News: Consulting for Small Business

The Data Dependent Small Business

Computers play a critical part of many successful, small organizations

by Keith R. Wheeler

2/22/2006

Back in the early 1990’s, computers in small business were considered by some to be glorified typewriters and super-sized calculators. Two aspects of PC technology made vast improvements possible. On the hardware side, processors got much faster and more efficient along with affordable storage now 100 times the standard sizes then available. However, the maturation of software has been a major force in the development of small business computing. Through the course of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and now Windows XP, the desktop operating system has become more stable, easier to configure, and more intuitive to the user. In addition, by maintaining a great deal of backward-compatibility, Microsoft has allowed the maturation of custom software written to work on the Windows platform for the better part of ten years. In that decade, the users have developed more skills and more insight into making their PC’s and their company’s data more available and more useful to the firm. This has taken many forms in the small organization. For the smallest of companies, the bookkeeping and accounting is all stored in a QuickBooks file. Very rarely does anyone actually go to the paper copies to retrieve or create a report. Why go look for a report when one can be instantly generated that is current? The user now depends on their access to the work estimates which may be in a Microsoft Excel file and the contracts which were written in Microsoft Word as well as the email that sent them both in Microsoft Outlook. This is a long way from the early days of using a WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3 template to create a document, changing the name on the document, printing, and not saving anything on the computer. Another example, the volume of custom software written for law firms has increased while the early developers have been able to leverage their experience into some extremely efficient and effective products. ClientProfiles, a comprehensive practice management tool used in one of our Chicago law firms, has grown from a decent document generation and tracking tool into a full-featured, Microsoft Exchange-integrated practice management system used in virtually every aspect of the firm’s day-to-day operations. It really doesn’t matter whether the firm has four employees or forty-four. The data generated in a small business is extremely valuable and requires daily care. Small business depends on computers systems today more than ever. The irreplaceable part of their computer system is their company-specific information. That means all of the Word documents, the Excel spreadsheets, the bookkeeping files, the email, the contact lists, everything. It all needs to be stored in the most appropriate, effective location on the most stable system that can be afforded. Your firm depends on its data. Make sure your data can depend on you to keep it safe and available.