Welcome to the first issue of our AXIS newsletter.

The objective of our monthly newsletter is to inform you of the numerous service offerings and solutions currently available in the market that will empower your businesses to become more efficient, competitive and hopefully, more profitable.

We hope you find this and other subsequent issues informative and valuable. In this connection, we encourage your feedback and participation in order to provide a steady stream of information that is important to you. Lastly, we kindly encourage that you provide us with additional contacts in your organization that you feel will benefit from this newsletter.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

The Financial Impact of CRM: The Real Story (Part I)
By Dr.Nancy Rauseo

Although many consulting and research companies caution that a high percentage of the CRM projects don't produce measurable business benefits, the reasons are associated with wrong approaches to implementation. When using the right approach, companies can experience phenomenal results. IDC, a research consulting firm, conducted a study in 2004 on thirty-three companies that effectively implemented CRM software applications. The return on investment (ROI) results ranged from 51% to 500% for over half of the companies. Of the companies that participated in this study, 58% experienced a payback in one year or less.

IDC also found that technology-related savings account for only 7% of the average return, while benefits accrued from increased productivity and business process enhancements account for 51% and 42% of the return. The rest of the returns originate from increased revenues and increased competitive differentiation. So can your company afford not to implement CRM? What will it cost your company if you don't invest in a CRM strategy?

This article is the first of a series of articles focusing on the financial impact of CRM on an organization. This article centers on the benefits that a company can attain when implementing CRM solutions using best business practices. Before we discuss the benefits, let’s review what these practices consist of:

1. a customer-centric strategy and a plan;
2. customer-focused business processes;
3. a relationship marketing strategy;
4. the right people, both internal employees and external partners; and
5. the right fit between technology solutions and your processes

While the overall success of a CRM project tends to focus on the successful implementation of a software application, this is only a portion of the 'success' equation. The success relates to the company's ability in managing a complex process of change within the company. Planning, remaining flexible while managing the evolving business processes, gaining support and facilitation from key people and employees and practicing patience are key elements to success.

The Bottom-Line Benefits of CRM

The impetus for CRM began with studies conducted by Frederick Reichheld, considered as the Customer Loyalty Guru. His studies showed that there are dramatic increases in profits that result from small, incremental increases in customer retention. Reichheld showed that a 5% increase in customer retention had impacts as high as 95% on the net present value delivered by customers. Other studies by McKinsey & Company have concluded that repeat customers generate over twice as much income as new customers.

A key ingredient to attaining CRM benefits is more focus on customer retention, rather too much on new customer acquisitions. After all, it costs six times more to sell to a new customer than to sell to an existing one. The chances of selling a product to a new customer are 15%, whereas the chances of selling a product to an existing customer are 50%. The primary emphasis of a CRM strategy is to look at ways to retain valuable customers in an effort to gain their loyalty.

A core CRM philosophy is that a customer should be viewed not as a set of independent transactions but as a lifetime income stream throughout the customer's lifetime relationship with the company. Customer lifetime value is being used by companies to measure the return on customer to the company. It originates from financial concepts and models such as interest rate (opportunity cost) and net present value (NPV) of the future profits. The shift is from thinking of product profitability to customer profitability.

The diagram below is a visual representation of the concept behind Reichheld's research and customer lifetime value..

The horizontal axis represents the years of the relationship with the customer. As we've mentioned before, it's very expensive to acquire the customer. It's an investment so there are no profits to the company the first year. As the customer remains with the company, profits begin to increase each year. The longer the customer is with the company, the higher the returns on investment. These income streams result from:

- profits derived from increased purchases (increased revenues);
- profits from cost savings (improved efficiencies/reduced operating costs);
- profits from referrals to other customers; and
- profits from price premium (charging a premium for the customer's confidence in the business).

Dr. Nancy Rauseo is on the faculty of Florida International University's College of Business Administration where she teaches marketing. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A and Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University. She is also IBM-certified as an e-Business Solutions Advisor. Prior to her teaching career, she held various senior management positions for over 20 years in the areas of sales, marketing and technology implementation. Dr. Rauseo is also Instructor for FIU's Professional Certification Program in CRM. For more information, visit: http://cba.fiu.edu/web/ope/crm.htm

Why can't Jim Sell? (Or Sally for that matter)
Are your sales becoming more difficult? Read on….

It really comes down to just a few factors, to quote Dr. Phil, "we can not change what we do not acknowledge".

1. The company does not have the ability to buy
2. The product or service has no apparent , or great enough value to the company
3. The salesperson or company has not become a trusted advisor

If #1 is true, acknowledge it, record the prospect for nurturing, and move on.

If # 2 is true, this will open the door to many related questions. However this question can be directly related to #3. If our salesperson is truly a trusted advisor, due diligence will be performed that clearly states if a product or service provides value to an organization. The value of a product or service is a synergy between product/service and company. Let's first examine that synergy. A product or service must be, above all, in the buying company's best interest, not in the selling company's interest. This paradigm aligns principles that provide a true win-win scenario.

So how does an organization create and nurture that environment? In an effort to keep things simple, and provide value here, take note at the principles that are inherent in this process. Here are two:

Provide excellence in all you do.
Every product, every service, every call, every letter, every brochure is a statement of who you are as a company, as sales unit, as a person. Keep in mind excellence is a journey not a point of arrival. It begins with attitude; and its vehicle is constant education. Some education may have to do with efficiencies; some may have to do with more effective techniques. Both are required. "Excellence honors and inspires people."

To become a trusted advisor, you must be trustworthy.
The sales role must be to help the client succeed. If you do, you both win. It is no longer sufficient just to get them to buy. If you cannot reduce their costs; increase revenues or margins; leverage their cost of capital, increase productivity, augment strategy, and/or increase critical performance, you cannot earn their business over time.
…Trust, is also earned

How? Give me an example, please!
An example would be writing a customer centric proposal, as in providing ROI analysis or value to cost ratio. Another specific example would be a process or tool providing and tracking customer relationships and interactions in a central place that would provide easy access to information to those who need it. In the latter example the company can start to fulfill its obligation to itself, its employees and shareholders. How, because this creates efficiency, that allows for a decision making process both on a management level and a sales level. The ability to make decisions is greatly enhanced because it becomes an informed decision, a decision that can be made quickly because information is now "real time". This provides a clear path to customer service and if properly implemented and utilized, sends a message to the client that they are important!

..Look for Self Image, how to position yourself as a Real Professional, and…, What is the worlds oldest profession?... in our next newsletter

Announcing the Release of Sage Pro Version 7.3B

Sage Software is pleased to announce the release of Sage Pro 7.3B. This release includes Pre-authorization support for our Credit Card modules along with several manufacturing feature enhancements.

Pre-authorization functionality in the Credit Card modules will allow clients to process their credit card transactions in a manner that will best fit their business. Do your clients need to know that their customers' credit card transaction will be approved before they send large orders to the warehouse for processing? Pre-authorization will allow them to do that. Sage Pro Credit Card Processing now adapts to the way your clients want to operate their businesses.

The Manufacturing module enhancements will give clients better access to information and help streamline their manufacturing operations. Increasing client productivity is the basis for the following improvements:

- Additions to the Recommended Reorder Report to include Work Order Allocations.
- Better support for nested Bills of Materials to include modular and variable components in one BOM.
- Filtering capabilities on the IC journal to allow manufacturing transactions only.
- Manufacturer's Name and part numbers now included in Item Master.

For more information, please e-mail us at info@axisintegratedsolutions.com.

What's New in ACCPAC HR Series 6.5

We're happy to announce Sage's release of ACCPAC HR Series version 6.5. With enhancements to the employee self-service function as well as other core functions, this new version will save HR professionals and employees valuable time and effort. ACCPAC HR Series keeps your staff up to date with a comprehensive framework for organizing, streamlining, and automating benefits and administration processes. Powerful and flexible, ACCPAC HR Series helps you accurately and efficiently manage your human resources and employee benefits responsibilities with real-time data available through your company intranet.

New features of the product include:

Now only one platform and one name-ACCPAC HR Series.

ACCPAC HR Series now ships with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) as the backend database, providing industry-leading database security, integrity, and performance. MSDE replaces Jet (Microsoft Access) as the backend database for our ACCPAC HR Series Corporate Edition customers. It also supplements existing support for our ACCPAC HR Series Enterprise Edition customers already relying on Microsoft SQL Server. Sage is now shipping just one North American edition of the product.

New open enrollment capability.

Now, employees can enroll for their own benefits on their own time, right from their own computer. This feature, part of the Employee Self-Service module, will save HR administrators from getting bogged down in time-consuming paperwork.

Updated Employee Self-Service.

Employees can now request time off through the ACCPAC HR Series Employee Self-Service module. Managers can view and approve the time-off requests online. If managers want to see all requests from their direct reports at once, a new "My Team" tab allows them to do so.

Expanded and improved reporting.

You can now produce the following reports through the HR Series Report Wizard:

- New EEO-4 report allows government agencies to quickly and easily compile the information they need to complete the EEO-4 form provided by the federal government.
- New Beneficiary report produces a list of an employee's beneficiaries and their percentages for life and retirement plans.
- The existing Remittance report has been improved to support consolidated billing.

For more information on all the reports available with Accpac HR 6.5, please download Accpac HR Reports.

New OSHA forms.

OSHA incident tracking and reporting is now capable of producing OSHA forms 300, 300A, and 301.

Updated COBRA administration.

- The ACCPAC HR Series Cobra module has been updated to comply with the latest regulations, so that you can quickly produce the proper notices and letters required by law.
- Additional improvements to the COBRA module now make it easier to mix Active and COBRA Active Coverage-a need that may arise when an employee is divorced from his or her spouse.

Expanded employee selection criteria.

The Report, Employee Correspondence, and Batch Enrollment Wizards now allow users to filter employees by Hire Date, Termination Date, Next Review Date, Benefit Plans, Pay Period, and Self-Service Status.

Improved help system.

Customers will now find more detailed information about the uses and capabilities of the tools available in ACCPAC HR Series.

More powerful importing.

- The Quickstart Import utility can now import employees' review histories, making it easier than ever to centralize all your employee data.
- Other enhancements to ACCPAC HR Series include multi-company support in Applicant Manager, a new Employee Picture report, and improved security for hiding employee social security numbers.

For more information, please contact us at info@axisintegratedsolutions.com.

Attention all ACCPAC PLUS Users

Sage Software announced that it will be retiring ACCPAC Plus and moving it to their list of discontinued products on September 30, 2006. See Craig Downing, General Manager of Sage Software's Sage Accpac business unit message attached.

What will this mean for you?

A great opportunity to upgrade your current business management solution for one that is more robust and feature rich than your current solution. Sage Accpac will also offer incredible incentives to assist you with your transition.

ACCPAC Plus and ACCPAC BPI clients can purchase the Sage Accpac 200 Progressive Accounting Bundle for US $2,995 and receive US $11,211 worth of software. In addition 50% off coupons for selected third party products are included in the bundle with possible additional savings of $4,645.

ACCPAC Plus and ACCPAC BPI clients can purchase the Sage Accpac 500 Progressive Accounting Bundle for US $6,495 and receive US $25,694 worth of software. In addition 50% off coupons for selected third party products are included in the bundle with possible additional savings of $4,645.

Details of the promotion are listed below:

Sage Accpac 200 & 500

Progressive Accounting Bundle 200 & 500 Edition (Formerly known as Advantage Series Corporate Edition & Enterprise Edition)

When: November 15 through December 23, 2005

Who: ACCPAC Plus clients and ACCPAC BPI clients.

The Progressive Accounting Bundle 200 Edition includes the following:

- Sage Accpac 200 SM, GL, AR, AP, 3 user LanPak for DB2 or Pervasive, Account Code Change, Customer Number Change, Vendor Number Change, ACCPAC Query, 3 Multimedia Training Modules, and PrintBoss from Wellspring Software.

- 12 months of Software Assurance on all Sage Software products is included in the bundle.

- 50% or more discount coupons for the following third party products: Peresoft Cashbook EE and 5 user Lanpak, Unidevco Sales Analysis EE, Unidevco Productivity Suite EE, iCinity Credit Card with Single Seat, Orchid Unattended Data Integrity Checker and Mind over Machines Custom Item Finder for Order Entry. Total possible savings if all third party products are purchased is $4,645.

The Progressive Accounting Bundle 500 Edition includes the following:

- Sage Accpac 500 SM, GL, Transactional Analysis and Optional Field Creator, GL Security, AR, AP, 5 user LanPak for DB2 or Pervasive, Account Code Change, National Accounts Management, Financial Link. ACCPAC CFO, ACCPAC Query, 5 Multimedia Training Modules, and PrintBoss from Wellspring Software.

- 12 months of Software Assurance on all Sage Software products included in the bundle.

- 50% or more discount coupons for the following third party products: Peresoft Cashbook EE and 5 user Lanpac, Unidevco Sales Analysis EE, Unidevco Productivity Suite EE, iCinity Credit Card with Single Seat, Orchid Unattended Data Integrity Checker and Mind over Machines Custom Item Finder for Order Entry. Total possible savings if all third party products are purchased is $4,645.

For more information, please contact info@axisintegratedsolutions.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q - How do you turn off the Accpac Splash Screen for a Terminal/Citrix user to reduce the loading process?

A - On your Window Desktop, click on Start, Run, and then type regedit.

Expand on HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then
SOFTWARE,
ACCPAC International, Inc.,
ACCPAC,
And click on DESKTOP

Now, Right click on the right hand pane of the window, select New, String Value. Then, name it "splashscreen". Double click on this string and set the value to NO.

Warning - Before doing anything changes in the registry, make sure you backup it up first.

Q - Why doesn't Bank Services use the batch dates to record the Check and Deposit Entries from the subledger transactions?

For example, in the Reconcile Statements screen, the deposits and withdrawal entries show a withdrawal date or deposit date that is not consistent with the originating subledger's batch dates.

A - This is by design.

The dates in the Withdrawal Date and Deposit Date fields are populated with the login session date of the user logged into the company at the time the batches are posted in the subledger. If you would like a specific date to be generated in these fields in the Reconcile Statements screen, you should log into your company with that specific date as your session date.

The alternative is to export the records, change the FSCYEAR and FSCPERIOD and/or the RECYEAR and RECPERIOD fields in the export file, then import the file back in to update the dates.

Of course, this does not apply to manual entries entered directly into the Reconcile Statements screen. These fields can be populated manually at the time of entry.

Q - How do you remove the CRM Outlook Integration Plug-In?

A - To completely remove the Outlook option from the CRM tool bar, the CRM option from the Outlook Tools menu and the CRMOutlookPlugin2.ecf file, please perform the following the steps:

1. In Outlook, click the Tools menu, point to Accpac CRM (or CRM), and click Uninstall. This should close Outlook automatically; if not, close Outlook manually.
2. In Windows Explorer, browse to C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files (where C:\Windows is the directory where Windows is installed) and delete the ACCPAC CRM Outlook Plug-in file.
3. Still in Windows Explorer, browse to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\ADDINS folder (this is the default installation directory) and delete the CRMOutlookPlugin2.ecf file.
4. Open Outlook again and click Tools, then Customize. In the Customize dialog box, click the Toolbars tab. Highlight the CRM line and click Delete to remove the CRM toolbar.
5. With the Customize dialog box still open, click the Tools menu in the main Outlook window, right-click CRM and click Delete. This should remove the CRM sub menu from the Tools menu. Close the Customize dialogue box.
6. In Outlook, click Tools, then Options. On the Other tab, click Advanced Options then Add-In Manager. Deselect Redemption Helper Outlook Extensions and click OK to close all open dialog boxes.
7. Go to Windows Explorer to c:\Document & Settings\All Users\Application Data, and rename the ACCPAC folder.
8.Go to Windows Explorer to c:\Document & Settings\[user_you_are_logged_in_as_in_system]\Application Data, and rename the ACCPAC folder.

If you are experiencing issues with Outlook integration, and would like to re-install the integration piece, it may be necessary to detect and repair Outlook before proceeding. To do that, with Outlook opened, click on Help | Detect and Repair. This process may require your Outlook/Office CD.
Re-install the Outlook/SAGE CRM integration plug-in.

Note: In order for the new settings to take effect, make sure that Outlook process is completely shut down. To verify, make sure that the OUTLOOK.EXE is not running under the Task Manager's Processes tab. If Outlook version is older than Outlook 2003, make sure there is no MAPISP32.EXE running as well.

Q - How do you change the name of a report category?

A - The following are the standard report categories that exist under the Reports icon:

- Activity Reports
- Campaigns
- Communications
- Customer Care
- General
- Lead Reports
- Marketing
--Sales

To change these, go to Administration > Customization > Translations, and
do a Find for "ReportCategory" under the Caption Family: field.

Q -When Exporting the Bill of Materials Listing Report in ACCPAC Pro Series 7.3, only the Text and HTML Options are Available. Is it possible to have the other options activated as well?

A:The "Microsoft Excel", "XML" and "ASCII Delimited" options can be activated manually by following the steps below:

Note: Any changes to the system tables in Pro Series should be done by an ACCPAC Certified Consultant or Business Partner. Please ensure that there is a full and verified backup before proceeding. This should first be attempted in a test installation and the results should be fully verified before implementing in a live system.

1. Using FoxPro Access from the File menu, open the SYRFRXS.DBF. This is located in the root directory of the Pro Series installation.
2. Edit the "Exportss" field for the "PEBMEC" record to "T."
3. Save changes.

Note: This resolution maybe applied to other reports in Pro Series as well. However, there are some reports that do not support this option and therefore have a setting of "F" in the "Exportss" field. Test all changes thoroughly before implementing on a live installation.

Q:How does voiding payroll checks at different times; affect the amounts on W-2 forms?

A:The amounts on the W-2 form will be adjusted to reflect the amount of a voided check, only if the check is voided in the current open quarter. Refer to the list below to view some of the values on the W-2 form that are affected by this process:

- Wages, Tips and Other Compensation
- Social Security Wages
- Medicare Wages and Tips
- Federal Income Tax Withheld
- -Social Security Tax Withheld
- Medicare Tax Withheld

Example One
Quarter Two 2004 is the current quarter. A check was created and voided in quarter two. How will this affect the W-2 amounts? All appropriate W-2 amounts for that quarter will be adjusted to reflect this change.

However, if a check is voided in a closed quarter, the W-2 amounts will not be affected. Refer to the example below.

Example Two
Quarter Two 2004 is the current quarter. A check was created in quarter one but voided in the current quarter. How will this affect the W-2 amounts? This will not affect any W-2 amounts; an manual adjustment must be made to alter these amounts.

Note: For more information on how to manually adjust the W-2 amounts, please refer to the "Origins of W2 Information and Amounts" whitepaper, attached to this article. Ensure that there is a full and verified backup of the Pro Series installation before proceeding.

TOOL OF THE MONTH

Accpac Advantage Series Short-Cut Keys

You can use the following shortcut keys and buttons when you work with Accpac data entry forms. Note that each key or button described does not appear on every data entry form.

Several kinds of data entry forms exist in Accpac. Some forms have columns of data for viewing, such as A/P Batch List and the Finder window. Other forms can be edited, such as O/E Order/Invoice Entry or P/O Purchase Order Entry. Depending on the form, you use some keys for viewing data, others for moving around, and others to enter and delete data.

Download Short-Cut Keys PDF (44kb)