by Michael Reinhart | Aug 13, 2015 | Business, Small Business
There are lots of opinions about the importance of constant improvement of your business operations, but no on puts it as succinctly as Andy Lark, CMO of Xero.
I’ve seen it over and over. Small businesses spend some time and money implementing a system that’s monolithic in nature, overly bulky, expensive, and inflexible. “That’s what our accountant said we should use”. Or “I saw the ad on TV during The Masters”.
Companies like SAP, Sage, Intuit, or even Microsoft spend millions convincing you that their product is what you need. Instead, talk to us about a better approach. We can save you money, AND make your company more agile. We’ll show you how to innovate, navigate change, and evolve your business technology constantly, so you can be one of the sharks.
by Michael Reinhart | Aug 4, 2015 | Balance, Creativity
Do your clients think you’re always on call?
As a business person running your own company, it’s easy to fall into a routine of keeping your iPhone beside your bed, answering text messages and emails from the moment you open your eyes in the morning, to the moment you shut them at night.
iPads, MacBook Air, iPhone, The Cloud… all this beautiful technology to help you do the work of many makes it too easy to lose touch with what’s really important.
Join us this weekend for a one day Digital Detox. Turn all your devices off– that’s right, completely off. No “sleep mode” or airplane mode. Right off. Pick a day… Saturday or Sunday, but do it for a full 24 hours, then let us know how it went. On Friday August 7th, we’ll be shutting down at 4pm on Friday and won’t be back until Saturday at 4pm.
We believe we’ll accomplish these things and more:
– strengthen our family
– boost productivity
– sleep better
– be happier
– save a few “carbon credits”
– reduce anxiety
Good luck.
by Michael Reinhart | Jul 7, 2015 | Highlights
Small businesses depend on their email more than ever, and too often when we’re introduced to a new client, we find considerable weaknesses in their email systems.
One of the best things we bring to our new SME (Small and medium-sized enterprise) clients is a kind of standardization of their email infrastructure– essentially introducing “commercial grade” systems to replace “consumer grade” systems.
In our experience, costs for these kinds of systems, specifically some flavour of “in-house” Microsoft Exchange server, would start at about the $5,000 mark for equipment, and would come with some requirement for oversight in the form of an I.T. employee or an expensive maintenance contract with a traditional I.T. company. And if your business needs any form of archival for it’s incoming and outgoing email, the costs increase greatly. If we estimated the cost of the I.T. oversight at $500 per month (which is uncommonly conservative), and the cost for an archival solution at $1,800 per year, that puts the 3 year amortized cost at about $25,000.
Our Rackspace Hosted Exchange Complete bundle, a truly “Best of Breed” solution, changes all that. For a 10 user small business, 3 year amortized costs would be about $5,400. But there are a bunch of things about this approach that make it even more remarkable:
- 1 Terabyte of Storage for mailboxes
- Worry free backup and redundancy
- Unparalleled availability (that is, you’ll never have to worry that your mail server is offline because your local internet provider is janky).
- No need to interact with a grumpy I.T. guy
And possibly one of the most compelling things is the ability to have complete insight into all the Intellectual Property assembled inside your email system. Every email message, replete with all the attachments– budget spreadsheets, customer quotes, legal documents, etceteras, all become easily searchable by anyone in your organization that needs that capability.
Contact us today to talk about making your email system serve you better.
by Michael Reinhart | Jun 10, 2015 | Business, Highlights, Small Business
In today’s competitive business world, companies must evolve if they are to survive and thrive.
Today, 1 week after attending the annual Xero conference in Denver, Above Studio 1 attained Bronze Certified Partner status from Xero, maker of the world’s most beautiful accounting software for small to medium sized businesses.
Edmonton based Above Studio 1 is a hybrid Accounting and Technology firm. As Apple Certified Consultants, Xero certified partners, and Cloud experts, they can help reinvent a company’s processes and technology for growth, efficiency, security, and happiness.
“We know business and technology, and we can get you off those PCs and onto gorgeous equipment, beautiful accounting software, and smart cloud integrated systems” said Michael Reinhart, Above Studio 1 founder. “We’ve seen so many clients suffering pain and bleeding money because of stodgy, decrepit, and restrictive PC based systems. We liberate you from the old world.”
Suzanne Morter (CMA), Above Studio 1’s lead Consulting Accountant and Certified Xero Advisor will guide clients on the journey to Cloud based accounting.
Xero announced on June 4th, 2015 that they’re involved in a strategic partnership with Apple, Vend, and Deputy to provide specialized solutions aimed at revolutionizing the business of retail using Apple’s iOS devices.
About Xero
Xero (@Xero; ASX/NZX: XRO) is beautiful, easy to use online accounting software for small businesses and their advisors. Xero has over 500,000 subscribers in more than 180 countries, and seamlessly integrates with over 400 third party tools. Xero was ranked No. 1 by Forbes as the World’s Most Innovative Growth Companyin 2014 and 2015.
About Above Studio 1
Above Studio 1 is Alberta’s best consultancy for evolving the Information Technology systems of small to medium sized businesses. Above Studio 1 uses modern techniques and products to help businesses get the most bang for their IT buck, allowing business people focus on the things that make them happy.
by Michael Reinhart | Mar 1, 2015 | Highlights
I’m delighted to announce that Suzanne Morter (CMA, B.Mgt.) has joined our team.
Now, our clients can benefit from “turn-key” accounting setup, bookkeeping counsel, and “business intelligence”– and they’ll also love her warm, energetic and tactical approach.
From Suzanne’s LinkedIn page:
At the end of the day, your life will be easier, you will have more time on your hands and you will know, at any moment, exactly how your business is fairing.
Ultimately, we believe that Cloud technology and innovation will change the way business is run forever.
Contact us today to talk about how Cloud integrated software will change your business. We’re ready to help you grow!
