Dragon NaturallySpeaking

November 1, 2006 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “You will love Dragon NaturallySpeaking if you know what you’re going to say before you say it and don’t mumble. The packageof DNS says, “Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 9 is up to 99% accurate. The accuracy, performance and ease of use in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 9 make it the ideal solution for busy corporate professionals.” When I dictated those two sentences, I achieved about 90% accuracy the first time and improved the score slightly after making some corrections. The more you train the system and the more clearly you enunciate, the better the results..."

SAP All-in-One vs. MS Dynamics

September 1, 2006 from webCPA – “For the giant multinationals of the world, SAP continues to be the dominant ERP player. But once you move down a notch, the picture changes dramatically. Microsoft, once content to play second fiddle to SAP's ERP core, is quietly but steadily ramping up its Dynamics series with a uniform Dynamics package offering in the works for a 2008 release.

SAP's All-in-One product has many strong points, but so does Dynamics. On the flip side, either solution has its distinct weaknesses compared to the other guy. Which path is best for your company? And what can you expect in the years ahead? Will Microsoft's lower cost and ubiquitous presence (ie. existing "beach heads") translate into market dominance, or will SAP continue its midmarket growth through focus on business values and technical finesse?”

180 View – This article contains detailed analysis by a spokesperson for SAP and Microsoft as to why their system is the best. The SAP argument essentially boils down to “because there is SAP development know-how all over”. The Microsoft argument is the “flexibility to change as your business changes”. Both arguments are interesting but not persuasive. We think that either solution could be the best depending on the circumstances.

TomorrowNow a threat to Oracle's maintenance business?

October 27, 2006 from Frank Scavo’s blog – “I conducted a phone interview last week with Andrew Nelson, founder and CEO of TomorrowNow, a third-party maintenance support provider for Oracle's PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Siebel products. I've mentioned TomorrowNow in the past, but I was interested in its business has been progressing in the year and a half since it was bought by SAP.

TomorrowNow has not yet announced its third-quarter results, but Nelson indicated a major increase in new customers: over 200 today, with 60% running PeopleSoft, 30% on JDE, and 10% with Siebel (its newest support offering). The firm plans to offer support for Baan (now Infor's ERP LN) beginning in January 2007, and has already signed up some customers for this offering. Over the past year, TomorrowNow has built out its worldwide support organization to Europe, Asia, and Australasia, in addition to its base in the U.S.

Although TomorrowNow markets its services for all users of PeopleSoft, JDE, and Siebel, in my view there are really a few key segments where the firm's offerings are most attractive. Nelson confirmed that one sweet spot is companies that are running SAP globally but still have instances of PeopleSoft, JDE, or Siebel. These firms, which may be looking to standardize on SAP, have little reason to stay on Oracle support contracts, and they welcome a lower-cost option that is backed by a major player such as SAP.

Another sweet spot is companies that have many modifications and do not intend to upgrade Oracle's Fusion product. In Nelson's view, such customers are paying maintenance fees to Oracle (at 22% of their license cost) to "prefund Fusion," even though they have no intention to upgrade to Fusion. Why shouldn't they save 50% or more on maintenance fees by going with TomorrowNow?

Furthermore, TomorrowNow actually supports the customer's modifications to source code as part of the support contract. Oracle's support agreements, in contrast, only provide support for original source code.”

180 View – This is an interesting blog that contains “independent analysis of issues and trends in enterprise applications software and the strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages of the vendors that provide them.”

The Art of Demotivation

“For the better part of a decade, Despair, Inc. has been engaged in a fierce battle in the marketplace of ideas with the multi-billion dollar motivation industry. In 1998, Despair introduced the world to a darkly insightful line of motivational poster parodies known simply as Demotivators®. In April 2005, company co-founder Dr. E.L. Kersten unveiled his landmark management book, "The Art of Demotivation"- a work quickly praised by Financial Times Management Columnist Lucy Kellaway as "the most daring, funny and subversive management book ever written". With the introduction of Despair Video podcasts, the company opens a new front in the war on motivation- while simultaneously offering a tantalizing glimpse at life inside the company itself.”

180 View – We often speak about the importance of motivation in optimizing business process. We recommend that you view Addressing Employee Complaints and Disconfirmation, Pt. 1.

The Unexpected Benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley

April 2006 form Harvard Business Review courtesy of Approva Corporation – This article is about:

• Control environment (attitude, values, transparency…) is the 1st line of control defense
• Reducing control testing based on risk of a particular process leading to material errors
• Avoiding duplication of work when it comes to documenting business process. In one example, a company’s processes were being reviewed for Sarbanes-Oxley and for ISO 9000. There were 2 different teams documenting the identical business process
• Standardization improves data consistency which reduces the potential for error. Another standardization benefit is that it can lead to efficiencies by streamlining processes. And the auditors only need to review one process rather than multiple processes
• Manual controls are not as good as automated controls
• Few companies have used Sarbanes-Oxley as a way to improve business process
  

180 View – It’s about time that the auditors provided more real value in their review of internal controls by identifying weaknesses in efficiency and effectiveness of business process.

Multilateral Instrument 52-109 and Bill 198

October 17, 2006 from Horwath Orenstein LLP – “In a noteworthy development, separate statements of claim have recently been filed by Marvin Neil Silver and Cliff Cohen, both would-be plaintiffs in a proposed class action against Imax Corporation and certain directors and officers of the company. Silver’s claim is the first (by a day – Cohen’s followed hard on its heels) to invoke the secondary- market liability provisions that were recently added to the Securities Act (Ontario) under Bill 198...

Multilateral Instrument 52-109 and proposed amendments setting out reporting criteria required for 2006, 2007, and beyond, combined with Bill 198, has significant implications for Audit Committees, Directors and senior management of reporting issuers. The intent of these new rules and regulations is to improve governance and rebuild corporate credibility through accurate, reliable, and timely communication of information to shareholders. The announcement of the above class action is evidence that Bill 198 is a reality, and public issuers must ensure that they have exercised due diligence with respect to the company’s “Disclosure Controls and Procedures” and “Internal Controls over Financial Reporting”, under the certification requirements of Multilateral Instrument 52-109.

Multilateral Instrument 52-109 requires CEOs and CFOs of all Canadian publicly listed companies to certify:
a) The design and implementation of “Disclosure Controls and Procedures” for both interim and annual filings on or after March 31, 2005
b) The design and implementation of “Internal Control over Financial Reporting” for both interim and annual filings on or after June 30, 2006 (subject to transitional rules)
c) The evaluation of the effectiveness of “Disclosure Controls and Procedures” and have concluded on their effectiveness in the Management Discussion and Analysis accompanying their annual report for year ends ending on or after March 31, 2005
d) The disclosure of material changes in the “Internal Control over Financial Reporting” that occurred during the most recent interim period in the Management Discussion and Analysis accompanying their interim or annual report for periods ending on or after June 30, 2006

In addition, for years ending on or after December 31, 2007, CEOs and CFOs are required to certify on the evaluation of “Internal Controls over Financial Reporting”, and provide their conclusions on their effectiveness, including a discussion on the method for evaluating their effectiveness in the Management Discussion and Analysis accompanying the annual report...”

IMA Releases Landmark Study Revealing Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Issues

October 12, 2006 from Business Wire – “A lack of practical management implementation guidance and the incomplete nature of the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations) 1992 framework in assessing effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting (ICoFR) are two of the key cost drivers for public companies complying with Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 (SOX) requirements, says a landmark research study released by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA®). The research study, COSO 1992 Control Framework and Management Reporting on Internal Control: Survey and Analysis of Implementation Practices, was released today.

Conducted by Professor Parveen P. Gupta of Lehigh University, the study assessed the views of nearly 400 experienced CFOs, controllers, internal auditors, and SOX compliance specialists at publicly traded companies. The study was designed to determine the extent to which companies are using COSO’s 1992 internal controls framework and identify the factors which inhibit a successful and cost-effective SOX compliance outcome, including high-cost compliance activities, definition and use of “risk based” models, application of risk assessments (fraud, plausible, and inherent risk), integrated audits, IT controls assessments, skills gap issues, and other practical areas.

“IMA’s study is the first comprehensive study of its kind that goes beyond estimating the cost of compliance. This study helps to identify the real drivers of cost and provides actionable insights for policy makers, regulators and professional associations,” said Paul A. Sharman, president and CEO, IMA. “We have hypothesized for some time that current controls frameworks are inadequate, as they do not allow management practitioners to conduct cost-effective, risk-based assessments covering internal controls over financial reporting, fraud risk, general IT controls, and other areas.”

A sampling of key findings from the IMA research study includes:

• Approximately two-thirds of the total respondents attributed two key factors as major cost drivers:
  1. A lack of practical guidance from the SEC or other professional organizations on how to decide what constitutes an effective (or ineffective) internal control system
  2. Redundant testing (between auditors and inside SOX compliance resources) due to a lack of collaboration to reduce the sample size. The data suggests that the original goal of achieving efficiencies via an integrated audit of internal control incremental to (not duplicative of) the traditional financial statement audit is still not a reality
• More than half of respondents acknowledged that they did not use COSO 1992 to assess IT control effectiveness, in spite of indicating their control assessment was done in accordance with COSO 1992. Almost 52 percent of respondents used COBIT for this critical aspect of their ICoFR assessment
• Forty-five percent of smaller public companies and 35 percent of larger public companies are using a “bottom-up” approach to internal controls, rather than a “risk-based” point-of-view. The higher percentage for smaller companies could suggest a skills gap issue in applying robust risk assessment methods
• Only 38 percent of respondents indicated that the COSO 1992 controls framework, the predominant framework in use, was guiding their internal control assessments, while 62 percent primarily rely on Accounting Standard 2 (AS2). Due to the lack of practical guidance, AS2 has become the de facto assessment standard for company management
• Fifty-seven percent of respondents did not believe that the COSO 1992 framework alone was sufficient guidance for determining the effectiveness of internal controls, strongly suggesting that practical assessment methodologies linked to the framework are necessary to assert to the SEC that an organization has an effective system of internal controls.
  

“These results suggest that our hypotheses have been proven to a reasonable degree. Now it is time to develop the long awaited assessment guidance so desperately needed by American businesses to cost-effectively comply with SOX while protecting shareholder interests,” added Sharman.

The study, COSO 1992 Control Framework and Management Reporting on Internal Control: Survey and Analysis of Implementation Practices, includes an Executive Summary that is available free of charge. The full study is available for purchase from IMA. Please visit https://www.imanet.org/research_sox_study.asp for complete details.”

180 View – We think there's no excuse for not providing an efficient SOX compliance reveiw.

Creating Smarter, Faster, Cheaper Processes is IT's Main Mission

October 4, 2006 from CIO Insight – “One of the most important lessons from the last 25 years of business computing is that you can't throw technology at a problem and expect it to go away, or fling a system at an opportunity and expect the dollars to rain down. To get any real value, business processes—how people work, how work is organized, how work flows—have to be changed, too. That lesson has been absorbed, judging by the results of our first survey on business process improvement since 2003. Process improvement has emerged as the top business priority for IT organizations; improving productivity and reducing costs as the most common goal."

180 View – IT resources typically find IT solutions to business problems, and then find a creative way to prove the business case.

Just Say Yes to Internet Explorer 7

October 19, 2006 from ComputerWorld – “It's been a long time coming, but Internet Explorer 7 is here at last. If you're dying to get your hands on the new browser, you can download it right now. But otherwise, there's really no need -- IE7 will soon come knocking on your door.

In November, Microsoft plans to make IE7 an Automatic Update to Windows XP. That means that if you have Automatic Updates configured to install automatically, or to download automatically and then notify you about the download, the new browser will download behind the scenes and then ask for your permission to be installed. If you have Automatic Updates configured to notify you but not download automatically, you'll see an Automatic Updates screen offering to download and install IE7. And if you have Automatic Updates turned off, you'll get no notification at all.

When the new browser comes knocking, should you let it in? Oh, yes. IE7 is a considerable improvement over IE6, and with new features such as tabbed browsing, RSS support, improved security and an integrated search box, it's well worth the upgrade...”

Google Docs and Spreadsheets are here

October 11, 2006 from Office Watch – “Google has bundled their acquisition of Writely and their own Google Spreadsheets into a single package known as Google Docs and Spreadsheets…

With this service you can create documents or worksheets online and save them either in a private storage space on Google’s servers or on your own computer. You get the basic formatting options like bulleted lists, fonts plus sorting by columns and Excel compatible formulas. The really big deal is that several people can work on the same document or worksheet at the same time – with edits showing up in real time. You can also permit people ‘read only’ access so they can see a document or worksheet online but not change it.

The document formats supported are the current MS Office formats (.doc .xls etc) and also the OpenDoc formats (.odt .ods etc). Interestingly you can also save in PDF format as well as HTML web pages. The HTML option means you can create web pages via Google Docs to be viewed as standard web pages. Blogs are also supported with special features to let you write a blog then post it to your site..."