How to keep your web browsing safe
As user names and their passwords are in your hands as a web application user, here is some security advice for you:
Use a modern web browser, such as Google Chrome
Chrome has advanced security features built right in and e.g. automatically updates important security features:
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/security.html
Use site-specific user names and passwords
For ease of use many people use the same user names and passwords everywhere they go on the web. While this is a convenient method not to forget anything, it may compromise your whole online existence, as there are “bad guys” on the Internet who are specialists in “sniffing out” user names and passwords.
Please use site specific user names. You may be known as “Brenda” to one site and “BR1984” to another. You get the idea.
Frequently change passwords
This is a no-brainer but unfortunately not practiced enough. Change your passwords at least once per month. The security of your passwords increases with its length and the combined use of letters and numbers. For example the password “jack” is less secure than “98j12a89cK” . it would take years for someone with their computers to figure out your password, even if they knew that you own a lovely puppy by the name of Jack.
You may ask: How can I make sure that I don’t forget my user names and passwords?
Some people write them in their diaries, some even on post-it notes. There are better methods to secure your data:
Use one of the widely available password vault systems, such as the free open source Keepass system for Windows computers: http://keepass.info/help/base/index.html
Wishing you secure browsing!
Author: Wolf Schumacher
Towards More Productive Work
Recently I’ve read a fabulous academic piece with an at first incomprehensible title:
“ Harnessing the Digital Lens to Measure and Manage Information Work. ”
The title alone would not make many practitioners read it - yet it contains some well researched insights for improving white-collar productivity inside our organisations in today's information society.
The most productive workers are brokers of information
An analysis of email traffic showed that information workers at the hub of network traffic were more productive than others, not by sending lots of emails, but by being more influential. An organisation’s best performers are well connected information hubs
The most productive workers quickly send short succinct messages
The researchers found that quick succinct responses correlate with higher productivity. From personal experience I know that an email should only address one topic . The other topics are often not even read by recipients of the message and the information is lost and requires time-consuming rework by the sender, when he eventually finds out about this.
An important insight is to be responsive, yet not to the extent that it harms the flow of work through frequent interruptions. Batching of responses , e.g. at the end of the work day, is an adequate tactic to restore productivity
The most productive workers don’t simply speed up work, but transform it
Operationally successful people don’t merely speed up existing work, but multitask, i.e. work on more tasks at the same time than people that perform their work consecutively. But there is a limit to multitasking. When a person takes on too many tasks at the same time, the sum of the individual preparation times for each task may require the whole time available and there is no output for most tasks. The secret is to multitask easily and effectively, not just piling up more work in a limited time bucket.
The most productive workers use IT to swap low value for high value information processing
Surprisingly, the research showed that managers who reported the greatest levels of information overload were not the ones managing the greatest amount of information. Instead, executives who practiced delegating routine tasks to specialized technology and / or staff were handling significantly greater information flows without feeling information overload. This tactic of clearly differentiating between low value and high value information processing tasks is key for improving on productivity and revenue streams.
For example from our own work, moving accountants away from keying in client transactions and using an advanced data preparation tool such as our own RSDataWeb, allows to have these accountants perform much higher value work, such as advising clients in tax matters.
Successful managers decentralize information and decision-making
It makes a lot of sense for management to identify, document and share best practices. This requires often changing the management style altogether.
They need to avoid being information bottlenecks (e.g. attending all meetings) and instead distribute and automate information processing. Reducing reporting levels, training and empowering members of the workforce are only a few elements of that new strategy. Required are fundamental changes to the embedded cultures of their organizations.
Successful managers combine incentives, corporate culture and IT into one solution
Research shows that massive productivity gains can be achieved by simultaneously implementing improvements in all three areas at the same time versus in isolation. When management combines incentives with policies to promote information sharing and enabling technologies, they see tangible results of higher productivity. Policies, group bonus systems and Web-based IT technologies that promote collaboration produce better results than policies, incentive systems and standalone desktop IT solutions that strengthen competition between staff members.
Successful managers provide constructive feedback
Successful strategies for information rich environments of today can’t only be top down, even though modern data-driven IT systems can drive command and control structures. On the contrary, the centralized data flow within an organisation should support local decisions. This helps to empower workers by e.g. having access to fine-grained benchmark data which allows them to compare their performances among themselves. Employees should be given the tools to figure things out for themselves and to change work processes where necessary for better results
Successful managers create platforms for continuous learning and experimentation
In the mass data environments of today, learning and experimentation becomes more relevant for studying the outcomes of alternative strategies and actions. It is no longer the reliance on HIPPOs (the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), but rather the reliance on automatically prepared “hard” data, that makes the difference. The digital infrastructure of the organisation lends itself to be used as a platform for continuous learning and experimenting with various tactics for better outcomes. The biggest barrier to this is not Technology, which is readily available. Rather it can be the organizational structure and its culture, which may stand in the way of designing the organisation’s future.
My thanks go to Sinan Aral, NYU New York, Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Cambridge Mass, and Marshall Van Alstyne, Boston U, Boston, for providing with their wonderful article the basis for this blog entry.
Author: Wolf Schumacher
Our demos will start at the end
In 2010 we've done literally 100's of webinars showing and telling the vast functionality of RSDataWeb and its integrated partner applications.
The demos not always led to the results we expected, though. We now know that showing every nook and granny of our wonderful web app can be overwhelming and sometimes lead to two unexpected results:
(1) "we want a discount, as we'll only be using a subset of what the system offers," and worse
(2) showing too many features makes an otherwise easy to handle system look complicated.
Learning from a recent excellent lecture by Peter E Cohan from Second Derivative; in our upcoming 2011 online demos to prospects we'll start at the end, presenting what our clients want to achieve and (only) then, based on their questions, "peel back the layers" and interactively present details of our great RSDataWeb solution..
We are confident, that this new approach will win us even more happy clients.
Author: Wolf Schumacher from the iPhone
- Posted from Rose Bay, Australia
Blog postings from the iPhone
Postings to our blog directly from the iPhone have been made very easy and quick with the new posterous app available on the app store. This little post has been written using the app.
Author: Wolf Schumacher
- Posted from Rose Bay, Australia
Our Thoughts on the Cloud - The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful
The Dot Com boom/bust of the 90s illustrated and over-hyped the possibilities of the Web without the infrastructure, technology or experience to make it a feasible venture. As a result, the use of the Internet for business was deemed a failed experiment (with the exception of email, online banking and websites that validated a company’s existence).
Let’s fast forward to the mid naughties and along comes the development of APIs, no longer does a company have to develop an all in one solution, but a piece to a collaborative puzzle that each consumer is starting to be able to piece together. Sure, there are now many passwords to remember, but to have the exact functionality you want, or that functionality be in development, this is a small price to pay.
So, below is a summary of why we at Interacctive Accounting have chosen to aim to be 100% based in the cloud:
The Good -
- Cost savings by no longer having to continually upgrade storage facilities for electronic or physical data,
- access to your data wherever there is an Internet connection,
- always having points of contact to answer customer questions in a respectable time frame, and
- programs/tools used on the web are cheaper as they don’t have as many fixed costs as software companies in the past
- Reliance on 3rd parties to safeguard your data, however, customers and the market demands security, as a result, this is a very high priority. Just ensure you’re tool has redundant backups of your data and adequate security
- What if the Internet crashes? Everything on the Internet is actually stored on a server. Somewhere.... Let’s not focus on a “doomsday” scenario.
- APIs are constantly expanding between online products,
- Instead of hiring a data processor to repeat a mindless task, you can replace the need for this with a cheaper online tool (For Interactive Accounting this means no off-shoring),
- The efficiencies allow for teams of experienced people, given the efficiencies of data processing,
- Real time advice is actually possible and not just a tag line,
- Clients have access to their data wherever and whenever they need it,
- Overheads for service providers are able to be reduced and thus it benefits the end consumer,
- No backups required (if you actually do them) and, lastly:
- Online products do not have disks for upgrades, you simply have 1-2 hours downtime per month (usually @ 4am) and all of a sudden, the functionality has been increased at no extra cost to you, the user.....
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Author: Guy Pearson, Founder and CEO Interactive Accounting in Sydney.
Interactive Accounting is currently implementing RSDataWeb in conjunction with the soon to be integrated SuperMate accounting package.
Benefits of RSFastTrack for users of RSDataWeb
This document describes precisely how RSFastTrack benefits users of RSDataWeb and concludes with an invitation to learn more about our secure and reliable electronic communication system.
Author: Arnold J Cummins, Management Solutions Canberra - Arnold.Cummins@mansol.com.au
Is the cost of doing SMSF administration stacking up for your business?
Self-Managed Super Funds are an interesting conundrum for many of the 15,500* accountants acting as administrators and/or tax agents. For practitioners, many of their business advisory clients now operate SMSFs. However, this super fund work has always been a challenge as to “why aren’t we making money on undertaking this work for our valued clients”? It is not uncommon to see write-offs in the vicinity of 20 – 40% or more…
I’ve had many discussions over the past 2-3 years with small to mid-sized accounting businesses that are spending anywhere between 60 – 80% of the annual continuing professional development (CPD) budget on keeping up to date with changing superannuation laws on an area that accounts for somewhere between 10 – 20 % of their total business revenue. As accountants, surely even they realise that these numbers don’t add up!! But for many, they will continue on this path as a “loss leader” due to the larger component of business advisory work with their clients.
Well, what if I told you that it doesn’t have to be this way…
I have outlined below a few industry trends that I have followed closely in the past few years:
· Embracing technology – there have been significant advancements in the use of technology to capture and process data for SMSFs; from bank account transactions, share trades and wrap account data feeds. Many of these are available in web-services feeds now, with further automates the accounting process. It needs some time to invest in training to get it right, but the rewards can be substantial. I have seen first-hand, time savings of 40 – 60% for a typical SMSF with cash, shares and managed funds.
· Creating a specialist SMSF division within your practice – many firms recognised the growth occurring within the SMSF industry and have carved a niche market to expand their business revenues through SMSFs. Having specialist expertise not only focuses on process improvement (profitability), but also creates further value-add advice work across both accounting and financial planning.
· Outsourcing – for some businesses, they have actually worked out that it is all just too hard… they have decided to outsource the SMSF component of their client’s work, but retain control of the relationship. Specialist SMSF service providers have definitely arrived within the SMSF space and will continue to grow as the industry matures and they look for greater scale.
Therefore you need to ask yourself… if your business is serious about self-managed super fund work, how will you embrace change to drive revenues and profitability for your business?
* As stated in the SMSF statistical summary issued by the Super System Review Panel, 10 December 2009
Author: Aaron Dunn, www.TheSMSFAcademy.com.au. www.twitter.com/TheDunnThing
Change Management crucial for adoption!
With this and future blog posts I would like to share our experiences with the practical implementation of RSDataWeb.
A recent case: One of our trial clients expressed doubts about going forward with the roll-out of our web technology to their practice.
- The senior person in charge of the trial process had "too much on her plate" and wasn't comfortable testing the details of the system herself.
- The nominated project Champion, an experienced contract accountant, was quite happy with the way he performed his daily admin work and the tools he had at his disposal. He concentrated his assessment of the new technology not on how it could improve the performance of their practice, but rather on trying to find and highlight "errors" in the new system.
- The embedded Workflow and Work-in-progress monitoring feature was not deployed right from the beginning, so that the real time and cost savings were not properly identified.
What did we learn from this exercise and what will we share with future trial clients?
- The project Champion needs to be a senior person actively committed to change/automate traditional time-consuming and mundane work practices.
- The project Champion mustn't be a person in a double-bind situation, i.e. someone who makes a living from the current work practices and at the same time is being made responsible for assessing a new system which will drastically change current work practices.
- Our Workflow and WIP feature needs to be activated right from the start of the trial to be able to compare current with changed work practices on a client, task and work-item basis.
- Change management insights and practices need to be inserted into our initial trial client teachings.
Resource: http://www.rewardsuper.com.au/index.html#6
Author: Wolf Schumacher, wolf @rewardsuper.com.au
Jan 2011: Renewed Site & new Blog
Right at the beginning of the New Year I am delighted to announce the launch of our renewed public web site and this new Blog. Both reflect our business objectives, our product development and our evolution as a company.
I am particularly excited that we can now more easily illustrate the important role the RSDataWeb administration platform plays for our customers, for our prospects and for the Accounting and Financial advice industry. You will learn about RSDataWeb’s new features and capabilities - as well as the fabulous value-adding solutions, integrated in RSDataWeb, of our trusted technology and application partners.
If you've visited our web site before, you'll notice that we've now integrated, at no additional subscription cost to our customers, formerly separate modules (eg. RSDocWeb), into RSDataWeb. The only separate but technically integrated modules are those sourced from our trusted partners (eg Sharesight), which you can easily enable online within RSDataWeb.
I invite you to visit our renewed site and blog often as we are planning updates that you don’t want to miss. Feel free to comment this and upcoming blog posts. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Wishing you a happy and successful 2011!
Wolf SchumacherDirectorReward Super Pty LtdLevel 2, 333 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000wolf@rewardsuper.com.auMob 0400 837 458
