Accounting

Boys are always fascinated with technology especially in third world countries. This is the main reason why big American technology companies are being used by real estate developers to lure boys initially to get employed in this so called technology companies.  In the 80’s and 90’s there was a big boom of hitech manufacturing companies that only employs girls and only aging male foreigners as investors. The industry has become a scheme to hide large scale prostitution in third world countries. Cheap labor and abundance of girls, it is really a magnet to aging Americans, Europeans and Japanese. India missed this boom because of the fact that Indians easily attracts static electricity because of their natural aroma.

Then in the new millinium, internet usage exploded and online software development became a big hit in third world countries. These third world countries failed in the hitech manufacturing boom in the 80’s and 90’s and here they are again with Software Development which again is fast becoming a trend for girls to get employed in flashy offices with a little bit higher salary than offered by manufacturing companies and what is better is they dont get to wear smacks anymore. A decade has passed but none of the third world countries ever achieved first world status. Very interesting isn’t it? India and China are leading the outsourcing boom and the Philippines strongly in third place.

The Big Blue and most of its fellow so called technology companies has been maximizing their presence in these third world countries. They have deviced several processes to maximize their profitability and are therefore fully secured when trouble comes in. They can easily sell low quality software in these countries.

One of the marketing schemes employed by these so called technology companies is to advertise that they need skill sets that they have identified where their software is needed. For sure, a lot of people are looking for better opportunities so they will take the bait. Initially they will hire these people and will be deployed in a dummy project not knowing that the company that hired them has sent a proposal to their former employer offering so called better services. Then before these people reaches 6 months of employment, they get fired.

Google has invented algorithms that can be easily used by today’s Technology companies as scamming schemes. It has not confirmed but a giant technology firm has gotten away with numerous lawsuits because they have been applying this algorithms in their business dealings…it is a huge account(government in a third world country).

Here is the scheme: Company A manufactures hardware and has tie-ups with software vendors. In order for them to avoid lawsuits should a major ERP implementation fails which will be caused by their hardware, what they do is set up small technology companies that would sell their hardware and this dummy hardware vendor will enter into a contract with another third party software vendor. This is called 3-level shield. But if the implementation succeeds, the mother company will take majority of the credits. This is the equivalent of Google’s Linkwheel algorithm.

There are several scamming schemes that can be derived from Google’s Pagerank Algorithm. But so far the above mentioned method has proven to be very effective.

The major challenges in online market research is data gathering. There are several websites that provide online surveying services enabling their customers by just signing in and select numerous people that qualifies to answer their questions. But this is just one method of gathering the information needed. A very large data is needed most of the time to spot the trends and know more effectively what their respective markets prefer. Online Marketing can be made easier with a computer program called Web Spider. An Accounting Software can also have this module to monitor progress online market research activities.

An Online Marketer needs to know where people go most of the time when they are online. And basically the first step that he will look for is to know the top ten online activities. Immediately, he will think that they are in facebook, twitter, reading email, doing some online research on google, watching video on youtube, participating in online discussion boards and playing online games.The next step is how will he ever be able to catch his targeted market’s attention aside from placing extensive ads in facebook, twitter and google adwords. The main objective is to basically reach out to the targeted market and not the whole world, especially when he is marketing an Accounting Software and he just want it only be visible to people involved in Accounting related profession. Pay per click(PPC) advertising can be very expensive and more often will not be very effective if the main goal is just to increase brand awareness and recognition.

A web spider or a crawler can help online marketers gather more accurate information from the web. It is a computer program just like what most popular search engines use. Web Crawlers are the ones responsible for gathering vital information which later on will be classified and will be further transformed into useful information. Google uses crawlers to classify websites based on what the rules that has been set by Google’s Computer Scientists. The algorithm used is very sophisticated and uses Artificial Intelligence related technologies.Online marketers can not take advantage of available data gathered by Google because most of the time, their requirement is different from the rules set by Google. These rules are unique in every products and services so a customized web crawler is often needed.

Very large Accounting Software usually slows down as the data grows rapidly. All tasks can be broken down into smaller tasks to produce the result in a faster way and more efficiently. This idea is behind the principles of Parallel Programming. If you have noticed, Intel and AMD has been producing multicore processors for almost 10 years now because they know that Personal Computers can be a lot more faster and energy efficient if the microprocessors have several cores. Parrallel Programming is also going to see its glory days when the Quantum Computer is already a reality.According to Blaise Barney, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:In the simplest sense, parallel computing is the simultaneous use of multiple computer resources to solve a computational problem:

• To be run using multiple CPUs
• A problem is broken into discrete parts that can be solved concurrently
• Each part is further broken down to a series of instructions
• Instructions from each part execute simultaneously on different CPUs

Historically, parallel computing has been considered to be “the high end of computing”, and has been used to model difficult scientific and engineering problems found in the real world. Some examples:

• Atmosphere, Earth, Environment
• Physics - applied, nuclear, particle, condensed matter, high pressure, fusion, photonics
• Bioscience, Biotechnology, Genetics
• Chemistry, Molecular Sciences
• Geology, Seismology
• Mechanical Engineering - from prosthetics to spacecraft
• Electrical Engineering, Circuit Design, Microelectronics
• Computer Science, Mathematics

Parallel Programming is currently supported by Microsoft .Net framework on a high level. An ideal parallel programming environment on a high level software development environment would be:

• A process can be defined dynamically
• The CPU can be selected during run time
• The programmer can assign which process will be assigned to the CPU

If Parallel Programming is exploited, I am sure that hardware cost will be reduced and Accounting Softwares will become more efficient.

The main application of Fuzzy Logic is optimization just like what I have previously posted. A highly optimized business process always results to faster and more efficient delivery of goods and services translating to huge savings. This is the main reason why so many Accounting Software today has integrated an algorithm that is highly optimized to make processing of Accounting Data so much faster.

To demonstrate how Fuzzy Logic works, we will solve a common problem: controlling the temperature in the room. Fuzzy Logic is used to maintain the temperature at an optimized level. The optimized level here is predefined by the end user. Supposed our optimized level normal temperature level is between 22 to 24 degrees centegrade.

Fuzzy set theory defines fuzzy operators on fuzzy sets. The problem in applying this is that the appropriate fuzzy operator may not be known. For this reason, fuzzy logic usually uses IF-THEN rules, or constructs that are equivalent.

Rules are usually expressed in the form:
IF variable IS property THEN action

In our example, the simple temperature regulator that uses a 2 fans and an aircon might look like this:

IF temperature IS very cold THEN stop fans and aircon
IF temperature IS cold THEN turn down fans and aircon
IF temperature IS normal THEN maintain level
IF temperature IS hot THEN speed up fan and turn on aircon

There is no “ELSE” – all of the rules are evaluated, because the temperature might be “cold” and “normal” at the same time to different degrees.

There is no doubt that there exists an unofficial communication pipeline with questionable information merely to stir up controversy in the workplace. This can offer devastating results to every organization if not handled properly. It can not be eradicated.  It is there as a means to be leveraged by toxic employees and managers to advance there economic and political  interest.

I used to be at this high tech ERP Consulting firm that includes Accounting Software implementation, and there is one employee who always gets updated news ahead of everyone else. She starts spreading this unofficial information before the actual announcement. Her information is quite accurate but I suspect, the management is using her to stir controversies. But I view her as making the organization weaker and other bullying employees can leverage her situation and can fall victim and suffer major catastrophic consequences. She’s playing a dangerous game I must say.

Spreading out rumors can promote distrust and disrespect among employees and can become a major conflict and hinder growth and development of the organization. It should therefore be squelched fairly quickly to prevent people from getting hurt.

Tracing the source of the rumor can be easy using Social Networking Analysis(I heard this term while watch an episode of the tv series “Numb3rs”).  Social network analysis [SNA] is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities. I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject so I advice you to just check what it is by googling the keyword “Social Networking Analysis” for further reading.

Two years ago, I featured an issue about the two giant business software makers(Oracle and SAP) fighting over copyright infringements “Oracle sues SAP over ’stolen’ software“. The details of the matter is that SAP has stolen propreitary algorithms from Oracle and used it to gain at least 400 new clients.

And today, it is all over the news that Orcale won the case and SAP will pay Oracle $1.3B in damages.  You can read the rest of the story here. Copyright infringement is a serious offense in the IT Industry. You can see the reason and explanation why it is so in my previous post entitled “Copyright Infringement in the Software Industry“. Enforcing copyrights is vital to maintaining a healthy technology industry and funding innovation.

The effect of the Jury’s decision is very devastating to SAP’s reputation and a golden moment for Oracle. So who do think will reign as leader in the Business Software Industry particularly Accounting Software? Despite this issue, innovation, existing support industry, competency of the consultants will still be the name of the game…I am not sure if people in the industry should look at this issue seriously.

by: Hunter Richards(Guest Blogger)

Employment  in accounting is expected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to undergo “much faster than average” growth between now and 2018 - the field is resilient even in these dreary economic times. But anyone moving to a career in accounting should must gain practical skills in advance to stand out from the rest of the crowd with the best resume. The most marketable skills involve accounting software experience.

Information from five hundred randomly-selected accounting job posts from Monster.com, Career Builder, Craigslist, Simply Hired, and Accounting Jobs Today have shown which software skills employers most often desire in their new applicants. Some strategic lessons have arisen for accounting job applicants who want to find the best training and maximize their chances of landing a job.

Key Takeaways

You simply must know Microsoft Excel to even be considered as a candidate for accounting jobs. But the more sophisticated software - including deeper accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems - is not quite as clear. However, the key research findings have uncovered important lessons that will help you get a good accounting job:

• When finding your first job, look for a company that uses a “big name,” widely-used accounting system like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle. That will improve your odds of getting hired next time you’re in the market for a new position.
• More and more companies are focused on business intelligence - the tools that analyze financial data to uncover business trends and opportunities. Try to gain experience in Business Objects, Crystal Reports, Cognos, etc.
• If you’re looking to work in a big corporation, you should learn systems like SAP and Oracle. If mid-size companies are your preference, learn Sage and Microsoft Dynamics. Quickbooks skills are always in demand, but especially by smaller companies.
• As the Microsoft Dynamics products converge, knowing any one of these systems will give you transferable skills across the entire Dynamics product line. For now, Dynamics GP appears to be in highest demand.
• Don’t get too comfortable with PeopleSoft or JD Edwards; although they are often mentioned by employers, they’re likely to decline in use as Oracle migrates to its Fusion apps. But it’ll take a while, so skills with these systems are still valuable.

Hunter Richards is a blogger for Software Advice, a free online resource with reviews, comparisons, and analysis of accounting software. His original article on tech skills for the accounting job hunt can be found here.

Many organizations have certain behavioral and ethical standards for its employees to follow. This is really true when you are in a very prestigious IT Consulting Company. Somehow it can be at least be tolerated if not done frequently but when it is abused and overdone…it will result in a catastrophic consequence. Companies like those in the Accounting Software Development industry needs to maintain and constantly improve lines of communications between its employees and the use of appropriate words(obscene and curse words) are not tolerated.

There are certain individuals in the industry that would find weakness of other people and use this weakness to harass that person with frequent use of jokes to express their hate towards this person using obscene and profane words very frequently. The unsuspecting victim was clueless not until he is able to see the result when his productivity was severely affected and all the odds has slowly turned against him unaware that his weakness was being attacked and taken advantage of. If you are as innocent as this person and unable to detect early the motive of these bullying individuals, it will harder for you to succeed in life.  Always remember that you as an employee is entitled to a good and proper working environment not a hostile environment. Hostile Work Environment refers to harassment or discrimination that is a violation of a person’s civil rights - based on gender, sexual orientation, race, color, nationality, ancestry, ethnic origin, religion, physical handicap/disability, medical condition, physical appearance, marital status, veteran status, education. Harassment in so may forms and variants in the office is prevalent nowadays because of resources getting scarce and some people would take advantage of any opportunity available in order to survive.

Each and everyone of us must be strong enough to fight these people by knowing the rules and if these rules are violated, do not hesitate to escalate to your superiors so that appropriate actions against the offender will be vested upon. Of course, you should be aware of office politics and gather enough evidence to support your claims. So is profanity in the workplace cool? No, of course not!

Quickstudy by Russell Kay. Computerworld (August 30, 2004). “The digital computing world is built on a structure of Boolean logic applied to binary values — one or zero, yes or no, in or out. But this powerful structure is a gross oversimplification of the real world, where many shades of gray exist between black and white. In everyday life, we use quasimetric notions that are clearly related to numerical concepts or values but lack precision or demarcation. … The real world simply doesn’t map well to binary distinctions, and numerical precision is often unhelpful in making qualitative statements. Fuzzy logic gives us a way to deal with such situations. In fuzzy systems, values are indicated by a number (called a truth value) in the range from 0 to 1, where 0.0 represents absolute falseness and 1.0 represents absolute truth. While this range evokes the idea of probability, fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets operate quite differently from probability.”

Fuzzy Logic has a wide range of application especially in solving Logistics Optimization Problems which are widely found in most Accounting Software that integrates Logistics Management. A sample  application is the distribution centers location problem which is concerned with how to select distribution centers from the potential set so that the total relevant cost is minimized. Other applications which Fuzzy Logic is used to solve the problems are depot location-allocation problems, vehicle routing problems, and inventory control problems which are three key problems in optimizing logistics distribution systems.

Fuzzy Logic requires some numerical parameters in order to operate such as what is considered significant error and significant rate-of-change-of-error, but exact values of these numbers are usually not critical unless very responsive performance is required in which case empirical tuning would determine them. Fuzzy Logic was conceptualized by  Lotfi Zadeh, a professor at the University of California at Berkley. And today, his work can be found in major Software and Hardware that solves optimization problems.

I found another very interesting way to build up your empire to increase your chance of success in your online marketing/branding effort for your Accounting Software and that is broadcasting your tweets. Like we all know, a lot of microblogging platforms are available today but then Twitter is the most popular because it is being used by almost 100 million people and still growing very very rapidly. But by far, it is just second to Facebook which is not just a microblogging platform but a full featured social networking platform which means it has a wider reach and is currently being used by more than 250 million people. LinkedIn is also a full featured networking site but has a different niche because it focuses more on building up your career. But there is one problem, all these three have very uninteresting appeal to website owners, webmasters and bloggers and that is, all of the links are nofollow which means it is worthless for SEO. But then here comes Identi.ca, a microblogging platform similar to Twitter but not as popular. The only advantage of Identi.ca over the previous three I mentioned earlier is that the links are dofollow which means it has a lot of value for SEO.

Then probably you might wonder what is the relationship of these four Social Networking/Microblogging platforms? If you look more closely, you can maximize your web presence by broadcasting your tweets into them.

The simplest way to broadcast your tweets is you enter your tweets from Hootsuite, then Hootsuite updates Ping.fm, then Ping.fm updates Identi.ca, then Indeti.ca updates your Twitter and  Twitter updates your Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also add
Twitter widgets to your website/blog and add another service like Friendfeed. I did not discussed the details on how to setup the communications between each platform but it should be easy.