)

One of a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche.

 Doug Yudovich’s Claims Reconciliation

Sisyphus’s Quest

The process was grueling - if not physically, then mentally, filling one’s day with Sisyphean tasks:

• Print the acceptance reports from the clearing house;
• Print the claim run reports from our billing system;
• Manually identify the invoice numbers between the two stacks;
• Enter matched invoices to a spreadsheet file;
• Scan clearing house reports to identify error messages;
• Highlight said messages;
• Send reports with the identified errors to the processing department;
• The processor scans the reports, looking for the highlighted items;
• Post the errors to the billing system.

When you were done for the day, there was tomorrow — with the claims reconciliation to, well... reconcile.

Calling the process less than optimal was an understatement.  The accuracy of the reconciliation was marginal at best — not all errors were captured, missed by either the initial reviewer or the processor. While not all invoices were reconciled as accepted and processed by the clearing houses, the claim run batches ended up being accepted in the billing system, causing an increase in the Accounts Receivable summaries.

Our billing system vendor was working on a reconciliation solution, but that was at least 18 months out.  We needed an immediate solution.

Enter stage left:  Access!

One thing in which Access excels (no pun intended) is reconciling data from various sources.  Not only can you import data into Access, you can also link directly to external data sources.

In our case, data import was the path we chose, as we were dealing with report files.

In addition to using Access’s data management engine, it is possible to automate other programs from within Access, and not only family members of the Office suite.

We reviewed the various files in the mix, and identified the approach to the data collection. Depending to the format of the source reports, a number of approaches were required — importing the file directly to Access, coding a custom import process, or writing a separate program to manipulate the date into a suitable format.

Thanks to the versatility of Access, we were able to automate that program from within Access. The automation simplified the process on a couple of fronts:

• The user didn’t need to learn how to use a one-off product;
• The automation guaranteed that no steps in the scrubbing process would be missed.

With the data safely tucked in Access tables, it only took a few queries and a couple of reports to get the output we needed:

1. An itemized error report for the processor to post from;
2. An acceptance report from the clearing house for each claim run;
3. A list of invoices that were not accepted by the clearing house within 3 business days.

The third report was a new one.  Identifying missing claims for the processor to take care of before the Accounts Receivable gets too old.

2 months later

Sisyphus had reached the top of the mountain.

The final product was a user interface with three buttons (four when you count the ‘Exit’ button). Importing the data and generating the reports takes about 5 minutes. The reconciliation accuracy is 100% and no claim is left behind more than 3 days out.

To top it off, we freed one staff member to deal with operational needs, versus shuffling (a lot of) paper around.

Epilogue

Today, 5½ years later, we are finally testing one aspect of the reconciliation process in our billing system. We anticipate that the complete process will be incorporated into our billing system by 2012.

Harnessing the power of Access to manage information, and as a rapid development tool, saved us a lot of money and resources.

This application also paved the way for developing additional Access applications for the company. Some became critical to the mission of the business… but that’s a different story.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft+Access,Microsoft+MVP,software+development,claims+reconciliation

Real World Access (42)

One of a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche.

 Gina Whipp's Franchise Management

Imagine you're a Company with franchises all over the United States.

You have Brokers located in several states managing their regions. You have billions of Prospective Buyers all over the world that might be interested in your Franchises. You need to connect the two while still maintaining control over your Franchises and your Brokers.

A Microsoft Access application, using data stored in an SQL Server database, provided the perfect interface for this.

• When a Buyer enters their information via a website, that information is immediately available to the Broker.
• Franchises are automatically connected to Buyers by Zip Code and County, or by Location Interest entered by the Buyer.
• Buyer activity on the website is viewable by the Broker.
• Quickly identify hot Buyers and available Franchises.
• Reminders you set in the Access application are automatically sent to Microsoft Outlook.
• Send eMails without ever leaving the Microsoft Access application.
• Admin logon has full control over Brokers and their Regions and their access to menus.

Since mid-2007 this database handles ten Brokers in as many States, each handling an average of eight states, including Provinces in Canada, with 700 to 1,000 new Prospective Buyers logging on to the website each month.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft+Access,Microsoft+MVP,software+development,franchises

Enigmatic Technology

Some rambling quirky personal revelations

My friend Kirk once told me that I am “an enigma”.  I remember this, because even though I have a pretty good vocabulary, I had to look this one up to be sure.

The circumstances at the time were that I chose not to try and find a place on the floor in a crowded Los Angeles airport departure lounge to open up my laptop and check my email.

Kirk knows that I don’t have a TV or a microwave, and such like. But this email failure apparently was beyond the pale. How can I call myself an IT professional, and pass up any opportunity to use technology to the full?

Not a Luddite

My daughter asked me today about early cameras. I told her about the Kodak Brownie box camera I had when I was (much) younger, and we then watched a guy on YouTube pulling one apart.

But I have a nice digital camera now, and have no urge to revert to older technology.

On the other hand, I bought my CD player in 1987.  It still plays music, and I have no desire for anything more “modern”.

But I prefer playing records. We bought a new turntable last year. My friend Oli thought I was joking when I told him. But our turntable is by far my most recent acquisition as regards entertainment technology.

It was heartening to read an article in our local weekly rag this week, suggesting a resurgence of interest in vinyl records as a music medium. For myself, I don’t know how the interest ever waned. Playing a record is an incomparable process.

Autofocus

I also thought about this theme recently when, being the beginning of the year, I bought my 2010 diary.

For a few years I tried various software – calendars and task managers and all that.  But in the end I had to conclude that for me there is no future in this – it’s just too sterile and remote.  Computers are really awesome for some stuff. Other stuff needs hands on. Simple as that. In the case of diaries, it means pencil and paper - it looks like an increasing number of people are agreeing with this assessment too.

I have also started using a time management system called Autofocus. It is brilliant in its simplicity, and manages to combine the intuitive with the rational.

Such a system can be managed electronically.  However, I join the author of the system, Mark Forster, in preferring the pencil. He says it like this: “I find paper and pen much quicker and easier, and it has a meditative natural quality about it which the computer entirely lacks.”

Sixth Sense

I have recently watched this presentation with fascination. It is a hint at emerging technology, which is always fun to see, and ponder on the possible future real-life application of what might emerge from it.

One thing that struck me in the point that Pranav Mistry makes about this development at the end of his talk. Bridging the “digital divide”, staying human by retaining a more intuitive and natural connection with the physical world, is a desirable pathway forward.

Technorati Tags: Technology,Autofocus