Smart IT Management – Why Customization is important for your business

Interview of Uprise Apps regarding Customization by Money Cat, this article also posted on www.smallcapwrap.com

With the advancements in technologies, we rely more and more on applications for our day-to-day operations. Popular programs include our documentation management systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and industry specific applications you use, such as accounting software.

Would it not be a nice idea to have everything so simple and just one click away on your computer instead of opening 3 or 4 programs at the same time?

We ask Andrew Kandzuba, CEO of IT Service Provider, Uprise Apps (www.upriseapps.com) which specializes in customization and integration for corporate clients why customization is a smart IT management idea to improve efficiency.

MoneyCat: Andrew, for many users, they do not understand fully why customization is important, can you give us some starting points?

Andrew Kandzuba: The word “Customization” has many meanings, but ultimately it means you have a specific need to integrate or to modify your existing applications for a better management and more efficient use.

There is no such thing as a “perfect” product for organizations, some companies have decided to develop products for themselves, but for the vast majority of corporations, they will purchase products off-the-shelf, and install them.

But as we know , many products lack of the functions they require, or they have specific needs for reporting, or they have real requirement to track real-time changes, these can not be provided by the products, this is where customization comes in.

MoneyCat: In your experience, is customization only for big corporate or should SMEs consider them as well?

Andrew Kandzuba: That is a common perception, but it is not true. When comes to customization, we are not talking about very large amount of investments. In fact, it is usually just a fraction of cost compared to the products or licenses you have purchased.

In our view, small to medium companies should definitely consider customization as an option as they are in even more demand for better efficiency.

They do not have the resources comparing to the large corporations, staff at SMEs need to multitask all the time and this where technology can really improve their efficiency.

MoneyCat: What are some of the basic products or applications that can be integrated?
Andrew Kandzuba: There are some easy starting points, for example:

We have assisted our customers synchronizing their MS Office with Google Docs through our own product Office In Cloud. By customizing this, the end users have immediate benefits in terms of accessing and managing files online through Google Docs.

This results in significant improvements in efficiency in terms of documents updates, and another advantage is that it supports users both on MS Office and non-MS Office products.

Another good example is integrating with CRM systems, this is a fast growing area for companies including us. CRM is becoming a must-have application even for small businesses, we have customized applications that allow users to update from their spreadsheets and integrate into CRM systems instantly.

Also, for IIT companies or database linked businesses such as subscriptions, a simple customization process can allow them to integrate downloads and instantly uploaded onto CRM system – this is a useful application for sales and management team.

MoneyCat: What benefits can customers really achieve from these integrations?

Andrew Kandzuba: I believe there are 3 real benefits from these integrations. First, is improvement in efficiency, by working with much less applications simultaneously, also saves time in data entry and duplications. Second is accuracy, this is especially the case for CRM, where customers’ data are captured and integrated into CRM instantly instead of waiting for data entry. Third is improvements in user-interface, this relates to both users and management for reporting purpose.

When we undertake a customization project, we always address the needs of the end users, to make the interface much more user-friendly and minimize as much steps as possible.
MoneyCat: Can you give us some real examples how customization can really achieve efficiency for corporate?

Andrew Kandzuba: International companies can save significant amount of time through simple customization applications. For example, they can use our Office In Cloud and integrate their sales records in Excel with Google Docs or integrate with their CRM if they have one.

The old way is to hold a conference call across multiple time zones, we all know how difficult this can be especially if you are across Asia, Europe and North America, it is impossible to schedule a perfect time, then you have to wait for each person to dial-in.

The smarter and more efficient way is to have the documents from Google Docs or CRM, directly saved and updated using Office In Cloud, and then making notes and update them onto the master file where everyone can see the comments, and responds to them accordingly. This eliminates the hours spent on conference calls.

Another example relates to improvements in sales activities, some sales teams are now equipped with iPhones which means they can update their Excel or Word documents on iPhone. With a few changes to their applications, these can be integrated with the CRM system instantly, managers and inventory managers can update their records simultaneously. This customization application eliminates the waiting time, and orders can be processed much more efficiently.

About Uprise Apps

Uprise Apps (www.upriseapps.com) is an application development company specialized in developing applications that can collaborate across different systems.

Through its product “Office In Cloud” users can synchronize Microsoft Office and Google Docs easily through a simple process, and manage documents on both applications. Office In Cloud supports both MS Office 2003 and 2007 versions.

You can download and trial Office In Cloud from www.upriseapps.com
For more information about Uprise Apps, please contact Andrew Kandzuba at Uprise Apps andrew.kandzuba@upriseapps.com