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ASI Linked In Group
Monday, March 28, 2011
ASI Law Firm Case Management & Accouting Enterprise
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
ASI FINANCIALS MULTICOMPANY GL CONSOLIDATION
Single Database for Multiple Companies Multicompany Reporting
Multi-Power starts at the General Ledger. Each company has its own Current Earnings, Retained Earnings Account, Tax Id, and State Id for true separate accounting. Defaults are automatically identified and activated throughout the system. (AP, AR, OE, MM, & GL Reporting) Adding Companies with associated divsions Manage and consolidate multiple independent companies without ever changing databases. Inter-Company transactions are easily executed and tracked.
Multi-Company GL Consolidation enables complex organizations to manage and consolidate multiple companies without having to change data source. "Inter-Company" transactions are easily executed and tracked. For example, company A pays travel expenses for companies B & C. A payment from company A covers several disbursements to other companies or divisions.
AP / AR Invoice Viewing
Vendor & Customer files are easily navigated for all company transactions and can isolate an individual company by highlighting the desired company filter which auto-segregate & total Invoices, Bills, or Payments for that company.
Key Benefits
• Ability to add or dissolve new subsidiaries and or divisions
• Manage multiple companies/divisions within one database without having to open and close individual data sources.
• Keep basic vendor/customer information in one database for all divisions (no user replication data entry)
• Fully customizable to meet your company's needs
• Compare division financials
• Separation of division current earnings / retained year end closing
• Incorporate your vertical needs from inundating legacy systems
• No third party report writers needed (one system, one technology, one support contract, one skill set). Any report can be generated. If your in-house staff wants to use third party report writer, there is no restriction.
• Lowest cost of ownership vs. competition
| ASI Brochure |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Real Cost of Offshoring
A recent article in the Washington Post raises several questions regarding offshoring, this is not political or have anything to do with party partisanship.Clarification Disclaimer:The views expressed in this newsletter are not to be intended as a political statement and should not be interpreted as such. , This correspondence is not intended to disparage any country or culture. The sole purpose is to convey my 16 years experience with issues resulting from offshoring. This newsletter refers only to outsourcing software development. My firm hires and sponsors employees from emerging countries. They are amazing employees when effectively managed. I am also referring to software development, not customer support call centers.
The Article Link
Senate GOP blocks bill that would promote less outsourcing -... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092802768.html
By Lori Montgomery Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 11:53 PM washingtonpost.comThe latest jobs bill from Senate Democrats - a plan to punish firms that ship jobs overseas - failed to clear a key procedural hurdle Tuesday after even some Democrats complained that the measure would hamper the ability of U.S. companies to compete in foreign markets.
The Disadvantages of Offshoring:The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages of offshoring software development. What on paper often seems cost-effective and feasible, entails many costs that do not surface until a year or two later. Reversing, such a process will incur additional exponential costs.
The Article Link
Senate GOP blocks bill that would promote less outsourcing -... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092802768.html
By Lori Montgomery Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 11:53 PM washingtonpost.comThe latest jobs bill from Senate Democrats - a plan to punish firms that ship jobs overseas - failed to clear a key procedural hurdle Tuesday after even some Democrats complained that the measure would hamper the ability of U.S. companies to compete in foreign markets.
The Disadvantages of Offshoring:The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages of offshoring software development. What on paper often seems cost-effective and feasible, entails many costs that do not surface until a year or two later. Reversing, such a process will incur additional exponential costs.
Examples are: legal costs, lost opportunity cost, repetitive attempts before getting it correct, delay costs, employee turnover costs, the offshore employee’s lack of understanding the US business culture, and the greatest cost: the practice not providing motivation for the next generation to develop these skill sets.
With a huge margin, the majority of US domestic software development companies will always have a clear and better understanding of the nuances of a business process or function as compared to an offshore firm. When a highly sensitive and sophisticated business function or algorithm requiring very special and multi-skilled handling is outsourced to a foreign location and the first language of that nation is different from the nation which outsources the function, more often than not it leads to quality issues. Unrealized costs are expended in an attempt to correct the errors. This may require several rounds of corrections over an extended time. This generates lost opportunity costs. With the initial costs, the cost of correction and the lost opportunity costs, the total expenditure usually far surpasses the cost of the development if done stateside the first time.
There are several communication and continuity disadvantages in offshoring. Offshore companies have a much higher turnover than those in the US. In offshoring processes, the jobs are highly monotonous and this often leads to employee discontent. This is a huge contributor to the high turnover rate. My experience concludes that more often than not there will constantly be new teams assigned to your company’s system, each likely lacking the proper historical continuity turnover communication knowledge of your business protocols and culture.
Security: - I do not put great value on what offshore companies sign, promise or claim. No one reading this can truly believe that their data is secure. All it takes is one person with an 8gig thumb drive, to download four million bank account numbers, complete with their routing numbers and associated credit card information along with all US sensitive data. The culprit can then sell this information in blocks of 1,000 to several hundred identity theft professionals. Of course this threat applies here as well. But!? What recourse do we have with offshore companies? How do we justify the cost to investigate what happened on the other side of the world? Face it, our hands have been and are be tied in these cases. In June 2010, I saw a piece on “60 Minutes” called “Cyber War: Sabotaging the System...” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/06/60minutes/main5555565.shtml where 60 Minutes spoke about cyber hacking into US banks from foreign countries on a daily basis. This was extremely incorrect and disturbing. As a fan of 60 Minutes I am surprised they did not report the obvious:
THE US BANKS ARE OFFSHORING US BANKING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
No one needs to be a professional hacker if they have access; we are giving them the key! And now this the cost of constantly monitoring and reconciling these security breaches has added additional costs to an already inflated expenditure..
Social Responsibility: - When off shoring is employed, which means outsourcing a process to a foreign location, it results in reduction of employment avenues in the nation from where the function is outsourced. This is counterproductive to the business that is offshoring. In simpler terms, in the past ten years we clearly have a shortage of engineers and software developers in this country. Why? Where is the motivation for US students to study a field that in their mind will offer little to no opportunity? Simple answer: because US businesses are offshoring these very critical skills.
With that said, realize that no original idea has ever come from these offshore countries. For example: Oracle, Microsoft, iPhone, Yahoo and Google were all created in the US. SAP, one of major competitors is from Germany, Sun Systems is from England. Again, I have to reiterate my disclaimer, I am not here trying to disparage any country nor do I believe that off shoring should be banned. I just hope that American executives reflect on the decisions that they make and realize the long term ripple effects. We are in a global economy and global competition for market share. So why give away one of our most precious resources-intellectual property- to anyone that promises to save us a dime?
This week we witness out president visit India and China, two very critical and important trading allies to US. I am glad to see that he is there increasing our relationship. I am also glad when I hear news like India & Boeing enter into a “100 million dollar MRO JV project . Here is an example where we can have good business relations, without giving away our intellectual property or US jobs, and have mutual trade relations.
H1 Sponsorship: Good or Bad?:– I will admit that in 2001 I was wrongly opposed to H1 sponsorship. I analyzed it superficially and did not look at all the factors on process and macro economic effects. By 2003 when ASI grew and the demand for qualified developers became scarce I seriously considered the H1 route.
Since I personally interview my staff, I was taken back a bit by these very elaborate resumes from developers with less than five years experience, that averaged four pages; some were seven pages long and extremely verbose. On all developer interviews I ask the candidate to bring in sample code that they have created, because writing code is more of a creative process as opposed to technical. I can go on for pages with excuses and stories I was told. One person stands out, a very qualified and advanced programmer with a platinum resume and a little arrogance. More than likely many that interview him do not know code, so he felt overly confident when meeting. When he displayed his sample code before me, within 2 minutes of scanning it I found it to be good but not efficient. I asked him why he wrote three algorithms consuming about 250 lines of code, when he could have written a single global call procedure algorithm using about 50 lines of code that would be quicker and more reliable. He responded without hesitation, “The client will never know”. Needless to say the interview was over.
In the end, I sponsored and hired several H1 employees and found them to be amazing, steady developers that have a huge desire to learn and be challenged. Why is this better than Off Shoring! Because rather than taking away from our economy these H1 employees pay US taxes. They operate under US laws and standards of security and in most cases take a true concern for the client when they meet them. They take greater pride in the work that they do, no different than our migrated forefathers that came here to the US.
Due to the current economy many of these H1 sponsorships are not being renewed and after years of training and working here in the US, these people are being forced to return to their country of origin. We then end up off shoring to the same countries because those workers are no longer here. A paradox, isn’t it? Once again my beloved country missed seeing the center sweet spot, and chose to go from one extreme to another.
Two months after I wrote this article; in November 2010 when the WikiLeaks situation arose; I received many correspondences, mostly agreeing with me and some strongly disagreeing. Let me clarify, this is not about politics or nationalism, this is about keeping the global trade at a balance and not the US not giving away our intellectual property while leaving us venerable for an economic coup.Many readers seem to think I focus on India and there is much merit to that. Taking into account the B.R.I.C. global focus group (Brazil, Russia, India & China), India is by far the US’s best and largest true democratic emerging country and India is where any US company should be setting their sights for trade. But with that do not give away our country or compromise our middle class for the sake of an easy short lived dollar. I gave an example on how Boeing & India have a 100 million dollar MRO Project, which is outstanding for both countries and does not take away from the US, but rather adds to both countries.
Ford is also in this elite intelligent business group with the “Ford Fiesta" , so far over 50,000 cars have been sold in India. But what makes this so ideal, it was designed from scratch offshore with Indian & Ford engineers, manufactured over in India with some key parts made here in the US. This is good global trading, and both countries will keep to their part, because both need each other.
Executives need to learn that this is not the case with Financial Software, or Banking Systems, they need to learn the many different nuances, risks and use extreme caution when offshoring our banking systems, because it looks good on paper.
I hope that this correspondence helps senior executives consider where off shoring is feasible and where it is not. We have to stop going to extremes and find that acceptable sweet spot where everyone wins.
THE US BANKS ARE OFFSHORING US BANKING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
No one needs to be a professional hacker if they have access; we are giving them the key! And now this the cost of constantly monitoring and reconciling these security breaches has added additional costs to an already inflated expenditure..Social Responsibility: - When off shoring is employed, which means outsourcing a process to a foreign location, it results in reduction of employment avenues in the nation from where the function is outsourced. This is counterproductive to the business that is offshoring. In simpler terms, in the past ten years we clearly have a shortage of engineers and software developers in this country. Why? Where is the motivation for US students to study a field that in their mind will offer little to no opportunity? Simple answer: because US businesses are offshoring these very critical skills.
With that said, realize that no original idea has ever come from these offshore countries. For example: Oracle, Microsoft, iPhone, Yahoo and Google were all created in the US. SAP, one of major competitors is from Germany, Sun Systems is from England. Again, I have to reiterate my disclaimer, I am not here trying to disparage any country nor do I believe that off shoring should be banned. I just hope that American executives reflect on the decisions that they make and realize the long term ripple effects. We are in a global economy and global competition for market share. So why give away one of our most precious resources-intellectual property- to anyone that promises to save us a dime?
This week we witness out president visit India and China, two very critical and important trading allies to US. I am glad to see that he is there increasing our relationship. I am also glad when I hear news like India & Boeing enter into a “100 million dollar MRO JV project . Here is an example where we can have good business relations, without giving away our intellectual property or US jobs, and have mutual trade relations.
H1 Sponsorship: Good or Bad?:– I will admit that in 2001 I was wrongly opposed to H1 sponsorship. I analyzed it superficially and did not look at all the factors on process and macro economic effects. By 2003 when ASI grew and the demand for qualified developers became scarce I seriously considered the H1 route.
Since I personally interview my staff, I was taken back a bit by these very elaborate resumes from developers with less than five years experience, that averaged four pages; some were seven pages long and extremely verbose. On all developer interviews I ask the candidate to bring in sample code that they have created, because writing code is more of a creative process as opposed to technical. I can go on for pages with excuses and stories I was told. One person stands out, a very qualified and advanced programmer with a platinum resume and a little arrogance. More than likely many that interview him do not know code, so he felt overly confident when meeting. When he displayed his sample code before me, within 2 minutes of scanning it I found it to be good but not efficient. I asked him why he wrote three algorithms consuming about 250 lines of code, when he could have written a single global call procedure algorithm using about 50 lines of code that would be quicker and more reliable. He responded without hesitation, “The client will never know”. Needless to say the interview was over.
In the end, I sponsored and hired several H1 employees and found them to be amazing, steady developers that have a huge desire to learn and be challenged. Why is this better than Off Shoring! Because rather than taking away from our economy these H1 employees pay US taxes. They operate under US laws and standards of security and in most cases take a true concern for the client when they meet them. They take greater pride in the work that they do, no different than our migrated forefathers that came here to the US.
Due to the current economy many of these H1 sponsorships are not being renewed and after years of training and working here in the US, these people are being forced to return to their country of origin. We then end up off shoring to the same countries because those workers are no longer here. A paradox, isn’t it? Once again my beloved country missed seeing the center sweet spot, and chose to go from one extreme to another.
Two months after I wrote this article; in November 2010 when the WikiLeaks situation arose; I received many correspondences, mostly agreeing with me and some strongly disagreeing. Let me clarify, this is not about politics or nationalism, this is about keeping the global trade at a balance and not the US not giving away our intellectual property while leaving us venerable for an economic coup.Many readers seem to think I focus on India and there is much merit to that. Taking into account the B.R.I.C. global focus group (Brazil, Russia, India & China), India is by far the US’s best and largest true democratic emerging country and India is where any US company should be setting their sights for trade. But with that do not give away our country or compromise our middle class for the sake of an easy short lived dollar. I gave an example on how Boeing & India have a 100 million dollar MRO Project, which is outstanding for both countries and does not take away from the US, but rather adds to both countries.
Ford is also in this elite intelligent business group with the “Ford Fiesta" , so far over 50,000 cars have been sold in India. But what makes this so ideal, it was designed from scratch offshore with Indian & Ford engineers, manufactured over in India with some key parts made here in the US. This is good global trading, and both countries will keep to their part, because both need each other. I realize I touched on some sensitive ground that could be misinterpret, but I hope that the reader will see this is one person’s observation, a person with an open mind that understands that this is a global economy and it is in the best interest of the US and our foreign business partners to learn and grow together, but we see where we may over shoot a good idea and where it is beneficial for both countries for many years to come.
Executives need to learn that this is not the case with Financial Software, or Banking Systems, they need to learn the many different nuances, risks and use extreme caution when offshoring our banking systems, because it looks good on paper.
I hope that this correspondence helps senior executives consider where off shoring is feasible and where it is not. We have to stop going to extremes and find that acceptable sweet spot where everyone wins.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
The Price Of Complacency
The Price Of Complacency
The Gulf oil crisis is affecting us all, and I wanted to share how this unfortunate event has consequences that can potentially alter how we all do business.
This and other similar major events smaller in magnitude are apart of our every day lives and work environment. BP shouldn't be demonized nor should they be defended; they should and will be held accountable on many levels for this horrendous disaster. But let’s look at really what happened.
When the events are looked at closely, it was revealed that clearly there was negligence and conflicting oversight by federal and internal safety departments. This is coupled with individuals ignoring over two dozen alerts and warnings that were put in place to insure that equipment was reliable. They were all ignored or bypassed. This is clearly human error. I hear people wanting to ban deep water drilling and some want to abolish drilling all together. As a person who is extremely concerned about the environment, I would love have these options as a possibility but we all know that is just not economically possible or viable by any means.
So what do we do?
When we go to our daily work, look at everything on your plate. Take nothing for granted, do not overlook or accept any flaws in your business operation. Yes, as absurd as it may seem, try to achieve perfection while incorporating efficiency.
Yesterday at ASI's staff meeting, I made it mandatory for each person to have in mind and communicate one area within ASI's systems that needs improving. No doubt I was met with opposition, but we all agreed that all of their work affects 10,000's of people. For instance, if our payroll process is not 100% correct under the 1,000's of payroll conditions possible, that has a negative effect on the client as well as the employee that views the payroll voucher and relies on it for accuracy. We thoroughly discussed each area of our systems AP, AR, GL etc, regarding accounting accuracy, scalability and performance; and how critical their work trickles to 1,000's of lives. I expect everyone to strive for perfection, the cost of not doing so is far greater than taking the time to think, care & act. I truly believe that if everyone from the CEO to the night custodian took nothing for granted, there would be a trickle down effect and obvious imperfections would not be overlooked. "Lead By Example" - culture throughout your department, then organization, then the overall economy.
For the most part we are a society of immediate gratification without looking 2 feet in front of us. We tend to go from one extreme to another without considering a center sweet spot that will put us in the path of operational utopia. In the past year, I have come across several incidences where senior executives outright shared with me that they are aware that current process it is not the right way but just do not care. This was more apparent in Health Care related firms, that really hits us all close to home. In some cases where ASI is completely transparent and not dishing out a colorful sales pitch with all the fluff, decision makers outright prefer the fluff while completely disregarding the facts. That breaks my heart especially with all the people that rely on them.
I am not saying we should all be obsessed uptight individuals seeking and chasing every flaw in our operations. But when something is clear and has a compounding effect, why not do something to make it better? I find it much easier doing a little more initial diligent effort, than working in crisis mode, chasing fires and over extending resources to get through the week or month. I see this too often, and really think we can make a change within ourselves and those around us, and possibly before you know it disasters whether like the one in the gulf or the economic disaster of 2008 where by everyone taking the economy for granted may just not happen and just over extending themselves.
I hope this is taken in the positive manner it is meant, there are over 4,600 people on ASI’s monthly newsletter whom I highly respect Maybe you may decide to forward this to your colleges or friends, just as a friendly reminder or to let them know your thoughts. Even if you disagree, that is fine, I am open to hear where I may be wrong or overextended.
http://www.argenttosystems.com/newsletters/PriceOfComplacency.htm
Above, a brown pelican is seen at East Grand Terre
Island along the Louisiana coast.
More & See More
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
ASI SWOT Analysis
I may have shared with some of you the major evolutions happening at ASI. Although I am unable to go in detail at this point I can share with some company developments.
ASI recently had been SWOT analyzed by a major accounting firm, seeking the right accounting software company to enter in a joint venture. I am very glad and humbled that we have been chosen and currently have an alliance deal in principal.
The results of the SWOT analysis were very interesting, but of no surprise to me, I just found it humorous on how it was presented to me. First and foremost ASI's Strength is our applications, the flexibility and scalability to out perform our largest competitors. I will not bore you with me tooting my horn about the ASI Applications. I do want to share with you ASI's weaknesses. Me.... That's right, but I have always known that at times I may not be the best representative for high end accounting. I can be too direct, and
sometimes curt. But this direct no hold bars honest approach has given ASI well earned success and clients do appreciate knowing when a question or concern is presented, the answer they receive is accurate.
Why am I sharing this with you? To start, ASI is transforming from a Business to a Company. I will be moving more and more away from client contact and sales. I will still the principal owner but not
the CEO, taking on more of a CTO position; working with my development staff, in advancing ASI's applications. This process will take 6months to a year to complete, due to all the training involved with sales. ASI's sales team will still stay in tack with several additions. I will still be available for all clients that I have worked with directly. That was a promise I made to all of you face to face and will be kept.
My writing a periodic correspondence to improve my communication skills is also an issue that needed to be addressed. I am more of a bullet get to the point person when it comes to communications, and this seems to be frowned upon. This is why recently you have received these correspondences. I ask you not to remove yourself so quickly from the list consisting of 2100 recipients. These correspondences will be about views and events as well as developments. They will NOT consist of me trying to sell or push any of ASI's products. At times I hope they are informative and even humorous.
Believe me this is not my forte’, I would rather chew on broken glass then write editorials. So I promise they will be different and worth reading.Thank
You All Whole Hearty,
Nick Santino. President
ASI Financials
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