If you want to know the value of Twitter, sign up for HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com). Twitter in and of itself isn't useful to me, but HootSuite is. It allows someone like me to track emerging trends and competitors using keywords. For example, I use the words SaaS and Accounting and have found out about three players in the SaaS Accounting space that I was previously unaware of.
Yes, you can put these two words in Google and search away, but with HootSuite the results come to you.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kelowna – 9th and Final Stop on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Record attendance in Kelowna! Thank you Jennifer for bribing your fellow Kelownians :). What a city and what a great bunch. Thank you all for coming and providing great feedback on ways to improve our business. Right from the get-go the discussion started and just got better as the day progressed.
There were definitely some key themes that reared themselves again. One of the key topics that continues to arise is that attendees do not know of all the training and education tools Simply Accounting has available. We clearly need to do a better job of communicating all the tools that are out there for Simply Accounting customers. We will definitely be working to elevate the awareness of all these tools, but in the meantime check out the Learning Centre tab within Simply Accounting and also www.sageu.com/simply.
Several attendees brought up the notion of document management and asked what Simply Accounting was doing to help facilitate document management. There were also a number of suggestions around the need for more electronic filing and improved email capabilities. Laverne made a great point about batch emailing. This is something Hugo and team are actively looking at…more to come on that.
There was also a lot of interest in “regional meetings” for our Sage Accountant Network members. We envision a forum where fellow Simply Accounting users can meet to discuss best practices within the product as well as best practices beyond Simply Accounting. Lisa is working to develop these across the country and Jennifer is going to take the lead in Kelowna. Look for one popping up in your area soon!
Well that wraps up this year’s Listening Tour and in closing I want to thank all of the attendees across Canada who spent a day with us. As I said at each stop on the tour, we got a ton of value out of these sessions and we hope you did as well.
I also want to thank the core members of the Listening Tour for helping make it a success: Amber, Hugo, Jennifer, You-sheng, and especially Lisa who spent a ton of time making sure each event went off without a hitch.
Lastly, we have already discussed what the Listening Tour is going to look like next year and we are leaning to a tour that spans the entire year. Stay tuned, we may be coming to your city sooner than you think! That’s right Louise…Victoria may be next!
Jamie
There were definitely some key themes that reared themselves again. One of the key topics that continues to arise is that attendees do not know of all the training and education tools Simply Accounting has available. We clearly need to do a better job of communicating all the tools that are out there for Simply Accounting customers. We will definitely be working to elevate the awareness of all these tools, but in the meantime check out the Learning Centre tab within Simply Accounting and also www.sageu.com/simply.
Several attendees brought up the notion of document management and asked what Simply Accounting was doing to help facilitate document management. There were also a number of suggestions around the need for more electronic filing and improved email capabilities. Laverne made a great point about batch emailing. This is something Hugo and team are actively looking at…more to come on that.
There was also a lot of interest in “regional meetings” for our Sage Accountant Network members. We envision a forum where fellow Simply Accounting users can meet to discuss best practices within the product as well as best practices beyond Simply Accounting. Lisa is working to develop these across the country and Jennifer is going to take the lead in Kelowna. Look for one popping up in your area soon!
Well that wraps up this year’s Listening Tour and in closing I want to thank all of the attendees across Canada who spent a day with us. As I said at each stop on the tour, we got a ton of value out of these sessions and we hope you did as well.
I also want to thank the core members of the Listening Tour for helping make it a success: Amber, Hugo, Jennifer, You-sheng, and especially Lisa who spent a ton of time making sure each event went off without a hitch.
Lastly, we have already discussed what the Listening Tour is going to look like next year and we are leaning to a tour that spans the entire year. Stay tuned, we may be coming to your city sooner than you think! That’s right Louise…Victoria may be next!
Jamie
Friday, February 12, 2010
Huddles
Every organization I have worked for has struggled with effective communications.
One simple way to increase to flow of communication is through “huddles”. Huddles are very short meetings where quick updates are shared and key decisions are made. It is not always necessary to host a 30 or 60 minute meeting when you can accomplish your purpose in 2 minutes or less.
At Simply Accounting my leadership team meets every wednesday at 9:05am for 10 mins. We call it the 905. We chat about wins, losses, hires, and anything else that is relevant to the business. In January we moved the meeting to the lunch room and speak freely in front of any employee that wants to attend. Employees can get the scoop and pulse on what is going on.
I know of three other high-performing companies that hold similar meetings and each has said that it is the single best thing they have done for their company.
One simple way to increase to flow of communication is through “huddles”. Huddles are very short meetings where quick updates are shared and key decisions are made. It is not always necessary to host a 30 or 60 minute meeting when you can accomplish your purpose in 2 minutes or less.
At Simply Accounting my leadership team meets every wednesday at 9:05am for 10 mins. We call it the 905. We chat about wins, losses, hires, and anything else that is relevant to the business. In January we moved the meeting to the lunch room and speak freely in front of any employee that wants to attend. Employees can get the scoop and pulse on what is going on.
I know of three other high-performing companies that hold similar meetings and each has said that it is the single best thing they have done for their company.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Toronto – Stop #8 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
It was great to be back in Toronto and we had our biggest turnout yet! There were also a number of attendees that traveled a fair distance to get there—Sudbury, St. Catherines, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Burlington. Thanks for coming and making this such a great session.
We had a great mix of “new to Simply Accounting” customers as well as long standing customers who wouldn’t dare use a competing product because of the lack of audit trail. Clearly this is one of the key reasons we have remained #1 in Canada. Your financial data is something you really don’t want to take chances with. Simply Accounting has always been a trusted application.
Some of the key takeaways for me include:
1) Vickey loooooves Billingboss! It’s a free online invoicing tool designed for small businesses to invoice customers through the web and receive payment online. It’s free. No strings attached. Check it out at www.billingboss.com.
2) Galit suggested we need to clarify our definition of “consultant” to our customers who are looking for help. Galit is a Sage Accountant’s Network member. We also call these members consultants as well as business partners. Bottom line is that there are 10,000 of these SAN members across Canada and they are a resource to customers and we have too many names and not enough clarification on their relationship with Simply Accounting.
3) There was more talk about HST given we were in Ontario. Almost all attendees had some concern around the upcoming changes and were interested in what we were doing to help them through it. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, customers can change the default tax code on all customer and vendor records with a single click. Anna made a great point about having the HST wizard come back with the next product update. Great point! We are going to look into that.
4) All the small things. Don’t forget about all the small things is what Sue’s stressed. There are so many little things that can be tweaked to improve the new customer experience. We jotted these down as we did with all the great suggestions today. If you didn’t get your idea through to one of us, there is another place that you still can! Please go to the Learning Centre and click on the “give feedback” link. We read every single submission that goes in here and take this feedback seriously.
And the moment you have all been waiting for…a link to a free magnifying glass tool. Go nuts! www.magnifier.sourceforge.net
Thanks Toronto. It was a great day and we look forward to coming back soon!
Jamie
We had a great mix of “new to Simply Accounting” customers as well as long standing customers who wouldn’t dare use a competing product because of the lack of audit trail. Clearly this is one of the key reasons we have remained #1 in Canada. Your financial data is something you really don’t want to take chances with. Simply Accounting has always been a trusted application.
Some of the key takeaways for me include:
1) Vickey loooooves Billingboss! It’s a free online invoicing tool designed for small businesses to invoice customers through the web and receive payment online. It’s free. No strings attached. Check it out at www.billingboss.com.
2) Galit suggested we need to clarify our definition of “consultant” to our customers who are looking for help. Galit is a Sage Accountant’s Network member. We also call these members consultants as well as business partners. Bottom line is that there are 10,000 of these SAN members across Canada and they are a resource to customers and we have too many names and not enough clarification on their relationship with Simply Accounting.
3) There was more talk about HST given we were in Ontario. Almost all attendees had some concern around the upcoming changes and were interested in what we were doing to help them through it. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, customers can change the default tax code on all customer and vendor records with a single click. Anna made a great point about having the HST wizard come back with the next product update. Great point! We are going to look into that.
4) All the small things. Don’t forget about all the small things is what Sue’s stressed. There are so many little things that can be tweaked to improve the new customer experience. We jotted these down as we did with all the great suggestions today. If you didn’t get your idea through to one of us, there is another place that you still can! Please go to the Learning Centre and click on the “give feedback” link. We read every single submission that goes in here and take this feedback seriously.
And the moment you have all been waiting for…a link to a free magnifying glass tool. Go nuts! www.magnifier.sourceforge.net
Thanks Toronto. It was a great day and we look forward to coming back soon!
Jamie
Ottawa – Stop #7 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Ottawa was fantastic! What a great day with loads of new ideas! Whether it was Paul asking a straightforward question about the font sizes in Simply Accounting (as well as where to get the magnifying glass tool!) to more strategic discussions about training resources for our customers, attendees were engaged, vocal, and very frank. We loved it!
In the morning, there was a ton of interest in reporting so we adjusted the schedule to dive deeper into Simply Accounting Intelligence—a business intelligence tool we will be launching very soon! Christina provided an excellent demo in the morning and then in the afternoon in front of a much larger audience. Phew! Second time was a charm! I spoke with several attendees during the breaks and they were incredibly excited about Simply Accounting Intelligence. One went as far as saying he believed we have built something that will change the face of Simply Accounting!
Another hot topic was the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that is coming into effect on July 1, 2010 for Ontario and BC. We realized customers were concerned about the tax changes and staying compliant with these tax changes long ago and developed a wizard lessen the administrative burden for our customers. With the release B of Simply Accounting 2010, customers can change the default tax code on all customer and vendor records with a single click! Now that’s a time-saver! Florian, a Sage Accountant Network member and attendee from Montreal, asked a great question about how this affects other provinces. The release is available to all customers regardless of province, however, we are only going to message customers in BC and Ontario with to remind them to update their tax codes.
We also spent a lot of time talking about training. Sean made a guest appearance and presented the many things Sage is working on to improve training and education. While we do have a lot going on, it was clear that not many attendees knew about Sage University (www.sageu.com/simply) nor did they know about the Learning Centre that sits right inside Simply Accounting. The Learning Centre has free tutorials, anytime learning classes, and also the ability register for classroom training. We need to make customers more aware of this “Training” section of Simply Accounting and it was Alan who suggested we change the name of it to Training. Makes sense to me!
Thanks for a great day Ottawa! Merci Beaucoup!
PS - We’re contemplating adding the magnifying glass into Simply Accounting as a feature! Ha!
Jamie
In the morning, there was a ton of interest in reporting so we adjusted the schedule to dive deeper into Simply Accounting Intelligence—a business intelligence tool we will be launching very soon! Christina provided an excellent demo in the morning and then in the afternoon in front of a much larger audience. Phew! Second time was a charm! I spoke with several attendees during the breaks and they were incredibly excited about Simply Accounting Intelligence. One went as far as saying he believed we have built something that will change the face of Simply Accounting!
Another hot topic was the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that is coming into effect on July 1, 2010 for Ontario and BC. We realized customers were concerned about the tax changes and staying compliant with these tax changes long ago and developed a wizard lessen the administrative burden for our customers. With the release B of Simply Accounting 2010, customers can change the default tax code on all customer and vendor records with a single click! Now that’s a time-saver! Florian, a Sage Accountant Network member and attendee from Montreal, asked a great question about how this affects other provinces. The release is available to all customers regardless of province, however, we are only going to message customers in BC and Ontario with to remind them to update their tax codes.
We also spent a lot of time talking about training. Sean made a guest appearance and presented the many things Sage is working on to improve training and education. While we do have a lot going on, it was clear that not many attendees knew about Sage University (www.sageu.com/simply) nor did they know about the Learning Centre that sits right inside Simply Accounting. The Learning Centre has free tutorials, anytime learning classes, and also the ability register for classroom training. We need to make customers more aware of this “Training” section of Simply Accounting and it was Alan who suggested we change the name of it to Training. Makes sense to me!
Thanks for a great day Ottawa! Merci Beaucoup!
PS - We’re contemplating adding the magnifying glass into Simply Accounting as a feature! Ha!
Jamie
Friday, February 5, 2010
Halifax – Stop #6 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Just ducky! That’s how Dave felt about the stop in Halifax and I think that’s how I’d sum the stop as well: just ducky! Dave is a long-standing Sage Accountant Network member who flew in from St. John’s. Now that’s commitment to the program!
The day started off with warm coffee and a warm welcome from our Halifax customers. We learned that the citizens of Halifax are some of the nicest people on earth. This is what Guy told us—he said it’s one of the best things about Nova Scotia. He also said he called support and they answered his call in less than 30 seconds! Good things come to nice people!
One of the things that stood out at our stop in Halifax was the number of bookkeepers and accountants that were helping charitable organizations with their books. There were several suggestions about improving Simply Accounting with charitable related functionality. We have heard this consistently at each stop and we will be looking to address these concerns in an upcoming release. In the meantime you should know that Sage has a full suite of non-profit solutions from fundraising to fund accounting that may be of interest to some of you. Check out www.sagenonprofit.com for more details.
In the afternoon it was the “Alistair Show”! Alistair was in town as a ringer and did an awesome job absorbing all the feedback and answering questions about the product. He managed to control most of the afternoon despite a microphone that didn’t want to cooperate. After some of the Q & A, Alistair showed the group a demo of HR Manager and this sparked a ton of interest. For those that attend any stop on the Listening Tour we give away a copy of HR Manager to every attendee! www.simplyaccounting.com/productsServices/hr. It is a great tool for tracking employee information like vacations, absences, certifications, disciplinary actions, and you can also set reminders for key employee events. One of our attendees, Paul, likes the product but made a great observation about synchronization of events and reminders from HR Manager into MS Outlook. We’ll be looking into that one.
As I have said before, this tour has been a huge benefit to Simply Accounting. We have been taking voracious notes and collectively we have over 15 pages of suggestions about our products, our services, our support teams, and our web site. The list is amazing! We have started to prioritize and have actually actioned several of your suggestions already. Although not product related, one of the items on the list is to find out who Amber’s dog is name is named after. A free edition of Known Locally (www.sagespark.com/knownlocally) for the first person that emails me with this information!
On to the nation’s capital…see you tomorrow Ottawa!
Jamie
The day started off with warm coffee and a warm welcome from our Halifax customers. We learned that the citizens of Halifax are some of the nicest people on earth. This is what Guy told us—he said it’s one of the best things about Nova Scotia. He also said he called support and they answered his call in less than 30 seconds! Good things come to nice people!
One of the things that stood out at our stop in Halifax was the number of bookkeepers and accountants that were helping charitable organizations with their books. There were several suggestions about improving Simply Accounting with charitable related functionality. We have heard this consistently at each stop and we will be looking to address these concerns in an upcoming release. In the meantime you should know that Sage has a full suite of non-profit solutions from fundraising to fund accounting that may be of interest to some of you. Check out www.sagenonprofit.com for more details.
In the afternoon it was the “Alistair Show”! Alistair was in town as a ringer and did an awesome job absorbing all the feedback and answering questions about the product. He managed to control most of the afternoon despite a microphone that didn’t want to cooperate. After some of the Q & A, Alistair showed the group a demo of HR Manager and this sparked a ton of interest. For those that attend any stop on the Listening Tour we give away a copy of HR Manager to every attendee! www.simplyaccounting.com/productsServices/hr. It is a great tool for tracking employee information like vacations, absences, certifications, disciplinary actions, and you can also set reminders for key employee events. One of our attendees, Paul, likes the product but made a great observation about synchronization of events and reminders from HR Manager into MS Outlook. We’ll be looking into that one.
As I have said before, this tour has been a huge benefit to Simply Accounting. We have been taking voracious notes and collectively we have over 15 pages of suggestions about our products, our services, our support teams, and our web site. The list is amazing! We have started to prioritize and have actually actioned several of your suggestions already. Although not product related, one of the items on the list is to find out who Amber’s dog is name is named after. A free edition of Known Locally (www.sagespark.com/knownlocally) for the first person that emails me with this information!
On to the nation’s capital…see you tomorrow Ottawa!
Jamie
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Calgary – Stop #5 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Wow! This was a vocal bunch. We started at 9am sharp and the discussion was non-stop for the rest of the day. Nice work Calgary—apparently you have a lot to say! The Simply Accounting team always gets excited when our customers are engaged.
I am still surprised by the number of attendees that have their own bookkeeping or accounting consulting practices that are not on our Sage Accountant Network program—we uncovered at least 6 attendees. If you have fee paying clients please check out the benefits of this program here: www.simplyaccounting.com/partners/joinSAN/benefits.
There was some great discussion around connecting small businesses to students across Canada. For those that don’t know, Simply Accounting is used in over 3,800 secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada. Graduates of these accounting programs may be looking for internships as well as full-time jobs after they graduate. To connect students with the many small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers across Canada using Simply Accounting, we built a web site called sageforstudents (www.sageforstudents.com). The web site also helps students with resume creation, cover letter creation, and general information on the accounting and bookkeeping fields.
Carol was in good spirits (is she ever not?!). She loves Simply Accounting but is also not shy about providing candid feedback! One of her comments directly impacted her customer experience—she commented on our support and service agents asking redundant questions after the call to gather feedback on her experience. She is completely willing to help, but she suggested we need to revisit the questions on the survey as some are unnecessary in her opinion.
There were a number of “new to Simply Accounting” customers in the room and we heard they need help getting started and learning the basics. One of the best ways to learn more about Simply Accounting is actually right in the product. If you switch to enhanced view on the Simply Accounting home screen and click on the tab called Learning Centre you have immediate access to a number of training modules for free as well as a number of anytime learning classes. You also have access to classroom training registration on the same page. We also provide the anytime and classroom training tools at Sage University (www.sageu.com/simply).
The day was phenomenal and the engagement hit a whole new level when Leyla joined us on at the podium to demo a feature! We like to keep these sessions as dynamic, fun, and interesting as possible and this was no exception. Thanks Leyla…can you come to our next stop?
East Coast here we come…Halifax you better be ready!
Jamie
I am still surprised by the number of attendees that have their own bookkeeping or accounting consulting practices that are not on our Sage Accountant Network program—we uncovered at least 6 attendees. If you have fee paying clients please check out the benefits of this program here: www.simplyaccounting.com/partners/joinSAN/benefits.
There was some great discussion around connecting small businesses to students across Canada. For those that don’t know, Simply Accounting is used in over 3,800 secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada. Graduates of these accounting programs may be looking for internships as well as full-time jobs after they graduate. To connect students with the many small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers across Canada using Simply Accounting, we built a web site called sageforstudents (www.sageforstudents.com). The web site also helps students with resume creation, cover letter creation, and general information on the accounting and bookkeeping fields.
Carol was in good spirits (is she ever not?!). She loves Simply Accounting but is also not shy about providing candid feedback! One of her comments directly impacted her customer experience—she commented on our support and service agents asking redundant questions after the call to gather feedback on her experience. She is completely willing to help, but she suggested we need to revisit the questions on the survey as some are unnecessary in her opinion.
There were a number of “new to Simply Accounting” customers in the room and we heard they need help getting started and learning the basics. One of the best ways to learn more about Simply Accounting is actually right in the product. If you switch to enhanced view on the Simply Accounting home screen and click on the tab called Learning Centre you have immediate access to a number of training modules for free as well as a number of anytime learning classes. You also have access to classroom training registration on the same page. We also provide the anytime and classroom training tools at Sage University (www.sageu.com/simply).
The day was phenomenal and the engagement hit a whole new level when Leyla joined us on at the podium to demo a feature! We like to keep these sessions as dynamic, fun, and interesting as possible and this was no exception. Thanks Leyla…can you come to our next stop?
East Coast here we come…Halifax you better be ready!
Jamie
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Edmonton – Stop #4 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Another great stop on the tour and while we kept the conversation tailored to Simply Accounting it was hard not to speak about the elephant in the room: the Oilers. What is going on?! I won’t dwell on that though.
Each stop has presented us with new ways to improve our business and Edmonton was no exception. We are also hearing some recurring themes around training and education. Marge suggested that we don’t necessarily need someone from the Simply Accounting offices to provide training, but rather, we need to do a better job of connecting users to Simply Accounting trainers across the country.
There was a generally positive sentiment with Simply Accounting support and service agents. Yah! There were also a number of customers who were very satisfied with our chat support as well as the knowledgebase to help them with their questions rather than phoning in to speak with a live person. Double Yah!
There are many more takeaways from the day, but here are a few that stood out for me:
1) Reporting in Simply Accounting has been an area where we have needed improvement and have been working hard to address this. In Edmonton, Hugo provided the crew with a sneak peak of Simply Accounting Intelligence. Wow! The feedback was very positive. Gordon, who has been a vocal about improving Simply Accounting’s reporting capabilities actually did a little dance in his chair and uttered, “I am soooo happy!!”.
2) Joanna made a comment about a Simply Accounting Mac version. She alluded to our dominance in secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada (Simply Accounting is used in over 3,800 schools across Canada), and asked why we don’t provide a Mac version. Great point. We are going to address this need through an online version. In the meantime, something that is not very well known is that Mac users can run Simply Accounting if they use a product called parallels (www.parallels.com).
We had a solid day in Edmonton and then went to West Edmonton Mall in the evening. This place is HUGE! We had a fun dinner, checked out the rollercoasters, the indoor wave pool, and the hockey rink. We then watched Avatar in 3D! There were mixed reviews on the film, but we all agreed on one thing: Lisa’s incredible ability to imitate the avatar bird call! Ask her to demonstrate it…it’s hilarious!
Looking forward to a great day tomorrow in Calgary. See you there!
Jamie
Each stop has presented us with new ways to improve our business and Edmonton was no exception. We are also hearing some recurring themes around training and education. Marge suggested that we don’t necessarily need someone from the Simply Accounting offices to provide training, but rather, we need to do a better job of connecting users to Simply Accounting trainers across the country.
There was a generally positive sentiment with Simply Accounting support and service agents. Yah! There were also a number of customers who were very satisfied with our chat support as well as the knowledgebase to help them with their questions rather than phoning in to speak with a live person. Double Yah!
There are many more takeaways from the day, but here are a few that stood out for me:
1) Reporting in Simply Accounting has been an area where we have needed improvement and have been working hard to address this. In Edmonton, Hugo provided the crew with a sneak peak of Simply Accounting Intelligence. Wow! The feedback was very positive. Gordon, who has been a vocal about improving Simply Accounting’s reporting capabilities actually did a little dance in his chair and uttered, “I am soooo happy!!”.
2) Joanna made a comment about a Simply Accounting Mac version. She alluded to our dominance in secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada (Simply Accounting is used in over 3,800 schools across Canada), and asked why we don’t provide a Mac version. Great point. We are going to address this need through an online version. In the meantime, something that is not very well known is that Mac users can run Simply Accounting if they use a product called parallels (www.parallels.com).
We had a solid day in Edmonton and then went to West Edmonton Mall in the evening. This place is HUGE! We had a fun dinner, checked out the rollercoasters, the indoor wave pool, and the hockey rink. We then watched Avatar in 3D! There were mixed reviews on the film, but we all agreed on one thing: Lisa’s incredible ability to imitate the avatar bird call! Ask her to demonstrate it…it’s hilarious!
Looking forward to a great day tomorrow in Calgary. See you there!
Jamie
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Vancouver – Stop #3 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Vancouver is buzzing with anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It was also buzzing on Thursday as the host of the 3rd stop on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour!
As always, it was great to connect with so many small businesses on our home turf. For those that aren’t aware, Simply Accounting is developed in Richmond, British Columbia. Unlike many of our competitors, Simply Accounting is made by Canadians, for Canadian small businesses. We also support our product in Canada.
We hosted the event at the River Rock and had a great turn-out of raving Simply fans! Of course there were a multitude of suggestions for us to improve the product and our company, but I am always invigorated to see so many genuinely happy users. The feedback energizes our team, and we take that passion back to our campus to build bigger and better solutions for our customers new and long-standing.
We jumped in at 9am with the Sage Accountants Network (SAN) members and I couldn’t get the silly slide remote working. User error! But when Amber stepped up to present and couldn’t get it working either, the last laugh was not just on me. Hugo was fine with it, but then again you can’t tell what he is doing anyway because he moves around so quickly.
Key takeaways for this stop (p.s. there were so many good ones, but I have just captured a few here)
1) I think Harold spoke for everyone when he talked about moving to a paperless world. We need to leverage the power of the internet and solve problems for our customers. He likes our direct deposit service (http://www.simplyaccounting.com/productsServices/addOns/direct_deposit) and wants to see more services that facilitate electronic document and money flow—“ cheques are a thing of the past”. We are working to this end and rest assured our goal is to use the Internet to its fullest.
2) William and Marjorie asked a question around why we can’t provide support in Cantonese given we have staff that are fluent in that language. Great point, why don’t we? We have the resources and language capability, so why wouldn’t we provide customer service in the language our customers prefer? More to come on that.
3) Lance talked about connecting Sage Accountant Network (SAN) members to other small businesses (newly formed and existing). Yes, we are doing this, but the point was we need to do a better job of it. I should note that both Pat and Moira, who are certified consultants, feel our partner locator is working. At the end of the day, we want our customers to run their businesses in the best manner possible and having access to resources like our Sage Accountants Network is one way to help. This is part of the reason we designed this Listening Tour the way we did – to connect you all.
Thank you Vancouver, you are such a great city for so many reasons. Next stop Edmonton!
Jamie
As always, it was great to connect with so many small businesses on our home turf. For those that aren’t aware, Simply Accounting is developed in Richmond, British Columbia. Unlike many of our competitors, Simply Accounting is made by Canadians, for Canadian small businesses. We also support our product in Canada.
We hosted the event at the River Rock and had a great turn-out of raving Simply fans! Of course there were a multitude of suggestions for us to improve the product and our company, but I am always invigorated to see so many genuinely happy users. The feedback energizes our team, and we take that passion back to our campus to build bigger and better solutions for our customers new and long-standing.
We jumped in at 9am with the Sage Accountants Network (SAN) members and I couldn’t get the silly slide remote working. User error! But when Amber stepped up to present and couldn’t get it working either, the last laugh was not just on me. Hugo was fine with it, but then again you can’t tell what he is doing anyway because he moves around so quickly.
Key takeaways for this stop (p.s. there were so many good ones, but I have just captured a few here)
1) I think Harold spoke for everyone when he talked about moving to a paperless world. We need to leverage the power of the internet and solve problems for our customers. He likes our direct deposit service (http://www.simplyaccounting.com/productsServices/addOns/direct_deposit) and wants to see more services that facilitate electronic document and money flow—“ cheques are a thing of the past”. We are working to this end and rest assured our goal is to use the Internet to its fullest.
2) William and Marjorie asked a question around why we can’t provide support in Cantonese given we have staff that are fluent in that language. Great point, why don’t we? We have the resources and language capability, so why wouldn’t we provide customer service in the language our customers prefer? More to come on that.
3) Lance talked about connecting Sage Accountant Network (SAN) members to other small businesses (newly formed and existing). Yes, we are doing this, but the point was we need to do a better job of it. I should note that both Pat and Moira, who are certified consultants, feel our partner locator is working. At the end of the day, we want our customers to run their businesses in the best manner possible and having access to resources like our Sage Accountants Network is one way to help. This is part of the reason we designed this Listening Tour the way we did – to connect you all.
Thank you Vancouver, you are such a great city for so many reasons. Next stop Edmonton!
Jamie
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Winnipeg – Stop #2 on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour
Another great day on the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour in Winnipeg. Thank you for attending and thank you Mabel (one of our long-standing Sage Accountant Network members) for scheduling the seasonably warm weather!
We arrived in Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon, checked out the venue, settled in for some comfort food at Dalton’s and had a relatively early night. I got a little caught up watching ManTracker actually. Great show, but it seems to me the cameramen would also leave tracks making this whole show a sham? Ha!
One of the greatest things about our stop in Winnipeg was the diverse group of attendees. New users, veterans with the product from the days of Bedford, CGAs, bookkeepers, IT consultants, coffee roasters, an asbestos removal company, print shops,…the list goes on. This made for a robust discussion and we received tons of great feedback for our company.
A few things stuck out in my mind:
1) Similar to our stop in Saskatoon, many of the small businesses weren’t aware of all the resources available to them, especially our Sage Accountant Network (SAN) members. At the end of the session Dave raised his hand and asked for business cards from our SAN members. How amazing is that?! Simply Accounting has been working hard to develop online tools (www.sagespark.com) to facilitate the connection of small businesses to our business partners but this just shows the power of good old-fashioned networking and face-to-face contact.
2) Crystal talked about converting customers to Simply Accounting Enterprise from Microsoft citing cost and the fact that Simply Accounting Enterprise is now capable of supporting 20 users as major reasons. We are consistently hearing that Simply Accounting Enterprise is meeting the mark for many larger companies. This is great news for us and is precisely where we are taking the product—up market.
3) Lastly, there was a comment from Debbie suggesting we provide evening training classes as it is just not that easy for a busy small business to get to them during the day time. Great observation and something we need to look into.
My favorite quote of the day was from Len. He said he loved Simply Accounting and would only consider using an alternative small business accounting software application if, and I quote, “you want to live on the edge with your financial data”.
Vancouver, you are next. See you on Thursday!
Jamie
We arrived in Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon, checked out the venue, settled in for some comfort food at Dalton’s and had a relatively early night. I got a little caught up watching ManTracker actually. Great show, but it seems to me the cameramen would also leave tracks making this whole show a sham? Ha!
One of the greatest things about our stop in Winnipeg was the diverse group of attendees. New users, veterans with the product from the days of Bedford, CGAs, bookkeepers, IT consultants, coffee roasters, an asbestos removal company, print shops,…the list goes on. This made for a robust discussion and we received tons of great feedback for our company.
A few things stuck out in my mind:
1) Similar to our stop in Saskatoon, many of the small businesses weren’t aware of all the resources available to them, especially our Sage Accountant Network (SAN) members. At the end of the session Dave raised his hand and asked for business cards from our SAN members. How amazing is that?! Simply Accounting has been working hard to develop online tools (www.sagespark.com) to facilitate the connection of small businesses to our business partners but this just shows the power of good old-fashioned networking and face-to-face contact.
2) Crystal talked about converting customers to Simply Accounting Enterprise from Microsoft citing cost and the fact that Simply Accounting Enterprise is now capable of supporting 20 users as major reasons. We are consistently hearing that Simply Accounting Enterprise is meeting the mark for many larger companies. This is great news for us and is precisely where we are taking the product—up market.
3) Lastly, there was a comment from Debbie suggesting we provide evening training classes as it is just not that easy for a busy small business to get to them during the day time. Great observation and something we need to look into.
My favorite quote of the day was from Len. He said he loved Simply Accounting and would only consider using an alternative small business accounting software application if, and I quote, “you want to live on the edge with your financial data”.
Vancouver, you are next. See you on Thursday!
Jamie
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saskatoon - First Stop on the 2010 Simply Accounting Listening Tour
What a day! It was the first stop on the 2010 Simply Accounting Tour and it was the best stop yet!
From a Simply perspective, yesterday’s event fully exceeded our expectations. We had a fantastic dialogue and collected some great feedback and suggestions about our business. It was constructive, humbling, and at the end of the day exactly what the Simply team needed. Both customers and Sage Accountant Network members (business partners) provided at ton of useful insight into the product, our business, our marketing, training, and support. Thank you Saskatoon!
One of the greatest things about the day was the knowledge sharing across our small business customers and business partners. We saw business partners reconnect with each other, small business customers connect with new business partners, and we also saw small businesses helping other small businesses. There was a real flare around the dialogue and I think it was because we had a great cross-section of attendees.
Last night the Simply team got together for dinner at Keo’s Kitchen (the new location on 2nd) to talk about the day. We talked about the agenda, tweaked some things, and discussed some of the key learnings. With all the great feedback we decided to create a “Nag List” which we want our customers and partners alike to hold us accountable for. The whole purpose of this tour is to gain feedback and insights and then action on them. We will certainly need to prioritize and focus in on the top concerns/issues/suggestions, but I am already super excited to implement some of them. The power of our customers!
There were two key pieces of feedback that resonated with me:
1) We need to make more business partners aware of all the benefits of the Sage Accountant Network (SAN) program. We could see the energy level in the room rise when we explained everything that is included and particularly what happens at our annual Simply Partnership Conference. It is a blast, don’t miss it this coming October in Vancouver! One of our attendees, Marg, also made a great suggestion about randomizing new customer leads so that preference isn’t always given alphanumerically. Look forward to more information on the SAN program and check out www.simplyaccounting.com/partners/joinSAN/benefits for more information in the meantime.
2) The second takeway was that we need more training in Saskatchewan! Yvonne brought this up in the morning and it was re-confirmed by Doris among others during a deeper discussion in the afternoon. Having Alan Cohen training sessions once a year just isn’t enough to meet the training demand in this province. It was also clear that hands-on training was a clear preference. We will definitely be taking a closer look at this. Simply needs to make it more clear to customers exactly who are business partners are across the province as many of these business partners (we have over 300 business partners in Saskatchewan) provide training to their clients.
The Saskatoon attendees were a fun bunch and one other suggestion for us to improve the session for our next stop that resonated with me was “more dancing”! Get ready Winnipeg, because Hugo is going to put together a routine that is going to blow your socks off!
Thanks again for a great day Saskatoon!
Jamie
From a Simply perspective, yesterday’s event fully exceeded our expectations. We had a fantastic dialogue and collected some great feedback and suggestions about our business. It was constructive, humbling, and at the end of the day exactly what the Simply team needed. Both customers and Sage Accountant Network members (business partners) provided at ton of useful insight into the product, our business, our marketing, training, and support. Thank you Saskatoon!
One of the greatest things about the day was the knowledge sharing across our small business customers and business partners. We saw business partners reconnect with each other, small business customers connect with new business partners, and we also saw small businesses helping other small businesses. There was a real flare around the dialogue and I think it was because we had a great cross-section of attendees.
Last night the Simply team got together for dinner at Keo’s Kitchen (the new location on 2nd) to talk about the day. We talked about the agenda, tweaked some things, and discussed some of the key learnings. With all the great feedback we decided to create a “Nag List” which we want our customers and partners alike to hold us accountable for. The whole purpose of this tour is to gain feedback and insights and then action on them. We will certainly need to prioritize and focus in on the top concerns/issues/suggestions, but I am already super excited to implement some of them. The power of our customers!
There were two key pieces of feedback that resonated with me:
1) We need to make more business partners aware of all the benefits of the Sage Accountant Network (SAN) program. We could see the energy level in the room rise when we explained everything that is included and particularly what happens at our annual Simply Partnership Conference. It is a blast, don’t miss it this coming October in Vancouver! One of our attendees, Marg, also made a great suggestion about randomizing new customer leads so that preference isn’t always given alphanumerically. Look forward to more information on the SAN program and check out www.simplyaccounting.com/partners/joinSAN/benefits for more information in the meantime.
2) The second takeway was that we need more training in Saskatchewan! Yvonne brought this up in the morning and it was re-confirmed by Doris among others during a deeper discussion in the afternoon. Having Alan Cohen training sessions once a year just isn’t enough to meet the training demand in this province. It was also clear that hands-on training was a clear preference. We will definitely be taking a closer look at this. Simply needs to make it more clear to customers exactly who are business partners are across the province as many of these business partners (we have over 300 business partners in Saskatchewan) provide training to their clients.
The Saskatoon attendees were a fun bunch and one other suggestion for us to improve the session for our next stop that resonated with me was “more dancing”! Get ready Winnipeg, because Hugo is going to put together a routine that is going to blow your socks off!
Thanks again for a great day Saskatoon!
Jamie
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour is one day away from its debut and the team is incredibly excited to get on the road and meet some customers and partners!
We named it the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour because that's what we're going to do - Listen! In each city we have a jam-packed day planned - full of dialogue with our Sage Accountants Network members and customers alike. Our objective is to hear face-to-face what our partners and customers want, what we can do to help them be more successful, and to identify opportunities for 2010 and beyond.
We had our last planning meeting yesterday afternoon and put some finishing touches on the tour. First stop, Saskatoon! And with a forecast of only -2 Celsius, it sounds like we only need to pack one turtleneck! Who organized this tour mid-winter anyway?
Jamie
We named it the Simply Accounting 2010 Listening Tour because that's what we're going to do - Listen! In each city we have a jam-packed day planned - full of dialogue with our Sage Accountants Network members and customers alike. Our objective is to hear face-to-face what our partners and customers want, what we can do to help them be more successful, and to identify opportunities for 2010 and beyond.
We had our last planning meeting yesterday afternoon and put some finishing touches on the tour. First stop, Saskatoon! And with a forecast of only -2 Celsius, it sounds like we only need to pack one turtleneck! Who organized this tour mid-winter anyway?
Jamie
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