Cyber Alert | Kaseya Ransomware Attack

Kaseya Ransomware Attack

We are aware of a widespread cyber incident affecting the Kaseya product set. Firstly we want to assure you that we do not employ this product set, and as such you are not at risk through the services that we provide you.

If you do employ Kaseya VSA in other parts of your business, please immediately shut down the Kaseya infrastructure and consult with your cybersecurity provider and the ACSC.

If you would our advice, guidance or additional assistance please contact us immediately.

What is Kaseya VSA?

Kaseya Virtual Systems Administrator (VSA) is a remote monitoring and management toolset designed for use by Managed Service Providers in servicing their customers. It is delivered as both a SaaS product and an on-premise installation.

What is this incident?

Starting from July 2nd, organisations with Kaseya on-premise installations began reporting abnormal behaviour and later, instances of ransomware. While the investigations are currently ongoing, it is strongly suspected that one or more Zero-day vulnerabilities in the Kaseya VSA toolset were exploited to deliver the ransomware payload.

These vulnerabilities were first discovered in April by the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD) who disclosed them to Kaseya, however, a patch had not been released when the ransomware attacks began.

The attackers responsible have demanded $70 Million (USD) to decrypt all impacted devices and advised they will negotiate on an individual basis if approached.

Would I have been protected?

From the direct attack, the simple answer is no. However, there several other defensive layers that, if implemented, would have completely prevented or slowed the ransomware outbreak once it entered the environment.

Due to its nature as a Zero-day, the initial payload would have been extremely hard to prevent, however other layers such as application control software, intelligent behaviour-based protection software and a cyber incident response plan would make a significant difference to the amount of disruption (if any at all) a business would have suffered as a result of having the Kaseya toolset installed.

If you would like to complete a paper-based exercise to see how your cyber defences would have fared against this attack, and proactively identify any areas of improvement, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Where can I find out more?

The Australian Cyber-Security Centre (ACSC) alert

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA-FBI) advice

Cyber Alert | 'Missed Call' SMS Messages - Latest Cyber Threats

‘Missed Call’ SMS Messages

We are aware of a recent increase of SMS messages which appear to contain a link to a new voicemail, but in fact are spreading a computer virus to mobile phones.

If you have received one of these messages but have not clicked the link then you have no need to be concerned, you are safe.

If, however, you have clicked the link and installed the app, it is highly likely you are infected with a virus called Flubot.

How can I tell if I’m ‘infected’?

• You may have received a SMS message from an unknown number advising you that you have a missed call or voice message, with a link to access it.

• You may have a new app called “Voicemail”

• You may receive phone calls or SMS messages from other people advising that you have sent them messages that you are not aware of

• Your mobile phone provider may alert you that you are sending large volumes of SMS messages, or that your device may have been infected by malware

• At present, we are only aware of Android devices being susceptible to this virus, however, this may change to include iPhones in the future

What can I do if I am ‘infected’?

• First, talk to your financial institution. The makers of this virus have already used the information they gained to steal money from several Australian bank accounts. Make your financial institution aware you have been infected, they should guide you through the relevant processes to protect the accounts they have in your name.

• Remove the virus - Many popular anti-virus products for Android will remove this virus, alternatively a factory reset can be used to remove the virus.

• However, when restoring your phone be careful, as the virus will be saved in the backups as well. If a backup is needed use one from before you received the first SMS message.

• Next, consider other information the virus may have gotten access to. Once infected, the virus will have likely gained access to all your files, notes, messages, saved passwords, email history and all other data stored on your phone.

• Consider the implications of each, and any passwords that might now need to be changed. Your email account password is a very important one, as your email can usually be used to change most other passwords

• If in doubt, consult a professional to help you with the process.

Build Apps quickly to unlock efficiencies | Intrexx: A Low-code Development Environment

People often ask, what is a low-code development environment and why do we use Intrexx for our own apps at Advance as well as for our clients.

What is a low-code environment?

These environments are for people in need of quickly building apps and employing visual development environments and automated links to back-end systems, APIs, databases, other systems or data sources. They are designed to make it comparatively easy for people to design, build, and launch apps and solve business problems.

How to describe Intrexx

Intrexx is a complete low-code development environment which at its core contains:

1. A data integration platform

2. A process automation engine

3. A responsive end-user interface builder for both web and mobile applications

Intrexx allows developers to build applications faster by leveraging pre-built data and application connectors, a drag & drop process builder and UI designer.

What can you build with Intrexx?

1. Data integration systems. Read, transform and write data from and to multiple sources using pre-built connectors, or develop your own.

2. User-focused applications which integrate cross-departmental digital workflows.

3. Customer and supplier extranets.

Benefits of Intrexx

Reduce the number of applications and systems employees need to use. Break down silos and streamline workflows.

Accelerate entry of data and access to information. Combine information and workflows from multiple sources.

Build, innovate and change. New applications can be built and deployed in 20% of the time taken using traditional coding methods.

Zero deployment client access, users can immediately start using applications in any browser or phone without needing software to be deployed.

Platform agnostic - development environment runs on Windows, OSX or Linux reducing the cost of entry. Cloud options are also available where a local environment isn’t available.

Summary: Designed to make it relatively easy for people to design, build, and launch applications quickly, without having to worry about the nuances of underlying operating systems or scalability requirements.

Examples of projects we have built

1.       Customer portals to allow users to place orders, view transaction history and communicate with suppliers. The key benefit of using Intrexx, was the speed of development, the ability to rapidly change the user interface based on customer feedback and the ability to integrate with a number of existing legacy systems.

2.       Financial processing applications. Accounts Payable (AP) processing is an area which often varies between businesses. Many off-the-shelf AP automation systems are complex to configure as approval processes can be quite unique. Intrexx allowed us to integrate with multiple systems, email notifications and provide an easy interface for users to view and approve requests.

3.       Data entry and integration portals. In many businesses, we find that users are using multiple systems; even so, there may be data which is missing between these systems or not consistent between them. In such cases, we have found Intrexx to be able to provide a unified view of the data and allow users to enter additional data as required.

4.       Systems integration applications. Intrexx provides a structured and rapid platform to allow the integration between existing applications.

5.       Internet of things – Intrexx can subscribe to IoT services that gather IoT endpoint data. We’ve used Intrexx to display real-time sensor data in production scenarios and provide process visibility to operators.

You have the data, use it. Low-code platforms and ECM solutions can help here. As mentioned above, inputs from e-forms like an expense claim or a leave request can be connected to a workflow to automate the approval for such requests. Rules can be applied and a query against a database can automatically check if an employee has the leave entitlement they are requesting. If that leave is available, the system sends an approval that can be completed by a manager from their mobile device. This saves time and provides instant approvals with self-service applications.

Want to know more? Leave your details below and an expert will get back to you.

Digital Transformation | 5 Step Practical Roadmap For Digital Transformation

Leading digital transformation and data science experts like Bill Schmarzo say that Digital Transformation should be EVERY organisations’ #1 strategic business initiative.

We have been working with client’s to digitise manual processes and automate tasks to unlock efficiencies and a to create a better customer experience. These are the early steps in starting digital transformation. Below is a practical guide on how you can implement digital transformation in your business. 5 things that will have a big impact and accelerate innovation.

Process automation and improving efficiencies are at the core of digital transformation. Organisations must be more vigilant than ever in remaining innovative and future-proofing their businesses. This is critical in remaining profitable and competitive.

On average, “digital masters” are 26% more profitable than their peers according to George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of Leading Digital: Turning Technology Into Business Transformation.

Like to speak to us about what we can do for your business? Reach us here.

Digital Transformation Defined

There are many definitions of digital transformation. Think of it as a shift in philosophy. Digital transformation will allow an organisation to quickly adapt to new changes and opportunities through making the most of technology.

It is the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes and culture to deliver a better customer experience.

Digital transformation marks a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people and processes to fundamentally change business performance. Digital masters do two things better than other companies: identifying digital ways to change their businesses, and building leadership capabilities to drive transformation, according to George Westerman.

As employees, our everyday work life is filled with digital technology and yet the reliance on manual, paper-based processes and systems is still huge. We know what we know, and sometimes miss the opportunities provided by today’s platforms to improve our business operations. Simple fixes that capture data electronically, autmoate processes and provide new insights. The real value is in acting on the data we collect.

5 Tangible Steps to Transform your Business.

Step 1. Centralised Document Management

Today I spent close to an hour looking for a document. I wanted to use a file i’d created which had a lot of historical data and a good process document for a project we completed around business intelligence. For some reason, I didn't save this document to our document repository (M-Files) and it's lost somewhere on 1 of the 6 devices I use regularly. In contrast, I was able to collaborate with our marketing manager on an event plan and save my changes to his document. All with version control and from my mobile phone because it was saved in the repository.

Centralised document management is powerful, and it can be simple and quick to deploy.

Enterprise Content Management enables:

• A central place for documents

• Powerful search

• Collaboration on documents, sharing and co-authoring

• Security - Only the right staff see particular documents and you have digital copies

• Eliminate duplicates

• Workflows to automate processes

• Version control and easy to restore documents without needing IT

Step 2. Digitise Paper Forms

Unlock efficiencies by digitising files. Reduce errors, lower risk and open the door for process automation and new insights.

Think of the new employee onboarding process for HR as an example. There are lots of forms, social media policies, privacy policies, payroll information and so on. All of this is repeatable when a new employee joins or leaves the organisation.

Instead of paper forms, you can easily create digital versions that work with mobile devices and enable your new staff hit the ground running, instead of getting up to speed for a week or more before they can contribute to your business. Apply digital forms to repetitive processes.

Did you know that even some of the largest vendors of software products still needed their employees to send in paper receipts for expense claims? Not all vendors embrace their own technology and someone has to physically validate the receipts and there was no way to efficiently pick up on duplicates or fraud. Smarter organisations like the Australian Tax Office now use predictive analytics tools to pick up on anomalies and provide new opportunities to detect fraud.

Did you know that you can quickly digitise paper forms using affordable platforms? Low-code, drag and drop platforms like Intrexx make it easy for virtually any employee to create e-forms which work on mobile devices and they can be plugged into a workflow to automate a manual process like an expense claim or a pricing request approval.

3. Automate Processes

You have the data, use it. Low-code platforms and ECM solutions can help here. As mentioned above, inputs from e-forms like an expense claim or a leave request can be connected to a workflow to automate the approval for such requests. Rules can be applied and a query against a database can automatically check if an employee has the leave entitlement they are requesting. If that leave is available, the system sends an approval that can be completed by a manager from their mobile device. This saves time and provides instant approvals with self-service applications.

4. Connect to Business Systems

Data collected from e-forms will be more valuable if it is connected to a business system. For example, the accounts receivable process (AR) will work more efficiently if invoices are connected to an accounting or ERP system like Xero or SAP. Workflows will automate a process and make it more efficient. Invoices can be automatically scanned, routed to the next step of the approval process, fields can be prefilled and the invoice can be sent to the right person to sign-off and complete the transaction. Connecting business systems will enable a holistic view and opportunities for better reporting.

5. New Insights. Analyse and Act on New Opportunities.

Digital transformation creates new data and the value realised when you can analyse and action it.

Take advantage of opportunities created by new views and a fresh perspective.

Centralising documents increases efficiency and enables productivity. The opportunity for better collaboration and process automation through workflow is now possible.

Digital forms save time and let you capture, automate and analyse data trapped in paper documents. Risk and compliance is improved with access to digital documents and if someone leaves the organisation, you still have control over valuable intellectual property.

You can transform the way your business operates with what you have achieved through digitising your business and developing digital processes. Electronic document management platforms and electronic forms provide access to operational data you can report on.

Analyse the data and look at trends, issues or opportunities to increase revenue. The reporting functionality of platforms has come a long way and should provide with a good baseline view for analysis. You can connect the data into operation dashboards or automate reporting using any of the major business intelligence (BI) and visualisation tools which are very powerful and affordable.

Digital transformation reduces administrative tasks and that directly helps staff to focus on their core job and higher-value tasks.

Summary

Digital transformation is all about efficiencies. Capturing data in digital forms enables automated processes and workflow. This is a key output from digital transformation and will transform the way a business operates. Digital transformation will help make a business smarter through new insights, leaner with increased efficiencies and more secure through reduced risk and improved compliance.

True digital transformation is a new way of thinking and applies to the whole business. In practice, you can start small and get some wins with things like digitising paper forms or implementing a central document repository. A phased approach will help you demonstrate what is possible and show a tangible result that is truly transformative. A better way of doing things that not only improves efficiency but also improves employee's job satisfaction by reducing the low value, repetitive tasks.

Want to know more? Take a look at the videos below or speak to us about how other companies have transformed their business. One small process can make a huge impact. Reach us here. We have been working with clients to get the most out of their technology for over 20 years.

Want to know more? Leave your details below and an expert will get back to you.

Like to speak to us about what we can do for your business? Reach us here.

Another Day, Another Breach - Why multifactor authentication and security policies are big deal

Why multifactor authentication and security policies are big deal

“Another day, another breach” seems to be the common news across Australia at the moment.

Online research suggested that up to 38% of larger corporations have not implemented multifactor authentication across their workforce, leaving a gaping security hole for attackers.

Attackers regularly gain access to Australian Business systems through phishing campaigns, stolen credentials, from weak or previously breached cloud services, and passwords sprays simply to name a few techniques.

The question we get asked regularly is how we can mitigate these risks? 

Multifactor authentication is the first line of defence when it comes to protecting our online business resources and can be further enhanced with security policies and monitoring of these services.

What is multifactor authentication?

Multi-factor authentication is a process where a user is prompted during the sign-in process for an additional form of identification, such as to enter a code on their mobile phone or to provide a fingerprint scan.

Passwords on their own leave an insecure vector for attack and we regularly see breaches related to weak or shared passwords across multiple services. 

When users require a second form of authentication, security is increased as this additional factor isn't something that's easy for an attacker to obtain or duplicate.

How to enhance MFA?

In addition to multifactor authentication we recommend businesses ensure they are monitoring all authentication and access attempts.  This can be done via a security information event management system to assist with detection of malicious actors.

It is also important to enforce authentication polices to deny access where it is not needed. For example, certain employees may never need email access from outside the office network or corporate VPN so policies can be enforced to ensure access outside these locations is denied.

What should you do?

Step 1 – Ensure you activate multifactor authentication in your organisation.

Step 2 – Enable conditional access

Step 3 - Adopt a secure password policy in conjunction with an enterprise password management system (i.e. Lastpass)

Need Assistance?

Call Nik Villios or email Advance at sales@advance.net.au

We can help you secure your organisaion from a full audit to authentication and monitoring.

Make sure ‘another day, another breach’ does not become a mantra of your workplace

Useful Presentation - Coronavirus Outbreak: CIOs’ Connect with Gartner Short- and Long-term Actions

With the COVID-19 situation changing and evolving every day, businesses and peers are seeking advice and guidance on how to react and plan for business survival and process disruptions.

We will aim to share useful content such as the information provided by Gartner and other leading experts.

Gartner has published a very useful presentation and an on-demand webinar from one of their leading analysts - Roberta Witty | VP Analyst |Security and Risk Management Programs group.

• Link to presentation - Coronavirus Outbreak: CIOs’ Connect with Gartner Short- and Long-term Actions

• Link to the 1 hour on demand webinar

Discussion Topics:

Source - http://public2.brighttalk.com/resource/core/258722/mar24rwitty_570886.pdf

• The dangers and opportunities created by the Coronavirus outbreak

• Short-term actions to take to address operational disruptions and business decline

• Long-term actions to take to increase business resilience and prepare for future growth

Roberta Witty VP is an analyst with 21 years tenure at Gartner, 42 years industry experience CT USA and a part of the Security and Risk Management Programs group.

BI | Why you need a plan to implement business intelligence.

You want to get the most value out of any new business system implementation. Whether its new insights, automating management reports, a new operational dashboard or some predictive analytics to help make better decisions.

From our experience, a roadmap and some planning before you start development will help avoid the common issues that can cripple a business intelligence project. Resolving a disconnect with a major stakeholder halfway into a project is a challenging situation and it can be financially costly and bad for customer satisfaction.

At Advance, we’ve been working on implementing business systems for over 20 years and have seen it all. We’ve picked up the pieces of some very poorly implemented projects. Many of the challenges are common to all projects and some simple planning in the beginning will provide the best opportunity for a successful outcome.

• Avoid the common traps and follow these steps. Spending some time on good planning early on will pay off in the long term.

1 - Get the main stakeholders in the same room.

Set up a short 1-hour meeting, outline the benefits and examples of successful BI projects. Get people excited about the project and what it will deliver. BI can free employees from manual, inefficient and low-value work. Managers can keep their team accountable and gain new insights on performance. Business owners can see key performance indicators instantly, even on their mobile devices. Mobile BI with instant messaging can provide an avenue for instant feedback so you can begin corrective actions.

• Getting the key stakeholders onboard early is a major success factor to any project.

2 - Agree on the key problems you want to solve

There will be several problems you want to solve. Agree with the stakeholders on the 5 most important problems they want to resolve.

Write them down, define how the ideal solution looks, is it measurable, achievable, timely. It needs to be measurable!

Based on the discussion, prioritise. Depending on the feedback you might pursue a quick win, like automating a daily report or look at something bigger like a new dashboard linking a number of key business systems. BI will provide an opportunity to connect data from different sources like Excel, SAP, MYOB, Xero and Salesforce for example. This means you can get a holistic view of the business and connect data, something that was not possible with data silos.

3 - Agree on how success is measured with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 

Think of KPIs as the mechanism to make effective, data-driven decisions. You are far more likely to improve what you can measure. This is what underpins a successful data driven business

Agreeing on the right KPIs will help in driving the efforts of the company towards a meaningful outcome. To rally the team, you need to measure the right things.

• Don’t share too many KPIs, as a data analyst you will lose your audience and overwhelm the typical employee.

KPIs vary from each department. Agree on something achievable like 10 KPIs max.  Below is a list of common finance KPIs relevant to most businesses:

 •   Working capital

•    Operating cash flow

•    Return on equity

•    Quick ratio

•    Debt to equity ratio

•    Inventory turnover

•    Accounts receivable turnover

•    Gross profit margin 

4 - Data

Getting access to the data is one of the first steps to building a BI solution. Map out the various systems used and get the ball rolling early on whether you have direct access or what data APIs will provide. 

• Access to the data can hold up any project. Dive in early to assess what you can get.  

We say do this early as some systems will provide different levels of access and data quality. More mature enterprise systems like SAP will more likely provide access to everything you need while other less mature vendors often need far more manipulation to get what you need. Perfect data is unlikely and getting access as soon as possible will help reduce delays caused by waiting on 3rd party vendors.  

A good data management framework will help to get the best possible data, the best data you can get will directly impact on insights. Test the answers and iron out any inconsistencies before rolling out the solution to a large audience.

• Trust is hard to win back if the new system is not showing accurate information. Don't let this happen, if there is an issue, acknowledge it and resolve it.

5 - Action

Deploying a new system should drive new insights, new actions and opportunities. Use the new insights to make a positive step forward. Set up a system to action the data and new insights. First - Automate the delivery of reports, and have a clear strategy on what employees should do with this information. For sales teams, a weekly dashboard of KPIs will drive behaviours and actions. Make the most of this opportunity to get the team excited about new insights. Ensure the time to action KPIs is managed with clear deadlines.

Final Thoughts

• Even if you achieve only a couple of the steps above, you will increase the likelihood of deploying a successful business intelligence solution.

We haven’t touched much on the software for BI and this really comes last. Each tool has its strengths and we tend to lean towards Power BI and Qlik just to be transparent. Most modern BI tools can get the desired outcome and some planning early in the cycle will make a big impact.

Like to know more? Contact us here or check out our blog on two leading BI solutions - Power BI and Qlik - Some interesting changes at Qlik and what to look for in a business intelligence solution.

BI | Drowning in Excel reports. Employee retention. Some unexpected benefits from deploying a business intelligence platform like Power BI and Qlik.

Here is one recent example of how a business intelligence tool can deliver more than just new operational insights.

• The client: Multiple systems, multiple sites, time and labour-intensive manual reporting

• The result: Timely, automated reports, new insights with an instant feedback portal

• Next Steps: Deployed to mobile with chat, user accountability and predictive analytics

Managing a business is very much about the people that you work with. The clients that rely on our services to run their business and the employees at Advance that are responsible for delivering these business systems. Clients and employees both need to have a good level of customer satisfaction or relationships can fall apart.

It was interesting to hear from my peers about situations where talented employees have left their jobs because of frustrations caused by data overload and using a process that is inefficient, manual, slow and often frustrating. There are times when work will be challenging and that is a part of life, but throwing more labour into a manual process to get the result is not a good long-term solution.

Companies that foster employee growth through technology innovation will improve staff retention. We try to adopt innovative tools early that are good value and this means our team is always learning new skills. The users of these solutions on the client side are eager to adopt a new system if it makes their work life easier and more productive.

Employee satisfaction and retention was an unexpected benefit from deploying a successful business intelligence platform.

Below is a BI solution we have been working on which is quite a common example where daily reporting is needed and there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to manually pull all of the data from the various branches and the 30+ systems. This type of reporting will cause frustration to any employee, especially if they are tasked with manually accessing each branch early every morning to build a complete view of the businesses performance.

The Challenge

• Multiple sites, often in the double digits. 30 sites are not uncommon

• Multiple disparate business systems across different locations, systems like Xero, MYOB, SAP, many others for HR functions and client facing systems

• Be aware that although powerful, API’s are not built equally and something that performs well in a mature system like SAP may not provide the same data and consistency in something like MYOB. The ability to manipulate the data is a critical aspect of connecting multiple data sources

• Time-consuming and labour-intensive manual reporting

• The window for generating daily reporting not big enough to generate reports on time

• Sites spread across multiple geographies and time zones

• Manual, static Microsoft Excel reports to consolidate data into PowerPoint and then emailed each day

versus

Using Traditional Reporting Encountered Some Of These Challenges

• Hardly scalable and very prone to human error

• Time-consuming, manual and inefficient

• Not a lot of fun. Repetitive tasks

• Staff turnover is high

• Inefficient with no automation

• Slow

• Missed opportunities

• No forward projection or predictive analytics

• Linking performance to industry systems that benchmark against competitors in the same industry was not possible

• Reporting can look inconsistent and not well branded when required for management reporting

A Better Solution

• A business intelligence solution connecting all of the systems and data into a single verified view of the truth

• Automated, consistent, branded and uniformly formatted reports and dashboards

• Dynamic insights that can be queried, drilled down for further detail

• Automatic red flag warnings for KPI’s that are underperforming or outliers

• Opportunities for further growth in positive KPI’s

• Data pulled directly from each system, automatically calculated, verified and disturbed in minutes

• Manageable distribution via internal systems like Slack or email to a selected user or group based on title or credentials

• Connected to external data sources such as local weather to provide further insights and predictable analytics

• Easily managed by employees without any special training

• Portal for reporting commentary enabling stakeholder feedbacks

• Secure and only the right people have access

The Results

• Finance now quickly generate required reporting each day for 9:00AM reviews

• Holistic reports for entire business across all 30 locations

• New insights for things like revenue vs payroll

• Automated reports are distributed each day to key stakeholders

• Increased efficiency, productivity and employee satisfaction

• Finance can focus on actions versus generating reports

• Minimal manual reporting – there is always some needed and the human touch.

• Consistent presentation with clear branding

• Instant feedback on the numbers via comments on a secure portal

Final Thoughts

A well thought out BI implementation will connect all these business systems and inputs to build accurate business reports and dashboards. Smarter insights and visualisations with automated reporting will reduce risk and provide the feedback needed to manage a business effectively with a holistic view.

Enabling your team with valuable tools will teach them new skills and a reduction in manual inefficient processes will lead to better job satisfaction.

Tools like Qlik and Power BI are powerful, they will pull together all the systems so you can start building meaningful insights. Qlik is remarkably good at this. By linking to virtually any data source will let you manipulate data to build reports without the need for a data warehouse. The benefit is that it is more cost effective, quick to get answers, often within days not weeks. We have connected to a clients systems in a demonstration right there on the spot and built a report from a live system which is very compelling. Speed to new insights and value is a key benefit when using a tool like Qlik.

A Common Question

How do you get started? The first step to any project is getting access to the data.

If you would like to know more or have any questions about BI, get in touch with us here. We are passionate business intelligence experts.

CONTACT OUR SALES TEAM - NIK VILLIOS | ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

PHONE: +618 8238 6521

MOBILE: +61 408 800 753

EMAIL: NVILLIOS@ADVANCE.NET.AU

BI | Power BI and Qlik -BI | Some interesting changes at Qlik and what to look for in a business intelligence solution

At Advance, we work with tools like Qlik and Microsoft Power BI when delivering business intelligence solutions to provide actionable insights for our clients. Both tools are market leaders and each vendor has a slightly different approach in delivering new insights. We wanted to take a look at some recent changes in Qlik’s licencing model that enables a more complete BI solution and our view on areas to consider when looking at BI tools.

Want to know more about BI and some outcomes we have delivered? We are passionate BI experts. Get in touch here.

Why would you want a BI solution?

BI offers new actionable insights into your business and will empower employees, deliver automated, efficient reporting and analytical dashboards. BI offers insights to provide new and improved:

• Revenue streams

• Customer experiences

• Business processes

• Competitive insights

• Business performance

• Collaboration

• Unexpected benefits along the way

When looking at a BI solution it is important to take a holistic view of what you are trying to achieve and the key ingredients in the solution. Here are some important considerations:

• Guided analytics and distributed reporting or self-service analytics.

• Is a mobile solution required?

• Existing applications and business systems.

• User skill levels / Experienced developers, business users or both.

• Security.

• Data / Access / Quality / Volume.

• Time to value.

• Maintenance - BI solutions often require ongoing development and support.

• Cost.

Cost needs to be looked at closely, and we mean the total cost of the software, consulting services and training to get a result. It is important to consider ongoing maintenance of the system. It is common for management to ask for further information, new reports, calculations, different formatting and inputs from additional systems.

One BI tool may offer better performance but if it is 10x the cost of its rival and the implementation and support costs are much higher, it will be a difficult business case to justify, unless there is some critical feature like security for regulatory compliance that is a non negotiable requirement. Qlik is very strong in security, backed up by its use in the finance industry by clients like Westpac and ANZ.

Qlik is a market leader in BI, with close to 50 000 customers globally. Let’s take a look at Qlik’s recent announcement about dual-use licencing and a short history of their BI tools.

Dual-use licensing means you can get Qlik’s modern platform – Qlik Sense: Simple, intuitive and visually brilliant and the original – QlikView: Versatile, complex and powerful. This is an interesting offer for existing users and anyone looking at implementing a BI platform.

• Dual-use licencing allows companies to unlock both QlikView and Qlik Sense with a single license key.

• The cost is a 30% uplift in annual Qlik maintenance. (*Qlik press release)

• This is good news for existing Qlik customers offering access to both products at an additional cost.

• Dual-use licensing offers customers a more complete BI offering for both guided and self-service analytics.

Qlik: Our Experience.

We compared many BI platforms when looking at better insights into our own managed services and consulting business as well as offering the service to our clients. Tableau was seriously analysed and considered, and very compelling with a lower cost to get started and great design. After many comparisons, we found Qlik was a better fit for us, more powerful and its ETL (extract transform load) capability was simply better. Tableau is a great tool with some of the best visualisations available. With Qlik, you can pull data from many different sources without the need for a costly data warehouse. Here at Advance, Qlik is one of the main tools we use when developing BI solutions internally and for our clients, Power BI is another key tool with its strengths and a high adoption in the BI arena.

Qlik really is one of the most powerful tools available and difficult to beat when comparing its ability to handle large data volumes and transforming data (matching records, merging sources, preparing for analysis.) QlikView is a genuine enterprise level BI tool.

Our experience with QlikView:

• Ease in connecting to virtually any data source.

• We are technical developers - QlikView is very powerful in its ability to manipulate or transform the data structure by using script statements and expressions in the Qlik load script.

• Speed in building and delivering powerful insights right away. Even in product demonstrations we were able to connect to the data and build dashboards instantly.

• Time to value can be as low as a few days.

• Limited mobile experience with QlikView - We eventually built our own in house application to give us a better mobile experience and additional capability like distributed reporting and Excel integration through KPI Pulse.

A Short History Of QlikView And Qlik Sense. Why Two Products?

QlikView

Qlik Sense

QlikView has been the flagship product from its founding in the early 1990s through to around 2014, when they introduced Qlik Sense. Since the launch, Qlik has arguably spent more of its development resources on Qlik Sense, a mobile responsive and more visually appealing BI tool. With that said, the 30 000+ QlikView user community has ensured Qlik release new versions of QlikView annually. Some speculate the move towards Qlik Sense might be to better compete with modern and visual data exploration platforms like Tableau.

From our experience, QlikView developers like us find it easier to get results straight away using QlikView when compared to Power BI and Qlik Sense. Important insights with drill down capability right away.  QlikView may not look as visually appealing out of the box as Qlik Sense, but more experienced developers can get complex answers quickly, then make them more presentable for public consumption.

Users coming from a programming or data science background are more likely to find QlikView more flexible and powerful. In contrast, for brilliant looking visualisations and self-service analytics - Qlik Sense shines in this area and the mobile experience is responsive meaning that the platform automatically resizes objects. This is important when working across different platforms like mobile phones and tablets, all with different versions of operating systems. Qlik Sense wins here in delivering a modern mobile experience.

Key Differences And Strengths Of Each Product.

Final Thoughts

Qlik offers a leading BI solution and dual-use licensing is a good thing. It highlights that they want to offer more value in this competitive space and they need to. Power BI offers a comparatively low entry cost and provides a very good BI platform. You can read some of the reasons why we have seen a big spike in demand for Power BI here. Is Qlik the right solution for you? It is a powerful tool but definitely not the lowest cost option.

A thorough analysis of the project needs to be undertaken. Experienced BI experts can provide advice on which tool is a good fit based on outcome required with budgets and total cost in mind. This will help you make an informed decision on the right platform for your business.

Qlik’s new licencing offering is an interesting proposition for anyone looking at a implementing a BI platform. Current users of QlikView can continue developing and supporting existing deployments and try newer features in Qlik Sense for a lower cost than purchasing two seperate tools. This move will also grow interest and additional enquiries for Qlik.

If you are an existing user of Qlik or someone looking to tackle a new BI project, it is a great time to take a serious look at Qlik. There a many great BI platforms out there, Tableau and Power BI are also leading offerings and each has its strengths that really need to be considered and aligned to your business and what you are trying to achieve.

Want To Know More?

You can reach us here or email sales@advance.on.net directly with any queries. BI is our passion and expertise.

We’ve included links to additional content and useful comparison in the Qlik datasheet below.

Additional Insights

Below is a great 5 minute video about Qlik’s April 2019 updates.

Qlik Sense and QlikView Data Sheet PDF

Many Thanks,

John-Paul Della-Putta

Director

Advance Business Consulting

Phone: +61 8 8238 6500

Email: jp@advance.net.au

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnpaul

Website: www.advance.net.au

BI | Spike In Demand For Microsoft Power BI - Here's Why

We review and analyse our enquiries each week to see what our clients are interested in and what challenges the broader market is trying to solve. Business intelligence and new insights is our thing after all.

Unsurprisingly there has been a big spike in the demand for business intelligence solutions, the bulk being for Microsoft Power BI and Qlik.

One of the projects we are working on this week is to provide a detailed financial reporting system from the popular Xero accounting system. Xero is a great tool but our clients are telling us that they cannot easily get the level of detail and analysis they need. The data is there but there is no easy way to get more complex insights. Power BI can help.

If you would like to know more about business intelligence or Microsoft Power BI and what it can do for your business, reach us here

Here are some of the reasons why there is a demand for Microsoft Power BI

• Peer Insights Matter - Microsoft has a 4.3 rating at Gartner Peer Insights with over 1300 reviews today and received the Customers Choice 2018 award from Gartner. This is important not just because Gartner is a leading research and advisory company but also because the very people that use the tool have provided a review. Look for the genuine reviews, it’s one good source for critical honest feedback. Take a look here.

• Australia has a big Microsoft presence and existing clients can access Power BI at a low cost. The desktop version is free for individual users. This makes it pretty attractive to consider using Power BI.

  Wide User Base Appeal - Power BI is targetted at non-data scientists, business analysts as well as power users like developers and data scientists, this means it appeals to a big audience. We work with customers that are power users and self taught BI users, generating their own powerful insights for their business units. The support community is very active and helpful.

• Power BI can easily capture and assemble data and access diverse data sources, particularly other Microsoft tools and platforms.

• Tight integration with Office 365 products, Azure cloud, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, SQL DB, Excel, and SharePoint.

• Analysts have judged Power BI to be a leader. Don’t buy into the hype but also don’t discount genuine endorsements. Current users are also some of the best people to give you an honest review.

• Microsoft has been investing in its Marketing efforts globally and this is creating awareness and demand, this is not a bad thing. Microsoft believe in their product which is backed up by monthly enhancements and updates. Many integration companies and end users agree. There is real investment in this tool.

These are just some of the reasons why people are looking at Power BI. Microsoft is investing heavily in the tool to stay ahead of its competitors and is releasing major updates regularly.

Is Power BI the right tool for you? There are many things to consider and we will discuss this in an upcoming blog. Which BI tool is right for you.

Below is a great overview of the major Power BI updates for March:

Digital Transformation | Innovators 2019 Kick Off Event - Recap

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Advance Business Consulting has been helping companies build their technology advantage for over 20+ years. With the growth in data, an opportunity exists to gain new insights and leverage operational efficiencies - A better, automated way of doing things. Organisations must be more vigilant than ever in remaining innovative and future-proofing their businesses. This is critical in remaining profitable and competitive.

Last Thursday, Advance held its SA Innovators / 2019 Kick Off Event, showcasing the road to success a handful of clients have achieved through Innovation and Digital Transformation.

The forum provided an opportunity for everyone to share their challenges and journey in digitising their business and processes, where to start and some unexpected findings along the way.

Inspirational and engaging discussions with key speakers from local and global industries; including Elyse Mitani, Graham Berry (Mitani Group), Michael Auciello (Chemist King & PharmPack) & Julien Berteraut (Intrexx).

Abby Brown (Intrexx) & Nik Villios (Advance)

Graham Berry & Elyse Mitani (Mitani)

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE EVENT:

John-Paul from Advance kicked off the event with an overview on digital trends for 2019 and an introduction to some of the projects and clients that Advance has worked with in recent years.

Mitani is the name behind many of Australia’s leading food manufacturing brands and a key part of their supply chain. They started a project in 2014 in an effort to improve document sharing in their R&D Department.

Over the last 4 years Mitani have continued to expand their digital workplace footprint and now utilise a central document management system, automated workflow and timely audit and compliance system. A business system used across the entire organisation to drive continuous improvement and insights into the business. A link to Mitani’s presentation has been included below.

Michael Auciello (Chemist King / PharmPack)

Michael Auciello delivered an interesting talk about the development of PharmPack Solutions, an online platform for medication ordering, prescription management and real-time communication between clients, care facilities, healthcare professionals and the pharmacist. PharmPack is another South Australian innovative business with a vision to make the medical ordering and fulfilment process as simple, easy and error-free as possible. Michael's journey provided his views and experience of where to begin when moving from a manual paper based process and some of the challenges common to all projects.

Finally Julien Berteraut from Intrexx spoke about the digital landscape we live in today, some interesting data points and examples of how clients in Europe and in Australia are using platforms like Intrexx to create web-based applications for automated workflows, electronic forms and the powerful impact of portals.

Intrexx is a cross-platform integrated development environment for the creation and operation of web-based applications, enterprise portals and intranet portals. Julien is experienced in digital transformation and has worked with many different clients based in Europe and globally. A link to the Intrexx presentation has been included below.

Julien Berteraut (Intrexx)

Troy Forrest (Strategy Road)

Over 100 new and existing faces filled the Electra House venue on the night, highlighting the popularity and appetite for digital innovative transformations. Advance would like to once again thank all the speakers and guests who made the event a huge success.

For any further information regarding the SA Innovators 2019 Kick Off Event, or how Advance can help implement a successful digital process in your industry, get in touch with us here.

Contact our sales team - Nik Villios | Account Executive

Phone: +618 8238 6521

Mobile: +61 408 800 753

Email: nvillios@advance.net.au

Big Data | Make Better Decisions: Don’t Buy Into The Big Data/Small Data Hype

Simulated Gas Leak Fire - Training Centre at Brukunga, South Australia. Photo Taken by Megan Rogerson

Did you know you aren’t supposed to put out an electrical fire with water?

The reason is that the electric current can flow back up with the stream of water and electrocute you.

With a LPG fire you actually want to isolate the gas and not extinguish the flame.

This is because if you extinguish the flame, you can create a much more dangerous environment where you lose sight of the leak and there is also the potential for a deadly explosion.

Despite this, people still get hurt with trying to extinguish common fires for two main reasons:

1. They apply the wrong information to their decision making process (that water puts out all fires)

2. They don’t have all the details (that the fire is electrical or a gas leak in the first place)

Another reason is that they are human and they panic! Dealing with a fire is a stressful situation, if you have ever been in this situation you will know that it is easy to make a bad decision based on what you believe is the right thing to do. Fire progression is rapid and ferocious.

Businesses experience the same issues when using big data.

First, let me define these two terms. Small data is data that is 'small' enough for our consumption and importantly it is actionable, informative and accessible. Big data relates to data sets that are far too large and complex for humans or even traditional software systems to deal with.

Why data science fails

Data science fails most businesses because people tend to ‘cherry pick’ and use data to:

• Confirm bias

• Observe patterns that aren’t there

• Make decisions based on non-cohesive data points

The worst part is they don’t know they are doing it! Just like people who don’t know their fire is an electric one and try to douse it with water, businesses end up hurting their revenue when they make decisions.

So what’s the solution?

Small data is one of the answers, here’s why.

The Cunning Beauty Behind Small Data

To understand the impact small data has, we need to understand the issues with big data and the data science business.

Big data is a popular term and there is lots of hype around it. Every major software vendor has added it to their marketing campaigns and it is also psychologically appealing.

We are trained from an early age to believe there lies a strength to numbers. In fact, from an early age, we are socially branded to think this through phrases like,

‘The more the merrier.’

Our minds are programmed to look for patterns. With big data that can be a problem.

When looking at big sets of information, you get the opportunity to identify lots of patterns.

Not only that. The bigger the data, the greater the chance of being able to draw the connections you want to see, even when they aren’t there.

This practice is so common it has a name: Analytical Bias

To be fair, the data science business tries to combat this. The issue is that by the time the message gets from the data driven business to the regular business, it is either watered down, too late, or forgotten altogether.

Another issue with large data is its momentum.

Big data is slow by its very nature. By the time most companies can finally use it, the content can be dated or no longer viable.

To combat this, you need your data to be accurate and current so you can make business decisions in real time.

Why businesses love the agile nature of small data

Businesses that leverage small data can quickly adopt it into their business and for good reason.

Small data is agile.

With small data, you can assess market need, interest, and viability in real time and decide if you want to profit as an early adopter, or save your investment for a better alternative or opportunity.

Small data is bite sized pieces of information that you can digest and act upon. This is one of the reasons why businesses love small data. Small data is actionable.

Final Thought

Complex large data set analysis is important. Big data is an interesting topic and its potential is compelling, just don’t buy into the hype and don’t pursue it until you’ve done the easy stuff first.

With small data you can have a quicker ROI with some easy wins right away, and valuable insights can be gained with powerful, inexpensive tools and techniques.

Tools like Qlik and Microsoft Power Bi make it quite easy to answer important questions quickly. You don’t have to wait a long time to get the right answers and useful dashboards can be built in just a few hours.

If you’d like to hear more, join our mailing list to get regular updates, articles, ideas, and announcements from the front lines of the data industry.

We work with clients each day to provide valuable insights into their business. This week we are building a new dashboard using Power BI for monthly management reporting.

If you’d like to get in touch or comment on an of my blogs you can reach me directly via my contact details below.

Many Thanks, Jp.

John-Paul Della-Putta

Director

Advance Business Consulting

Phone: +61 8 8238 6500

Email: jp@advance.net.au

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnpaul

Website: www.advance.net.au

Desktop Widgets Help You Focus

Remember when ‘fidget’ desktop toys spun into our lives and dominated the anti-anxiety toy market?

One day people were spinning pens then almost overnight the office was filled with the sound of people clicking buttons and spinning mini-flywheels. It’s always fun to witness the hive mind adopt the newest thing in a line of tools to stay focused.

It’s even more fun when the hive mind just as quickly abandons a trend when the news gets a hold of it. The photo above is from our office, a graveyard of spinners on one of the spare desks. Just like when the news revealed that fidget tools did nothing to help you focus. Just as quick as the toys found their way into the office limelight, they were gone.

Focus is such an important topic in the corporate world. Why do you think caffeine is the only drug that is socially acceptable to brag about overconsumption and dependency. “Don’t talk to me until I have my morning coffee or two!”

Shareholders demand year on year returns and the corporation C-suite has a fiduciary responsibility to max out those returns. CEO bonuses hinge on managers making their teams more productive and profitable. So managers try everything they can to help teams to become and remain focused.

I've seen managers try everything from:

• Mid-Day Yoga Sessions

• Meditation

• Removing Sugary Snacks And Drinks From The Office

• Piping In White Noise Over The Speakers

• Wild Products With No Scientific Evidence (see 10 bunko gadgets here)

Most of it does not work, and the reason ‘why’ you would never expect.

Why Most Tips To Focus Fail

To understand why most ‘focus tips’ don’t work, let’s take a look at how focusing works.

Focus is a state.

However, like other states, it can’t be accessed immediately.

Focus isn’t like joy or panic which respectively dumps dopamine on the brain or triggers the fight or flight mechanism.

No.

Focus is a bell curve that you rise and fall with.

That’s why toys, midday breaks, and similar focus tips don’t work.

Cal Newport explores this in Deep Work. He digs into the topic by explaining that Deep Work (a broad term for focus) results from consistent practice and accessing key signals for focus to take place.

We've kept this in mind when developing a solution to make Qlik metrics more accessible and more powerful. Qlik is one of the main platforms we use when building a Business Intelligence solution for our clients and to measure our success in house. It is one of the leading tools available and we've developed KPI Pulse to extend the reach of Qlik and to provide key metrics easily over email, mobile devices, on desktop widgets or a head up display and directly into Excel.

The broad ideas expressed in Cal’s book reflect a unique KPI Pulse feature that signals focused states with desktop widgets : Here’s How.

Desktop Widget Top Focus Picks

KPI Pulse is a sandbox template design.

Go in and personalise the dashboard however you like.

This addressed a core issue with many Qlik dashboards, busy User Experience (UX)

Busy UX is rarely good.

Our brain has pre-mammalian scripts that help our minds optimise energy, a backup DOS prompt protocol for the human equivalent of safe-mode.

In Thinking Fast And Slow By Daniel Kahneman, the author maps the survival of what he refers to as our ‘lizard mind’. This ‘lizard mind’, Daniel posits, is a survivalist mind programmed to override our state when too many distractions arise.

You see this reflected further in the book Paradox Of Choice.

Their premise at its simplest is this: Too many options causes our brain to give up.

In the early nineties the Chinese government was forced to regulate animated cartoon frame rates, because kids started having seizures while watching TV that reached frequencies of 60 hertz (flashes per second).

That’s why we built-in the custom design element into our solution - KPI Pulse. By simplifying the design, you can optimise UX while cutting distraction and choice paralysis.

3 Focus Tips KPI Pulse Desktop Widgets

TIP 1: CHOOSE YOUR WIDGETS AND STICK WITH THEM

To see a widget means ‘work’. Using the same widget builds your focus on-ramp for your team.

TIP 2: MAKE YOUR WIDGET CHOICE UNIQUE

Only choose a widget that has a unique pull for your industry. Don’t choose something your team might relate to something else. You want the choice you make to be unique to your team.

TIP 3: DON’T GO OVERBOARD WITH WIDGETS

‘If one is good more is better.’ Doesn’t hold true here. Creating too many options will cause choice paralysis.

Final Thought

At Advance and in developing KPI Pulse, we salute our widget technology forefathers, and are committed to pushing forward widget wizardry which has been over 25 years in the making. Small pieces of customised desktop and web content have made their way into our lives whether you call it an accessory, a widget, a web part, or a gadget.

Interested in learning more about how we used psychology, design, and intuitive interfaces to build Qlik dashboards that companies love? Sign up to our mailing list.

Receive valuable tips for data management, Qlik tips, and more.

If you’d like to get in touch or comment on an of my blogs you can reach me directly via my contact details below.

Many Thanks, Jp.

John-Paul Della-Putta

Director

Advance Business Consulting & KPI Pulse

Phone: +61 8 8238 6500

Email: jp@advance.net.au

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnpaul

Website: www.advance.net.au

Did you know colour can alter your thoughts and affect team performance?

That is why colour is the biggest business you’ve never heard of.

Companies dump millions every year into picking the ‘right’ colour for their brand that often results in positive gains.

It’s in your face everyday; Facebook has their iconic blue, Google has their distinctive rainbow palette. McDonalds has their golden yellow arches, the colour code is RGB: (255,199,44) by the way.

Our marketing manager bought a Google Pixel 3 this week and is moving away from his trusty Iphone.

Apple’s approach is to use an aggressive green to deliberately highlight non Apple devices. In contrast they use and a soft, eye friendly blue for iMessages. This is no accident. The new Google Pixel 3 is a pretty innovative device by the way.

Successful companies embrace memorable colours. Colour cultivates emotional engagement and increases productivity by exciting synapse in the frontal lobe. This human trait dates back to our ape origins. Ripe fruit is a more appealing colour than rotting fruit, wouldn’t you say?

In short-colour affects your brain.

That’s why it’s important to pick the right colour scheme for your dashboard.

The be a colour choosing beast, you need to know what colours make your more productive, how to use colour, and how many colours to chose.

To boost your chances for scoring the best colour scheme for your dashboard, we are going to outline 3-key factors to contemplate when mastering your colour selection.

1: The 3-colour tones and how they impact your mind

2: How many colours is too many colours

3: What colours decrease productivity

The 3-Colour Tones And How They Affect Our Minds

There are basic colour tones.

Each colour tone has a specific impact on our mind. To figure out what colours make you more productive, you need to understand what each tone means.

Here are the three tones:

1: Warm - These are reds, oranges, and similar shades.

2: Cool - These are blue, purple, etc.

3: Neutral - These are black, white, tan, brown, and grey.

When choosing a colour tone, optimise the utility of colour by choosing tone that has a clearing and calming effect.

Some colours distract the mind by being linked to other less productive emotions.

That’s why red is great for advertising but bad for educating or focusing.

Neutral colours get the Oscar for best supporting role and are best for accenting main colours. Neutral colours call to mind documents, writing, and similar static elements.

This is why the neutral colours in social media are text.

Cool colours are meditative in nature and are for projecting calm and clarity. Most integrative brands create a seamless experience for customers with blues, purples, and similar shades.

The tone that elicits any response is good, but the right tone will get what you want from your users. Mastering the type is only the beginning, you must now learn to pick the right number of colours.

2: How Many Colours is too Many Colours

Out of the millions of colours, you want to use the ‘less is more’ method.

The rule of thumb for colour branding experts is to use no more than two colours.

One can be just as powerful as two (for all you single people out there).

There is a Goldilocks zone where colours make you more productive, too many colours and it’s distracting too few and people are waiting for the page to load. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, draw attention with passionate order rather than disturb a user with a rainbow of chaos.

When adopting two colours, make sure to harness colours that provoke left-brain cerebral prowess. Here’s what to avoid.

3: What colours decrease productivity

To grow happy productive brain activity, it’s wise to be knowledgeable of ADD and depressive colours that are going to be a distraction (Squirrel!).

Here is our list of three ADD and downer colours to consider avoiding for your dashboard.

1: Orange is a bright colour demands attention. Hunters, and construction guys use it all day every day. That’s why sales pages and opt-in buttons are orange. Capture focus, not distract from it.

2: Grey is a bland neutral colour good for highlighting another, like image boarders. Grey induces feelings of sadness and depression especially in women.

3: Yellow is a great colour with a lot of positive emotions attached to it. With that said, yellow often catches the light in an odd way. Even worse, mobile resolutions are different screen to screen. What looks great in the office under your lights will catch the light differently outside.

So what colours make the human mind most productive?

Simple. Calming ones that don’t distract.

Three takeaways:

1. A COLOUR SCHEME IS MEANT TO SIGNAL, NOT DISTRACT. RED IS USED IN ALARMS BECAUSE IT DISTRACTS YOU FROM WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

2. COLOURS ARE FOR YOUR TEAM, NOT BRANDING. KNOW THESE COLOURS ARE THERE TO GUIDE THE USER’S MIND INTO WORKING BLISS.

3. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY MINIMISING CHOICES. WE ALL GET CHOICE FATIGUE. THE MORE YOU HAVE GOING ON, THE MORE DISTRACTING IT WILL BE.

Final Comments:

Let me know your thoughts on colours, there are times existing branding and colour scheme peer pressure designers into selecting a colour scheme. If you are anything like me, you’ve spend hours making sure you are happy with how a report or metric is presented.

Next blog I’ll dive into: Desktop Widgets and how they can improve efficiency

ECM | 4 Reasons M-Files Is The Best ECM Tool Available

For a business to succeed, it needs to leverage the competitive advantages available to it.

That’s why your company needs the best ECM tool available on the market. When share this view with people at networking events or client meetings, they all have a similar response,

‘Our current ECM system is fine.’

You wouldn’t pay a premium for food that is just ‘fine’. You wouldn’t pay to see an entertainer where the reviews say they are ‘fine’.

So why would you settle for anything less than the best? Especially when there is a solution that is rich in functionality and competitively priced compared to its rivals?

Simple. We are more comfortable with the problems we know, rather than the solutions that the best can bring. Here’s why.

Why Businesses Stick With Bad Services

People are creatures of habit. They generally avoid making changes. If they have a problem, they get used to it and come up with a workaround they need to keep going.

Despite this, more companies switch to M-Files every day. Why? Because it is the best ECM tool on the market. But don’t just take our word for it.

Here are four reasons your company needs M-Files.

Industry analysts have also recognised the M-Files approach to intelligent information management, labelling it as “Visionary” in the Gartner 2017 Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms

4 Reasons M-Files Is The Best ECM Tool Available

What follows are the four integral things that set M-Files apart from the competition-no matter what your industry is.

Reason 1: M-Files Unifies Information

The biggest issue people face with ECM tools is they don’t unify the company’s information. They use outdated silos or overly complex storage systems that make it difficult to retrieve your documents when you need them.

M-Files does away with the gatekeepers traditional to ECM software, by unifying information across multiple platforms such as:

• Documentum
  

• Dropbox
  

• Box
  

• Microsoft Sharepoint
  

• Open Text

Reason 2: M-Files Has A Growing Network Of Responsive Partners

At a glance, this seems to be beneficial for the people promoting M-Files (like us) and not the user

The opposite is true.

M-Files is the best ECM tool available. That means it attracts only the highest quality partners.

When you engage with M-Files, you get access to a growing global list of partners who can help you integrate M-Files strategically to rapidly scale your business.

Reason 3: Seamless Integration With Microsoft Products

M-Files was smart. They recognised the business world’s dependency on Microsoft and developed an ECM software that integrated easily with it. M-FIles integrated with Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint and even Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

• Manage your Microsoft Office documents effectively – without changing the way you work.

• Make Microsoft SharePoint even better.

• Manage customers and their documents – No complex setups for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

That means you can quickly and easily add M-Files to your business without having to do complicated work arounds, bringing on extra IT staff, or wasting dozens of hours training your team to get started.

This is doubly important when using M-Files’ graphical workflow editor. You can easily and instantly set up different manual processes for office workflow-without having to learn convoluted systems!

Workflows facilitate routine tasks of the organisation, such as processing purchase invoices.

Reason 4: Adaptable Pricing Models Fit To Your Needs

Value and price aren’t the same thing-any good business knows that.

However, one thing M-Files recognised right away was that the blanket pricing model of traditional ECMs didn’t reflect the value of the price a company paid.

That is why M-Files has licensing options both for companies and offices that let you decide the level of engagement you need.

This is key. By opening access this way, M-Files makes sure you only pay for the value you need without trapping you in an overly large contract where you only use 10% of the services you pay for!

Talk With An M-Files Expert And Discover How To Rapidly Scale Your Business

M-Files is the best ECM tool available on the market. If you aren’t familiar with how our system works, or how your company can use ECM software's to rapidly scale your business, let’s talk.

Use the link below to schedule a quick call with one of our in-house experts. We can handle your questions, review your business, and outline how you can grow your business with M-Files.

3 Ways BI Increases Your Profits

By now we’re sure you’ve heard about Business Intelligence, or BI. Everyone is saying that it can help your business and streamline your processes. Perhaps you're on the fence about it? Maybe you don't know enough about it to make a decision? Let us break it down into the simplest form for you… Business Intelligence is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyse an organisation's raw data. Now that you know what it is, you may ask if it's really worth the money? The answer is, YES! and here’s why. 

BI allows your decisions to be driven by data

When you are the one making day-to-day decisions about where your company is heading, or where to best spend your money, it can become a stressful roller coaster. Sometimes you just have a hunch...which can be very wrong. Other times decisions are made based on anger or personal issues, or even out of fear.

With a quality Business Intelligence software in place, you’ll never have to speculate again about whether or not to trust your gut. BI enables you to get well-organised and detailed data that allows you to move in the right direction based on hard facts. Having that ability arguably leads to better informed business decisions. Having consolidated facts about your business helps to also make very specific adjustments. For example, you might find that one of your products or services isn't selling well and choose to stop offering that product, or make an adjustment to it.

The real beauty of BI is its ability to help you get to know your customers better. What are they buying? How often are they returning? This allows you to increase opportunities for your high-value customers. Business Intelligence can improve profits in all of these scenarios.

BI data helps you decide where to cut costs

It’s the question we all want the answer to… how can we improve profits? Well the answer lies in Business Intelligence. The reason for this? it helps you find out where you can cut costs. It’s simple common sense… if your expenses are less, your profits immediately go up. The data you receive from using BI is packaged in a format that's easy to read. You can even do a query search to find specific information. When you evaluate your data, you can find out what isn't working efficiently and fix it. You can learn which products or services are not selling and stop providing them. Sometimes, you will discover that you can cut costs by using another manufacturer, or offering a more tailored service based on your customers needs. There are innumerable places where BI can help you cut costs, and thus, improve your profits.

Some of the BI products we offer

Greater insights into consumer behaviour

One of the main advantages of investing in BI and skilled personnel is the fact that it will boost your ability to analyse the current consumer buying trends. Like any business, once you understand what your consumers are buying, you can use this information to develop products that match the current consumption trends and consequently improve your profitability.

BI can be used to enable informed business decisions across the whole business, increasing operational and strategic efficiency on both a micro and macro level. Whether you are looking to to gain an accurate view of sales or profit figures in real-time, consolidate critical reports, drill-down deeper into the numbers or set business priorities and goals at a top level, implementing an effective BI tool can help you make the right decisions at the right time.

To learn more about the Business Intelligence products we offer at Advance get in touch with us today!

Why Updating Your Website Is A Must

There’s nothing like a bit of spring cleaning around the house that may make you stop to think about spring cleaning when it comes to your own business. I know what your thinking and no… i’m not talking about cleaning out those old files and organising your paperwork.

I’m sure at some point you’ve stopped to think about whether or not you should update your companies website. The truth is, you shouldn’t wait until spring to jump in and make some changes. What we all know is that people make snap judgements. It takes only 1/10th of a second to form a first impression about a person, and websites are no different. It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave, whether they’ll convert or not.

There are many benefits of updating your website! Here are at Advance we wanted to run you through a few…

Building Trust

You may not be aware, however continually ensuring your website is up-to-date will help you to build trust between your customers and also search engines like Google. If you’ve ever visited a website that looks out-of-date with old formatting and website design, you’ll probably feel a bit hesitant to look much further. Just like fashion changes, so does website design. It’s for this reason, search engines like Google negatively rank sites that don’t provide a good user experience to visitors (this results in less web traffic). When your website feels current and with the times, your visitors will feel more comfortable hanging around the site. This will hopefully lead to sales and repeat sales!

It’s no secret that users are on their phones much more than they used to be… arguably more so than they are on a desktop computer! People are wanting their content available on the go, whether that is for social media, news, helpful information, or shopping. By updating your website to accommodate for mobile-viewing of your website, you are making it easy and enjoyable for potential customers to view your website. The more views you get the better chances you’ll have of turning window shoppers into customers, and ultimately getting more sales. It’s really not rocket science, yet so many businesses are not placing an emphasis on this!

Website Experience

Besides all the technical advantages of updating your website, a little face lift will do wonders for the way people feel about your website. When it is up to date, enjoyable to look at and navigate, your visitors will like visiting because it was a good experience! The easier you can make your website to navigate, the more likely they will be to stick around and return.

Here’s some examples of some well put together websites:

Faster Load Times

One way to know whether your website needs updating is to check out a website analyser like Pingdom. Programs like Pingdom help you test your website’s performance with more info on your page size, the composition and various aspects of speed. If your website analysis shows that our website is slow, sorry to break it to you but it’s time to make some changes!

With the proper amount of bandwidth, and as you are properly optimising your website, you can give your customers a website that loads quickly. This will allow them to browse and shop freely! And as a bonus, it will once again give you more credibility when it comes to search engine ranking.

Here at Advance we have sound experience in website development and maintenance. If some ‘spring cleaning’ is what you need, get in touch with our team today!

ECM | Is Your Document Management Process Losing You Money?

How long does it take you to get the documents you want?

If you are like most businesses, you lose, on average, 2-4 hours a week rounding up everything you need.

You don’t want to lose time searching for the documents you need, but you don’t have a choice. Your current way of storing documents in folders, email or existing ECM software solution doesn’t match your needs.

Most ECM software manage information through a more traditional approach such as silos. At a glance this seems the right idea. It’s not, here’s why.

Why Traditional ECM Software Solutions Don’t Work

A lot of businesses buy into the sales pitch traditional ECM’s use.

And it makes sense.

You have a lot of content, so you organise it into different storage and business units (IE-Silos). Each unit holds a particular type of content, or project, or period of time’s worth of work.

When you need to recall that specific document, all you need to do to get it is go to the silo it is stored in and retrieve it.

This seems like a simple and easy to use content software solution. So why do so many companies lose money using it?

Simple.

Your company’s content isn’t static. Your company constantly has a demand for previous content. It could be for sales, research, comparison, updating systems - it doesn’t matter.

These needs won’t be met using a traditional static storage method. Eventually, you misplace or forget the silo type you stored the content in.

Or worse.

You need a document you haven’t used in a while, and you don’t remember when you first created it or what silo it’s stored in.

The Big Problem With Traditional ECM Solutions

For a business to succeed, it has to adjust and react to situations in real time.

If you are using a traditional ECM software solution, you can’t.

Using ECM solutions not catered to your needs means you are stuck manually searching each silo hoping to hit the right one the first time.

This can take hours, every one of those can lose you business. Even worse, you give up and re-do the document from scratch.

If you have a compliance requirement such as some of the Food Industry clients we work with, the consequences can be more severe.

What you need is a content software solution that can process large amounts of meta-data, combine content tagging with AI features, and offer access to the content you need both instantly in the office and the field.

The M-Files Go Anywhere Solution

There are three things about M-Files that make it attractive to growing businesses.

The first is how it uses metadata, the second is how it uses phrase/word tagging, and the third is the AI learning function built into the system. The approach is to store something based on what it is rather than where it is stored. This approach means you can retrieve the document and so can the next person, you are future proofing your business.

M-Files is a new ECM software solution designed to:

1: Meet the needs of businesses in real time - With M-Files software solution your company can access the data it needs instantly in real time, anywhere. That means no more gatekeepers and time wasted sifting through silos. Users can also roll back to older versions of files without needing to wait for IT.

2: Be accessible and easy to adopt instantly - We talked about this in the last post, but it is worth mentioning again. M-Files is easy to learn and easier to use. This is key. If your team doesn’t like the solution, they’ll resist it. With M-Files, you won’t experience resistance.

Do you want to save your company money, save time wasted searching for files, and for your team to be able to easily access the content they need from anywhere in real time?

M-Files can help.

Discover The ECM Software Solution Your Business Needs

M-Files is used by hundreds of thousands of happy M-Files users all over the world. However, you may have a specific question. We have an expert on staff to answer your questions, outline how the system could benefit your company.

See Why The Competition doesn’t stack up to M-Files

Interested in learning more about the insight and advantage to M-Files over other ECM software solutions?

Then you are going to want to check out the next article!

BI | 7 Valuable Tips for Power BI

Power BI is Microsoft’s interactive data visualisation and analytics tool for business intelligence (BI). Power BI is used to pull data from a wide range of systems within the cloud to create dashboards that track the metrics you care about the most, or drill in and (literally) ask questions about your data. Power BI also allows you to create rich reports or embed dashboards and reports into reporting portals you already use! How good is that! The dashboards, reports and visualisations you can create go far beyond bar and pie charts, but what’s even better is that you don’t need to be a designer to use them. Here at Advance Business Consulting we have shared 7 valuable tips that will help you gain greater insights from the information you already have, in more areas than you might expect.

Let's get into it shall we?

1. Visualise the services you use

Power BI is easily accessible with Microsoft, and what you may not know is that Power BI has hundreds of content packs, templates and integrations for hundreds of data services and apps — and not just Microsoft ones like Dynamics 365 and SQL Server.

Connect your apps to data

Data is at the core of every app. We make it easy to get your data into your apps with more than 200 connectors for many popular cloud services and even your on-premises data.

For example, if your business uses Xero for accounting, or K2 Cloud to build business processes, or Adobe Marketing Cloud, SAP HANA, Salesforce, MailChimp, Marketo, Google Analytics, or even GitHub, Power BI can be used to visualise the data you have in those services, create reports against them and bring them together in a custom dashboard. A CEO's dream!

What's also great is the ability to set up the on-premises gateway to use Power BI to explore data sets on your own servers. That way you can compare website visitors with sales, or see which promotions have brought in new customers. You can create your own reports and visualisations, perform calculations (Power BI calls these calculated measures) and set access levels for individual users, data sources, or specific dashboards and reports to control who can view more sensitive information.

2. Tell stories with your data

We all know charts are great for numbers, but if you want to show information that changes over time in a way that’s easier to understand, try the new Timeline Storyteller custom visual for Power BI. This allows you to create a linear list of dates or times, or lay them out in circles, spirals, grids or custom shapes. You can also show a chronological list, a sequence that shows the duration of events, or pick relative or logarithmic scales. Pick how to best represent, scale and lay out your data and Power BI will build a timeline from it; use that to tell the history of your business, show how demand is growing, or explain anything else in which the sequence of events matters.

3. Explore ‘What-ifs’

You can spend time comparing different scenarios in Excel, but Power BI lets you do it by dragging a slider bar to show changes. Add a calculated measure for a figure such as revenue and you can use the New Parameter button in Power BI Desktop to add parameters that change in your What-if scenario – setting the data type, minimum, maximum and increments. That creates a calculated measure that you can reference in other calculated measures; so if you create a What-if parameter for the number of customers who respond to a particular promotion you can plug that into a formula that you create to show how many customer support tickets you can expect to have to deal with. Tick “Add slider to this page” in the What-if parameter dialog to add a slider bar that you can drag to show the difference when the number of customer responses is higher or lower. Forecasting has never been easier!

4. Ask questions in real time

Instead of designing charts and reports, use the natural language features of Power BI to ask questions and get visualisations in response. You can specify the way the data is presented — ask for “total sales by region by month as a line” — or let Power BI pick a layout that suits the data with a more general question like “what were the sales numbers for last quarter?”.

If there are tiles pinned to the dashboard, Q&A will suggest those as questions, and as you type a question it will suggest terms you could add based on the tables in the data set. If the question turns out to be extremely useful, you can pin the visualisation to the dashboard, making this an easy way to create visualisations for a data set. If you own the data set, you can also add featured questions in the dashboard settings. Q&A uses the names of tables, columns and calculated fields in the data sets; if the column is called area rather than region, you’d need to ask for “sales by area” unless you add synonyms, and table names like CustomerSummary will make Q&A less natural than names like Customers (even though Q&A would know that’s the table you want if you ask about “customer summaries in Chicago” because it can break words up and understand plurals).

Power BI Q&A works in the Power BI website and the iOS Power BI app. It can work on data stored in an Excel table (or in a database via the on-premises gateway if you enable Q&A for the data set) or you can use Power Pivot to optimise the data set for Q&A. Make sure all the tables in your data set are joined correctly, check data types for dates and numbers, and create the default field set for columns and default label for tables to tweak the columns displayed and the type of graph or chart Q&A will show.

5. Implement custom visualisations

Power BI includes a good range of visualisations, and you can add more, either by downloading them from the Office Store or by creating your own with the open source Power BI Custom Visual Tool (which uses CSS, TypeScript and NodeJS). Don't stress, our team is experienced in implementing custom reporting for you. 

The Office Store includes visualisations from Microsoft, like word clouds, a correlation plot based on R script, chord charts to show interrelationships in a circular matrix, the “box and whisker plot” that highlights outliers, clusters and percentiles to show data that might otherwise get lost in summarised figures like averages, as well as visualisations created by other Power BI customers.

You can also link Visio diagrams to Power BI to use those as custom visuals, if you want to analyse progress through workflows and processes. If you have Excel analytics models, you can use Frontline’s Analytic Solver to turn them into custom Power BI visualizations without having to design the custom visual in JavaScript. What you get isn’t a static report; it’s a dynamic model that you can drag and drop different Power BI data sets onto to simulate or optimise different options.

6. Fit more data into executive dashboards

It isn't uncommon for different BI users to need different levels of information in their visualisations. Managers and business analysts may want a lot of details, but if your executives are tracking 20 or 30 key metrics, maybe for multiple regions around the world, it’s better to present that at a glance with a simple view that shows the target and the actual figure rather than a more complex visualisation. That way you can look up information quickly in a meeting without getting lost in too many charts and figures. We all know how frustrating that can be! The Power KPI custom visualisation combines multiple report types into a single tile.

7. Power BI works with IT data, too

It isn’t only business users who have large amounts of information they need to shave down for insights; you can use Power BI to visualise data for IT monitoring tools. The Power BI solution template for Azure Activity Logs uses an Azure SQL database and Stream Analytics to collect logs and display them using pre-built Power BI Desktop reports, so you can look at trends in usage and problems. There’s also a set of pre-built Power BI reports for the Intune Data Warehouse that shows device details like configurations and compliance state, and a solution template for System Center Configuration Manager with a dashboard that covers client and server health, malware protection levels, software inventory and which devices are missing updates.

Power BI's flexibility also gives users a chance to build your own dashboards and reports for other tools, as long as you can get the data into a SQL Server or Azure SQL database. This is a game changer!

Advance Business Consulting is experienced in Power BI implementation, to learn more about how it can assist your business, contact us today!

ECM | The 3 Reasons Why Clients Choose M-Files

Are you tired of traditional content management solutions slowing down your business?

Chances are you have finally decided there is a better way to manage your content or to pull the plug on your current content management system. You’ve lost time and possibly clients searching for documents you need in real time only to come up short.

So you start researching options only to grind to a halt when you realise how many options you have.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Choice Paralysis

Do you know what choice paralysis is?

It’s a cognitive hiccup that transforms easy choices into difficult ones. It works by adding lots of options that overwhelm the decision making part of your brain. Your mind perceives the mass of options and freezes up.
 

There are nearly forty different ECM options available, and after about five minutes of reading, your eyes glaze over.

We get it. Most ECM sites are unreadable. Here’s why.

Why ECM Can Be Confusing

The ECM companies you want to review have websites that are complex and confusing. They are filled with walls of text crammed edge to edge with technical industry jargon.

The reason vendors do this is they want to promote every speed and feed but this can lead to data overwhelm. The ECM journey does not have to be this complex. 

We want you to make decisions with the right information about ECM systems.

That is why, to help you decide on the best option for your company, we collected the three most commonly praised things from our M-Files clients.

This way you can decide if the solutions our clients enjoy fit your company’s needs.

3 Reasons M-Files Is Right For Your Company: Praise Direct From Users’ Mouth

Before we start, we should disclose that we sell and implement M-Files and we have been using it internally for nearly a decade. We are one of the early adopters in Australia and we had the same issues and frustrations as many companies face today.

These are some of the challenges we experienced

• Documents stored in many different places / silos

• Difficult and slow to find the document we needed

• Duplicated documents

• Difficult to recover documents without restoring from backups

• Manual processes

• No version control / Different versions of the same document

• Employees found it hard to collaborate on projects

There are a lot of ECM options available and we've used and implemented quite a few of them. Despite that, we only promote and help clients implement just one. Why?

Because M-Files is the most business friendly option available. To help you understand this claim we have included the top 3-reasons that cause our clients to rave about the software.

Reason 1: M-Files Is Easy To Adopt Due To An Easy To Use And Familiar Interface

Most ECM’s have difficult to learn interfaces. M-Files doesn’t. Actually, M-Files has great user adoption rates because it looks like your current system. Users don't feel like they have to learn another new tool to use. Below is an example of an M-Files vault, it looks like a regular networked drive. 

Another benefit is M-Files enables finding, accessing and managing information residing virtually within any system, without disturbing existing processes and users. This means you don't have to rip and replace your existing systems. It integrates with popular software like Microsoft Office and Sharepoint. See just some of the integrations here.

This is important. Why?

Because when you introduce a new software, you experience resistance. People don’t like change. With M-Files they will. 

The interface is easy to use and intuitive. This means teams adopt it much faster and the benefits of being able to find the documents they need reinforces the positive user experience. 

Reason 2: M-Files Works Fast In Real Time

Imagine this.

Your team is out of the office and needs a document.

M-Files gives your employees instant access to everything they need from a mobile device or laptop. They can also make a document available offline if they don't have internet access.

This is powerful! Think about how much your clients will value seamless engagement in real time.

Reason 3: It Increases Efficiency 

You and your employees will no longer waste time looking for documents. This will save you time and improve efficiency. Read how a South Australian food manufacturer - Mitani improved efficiency, traceability and compliance.

One of the things that clients don’t expect but get excited about when they realise it’s included with M-Files is workflows. A common example is the Accounts Payable function. When an invoice is received by email it is automatically processed through M-Files, all of the invoice information such as customer and cost information is captured via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and the invoice is routed to the right person to approve. All of this is done automatically with transparency, an audit trail and notifications. Automating manual processes will make you more efficient and approvals can also be done on the go via mobile devices, so no more waiting.

The best part about M-Files is that these three reasons to use it only skim the surface of everything that sets it apart from the competition.

Recommended by Industry Analysts

Industry analysts have also recognised the M-Files approach to intelligent information management.

• “Visionary” in the Gartner 2017 Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms

• “Leader” in the Forrester Wave: Enterprise Content Services, Q2 2017

• “Leader” in the Nucleus Research ECM Technology Value Matrix 20

But don’t take our word for it. Schedule a call with one of our experts. They can answer your questions live and share real life examples of how M-Files has helped companies become more efficient.

Schedule My FREE Call Today - Click here

Do You Know Your Current Content Management System Is Losing You Money?

Worried that this is the case?

If you use a traditional content management system, then you are going to want to read the next article. It covers everything about how your current systems are losing you money.