Posts

Security in the Cloud

Intacct Delivers Security and Peace of Mind to Today’s Financial Teams

/0 Comments/in /by

For some, making the move away from traditional financial and accounting management systems toward an automated, digital solution can feel like a leap of faith. There’s a level of perceived security in something you can hold in your hands—the paper spreadsheets, for instance—and imagining your data floating out there in the cloud is might make you feel apprehensive. But in reality, cloud-based systems offer more control, security, and peace of mind than any manual system ever could provide. Let’s find out why.

There are Inherent Risks in a Paper-Based System

Consider an environment that depends on paper. Paper invoices, paper expense reports, paper payments, paper-filled drawers and filing cabinets, etc. Offices operating in a paper paradigm are vulnerable to data compromise and loss due to human error, misplacement of files, and even theft. What’s more, the technology they do use may run with sub-optimal environmental and system security measures, including out-of-date software, insufficient redundancy and backup, and weak firewalls.

Related: Stop Relying on Spreadsheets and Luck—There’s a Better Way

Cloud Solutions Offer Outstanding Application Security

It was uncovered at a 2013 Digital CPA Conference that information security is the primary barrier of adoption for starting to use cloud accounting services. Even so, nearly half of survey takers said they were using cloud-enabled business services to some degree in their firms, up from 44% 2012. Fast-forward to 2017, and cloud-based solutions are even more popular, as professionals get the message that the technology is sound and technology vendors are doing their due diligence to keep their customers’ data secure.

As for lingering concerns about web-based data storage, “Cloud-based accounting systems don’t actually store your data in a vapor mist in the sky,” CPA J. Carlton Collins explains in Journal of Accountancy. “Rather your accounting data are stored in world-class data centers with fortified concrete walls, steel doors, retina scans needed for entry, world-class firewalls, state-of-the-art anti-virus technology, continuous backups, and often a mirrored backup of the entire data center.

A Closer Look at Intacct’s Secure Solution

Intacct’s world-class financial management and accounting system is built on the highly reliable Oracle database infrastructure. It includes various security features that help prevent outside attacks as well as unauthorized user and program access into system processes, resources, and data—ensuring optimal safety of your digital assets.

Highlights of Intacct’s Security Features:

  • A data center that’s monitored around-the-clock and is equipped with backup power supplies and redundant network components.
  • Applications that require 2-step user verification every time a user signs on through an unrecognized device, enforced password changes and automatic session timeouts, and the option to set acceptable user log-in IP ranges.
  • System security that’s SSAE 16 SOC1 Type II and PCI DSS Level 1 certified, designed to protect your business via restricted access to production data, hardened networks and firewalls, real-time activity log tracking, automated security scanning and third party white hat penetration testing, and minimum 128-bit encryption for all data transmission.
  • Data that’s safeguarded through full daily backups to multiple locations, Continuous backups of transaction data, and secure streaming of transaction data to remote disaster recovery center.

Get full details here.

The Best Cloud Services from the Trusted Team at rinehimerbaker

As an Intacct Partner, we are proud to help growing businesses implement technology that makes it easier to manage their finances in the cloud. If you’re interested in upgrading from QuickBooks to Intacct, don’t miss the informative white paper, Outgrowing QuickBooks – How to Know When It’s Time to Change. Learn more about our services, and get in contact with us for more information.

Free up your schedule with cloud accounting

How Cloud Accounting Delivers the Hidden Value of Wasting Time

/0 Comments/in , /by

Getting more done in less time and finishing a task early. Doesn’t it sound fabulous? Also too good to be true, perhaps, because there’s always something we can do to with that extra time to be even more productive. But why not take a counter-intuitive approach: use that extra time to do anything but work. You just might get more done in the log-run. Read more

Real Cloud vs Fake Cloud

Don’t Fall into a Faux Cloud Trap

/0 Comments/in , /by

In sunny Florida, we rarely see clouds of the meteorological sense, but when they are around, it’s important to know what they mean—because stormy skies may mean we need to board up or batten down the hatches. At rinehimerbaker, we are well-versed in technological clouds, and would like to send out a PSA—don’t fall for “faux clouds.” Today, we would like to break down the differences between real cloud and  fake cloud, and share with you what each means for your growing business. Read more

Types of Software Delivery Models

What are the Different Software Delivery Methods?

/0 Comments/in /by

Last week, we introduced you to the signs that your organization is outgrowing its accounting software: Not having the reporting you need to grow, manual and error prone processes, mediocre-at-best integration, and lack of speed. For those organizations whose growth has outpaced your software’s ability to handle it, congratulations. Knowing this, however, it’s time to start looking toward the future.

As you begin to look toward new software for your company, one of the first questions you’ll be asking yourself is “How will my software be deployed?” If you’re coming from QuickBooks, it is likely that you worked with their desktop model, which, while great for basic accounting, lacked functionality as you grew and needed additional users in multiple locations.

Three Options to Consider

Knowing this, there are three main options to consider: On-premises, Hosted, and Cloud—all with advantages and criticisms.

On-Premises

With this traditional model, you license software and run it on your own servers. When considering this model, be sure to account for the capital and operating expenses associated with deployment, operations, support, customization, integration, maintenance, and upgrades.

While these costs can be too great for small and mid-sized organizations to sustain, on-premises solutions remain a viable option for some larger companies. These organizations often have a built-out IT infrastructure, investment capital, and expertise to support and maintain major software applications.

Hosted

In a hosted environment, the software physically resides at a remote data center operated by an expert third-party hosting provider. Your team would usually use a product like Citrix to access the software over the Internet and see the screens being generated at the hosting provider. This model eliminates the responsibility of maintaining hardware infrastructure, and therefore can help you avoid large upfront capital expenditures.

But it works by providing you with a unique “instance” of your financial system on a dedicated server. That means you would still face the same costs for customizations, upgrades, integration, and support and service

Multi-Tenant

Also known as “software as a service” (SaaS), these applications offer direct, always-on access to the solution, typically paid for on a per-user/per-month subscription basis. They are multitenant, which means you can unlock only your own data, but you work from a shared system—a single set of resources, application infrastructure, and database.

There are no upfront fees, capital investments, or long-term commitments because you do not buy, license, or manage the underlying hardware, software, or networking infrastructure. Upgrades are performed at no cost to you. Even if you make extensive changes to the system, your customizations “roll over” to work with the new upgrade.

Questions to Ask

When deciding on which delivery model you intend to pursue, it is important to ask yourself and the company who’s helping you choose a few important questions:

  • How long will implementation take?
  • Will customizations be affordable and easy, or time-consuming, painful, and costly?
  • Does the platform and model allow for easy integration?
  • Will the user interface be easy to use for beginners, yet feature rich for power users?
  • How often does the software update?
  • After upgrading, will updates maintain credibility with integrations?
  • Who’s doing the support? How much will it cost?
  • Who’s in control?
  • Do I own my data?
  • Will I need to make a hardware purchase?
  • If I’m using the cloud, how much uptime is guaranteed?
  • If in the cloud, what protections are taken with data?

These are some of the base level questions you’ll need to ask, but not the only ones. Be sure to get everything in writing as part of the service-level agreement. Stay tuned for a comparison of cloud, hosted, and on-premises and their ability to answer each of these questions in a future blog.

The Buyer’s Journey

Making the decision to upgrade accounting software is no small task, and should be taken with the highest gravity. For more information, please download the Buyer’s Guide to Purchasing Accounting Software from our friends at Intacct.