2007 December Edition

A Message from Doris:

‘Tis the season for reflection on 2007 and goals for 2008. DMC has had a very busy year, meeting new clients, servicing existing clients as well as bringing on new staff. 2007 stands out for us, more than other years for a few reasons. As a firm, it’s great our bottom line has grown, but equally, if not more important, how we conduct business. We made changes that have improved our staff's team effort and for them, as well as myself, increased our happiness in working with each other, thus our bottom line. As a gift of sorts to our clients and a thank you to my staff, here is my holiday list from this past year that you've given to me as an owner and to DMC as a firm:

• Routine staff meetings and thanks for forcing me.
• Staff Outings without me having to run it all.
• Marketing literature that brings consistency to all our collateral material.
• Managing your clients on budgets will allow you to anticipate their needs.
• Not a complaint this year on the bookkeeping details
• A full set of new training materials; huge effort!
• Helping me delegate activates for the 3rd year in a row!
• Getting the Vision CRM running with reports that are meaningful.
• A website that attracts and better services our clients.
• Endless assistance from our outside vendors that resource us on technical, project, insurance, advertising needs.

Continue the endless laughter and DMC silliness, we no longer use the Webster Dictionary! Oxford is politically correct. We want our small firm to continue its success; I am optimistic on life and appreciate those close to me for all the guidance and help.

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Why Change In Strategy Can Be Positive! by Guillaume Deflers

In a global economy such as we are in nowadays, I think copying the strategy of a few big players is not the appropriate strategy for every-one , because how would you differentiate yourself from the competition if everybody were doing the same thing? Each company has its own toolbox, but it is how you use it and what you can do with it that makes your business more successful or average.

What people want is to feel unique; they want customization and one-on-one personalized service. The success that copycats had in the past by following the market leaders will probably not be as successful anymore. This said it is clear that companies should consider change, but they need to consider how to introduce change in a positive way.

Change is usually considered as a negative, and as a French citizen or citizen of the “strike country”, I can assure you that changes in my country usually come with difficulties. In order to effectively implement a turnaround strategy, you need to get your staff on board 100%; otherwise, it will cost you time and money. Without your staff, your company is just a brick building, so you need to explain the reason behind the change so that they can understand the “big picture" and why these changes are important to them. This is where strategic meetings and training sessions are important. You do not want these meetings to become a social times with nothing accomplished. To keep everyone focused, each session must have firm agendas, and should conclude with at least a decision to be implemented immediately.

Feedback and performance reports are important at this stage because nobody knows better how to do a task than the person who is doing it everyday. Technology and management can develop new ways to accomplish certain actions, but incorporating it into the staff needs will show them that you care and most importantly will facilitate the implementation because they feel they were part of the project development.

So why change your business strategy? How many of you had a call that ends with a potential customer asking why he should choose your company over the competition? How many sales did you fail to close because you or your team did not know the answer? It is all about positioning and how you market it. First, perform an internal audit and then observe your competition; finally, compare the two and itemize your strengths and weaknesses - maybe you never realized that you have one or more extra services that your competitors do not provide. In your marketing strategy, you need to use those as a competitive advantage. If you recall the first time you went on a job interview, if everybody came with the same education, the same accomplishments, and the same mentality, what made you different from candidate 1 to number 500 that caused you to be hired?

The following features should be considered in trying to differentiate your business from the global competition:

• Message Channel
• Customer Support Idea / Branding
• Market/ Location Price/ Value
• Services Promotions / Free business

In order to be beneficial, your differentiation strategy should cultivate and promote your uniqueness. This will assist in the growth of your reputation and get you noticed so that other people want to work with you. Referrals and word of mouth will definitely help your business in an extensive competitive environment where clients are very knowledgeable thanks to new technology and so more likely to be price sensitive. To be able to charge a premium or just to survive in a price war, your company will need to identify the key factors that people associate with the good then develop or remodel current products/ services into distinctive ones.

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'Twas the Day Before by Catherine Chubbuck

Twas the day before “GO LIVE”, when all through the place,
Everyone was in panic mode, and running a race,
The servers were hung in their docks with care,
In hopes that DMC soon would be there;
The desktops were loaded and ready to roll,
With Vision installed and accessed to all;
And Doris in her office, and us in our cubbies,
Had just settled down for some much deserved munchies,
When out on the floor there arose such a clatter,
We sprang from our desks to see what was the matter.
Away to the server room we flew like a flash,
Tore open the door when Joe looked up and asked,
“What should I do with what I found here?
It’s eight miniature laptops, complete with headgear!”
And then, in a twinkling, we heard Doris say
They’ re my gift to you! Now put them away!
As we drew in our heads, and were turning around,
Down the info highway Peter came with a bound.
He was dressed all in denim, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were accented by all of his loot;
A bundle of keyboards he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave us to know we had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the cubicles; then turned with a jerk,
And nodding his head at Guillaume and John,
He just touched one button, and the server turned on!
Cathy and Annie just laughed with delight
As Pete packed up his tools, and stepped out to the night.
But Rebecca swears that she heard him say:
"Just another day for me at DMC USA!"

My apologies to Clement Clarke Moore for borrowing some of his lines! Happy Holidays to all of our Clients, Friends, and Acquaintances. Looking forward to a Happy and Healthy New Year for All!

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Tips: Data Retention and What's New on Backups by Doris Cahill

A few months back John Pidgeon wrote about backing up and how we still have firms call in that data has been lost. And other firms unless we are engaged not even backing up. Data is critical to operations, whether old or just 5 minutes ago. Even if an email is 3 years old, this is important info and firms want to retain it. Owners don't wish to hear that they must delete and manage there data as well as backup the never ending mounds of it accumulating each day. It is important for a service firm to keep multiple copies of project details or progressions of their project work. Firms not only want their data but they need NEW ideas on how to protect and back it up.

CDP – Continuous Data Protection is new and an alternative to swapping tapes. Tapes were the standard, but with data growing across multi-servers and the size of hard disk space in the terabytes, IT departments are taking short cuts (i.e. skipping files for outgrown tape units, and not clear on which files are critical to backup). With the prospect of buying larger tape units or more swapping of tapes, i.e. more time and more human error, looking at alternatives is a real option. What CDP does is replicate a server to a fully functioning backup server and remotely store data offsite. This allows for 1-2 hour disaster recovery, less labor and less skill set to be up and running. The technology is cost effective $400 a month all inclusive for 1,000 gig bytes with 50 gigabytes going offsite. Gigabyte tape units cost about $ 5,000 plus software, tapes and IT labor to install then maintain it.

Tape Units need to be managed daily and likely restored by a professional in a crisis. It is only during restoration that owners find out short cuts were taken. I like alternatives that reduce human error and are cost effective, this is definitely something firms should look into.

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Employee Recognition

DMC Accounting + Technology recognizes the following employees for their excellence:

Rebecca Byrnes

Rebecca has recently joined our staff as our new Accounting Implementation Consultant. In recent years, she has worked at a couple of local firms, and has taken courses at Mass Bay Community College, and the University of Massachusetts in Lowell and Boston in pursuit of her Accounting Degree. She has plans to complete that education in the near future.

Rebecca has worked with some of the Deltek products in the past, and is currently navigating her way through Vision, QuickBooks, and some of the other software we have in house. She has a strong billing background, and has been able to handle many project managers at her prior jobs. She will be working with all of us to further expand her knowledge base, and provide ongoing assistance with many different products. Rebecca is a steady person, with an excellent work history, who always has a smile on her face, and is willing to help on any task.

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