Mark Smith: Using Office Accounting As Part Of Business Convergence

By Lynn Yoffee

What does a 23-year-old from a farming family in America's heartland know about custom computer solutions? A lot, if you're Mark A. Smith, founder of 10-year-old Bourbon Computer Solutions in Bourbon, Indiana.

 

Smith isn't "just" a computer genius He understands how business, IT, and communications must converge to deliver success and maximize his clients' potential. He approaches every new job with that big picture in mind.

 

"We started in 1998, and originally we had the idea that we could be a local computer systems builder," Smith says. "Through that, we slowly started acquiring larger customers. and we wound up in the mid-size business segment concentrating on ERP and CRM. Now we focus on two main areas: establishing network infrastructures and solving business process problems."

 

Microsoft products are at the core of what he uses to help businesses solve problems, including Office Accounting, for which his company can provide customization services. "We try to make Office Accounting work the way you want to make your business work," Smith says.

 

Bourbon's biggest success story centers around a client who is a wholesale distributor of large geothermal systems.

 

Hoosier Energy Associates, Inc., had 22 years of financial data on its peer-to-peer network, and the company had been using DacEasy and Excel to facilitate accounting tasks.

 

"When we first came on site with this company, it took them 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete an invoice or quote," he says. "It was partly done in Excel and then an office lady would check an old DacEasy version, circa 1988, and then they would make alterations to invoices by hand using white out. Finally, they would fax the form to clients." Now they can do that whole process in 5 minutes with Microsoft Office Accounting.

 

His company also helped to move all of Hoosier's accounting data from 1977 to present to Office Accounting.

 

"They love Office Accounting, and are addicted to the Business Contact Manager/Office Accounting duo," he says.

 

They move much more quickly now, and the company is more nimble. They now have clearer snapshots of their company's financial status. Every morning when they walk in, they know where they stand financially.

 

One of the reasons Smith finds that selling Office Accounting to his clients is so easy is familiarity. "Many of these small- to medium-sized companies use Outlook, and Office Accounting has been able to retain that feel. So it's a very familiar product," he says.

 

The other beneficial selling point is workflows within the Office Accounting interface. Start with a quote or estimate and it moves you right through the steps. "That's helpful because in small business, you deal with people who don’t have a formal business background," he says.

 

In the past, Smith and Bourbon were fans of other accounting software packages. "But our biggest gripe with QuickBooks is that it's very stringent. It's not malleable software. It's business ERP out of a box. Office Accounting is flexible for a business."

 

On the other end of the spectrum is Sage's Peachtree, which Smith says has a level of customization that can be, "…overbearing to get the software to work. Office Accounting provides a platform that hits the right medium. For a certain type of client, it works perfect right out of the box. For other clients, we can do some customization with add-ons," he says.

 

As a certified Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Smith and his company are also able to help their clients grow. Once Bourbon gets a client's accounting process out of a shoebox and into Office Accounting, Smith can help to infuse an organization with a new levels of customer intelligence and targeted marketing using Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM, which enables users to create a centralized repository of customer data that sits neatly alongside Microsoft Office and Outlook.

 

From Outlook, employees access Microsoft CRM sales, marketing, and customer service modules to make sales decisions, market products, solve problems, and get strategic views of the business.

 

"Bourbon Computer Solutions is all about helping with the convergence of our clients' businesses to connect people, unify communications, and share data," Smith says.

 

 Editor’s Note: Smith's business has not only catapulted a smart group of small- to medium-size businesses from archaic accounting practices to paperless transaction environments, but the company itself has financed Smith's college education. He is about to graduate from Purdue University with a degree in biotechnology with intentions of building a new, genetically stronger honeybee to address current concerns that the U.S. honeybee population is dying of a mysterious disease. Honeybees are important to U.S. agriculture because they pollinate more than 90 different crops, which links Smith back to his family's farming traditions.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Microsoft.