Evron SOLUTIONS is a free newsletter that helps our customers and contacts get the most out of their technology investment.

 

Your Afternoon Smile "We didn't actually overspend our budget. The allocation simply fell short of our expenditure." -- Keith Davis

Message From Evron's President

Corporate Metrics in Turbulent Times You can't manage what you don't measure. These days, to effectively steer your organization through turbulent waters, you need an effective dashboard of metric indicators. This dashboard can tell you how healthy your organization is and where you are headed. Everyone is presumably aware of the most basic metrics of revenue and profit. However, these are not enough to help you make decisions. This includes some of the traditional measures that banks love to review, such as tracking history, but again, these methods have limited decision-making value. Some examples of these traditional measures are Current Radio, Quick Liquidity Ratio, Return on Net Assets, Accounts Receivable turn and EBITDA. Turbulent times means that credit availability is often an issue. Being able to show good financial controls and understanding gives banks and other financial institutions the confidence to grant credit. The bottom line is that your financial management software system needs to be able to tell you how things are going and highlight areas requiring action. Your system may capture the necessary data, but not be set up to present the results. For example, you might want to know your margin by product line or by division or business unit. This will lead to questions such as: Do you accentuate your winners? Do you fix or drop your losers? In either case you need to know that there is an issue to be looked at and a decision to make. Do you know your margin percentage by customer and by sales person? These days you can't afford not to know which customers are costing you money and which are supporting your company. Do you have salespeople who generate a lot of revenue but do so by getting unprofitable business? Different companies will have different metrics that are important to them. Identifying these metrics and tracking them will make you stronger. For example, professional services companies like Evron, in addition to the metrics mentioned above, want to track metrics that measure their effectiveness and predict what is likely to happen in the future. We want to know the utilization rates of our consultants. We want to track our margin by project, and by order right down to the detail line. We want to know revenue per person and of course we want to know our backlog. Furthermore, we want to know our cash flow daily, our sales weekly, and our profits monthly. Once you have the metrics that define your company, you find a lot of decisions become obvious. You may also find you are making more critical decisions, more often, but with better information and better results. You can compare yourself to the best practices in your industry and compare yourself to your industry leaders. You may find these changes put you on the path to being industry leaders. If you already have all of this in place then great. If you would like some help in setting these up, our consultants would love to help. Happy a happy and prosperous New Year! - Larry Noble, P.Eng, MBA - President, Evron Computer Systems Corp.

Intellectual Capital in Your Business

Leveraging Your People to Great Success In these tough economic times, it can be easy for an organization to retreat and ride out the storms of uncertainty and confusion. Yet as we've observed many times over the years, challenges like the ones we face today can inspire great, positive change in people and institutions alike. The business world is no different. Facing changes that are coming to your business model is one of the most sensible things any manager can do. At the same time, knowing what those changes are and how to integrate those plans are two very different things. It's here where an organization must draw from a virtually unlimited, infinitely renewable resource: the creativity, ingenuity and intelligence of your people. To move forward, you can also consider tapping into outside resources, in-sourcing or outsourcing. In my experiences, a key principle I've learned is that a successful organization must encompass more than just one of way of thinking or doing things. The successful companies of both present and future must leverage their capacity to maneuver in a wider, more diverse set of project areas - tasks that many companies are undoubtedly capable of. So let's talk about it and get started - how can your business tap into your intellectual capital? Firstly, management needs to decide where and how to best utilize and maximize their internal resources. Rather than adding more resources to their bottom line, they can look to such organizations as Evron who can do analysis, implementations and installation of new software, hardware or network management and can train employees on how to use the new or updated solutions. The strategy of looking outside your business to find solutions is part of a culture of collaboration, sharing and engagement. These characteristics form the heart of a flexible, informed business model that will serve your business well in these difficult times. We believe that our company can help make this a reality for your business. While our organization is known for having strong experience and insight when it comes to hardware, software and network management, we're also an organization that prides itself on being business-savvy, fostering long-term relationships with customers, and hiring employees with a unique array of qualifications. Our organization has many previous business owners, individuals from leadership positions at various multi-national firms, writers and accountants. Evron has a wealth of talent and experience businesses like yours can tap into. In addition, our team is strong enough to discuss topics intelligently and thoughtfully on what your specific needs are and how we can work with you. At the end of the day, any company can sell a product. But the key difference between successful firms and ones that may fail in this economic slump is the people involved. Experienced, smart and motivated workers will produce a better result - period. That's what Evron wants to make clear: our greatest asset to you is our people and the intellectual capital they bring to the table. We pride ourselves in being a "Trusted Business Partner." Paulette Kestelman has over 30 years of executive experience in Nortel Networks, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and IBM. She is currently a Senior Consultant at Evron Computer Systems Corp. - Paulette Kestelman, B.A. - Management Certificate, Executive Human Resource Certificate

Managing Security Threats Online

Evron and Managed Services Users are encouraged to patch their systems immediate with an out-of-band fix from Microsoft for a major Internet Explorer (IE) vulnerability. The web browsing software had a security vulnerability that could have allowed a hacker to execute a potentially dangerous code sequence if a user went to a specially made web page using IE. The vulnerability is so serious that the update was rated "Critical for IE 5.01 through to IE 8 in Beta format" - an unscheduled update designed to quickly plug holes in the software's code. This update was designed to address a vulnerability in the manner which IE validates data binding parameters. This means, in layman's terms, that the update is essential because remote code execution may be used as a method for hackers to gain control of a computer and user rights on that computer. If one of your employees was sent an email link to a web page that was designed to take advantage of this vulnerability, the hackers could, in theory, use the malware to gain access to vital systems within your organization. The most troubling aspect of this virus is the silent nature of it: the exposed vulnerability runs in the background, quietly taking control of a user's computer and, unknowingly, leave an organization's collective security at risk. This issue could have wide-ranging consequences for a business and possibly left company data open and vulnerable to attack or theft. Microsoft quickly responded to this threat and provided a security patch for IE. This is where Evron's managed services practice comes in. Essentially, managed services refer to detecting and eliminating problems before they happen. This includes services ranging from monitoring your company web site, maintenance inspections, layered managed security and even remedial hardware and application support, depending on what your needs are. Evron also moved quickly these security issues. We had planned security updates around the same time as the IE security issue emerged - therefore, we incorporated the IE security patch in with our own security updates. Moreover, we moved quickly to inform and implement our security updates for our managed services clients by going on site or remotely deploying the software. Managed services makes the process of rolling out security updates easier for businesses. Several of our clients here at Evron were notified quickly of the security updates from Evron as well as the IE security concerns; non-managed services clients have significantly bigger risk with missing security patches and Microsoft Service Pack roll-outs. As a business lesson, there's evidence with a story like this that any and all computer users should stay on top of the issues surrounding security. With strong partnerships with companies like Microsoft, Symantec, Sonicwall, Cisco and many others, Evron is committed to maintaining security for its client base and has the track record to back up these claims. If you need anymore information, contact us. - Amit (Sunny) Sahni, CCNA, CCEA, MCSE, VSP. - Vice-President of Technical Services at Evron Computer Systems Corp.

Accountant's Corner

Financial Statements: Not Just for the Canada Revenue Agency With the start of the New Year, regardless of your financial position, you are a busy person. You are dealing with customers and suppliers whose business philosophies range from desperately clinging onto market share to those who see opportunity in the current economy. If your outlook is that of the former, you're in for a rough period. A solely defensive attitude without any plans for moving forward can only lead to an eventual decline. I hope the following may change your perspective. For those who do not believe that this is the end of the economic world, I bring you good news. Timidly led, poorly structured competitors will fall by the wayside, and if prepared, you will be the one to pick up the slack in the market. Whatever your industry, or opportunity, one thing is constant: you will need cash to finance your increased capacity. The bank and your suppliers are the quickest ways to acquire funds without starting new relationships that that will take a great deal of time to cultivate. In order for any supplier to allow you extra credit or extended terms, or a bank granting loans, they will want credible financial statements. The 10-month-old statements that were compiled by your public accountant that conform to income reporting standards of the Canada Revenue Agency will simply not do. Creditors want to know that you have an intimate knowledge of cash flows surging through your business. If you are a BusinessVision user, a module called F9 may be an inexpensive Excel-based tool that you may wish to use in providing financial reporting that is meaningful from the bank's perspective (Sage PFW and Epicor users would use FRx). With a professional presentation and drill-down capabilities, F9 gives you the ability to provide lenders with the information that they require to monitor and measure your progress on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis. Products like F9 and FRx provide you with ratios and metrics for an online, real-time environment. Lenders appreciate that they are dealing with data and financial position facts that are days old rather than months old. Remember that nothing motivates the closing of a deal faster than someone ready to write a cheque and commit themselves financially. If you acquire credit by using financial tools properly, you will be ready with financial that will enable your enterprise to grow.   - Irwin Pinsky, B.Comm., CGA Irwin Pinsky is the manager of our small business division and focuses on our BusinessVision practice. Irwin's experience includes that of a public practitioner focused on emerging companies, as well as financial controllership.       BusinessVision: Tips & Tricks   End-of-Year Procedures: Video Demonstration Let's say you're a BusinessVision user - are you getting a message that says "the date you provided is beyond the ending date established for the current fiscal year end?" Here's a demo of how to do a Year End Close, brought to you by James Mitchell of Evron Computer Systems Corp. Click Here to Launch Video! Want more information on how BusinessVision can work for your business? Contact us at 905.477.0444 or visit us online.

About EVRON: EVRON is a leading provider of financial systems and network infrastructure solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. We have a history of success with thousands of implementations since 1983 T: 905-477-0444 | E: info@evron.com | W: http://www.evron.com.

SOLUTIONS is a free Newsletter distributed by Evron Computer Systems Corp. If you have a friend or colleague who could benefit from our products or services please forward them this message and encourage them to sign up for this newsletter. Subscribe: Email news@evron.com with "Join" in the subject line. Unsubscribe: Email news@evron.com with "Remove" in the subject line. Questions or comments: Email Greg Hughes at: ghughes@evron.com. Privacy: Evron will not sell or trade your email address. Enjoy the rest of your day. :)