System stretching

How many phone calls does it take
your customers to access their
account information? Sounds like the introduction to a bad joke, but in reality, if
your answer is anything but “zero,” your
organization may already be falling behind
the competition.

“The biggest change in today’s business
systems is the extension of them across
not only the enterprise, but out to customers, vendors and employees,” says Tom
Mescall, Partner-in-Charge of the IT
Solutions Department, Armanino Mc-Kenna LLP. “Now you can take information
that has traditionally been kept behind the
four walls of your company and put it out
to others in a secure environment.”

Smart Business recently spoke with
Mescall about the evolution of the Internet
and how today’s systems can be stretched
into collaborative and efficient portals for
employees, customers and vendors.

Have we reached a point where all businesses must consider extending their systems
beyond traditional processes?

Absolutely. The companies I talk to aren’t
doing this because the technology is available or they think it’s cool; they’re doing it
because their business partners are asking
for it. Customers are asking for electronic
invoicing and ordering systems, shipping
statuses and purchase histories because
it’s more cost effective. It’s always coming
from a business perspective. Large and
strategic customers are pushing companies for these solutions, but companies can
then turn around and make this technology
a selling point to the next customer or vendor with whom they are trying to partner.

What are portals, and how are they creating
new levels of collaboration within companies
and between customers and vendors?

Internally, portals are a virtual place for
knowledge workers to complete their
work, or at least organize their work and
their collaboration around that work,
through their company’s Internet-based
platforms. Traditionally, employees who
needed a report would call and ask another employee to look up and send them this
information. Portals allow employees, in a
self-service mode, to find and consume this information. In our global economy, portal
technologies also allow employees to better collaborate with other employees that
are not close geographically.

Externally, companies are creating portals for customers and vendors so these
partners can come in to look at and consume information, check order and shipping statuses, review purchase histories
and other vital functions.

How do you implement these systems without compromising security?

This is an extremely important point that
needs to be considered upfront. It’s largely
based on your current network set-up, firewall and overall network architecture. If
the goal is to extend your systems out to
customers so they can review orders and
invoices, then you need to make sure they
can’t also access your entire price list, HR
data or sensitive personal information.
Anytime you face information out toward
the Internet, you risk security penetration.
We recommend that our customers do
quarterly penetration testing to assess if
somebody is hitting their systems from the
Net and determine how far they can go in
without being detected or blocked. As
technology changes, hackers get more
ingenious and viruses and worms get more sophisticated — new methods come along
that can make you more susceptible to
attack.

How does extending key systems change the
way a company operates?

The big message is that it’s bringing companies closer together because many of the
tasks that previously were performed internally now can be shared with customers or
suppliers. It really provides a level of service that’s higher than an individual company can provide. Extending your systems to
employees allows them to become more
efficient, and a natural outgrowth of this
efficiency is the ability to grow a company
without adding as many heads.

How can companies best integrate system
extensions and portals?

There has to be good vision from the top,
and embracing of the latest technologies.
From there, a dedicated person from each
area of the business should bring the catalyst to the forefront. For example, somebody from customer service should be
driving how to share information with customers so they can get ordering information, order status reports and be able to
execute returns online. Meanwhile, the
finance manager is driving how to better
share financial information to all the key
managers around the company, no matter
where they are. What we usually see is
business driving the change, and then the
key IT staff understanding what needs to
be accomplished and figuring out how it
will get done. In the end, people can do
their work more easily, without relying on
IT to generate as much information.

An outside resource can bring in best
practices and describe how other companies have done it and what tools and technologies were used. The first project may
feel like foreign territory, but the success
and knowledge gained is brought along for
the second, third and fourth project, and
reliance on the outside consultant typically
is reduced.

TOM MESCALL is Partner-in-Charge of the IT Solutions
Department. Armanino McKenna LLP is based in San Ramon and
is a Microsoft Presidential-level partner. Contact Tom at (925)
790-2600 or [email protected].