“I am proud to work for Eide Bailly” is a statement attributed to our strong culture that 100% of our employees agree with. Learn more about Eide Bailly, ranked #10 in Vault’s list of top accounting firms, with this infographic:
SharePoint Ideal for the Oil and Gas Industry
Oil and gas companies employ thousands of workers to manage wide-ranging business processes of energy exploration and research, production, storing and extensive networks of distribution, sales and marketing. In a growing business operation that we are seeing in the state of North Dakota, there’s a massive amount of data that’s being gathered and stored on a daily basis in a number of different systems. I call this “islands of automation”. Every system is separate–they have their own rules and methods of collecting and managing that data. You see separate systems for customer data, project data, financial data, and marketing data, and in the energy field you can have systems exclusive for each country.
This can be a challenge for employees as they need to find vital information in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the data is generated in multiple systems and that can mean countless hours of trying to search in different systems. The results are higher costs of doing business, organizational inefficiency and lack of information that could result in customer dissatisfaction.
In today’s business world, where data is king for organizations, it costs too much money for a company to not have the ability to manage that data in a timely manner.
The good news is energy companies can overcome these inefficiencies using SharePoint 2010. SharePoint 2010 has the ability to resolve these difficulties with their enterprise search functionality and the ability to integrate data from other systems within an organization. When organizations utilize the SharePoint search with the Business Connectivity Services functionality, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can be integrated and make it part of the search results. This can be critical to energy companies that need information at their fingertips in a timely manner.
SharePoint also provides organizations the ability to search external sources, such as external file systems, corporate Intranet sites that aren’t hosted in SharePoint, and even web sites. When energy companies utilize SharePoint, they can integrate data from multiple disparate systems and make that data available to all business users.
When organizations in the oil and gas sector have this ability, they can empower their employees by providing data that helps them make effective decisions. Leveraging the power of SharePoint can quickly turn your growing organization into a well-organized and responsive energy company.
My Taco Has a QR Code
(Hear first hand how you can use QR codes to promote your business: Demystifying QR Codes)
QR Code is the trademark for the square, black-and-white images that have become ubiquitous in our smartphone-crazed culture. You’ve probably seen them on products in your house, billboards around town, and maybe even on the cardboard wrapper around your taco. That’s where I found one the last time my family ate at Taco Bell!
We’ve all become accustomed to barcodes because of their widespread use as unique product identifiers. QR Codes, like barcodes, store information in a format that can be scanned and interpreted electronically. Barcodes can store up to 20 numeric values, but must be scanned by a properly aligned beam of light. Because QR Codes are two-dimensional, they can store over 7,000 characters of data. In addition, the three distinctive squares at the corners of a QR Code allow it to be scanned at a variety of sizes, orientations, and viewing angles.
In 1994, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, invented QR Codes to track vehicle parts during the manufacturing process. As you might have guessed, there is a patent on the QR Code, though Denso Wave has chosen not to exercise their patent rights. As a result, QR Codes have spread into a variety of industries.
Because QR Codes can be scanned and read by any smartphone, they are an ideal way to get a quick response. When you scan a QR Code, you’ll get one of four types of information based on a published ISO standard:
- Plain text – Consider placing a QR Code at the registration table for your next event. When it is scanned, additional information about the agenda, keynote speaker, or door prize registration details is delivered to the attendee.
- vCard Contact – Inserting a QR Code in the signature block of your e-mail or adding one to your current business card means your contact information is added efficiently and correctly every time. Adding one to the name tags for your next convention means instant networking potential.
- URI/Web Address –Web addresses, especially social networking profile pages, can be frustrating to type and remember. Providing a QR Code that links to your website, blog, or social networking page means immediate connectivity.
- Send Message – Collecting basic information can be accomplished by scanning a QR Code that creates a message to an address you specify.
In June 2011, 14 million mobile users scanned a QR Code or a barcode 1. This number is sure to increase as new ideas for utilizing QR Codes are developed. Restaurants can more readily share allergen information. Retail stores can issue coupons and special offers. Event centers can provide maps to concessions, souvenir tables, and the tradeshow floor. QR Codes provide opportunities to solve these business problems in
an efficient, interactive way.
Eide Bailly can help your organization take advantage of the flexibility, ease of use, and rapid growth of QR Codes. Contact us today to start getting quick responses from your customers.
By the way, I scanned the QR Code on my taco before I took my first bite!
1 comScore.Com (http://goo.gl/kRJuo)
Shelley Earsley Named Partner at Eide Bailly
Shelley Earsle
y, Director of Consulting for Eide Bailly’s technology consulting, has been made Partner at Eide Bailly. Shelley is among nine staff members who have been accepted into the partnership at Eide Bailly LLP, a regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm.
“We’re very excited to have these dedicated professionals welcomed into our partnership. They exemplify the Firm’s spirit of service and bring focused expertise and a wealth of experience to our clients,” says Jerry Topp, Managing Partner/CEO of Eide Bailly. “As a Firm focused on growth, our partners provide the solid foundation of leadership that keeps us moving forward.”
Shelley is a CPA and has more than 13 years of experience providing strategic business and information technology consulting. Her expertise includes business process consulting, work flow analysis and integration of business processes into technology, solution analysis and implementation and systems integration.
She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the North Dakota Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Project Management Institute. Shelley’s located in Fargo, N.D., where she is very active in volunteer and leadership positions in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Earsley joined Eide Bailly in 1994 and is a graduate of the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.
Congratulations to Shelley on this well-deserved distinction!
Eide Bailly Sponsors Contest for Minnesota Business Entrepreneurs
Eide Bailly LLP,is sponsoring the Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Division for the 8th Annual Minnesota Cup.
This statewide competition encourages entrepreneurs, inventors, small businesses and students to submit breakthrough business ideas in an effort to compete for $200,000 in prize money. “This is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs to move Minnesota forward with new business ideas and also take us to the forefront in the ‘clean’ revolution. It promotes innovation in this advancing field,” says James Schmidt, an Eide Bailly partner who serves the renewable energy industry and will be a judge on the Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Review Board.
The Minnesota Cup is the largest statewide “new venture” competition in the country. Along with renewable energy, entrants may compete in BioScience & Health IT, High Tech, Social Entrepreneurship, General and Student categories. Along with prizes, the competition affords entrants the opportunity to advance their new business ideas by connecting with business leaders from the University of Minnesota, Wells Fargo, Carlson, General Mills, United Health Group and various government leaders within the State of Minnesota.
Since the Minnesota Cup began in 2005, more than 6,000 Minnesotans have participated. Eide Bailly has sponsored the competition for four years. Finalists from 2009-2011 have succeeded in raising $45 million in capital, creating jobs and have brokered numerous business partnerships and distribution agreements. All entrepreneurs are encouraged to enter, from those who are just forming their vision to those who have started their business venture. Visit www.minnesotacup.org
to enter by May 18, 2012.
Security Considerations When Choosing A Cloud Storage Provider
Cloud storage is becoming a popular commodity for business and home users. Services like Amazon S3 Dropbox, SpiderOak, and SugarSync, boast feature-rich offerings that enable users to backup, sync, and store documents and files. Several questions come into consideration when choosing a cloud storage provider that will suit your needs best. The context of this article aims to raise questions users should be considering when choosing a cloud storage service, including those pertaining to security.
First and foremost, it is important to distinguish cloud storage from cloud backup services. While cloud backups focus primarily on the retention/recovery of data, cloud storage extends the backup offering by supplementing services such as device syncing, document versioning, etc. Cloud storage solutions in the context of this article typically do not position well as an enterprise solution, although some service providers do offer the option.
As a general rule, there are basic questions worth looking into when considering a cloud storage service:
- How much storage do I need?
This is sometimes a tough question to answer, and will vary from user to user. The answer depends heavily on how many files and how big the files are that need to be backed up/synced between devices.
- What is the cost of the service?
Most of the services on the market offer free usage of their services, but limit the free accounts to a small amount of data (typically between two and five gigabytes). When users require more storage space, the storage providers offer payment plans, most often on a monthly or yearly schedule. Also, there are a couple of primary models: buying storage in blocks or chunks (e.g. 20 gigabytes or 100 gigabytes), and buying storage in actual gigabytes used.
- Is there a cost for transferring files (bandwidth usage)?
Some service providers charge a small fee to transfer files to and from the cloud or limit the allotted bandwidth to a certain amount. Once the bandwidth transfer amount is exceeded, the speeds are throttled to a slower rate or transfer charges incur.
- What platforms are supported?
This again varies from user to user. Someone with several devices that he or she wants to back up and sync will want to consider a service provider that supports several platforms. Popular platforms include: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, BlackBerry, and iOS.
Security considerations should play a role in choosing a cloud storage service as well. Consider the following:
- Is my data stored within the cloud encrypted?
Almost all cloud storage providers offer some form of data encryption; meaning, you need a “digital key” to view the data. Whether for compliance reasons or personal reasons, data encryption is a very important topic when considering cloud storage.
- Is the data encrypted before it leaves my computer, or once it reaches the cloud?
Data is more likely to be protected from eavesdroppers when encrypted locally on a computer before being sent off to the cloud. This concept is known as “pre-internet encryption” or PIE.
- Does the service provider have a key to unencrypt the data? Also, will they provide this key to law enforcement?
The idea of “trust no one” or TNO is an important consideration. TNO is a concept that nobody (not even the storage provider) has a copy of the user’s encryption key. Some cloud service providers that do not participate in TNO retain a copy of the user’s key to unencrypt their data; under certain circumstances will comply with law enforcement to provide them with the data.
Below is a chart summarizing answers to the above questions for four widely-used cloud storage providers:
*Please note that service offerings, pricing, etc. may have changed since the writing of this article. Also, this is not a full/comprehensive list of service offerings. Data gathered from freely-available information on vendor sites.
To summarize, cloud providers offer a wide array of different services and options. Determining the amount of storage needed, platform support, and the importance of security is influential when evaluating different vendors. Equipped with the right information, anyone can choose a cloud storage provider that will best suit their needs.
What Social Media do you use when searching for a job?
Considering “The Cloud?” Join us for our April 24 event.
Are Cloud-Based Services & Solutions Right for You and Your Business? Find out!
Join us at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center, Fargo, for a FREE cloud power event and we’ll show you how our expertise and Microsoft cloud solutions can help you to:
- Reduce capital expenses
- Save money by paying only for the computing power you need
- Get to market faster by leveraging your existing IT investments
Part I – The Business Case For Cloud Computing (10:30-11:30 AM)
The business case for using cloud-based services is not always clear. It can be a dangerous business proposition to blindly adopt a cloud-based strategy without clearly defining the business benefits you expect to achieve. This event will focus on techniques for developing a business case for cloud computing and how to find creative cloud applications to drive your business. In addition, a case study will be presented on a client’s successful business built on the delivery of cloud-based software services.
The business case for using cloud-based services is not always clear. It can be a dangerous business proposition to blindly adopt a cloud-based strategy without clearly defining the business benefits you expect to achieve. This event will focus on techniques for developing a business case for cloud computing and how to find creative cloud applications to drive your business. In addition, a case study will be presented on a client’s successful business built on the delivery of cloud-based software services.
(LUNCH is included and will be served – 11:30 AM – NOON)
Part II – Delivering on The Promise of The Cloud (Noon -1:00 PM)
Migrating your key business systems to “the cloud” is about more than simply moving your servers off-site! Successful cloud projects include an evaluation of each business application’s appropriateness for delivery as a cloud-based service. This seminar will include an overview of how to determine what applications should be considered for cloud-based delivery as well as a discussion of how cloud services can impact the rest of your environment.
About Our Speaker:
Jon Ault, Senior Business Technology Consultant
Eide Bailly Technology Consulting
Jon
has more than 15 years of systems integration consulting experience with significant experience developing and implementing business and information technology plans and strategies. He has completed numerous technology assessments and evaluations of business processes, technology infrastructure and applications, providing services to a wide variety of industries, including retail, healthcare, education, government, manufacturing, financial services and professional services.
Event Location:
Microsoft Fargo
Executive Briefing Center Commons Building
4550 42nd Street South
Fargo, ND 58104
Please note: Visitor parking is in front of the building on the south side. Please be sure to arrive early and bring your license plate number, make of car and color of vehicle to provide upon registration at the front desk reception area.
Register Today!
A Tip for a MaskedEditExtenders Issue in Web Applications
(This post was written by Application Developer Aaron Olson)
Today I came across an odd issue. We are building a web application for a client of ours. We have a number of controls on the page that are utilizing the ajaxcontroltoolkit’s MaskedEditExtender.
The Issue: When we would load the form with existing data, we would notice that certain controls’ textchanged events were firing. This was causing us some heart ache as when this event gets fired, we have flags in the bound object that get set, erroneously telling the application changes had occurred. Later down the line this caused some updating where updating was not necessary as nothing had really changed within the object.
Our Findings: I did a bit of research on this issue and couldn’t find a whole lot on it. When I thought about it a little further and examined the data we were filling the control with, I remember that the way the data is being stored within SQL is different than the way we are portraying it on the screen. So, for example, a social security number within SQL was being stored like so, 123456789. When we fill the textbox with the data in this format, once the form is done loading, the MaskedEditExtenders client side java says, hold on cowboy, this data has not been formatted and formats the text kicking off the event.
Resolution: I created a process extension to properly format a string, which I then fed into the textbox on load. This way the data I am filling into the textbox is already formatted properly, preventing the textchanged event from firing.
Are Land Lines a Thing of the Past?
My first response is YE
S!
I was at a client the other day that is in the business of fundraising using a variety of techniques including hosting phone campaigns. Someone in the meeting mentioned this method becoming a thing of the past.
There were mixed feelings among the group. Some comments were that it is getting harder and harder to track people down since cell phones are not listed and fewer people have land lines. There were some comments stating that this method of solicitation is still very effective.
I got to thinking about it and was intrigued by the effect technology has on this industry. Traditionally phone calling was a primary method of solicitation while more recently fundraisers have begun to shift to offering online methods for donation to remain competitive.
Memories…I remember growing up, we had the staple yellow rotary phone on the wall. Then, I received the trendy see through phone which was all the hype!
I have been land line free for at least six months now, and honestly, since the conversation I had this week about them becoming a thing of the past I have not thought about whether I miss it or not.
Conclusion: I do not!
Here are some factors that could help you decide whether having a land line in your household makes sense. For those of you who want to eliminate your land line but will miss the hardware, check this out: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/7830/?srp=12
- Cost factor: many find that the price to keep up both a land line and cellular account is too expensive, and choose to go with a cell phone plan instead.
- Age: generally, it’s more difficult for older generations to make the transition to cellular because it’s unfamiliar technology.
- Safety/emergency situations: When a natural disaster or a nationwide emergency occurs, many people use their cell phones to call and check in on loved ones. This can cause the network to run slower, or go down completely. For that reason, it may be beneficial to keep a land line.
Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wireless Substitution
