Special Program Features

Certified Products

• Product Certification is a program initiated by Solutions in late 1999 and designed to give our subscribers an increased level of comfort with respect to the accuracy and consistency of vendor responses in our database.
• This is a voluntary program but currently features 20+ products including all of the significant mid-market players.
• We meet with each vendor every year and review their product in detail for two days, making them prove to us every single response.
• We are the final decision maker for every response, not the vendor.
• Every certified product will be identified in all reports so that you can see at a glance which products have been certified and which ones have not.
• You can even examine a 12+ page report for each certified products that describes the organization, the product, and where they are taking this product.

Vendor Responses

• Solutions updates its database twice each year and stays in constant contact with each vendor to make sure that the information is both current and accurate.
• When an update from a vendor is received Solutions tests that product against a standard needs definition to determine the product's ranking as compared against similar products. If the ranking seems to be either too high or two low, Solutions will contact the vendor and discuss the situation. No update will be added to our database unless we are comfortable with the product information.
• Vendors do not just answer Yes/No to the questions we have asked. That's just too simplified. The Accounting Software Library allows vendors to tell you how requirements can be met if they are not part of the core application. This implies that either the vendor or more likely a reseller or other product expert can add the functionality you require.
• Since one vendor's response may be Yes and another vendor might respond Modification to the same question, you have complete control over how each of these responses are interpreted by the program for ranking purposes. If you feel a vendor should not receive full credit for a response such as Modification, then you can discount that response for ranking purposes by anything up to 100%.
• Yes: The requirement can be met by existing functions and reports within the system.
• No: There is no economical way the requirement can be met other than by heavily modifying the system. Obviously all products can be modified but the real question is whether such a modification will cost too much.
• Report Writer: The data is available to generate the report but you would have to create the report yourself.
• Third Party Product: The requirement is not available in the core application but can be purchased from a third party (reseller or other independent source).
• Added Field: This information is not currently tracked by the system but you can add a field to track it.
• Future Release: The vendor will be adding this feature or report to the system in less than one year.
• Customization: Many products support some form of customization tool that allows the product to be modified but without having to change source code or write an application.
• Modification: This reply indicates that the requirement can be met only by modifying the product through source code or the creation of a new application.

Manuals

• The Accounting Software Library is not just a program with limited documentation. This is a comprehensive tool dedicated to providing you all of the resources you need.
• You will receive a two volume set of manuals that literally take you by the hand and lead you through the entire software selection process.
• For those organizations with limited accounting experience we start with some basic principles concerning the nature of automated accounting systems.
• We will help you understand how to organize this process, who should be involved, critical steps, pitfalls to avoid, and how you change what might be somewhat vague notions into rock solid requirements.
• We will even help you understand some of the fundamentals of process improvement as this is an ideal time to literally take your company apart and put it back together even more efficient and effective than you may have thought possible.
• We will help you understand how the analysis program works and of greater importance how to utilize the information it provides.
• Once you have used the analysis program to help you identify likely candidates, we will help you understand how to evaluate each finalist as you talk to the vendor or their resellers, how to control the evaluation process, what questions you should ask, and how you should conduct and control the evaluation of demonstrations.
• Finally we will help you pull all of the information you have gathered into that critical final purchase decision.

Consulting Support

• Although our manuals have been designed to help you through this difficult and frustrating process, that may not be sufficient for some people.
• Technical support is a given but we carry our support to the limit.
• You have the right to call us as much as you need to, discuss anything you want to, and talk to us for as long as is necessary so that you feel comfortable moving forward.
• All of these services are provided free of charge.
• No other provider offers this level of service.