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At its core, the optimisation of financial processes often involves several key elements: Creating well-defined divisions of labour within and between functions and implementing effective management protocols to ensure repeatable and scalable workflows without bottlenecks. To achieve this, businesses can leverage Dynamics 365 Business Central, an ERP and CRM software-as-a-service solution designed specifically for small and mid-sized enterprises. With a < 1-year payback time, it is tailor-made for small and mid-sized businesses. It aims to optimise finance processes, boost productivity, and foster business growth through its array of integrated features and functionalities. Over the past three years, SMBs have experienced a 162% ROI with Dynamics 365 Business Central. What problems does Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solve? Business Central tackles the pain points of systems like Wave, Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks: Revamping inadequate accounting solutions Facilitating simplified and efficient financial reporting Integrating various business systems for seamless alignment Providing a secure, cloud-based platform for enhanced data protection. Streamlining operations by minimising manual processes How does Business Central optimise your financial processes It goes without saying: It is impossible to focus and optimise everything at once – it will be far too expensive – Microsoft BC has been carefully created with this knowledge and an eye for effort versus return. 1. Easily synchronise company records and data The simple synchronisation of business data and records made possible by Microsoft Business Central results in improved financial procedures. The platform allows smooth communication across many organisational activities by combining modules like Financials and Operations, Sales Professionals, and Marketing. Real-time information flow is made possible by this synchronisation, reducing delays and mistakes. 2. Automate recurring transactions With the help of Business Central, you can automate regular processes like payments, purchase orders, and invoicing. By doing away with manual entry, this function decreases mistakes and saves time. You may also create reminders for forthcoming payments when you automate these transactions, ensuring that you never forget a payment's due date. 3. Increase global market share The extensive features and capabilities of Microsoft Business Central allow companies to grow in the worldwide market effectively. Business Central offers support for different currencies, exchange rates, consolidations, intercompany transactions, and localised tax in more than 130 countries and regions. The platform streamlines financial operations, promotes development, and boosts competitiveness in the worldwide market by offering solutions to handle inventories, finances, compliance, and foreign transactions. 4. Budgeting and forecasting You can make use of forecasting and budgeting tools on Microsoft BC to monitor and foresee your financial performance. By generating a budget and financial predictions, you may make informed decisions about how to distribute funds and set up strategies. Additionally, by comparing your actual financials to your expected sums, Business Central enables you to make modifications as needed. 5. Implement cost accounting The cost accounting capabilities of Business Central enable precise tracking of expenses linked to particular products or projects. This valuable information aids in evaluating the profitability of different ventures, empowering businesses to make well-informed decisions regarding pricing, production, and resource allocation. Moreover, the insights from cost accounting facilitate the identification of potential cost-saving opportunities, leading to enhanced overall profitability. 6. Maximise financial visibility By combining data, providing real-time insights, and automating activities, Microsoft BC improves financial visibility. Businesses can make informed decisions, increase financial performance, and maintain competitiveness in their specific markets thanks to the optimisation of financial processes. To obtain real-time cash flow, trace financial trends, examine patterns, and enhance company planning, use built-in reports, Excel, Microsoft Power BI, and infinite data dimensions. How can I implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in my business? To begin implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, book a chat with a partner like On Point. We can look into your current systems, processes, and requirements to see how we can best suit your needs with Business Central.

Thrilled to announce that Atlassian has acquired ThinkTilt! ThinkTilt was founded to provide tools to every team in organizations using the Atlassian suite. The outcome is ProForma, an integrated form builder that allows teams to deliver exceptional service experiences even faster. Facilitating processes to improve efficiency, has always been a priority for Atlassian and this is how ProForma will complement the Atlassian suite. What is ProForma? Truth be told, filling forms is not the most exciting part of the job. Nonetheless, forms play an important role and are required to provide a consistent framework. ProForma enables teams to easily create forms and fields to capture the required information. Teams create forms that suggest the specific information needed. Customers then fill in these forms when making a request on the customer portal. Through intuitive and user-friendly forms, the flow of data collection is improved and this helps expectations to be set and met. Good data collection subsequently improves the service inspiring confidence and the brand’s reputation. How does it work? ProForma empowers teams to control the way they collect information in Jira issues; build and design forms based on business needs, and collect specific, structured, validated data without custom fields. Proforma is compatible with Jira Service Management, Jira Core and Jira Software, ProForma removes the necessity of creating custom fields. It also works across Cloud, Server and Data Center. Imagine an employee needing to request a purchase order. Through ProForma, the data used to fill in the purchase order request can be pre-populated in a Jira task assigned to the involved personnel. This integration facilitates processes and communication making life easier for all teams and departments involved in the process from start to end. Main Functions and Benefits Easily build forms and checklists: teams are empowered to create the forms which are relevant to them and their customers. Practicality and efficiency are increased as teams create familiar forms, easing communication with customers and gathering information that truly matters. Allowing teams to build and update forms minimizes the unnecessary burden on Jira admins. Improve issues: Forms can be polished up to prompt users in submitting all the required and relevant data. Functions such as validation, dynamic fields, hints and examples, all help with ameliorating user experience and team’s workflow. Reduce custom fields: Performance can be improved and administration simplified by using fewer custom fields as Jira custom fields are not required in a ProForma form. Automation, Validation and Dynamic Fields: Ensure data is complete through form validation. Add forms to issues, transition issues or prevent transitions through automation rules. Make life easier and let the forms do the work. If you found this article helpful, follow the link below 👇 to stay tuned with the latest updates and solutions! https://www.onpointserv.com/articles

A cash flow statement is a financial statement that provides aggregate data regarding all cash inflows that a company receives from its ongoing operations and external investment sources. It also includes all cash outflows that pay for business activities and investments at a particular time point. A cash flow statement provides a vivid picture of what happened to a business's cash during a particular period known as the accounting period. It demonstrates an organization's ability to operate in the short and long term based on how much cash is flowing into and out of the business. Cashflow can be prepared monthly, quarterly, yearly, or any period you think will be most helpful. In this article, I’ll show you how you can create your Cashflow statement with a Jet report. Step one. Creating a template The first thing to do is to create a template of how your cashflow report should look i.e. what are the line items? In this article, the cashflow template will look like the image below; Step 2 Adding G/L Account Number to your report. Once your template is ready, the company G/L Account Number needs to be mapped to the template, as shown below. Step 3 Building our Jet function. Now that we have our G/L Account no mapped to the report, we can create our Jet function. we do this by clicking on the function we want to use, the GL Function. When you click on the G/L function, it brings up our function wizard, then we can fill in all that we want. . We will have different dates in this case since we want our report to display for some specific months. create a date range for each month We will create our date range from the report options. so, anytime we want to run for a different year in the same month, we can do that from the report option without changing the report. We start by creating our Report Options page. Once you fill in the “Start Date and End Date“, click okay. This will automatically create a report options page for you. This is where we fill in all our Date range for the months. as shown below. I’ll show you how you create for the March quarter, you can just do the same for the rest. Note: our report contains data for 3 years, 2023, 2022, and 2021. we make our period start and period end to be “2023“, this way it will be easy to get the preceding years from it. NB: “=“ is the key to creating any formulas in Excel. I did not include “=“ so you can see the formulas, do make sure to include the formulas when creating yours. Use the formula “Year(C2)“ to refer to the period start. Use the formula “C13-1”, this tells Excel to subtract 1yr from 2023 which then gives us 2022 Use the Formula “Date(Year, Month, Start Day)” to create the period start and period end for that particular month. Now let’s fill in our G/L Account formulas. We fill in as shown below. in this report, we want to show the Balance, with the account number selected. we lock the column of account no by pressing the “fn function key with F4“. we select our start date and end date from the report options and lock down the row. if we want an additional filter, we can add then in the space. when you scroll down, you see a space where we have company. you can select the name of your company there Step 4 Building the jet function for other cells we can create the formulas just like we did for the first one, or since we’ve locked the necessary columns and rows, we can easily complete other functions by simply dragging or just filling on at a time. Step 5 Running your report I run my report based on Year = 2022. as shown below, I select my Period to start and End to be in the range of 2022, and when the final result is displayed, we have the title to be… e.g. “As of March 2022“

Income Statement An income statement is a financial statement that shows you the company’s income and expenditures. it shows a company’s revenue, expenses, and profitability over a period of time. this is also sometimes called Profit-and-loss (P&L) statement. the income statement helps you understand the financial health of your company business. An income statement help business owner decides whether they can make more profit by increasing revenue, decreasing cost, or both. A business owner can always refer to this Document to check whether their strategies work. I’ll show you how you can create your income statement with a Jet in this report. Procedure Step 1 Create the Report Options and dates for our report Navigate to the Ribbon tools and click on Report Options. when you do that, a new Report Option Page will pop up. on the pop-out, you can fill in as shown below. We now have our Report Option created. A new page titled Option should appear in our workbook, this is where we create our dates. create the date using the formulas shown below Note: While creating our previous Year’s date, you must notice that we created it in such a way that we can run the full period for last year, and select a range for the current year. E.g. we are in April for the current year, the way the formula is created allows us to run for Jan-April current year, and get the whole of last year. “Date (C11,1,1) & Date(C11,12,31)“ This simply means get the value in cell 'C11', which is the year, then “1,1,” tells is it 1st of January while, “12,31” says 31st of December. So, you can always select Jan-to-current month for the current year from the pop-out and still get the whole of the previous year. we now show the date range on our report page for easy access This can simply be done by “= (then navigate to the options page and select the date)“. Do this for the period start & end of both years. Also for the title (year “2022“), we use the formula to reference the year in cell E3. We also want the title to change along with the year we run the report. we use the same formula for (the year”2023”) but in this case, Cell F3. Now, our G/L account will be referencing that date at the top of the report. Step 2(a). Creating a template The first thing to do is to create a template of what you want your report to cover, and how you want your report to display. Picking a reporting period Calculate your revenue Calculate the Cost of Good Sold (COGS) Gross Profit Expenses Net Profit Step 2(b). Adding G/L Account Number to your report. Once your template is ready the company G/L Account Number needs to be mapped to the template as well as the date range you want the result to display on. just as shown below. Step 3 Building our Jet function. Now that we have our G/L Account no mapped to the report, we can proceed to create our Jet function. we do this by clicking on the function we want to use, the GL Function. When you click on the G/L function, it brings up our function wizard, then we can fill in all that we want. We fill in as shown below. in this report, we want to show the budget, with the account number selected. we lock the column of account no by pressing the “fn function key with F4“. we select our start date and end date and lock down the row. if we want an additional filter, we can add then in the space. when you scroll down, you see a space where we have company. you can select your company’s name by clicking on the insert report option and adding the company. Once you’ve filled in the requirements, click on okay to close the wizard. Step 4 Building the jet function for other cells Since we’ve locked the necessary columns and rows, we can easily complete the other functions by simply copying and pasting or by just dragging as shown below. You can calculate other functions you have there using normal Excel formulas. e.g. Calculating Net Profit, etc. An example is shown below. you can then Hide your date and Fit the column to make your report look beautiful. Step 5 Running your report When you run your report, it should come out clean as shown Below. Note: you can include the date range as a report option, this allows Jet users (viewers) to be able to select the date range without changing the report.

Have you ever come across this error and wondered when you activated the multi-factor authentication? You also signed in via the authentication tab, you got the following error. You’ve tried several things but a solution is not in sight. Don’t be distressed. Two ways to solve the problem include; Upgrade the version of your Jet Reports to the latest version Run the following commands in an elevated PowerShell window Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -Name 'SchUseStrongCrypto' -Value '1' -Type Dword Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -Name 'SchUseStrongCrypto' -Value '1' -Type Dword NB: You might need to restart the machine after running the commands.

Efficient planning and budgeting are integral components necessary for successful business management. Organizations should possess reliable tools enabling them to collect and analyze accurately in making informed decisions derived through visual representation of organizational performances using significant platforms such as Power BI (a top-notch intelligence platform) with integrated features merged with powerful solutions like Aimplan (for planning & proper execution). This article expounds on the potential benefits of integrating Aimplan & Power BI to enhance planning & budgeting efforts. Integration of Aimplan with PowerBI: Robust data visualization capabilities are just one aspect of PowerBI integration benefits embedded into Aimplan. The combined tool offers a comprehensive financial analysis platform for planning, execution, and decision-making processes. Users can integrate seamlessly through data importation while analyzing information and collaborating effortlessly on forecasting tasks. Interactive Dashboards and Visualizations: PowerBI’s interactive dashboard creation offers the latest trend in dynamic data visualization techniques to interpret key organization performance indices in real-time, enabling stakeholders (participants/decision makers) timely insights for prompt action based on analyzed reports. Integration of Aimplan with PowerBI allows you to leverage the powerful visualization capabilities of PowerBI with your budgeted figures. Forecasting & Scenario Analysis: With Aimplan integrated with PowerBI, organizations can carry out more effective scenario analysis. Users can model various scenarios, adjust assumptions, and instantly observe the impact on budget projections. This integrated solution empowers organizations to make informed decisions based on accurate forecasts and respond swiftly to changing market conditions. Mobile Access and Reporting: With PowerBI’s mobile app, users can easily access their planning and budgeting reports while on the move, providing them with real-time insights into their financial performance. Additionally, Aimplan’s integration with Power BI ensures that reports and visualizations are optimized for mobile devices, allowing users to keep track of important metrics and collaborate with stakeholders at any time and from any location. Let’s dive into how Aimplan has transformed the planning & budgeting process from an excruciating process into a simpler one. What is Aimplan? The next-generation SaaS solution for planning, forecasting, financial reporting, and master data management extends the Microsoft PowerBI platform. How does it work? There are three critical components that make the aimplan solution. 1. Administrative UI 2. Azure SQL Database 3. Aimplan Visual The Administrative UI is the portal where all administrative duties are carried such as; 1. Adding users that will make inputs to the budget 2. Creating storage tables 3. Creating several scenarios. Scenarios can be translated as budget versions, meaning multiple entries can be made for the different budget versions The Aimplan Planning & Reporting Visual is where inputs can be made, which is then saved in Azure SQL Database. In summary, end-users make input to their budget directly in PowerBI Service, with each input being saved directly in Azure, and these inputs can be recalled back into the same PowerBI report for other reporting purposes. Also, Aimplan integrates seamlessly with your already existing data model. Therefore, eliminating the need for data duplication completely. For example, your chart of accounts resides in Dynamics 365, there is no need to duplicate this data. PowerBI reads the chart from Dynamics 365 & you create a relationship with your storage table. Irrespective of wherever your data is, performance is still the same. Below are tables from an Excel file which is what we will be working on. Planning is to be done per location. Consider this simple scenario, Mr X, who is the C.E.O. of Company Y, comes to me and said, Hey, Abdullah, revenue for the whole organization last year was $10,000,000. Let’s set a target of $15,000,000 for this year & break this target per location/branch. This would have been a long tedious task, but Aimplan said, Hey Abdullah, let’s make life easier for you. Let’s go see how it has made life easier. In conclusion, the integration of Aimplan with Power BI has revolutionized the planning and budgeting process, transforming it from an arduous task into a streamlined and efficient operation. By leveraging the robust data visualization capabilities of Power BI and the comprehensive planning and execution features of Aimplan, organizations can make informed decisions based on accurate forecasts and real-time insights. The interactive dashboards and visualizations enable stakeholders to promptly act on analyzed reports, while the mobile access and reporting capabilities ensure that users can stay connected and make informed decisions from anywhere. With Aimplan and PowerBI, organizations can optimize their planning and budgeting efforts, leading to enhanced financial performance and better adaptability in a dynamic business landscape.

Lagos, Nigeria - May 9th 2023 - OnPoint Limited, a leading provider and licensor of cutting-edge software solutions is delighted to announce the appointment of Maureen Ogah as its new Country Manager for Nigeria. Ogah will be responsible for overseeing the company's operations and growth strategy in the Country. She will work closely with the local and international teams to drive business results and deliver exceptional customer experiences to clients. Ogah brings with her nearly a decade of experience in the Nigerian marketing communications industry. She has worked in the Financial Services, Marketing Technology, Education & Fashion industries. Ogah holds a B.S.C in Computer Information Science from Lead City University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. Prior to joining OnPoint Nigeria, Ogah led the Digital and Internal Communications Team at Polaris Bank, where she fostered internal brand ambassadorship through employee engagement with over 7000 staff and grew the Bank's digital community. Over the years, she has built a track record of contributing to the bottom line and increasing market share/penetration through Integrated Marketing Campaigns for products such as Blippar, Adrenaline, and VULTe, among others. OnPoint Limited Director, Stephen Abela, stated that the hiring was strategic and in line with the business objective. According to him, “Nigeria is one of our strategic markets and we've taken steps to deliver significant value to our customers. We believe it's time to scale up and do more with our international expertise and diverse team. Our existing and potential clients will benefit greatly from Ogah's extensive experience in the market. This, coupled with her passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences will be invaluable as we continue to expand in the region." Speaking on her new role, Ogah says her vision is to build strong partnerships, drive business growth, and deliver innovative solutions to all of Onpoint’s stakeholders. She further commented that "in the wake of the Digital Transformation tide sweeping Nigeria, our Agile, DevOps, IT service management (ITSM) and work management offerings powered by Atlassian will help our new & existing customers reduce operational costs, improve team efficiency as well as provide enhanced visibility into operations and IT service performance”. With a focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business results, OnPoint Nigeria is a leading Atlassian Gold solutions partner helping businesses of all sizes and across all industries achieve their goals and stay ahead of the competition. For more information on OnPoint Nigeria and its range of cutting-edge software solutions, please visit https://www.onpointserv.com/nigeria.

What Is a Budgeting Process? The budgeting process is an important method that allows companies to plan and prepare their financial budgets for a given period. It entails reviewing previous budgets, forecasting future revenue, and allocating cash for certain costs. Budgeting You're traveling along a winding road when you come to a fork in the road. The first road goes to a dead end, whereas the second leads to your objective. Which route would you take? Consider your company as a car on the route. It's easy to get lost or find yourself at a dead end without a clear map and directions. Budgeting comes into play here. Budgeting is like a GPS that directs your company to its destination. Surprisingly, many small firms lack a defined financial blueprint. Only 54% of small businesses have an official budget for 2021, according to Clutch. According to the Harvard Business School, a budget not only provides a critical strategy but also assures resource availability. A revenue and expenditure structure is essential if you want your firm to develop and satisfy the demands of your clients. In this post, we'll review the importance of budgeting and how it can transform your business. Types of Budgets Budgeting is the process of determining the expenditure amounts for each function of an organization. It is the assessment and allocation of available capital utilized to meet a firm's stated goals. According to reputable financial advisory sources, there are four types of budgets. Incremental Budgeting Incremental budgeting is a budgeting method that uses the previous budget period as a baseline and makes minor modifications for the following period. The preceding budget is evaluated and changed in light of inflation, market changes, and new initiatives. While this strategy builds on the prior budget and requires little modification, it may not be appropriate for firms undertaking major operational changes. Activity-based budgeting Activity-based budgeting is a budgeting strategy that focuses on specific activities or tasks that must be completed to reach organizational goals. It highlights the inputs and expenses associated with each activity. Its goal is to reduce spending. It assigns budgets based on activity expenses, as opposed to blanket budgets. However, it necessitates a thorough grasp of corporate processes and may not be practical for small businesses or those with simpler operations. Value proposition budgeting Value proposition budgeting allocates a budget based on the value a product or service provides customers. Budgets are allocated depending on the value that a product or service offers to customers. It emphasizes important aspects that set a product apart from the competition. The budgeter inquires, for example, "Is it valuable to customers?" Is the price justified by the value? It's beneficial for businesses that offer one-of-a-kind items or services. However, it is difficult since it necessitates an extensive understanding of client preferences and may necessitate significant R&D costs. It may help firms in competitive marketplaces differentiate themselves based on the value they provide. Zero-based budgeting Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a budgeting strategy in which each year's budget is created from scratch rather than based on modifications made in previous years. It compels managers to examine expenditure priorities and make strategic judgments about what costs are required and what is not. This method is significant for firms looking to cut costs and improve efficiency since it requires thoroughly examining all expenses, and uncovering areas of waste or inefficiency. However, because of a culture of uncertainty regarding job security and project continuity, ZBB can lead to short-term thinking and employee demotivation. Goals of the Budgeting Process: A Key Component of Effective Financial Management Aids in the planning of actual operations Budgeting assists managers in planning real operations and motivates them to anticipate changes and be ready to deal with future issues. It allows them to remain ahead of the curve and adapt to any situation. Control of finances You gain control of your finances and make more confident and educated financial decisions by adopting a budget. It aids in the prioritization of your expenditure and the identification of areas where you may cut back and save money. Motivates managers to strive to achieve the budget goals When managers are given a budget to work with, they are given precise targets and goals to work toward. It provides a challenge or target for individuals and managers by linking their compensation and performance relative to the budget. Budget is a financial roadmap A budget is a blueprint that helps the owner of a small business plan and allocates financial resources. It outlines a strategy for the company's revenue and costs, as well as capital expenditures, for a specific period. The owner may guarantee that the firm has enough cash flow to pay its financial responsibilities and support its expansion by adhering to the budget. In this approach, the budget functions as a financial blueprint that directs the company toward its financial objectives. Risks of not budgeting Inability to grow business or enter new markets Possible closure of the corporation due to inability to repay debts A budget prevents waste and ensures that resources are spent efficiently. Making decisions without taking finances into account might lead to bad choices and stifle corporate growth. Before investing or lending money, investors, and lenders sometimes want a budget to analyze the financial health of a firm. It might be difficult to assess progress and measure performance without a budget, making it tough to make educated decisions and develop over time. What Steps Does the Budgeting Process Involve? The first stage is to establish specific goals for the company. These goals must be explicit, quantifiable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. The second stage is examining past performance, analyzing patterns, and finding opportunities for improvement. Following a review of the preceding quarter, the company should compute its current revenue to decide how much it has to work with. The following stage is to construct a budget by projecting new expenditure needs. Following the forecasting of expenditures, the company must make solid business decisions that prioritize spending and properly manage resources. Once the budget has been prepared, it should be properly conveyed to all relevant stakeholders. Employees and other stakeholders may be included. Finally, the budget should be implemented and monitored regularly to ensure that the business remains on track and adjusts to any changes in the business environment. Conclusion The budgeting process allows businesses to plan and prepare their financial budgets for a specified time period. It entails reviewing prior budgets, projecting future revenue, and allocating cash for specific costs. Consider it like a GPS for a car that directs a corporation to its financial objectives. The method assists organizations in controlling their finances, making educated decisions, and striving toward certain goals. If you do not want your businesses to struggle to develop, or you do not want to make poor judgments and be unable to repay loans. Setting defined goals, reviewing historical performance, computing income, and establishing a budget by forecasting future costs are all part of the budgeting process you should start.

Any work that involves a substantial amount of time and has multiple changing tasks needs to be managed. This can be in the form of simple notes, and an e-mail trail in the case of simple tasks. When handling larger projects involving more people, it can prove to be difficult to keep track and coordinate without the assistance of proper project management tools. A common misconception is that project management tools are only used for large projects, and in turn are inevitably expensive and difficult to run. Trello was one of the first online management tools that become popular, for its ease and competitive pricing scheme, as well as its efficiency in terms of project management. Kanban Boards are tools that help visualize work-in-progress and maximize efficiency. The concept is surprisingly simple, yet effective. Large multinational companies turn to this method of Project Management time and time again to boost efficiency with their employees. The rationale behind this method of project management is splitting up tasks and sub-tasks into different lists, to-do, in progress, completed, for review etc... and having them easily visible. Therefore, the question to be answered now is which is the ideal tool that uses Kanban Boards to facilitate project management. One of the most well-known products is Trello. Trello focuses on Kanban Boards and does so very well. Each card can have subtasks, viewing rights are also customizable and users can split up separate boards to keep track of tasks better. In order to produce an accurate and fair comparison, we will need to do so in terms of the requirements of the users. Whilst Jira does have Kanban boards as part of it's out of the box solution, it does offer slightly more functionality. The basic difference Jira supports several agile methodologies including Kanban boards and Scrum boards. Users can have workflows that are configurable according to the boards, this is typical when you have multiple boards covering different parts of the workflow in situations where different departments would be involved. Trello is designed to facilitate collaboration using Kanban Boards, The software is easy to use and is typically favored by individuals who are after a basic software solution for project management. In summary... With Jira, you get the best of both worlds: The intuitive ‘board’ style of Trello, which is easily customizable according to your preferred project management process (whether it’s Kanban, Scrum or waterfall), additional logic and features. A great UX / UI with the task management power behind it that Trello just doesn’t have. On the other hand, Trello relies on its simple design and user experience. When stacked against Jira’s combination of a great user interface with powerful functionality, Trello has no chance. Reporting requirements When dealing with multiple projects, users typically also require a level of reporting abilities to extract numerous metrics. Trello offers very little in terms of reporting, whereas Jira has a multitude of standard reports (versions, epics, sprints, issues etc), with the ability to create your own custom analytics. Integration requirements Whilst Trello has a number of integrations, it cannot be compared to Jira... which has hundreds of integrations to many other systems. There are far too many integrations to list for Jira, however, we've listed the main ones for Trello below. Jira integrations https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?category=Integrations Trello Integrations Pricing requirements Both Trello and Jira can be used FREE of charge - to a certain extent. Trello's free plan includes most of its core features and also allows one power-up per board (https://trello.com/power-ups ). This can be sufficient for small projects with limited users and are after something basic to share with their team as it does offer unlimited personal boards and unlimited cards. The free version The paid plan increases the attachment size from 10MB to 250MB as well as gives access to 10 team boards. That’s plenty for those who want a quick task management system or only need something basic to share with their team (https://bit.ly/2RJKFV3). The monthly plans start from approx $10 per month, per user. Jira is currently also offering its product for free, for up to 10 users, when opting for cloud hosting (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing ). With this, you'll have access to Scrum & Kanban boards, backlog, agile reporting, workflows, roadmaps with 2GB of storage. Paid plans start from $7 dollars per user per month, offering 250GB of storage, audit logs, anonymouse access, and advanced permissions. Overall Again, it all does depend on the requirements and general needs. If you are a small company that is only looking for a way to visualize and assign certain tasks whilst having a good overview of a project, then Trello is the best option. It is easy, free, and can be used immediately once downloaded. The boards can also be linked to a number of other programs such as Gmail. For those companies looking for a more comprehensive solution, Jira is a clear choice. Not only is Jira a more robust solution from the get-go, but it is also scalable and the software of choice for 85% of Fortune 500 companies. Paired with Confluence, and service-desk, Jira is the market's go-to software solution for project management. It was originally developed for software development, to facilitate collaboration and structured projects, however, was then developed and evolved into a complete project management tool.

To begin with, let’s address the difference between digitisation and digitalisation. Digitisation refers to when physical documents or paperwork are converted into digital documents. Digitalisation on the other hand refers to a substantial transformation of the business model toward using digital processes. A simple example would be that of a business changing the processing of financial documents to a digital way of doing it. Digitalisation is about embracing the use of technology in the processes of business operations as well as the interaction with clients, and stakeholders alike. A coherent digitalisation entails more than buying software and implementing it. This capital expenditure is a worthy investment which instantly reflects upon your business operations. It involves a flow of understanding across the organisation to help you optimise processes according to your needs, your employees' needs as well as your client’s needs. This would help benefit all parts involved as well as increase efficiency. Efficiency, comfort and reliability are just a few of the benefits of a digitalised business model. While they are all benefits which any entrepreneur aspiring for success thrives to achieve, we understand common concerns which tend to be shared among anyone who is considering a change, such as where do I start from? Can I switch to a more efficient system different to the one I’m currently using? What are the costs involved? Let’s address these questions one at a time. Where do I start from? Start from what you know best… your business. There is no one better than you who knows what challenges your business is facing which is a key point to establish an understanding of the situation and develop a plan addressing these challenges. The next step to take is to reach out to specialists who will listen, anlayse and consult accordingly. Specialists will not only advice but will also walk you through the process which best fits your needs, ensure that everyone in the organisation is on board through adequate training, and help you take the leap safely through the necessary support. In essence, just think of your business and we’ll think of solutions, because your business is our business. The system I am using is not efficient enough, can I switch? Wherever you find yourself throughout your business journey, it’s never too late to start on point. Perhaps as your business operations are growing, you became aware of an increasing need to facilitate communication and work flow across your growing team. Perhaps the system you were using before is not scalable and while you are thrilled to have come to this point of growth, you are also aware of the need to implement a scalable system which is able to pace with your rate of growth. Whichever your situation is, it is always the right time to reach out to specialists who will understand your needs, analyse your case and advice accordingly. All you need to do is reach out ! What are the costs involved? One of the benefits of the digitalisation process is the flexibility and adaptability according to the client’s needs. Keeping in mind the clients' scenario, prices might depend on the software solution, the amount of users, as well as training and support provided. Nonetheless, it would be a pity for anyone in the industry to miss the boat of digitalisation due to financial concerns. In light of the growing importance of integrating technology in business operations, various funding schemes have been launched, one of which allows for up to €200,000 for Digital Technology Investment in your Business. We not only can help you with ensuring safe and good practice for compliance, accounting and efficient team management systems, but we can also assist you with making the most out of your experience through the available funding schemes. When there’s a will there’s a way and we feel the responsibility to share the ways to help you help yourself. Available Funding Schemes The SME Digitalisation Grant Scheme supports the enterprise investment in digital technologies and related processes including hardware, software, and digital solutions facilitating efficiency, and customer experience. The Diversification and Innovation Grant Scheme supports and finances productive investment including the costs related to purchasing of equipment and machinery. This grant scheme also covers intangible costs. For further information, get in touch with On Point Malta - Accounting, Business & ERP Software Company or contact On Point on +356 2722 0597/ +356 7906 5343

I was privileged to be among those who reviewed the submission for the Datafest Africa program. Some of the submissions prompted the need for this article. This is a detailed approach to how I would tackle the business problem if Zentel Network were my client. Background info This is data from a Zentel Network Service centre. Every day, customers log their different types of complaints across their branches and expect quick responses and resolutions to their queries. Some of these customers have a Service level agreement with the Network service provider to resolve their daily queries within a particular average duration. This service center has different Managers and operators looking into the customers’ issues and performance can be measured weekly and daily. Based on the Service Level Agreement between Zentel incorporated and our clients, here are the terms of engagement: - All issues must be responded to within 10 seconds of ticket initiation - All issues must be resolved within 3 hours of response - Average Ticket response time must not exceed 15 seconds - Any ticket not resolved within 3 hours must be escalated to the Manager Before I think of the data, I define a clear objective. Why am I carrying out this analysis? What do I hope to achieve? Thankfully the goals have been provided, as seen below; Kindly provide a general outlook of the performance of the business based on relevant metrics. One of the top executives is of the opinion we should optimize TAT(Turn Around Time) between 6 pm to 9 pm every day due to backlash from disgruntled customers. Do you agree? Show us the data to support your position. Based on SLA, issues are meant to be responded to within 10 seconds after they are raised. What are the key factors leading to a delay in ticket response time? Hint: Show how the different variables affect the ticket response time. Which Managers and operators are performing well and struggling to meet the required resolution Time? Make recommendations as to how they can improve. You can download data here. Data Preparation The following tables were loaded into PowerBI Since the data provided is just a month’s data, there is not much need for a calendar table. The final model looks like this. Here comes the tricky part. As much as creating charts and graphs is important, understanding the business problem is essential. Let’s dive into the business problem a bit. Earlier, we were told there was a service agreement between the company and its customers. Also, disgruntled customers feel the terms of the agreement aren’t being fulfilled on the customer’s end. Understanding this will then lead you to use the appropriate metrics. Hence, your exploratory analysis should speak to helping you, the analyst, understand how zentel is performing in fulfilling that agreement. I’ve almost maintained that the greatest tool of an analyst is their mind, not PowerBI, Excel, Python etc. The ability to ask questions and think supersedes the tool itself. The tool is just a means to an end. In our case, questions that help you understand if and where Zentel is underperforming in terms of fulfilling the agreement include What is the percentage of issues responded to within the agreed 10secs? Is the average response time not greater than 15secs? What is the percentage of issues resolved within the agreed 3hours? You can also leave it as no. of issues responded to with 10secs, but I prefer using percentages as it is easier to picture than a number. Those questions will determine what kind of DAX measure to use. Now that we understand the business problem, let’s prepare our data. To know the % of issues responded to within 10secs, we need to find the difference between the ticket open time and response time for every case. The DAX below gets that for us. For the resolved time, a tiny detail specified can change the direction of the result. The agreement was that issues must be settled within 3 hours of response time, not ticket open time. Although the DATEDIFF() allows you to calculate the hour difference, I discovered it is not entirely accurate, as it uses the start of the hour. This was a mistake I noticed in some of the submissions. See the sample below. The hour difference is 1.5 hours ( 1 hour 30 minutes), but because it uses the start of the hour, the 30 minutes is ignored. The recipe for understanding the general outlook of business performance is almost ready. Kindly provide a general outlook of the performance of the business based on relevant metrics. This is just simple exploratory analysis, and the questions we raised while understanding the business problem will help us create relevant metrics. My approach to analysis has always been to ask the questions of what, when, where, how and why. This greatly helps in effective insight communication, which is the approach used in creating the report. The following DAX measures will help us understand the performance of the business. Terminated issues were excluded because it means the customer no longer needs assistance; a terminated issue is no longer on the operator’s desk and can’t be a factor in determining the operator’s performance. I prefer dynamic measures to multiple pages if I have to deploy the report in the client’s environment. Dynamic measures were used for EDA here. EDA tells us that less than 20% of issues were responded to within 10secs and less than 60% were resolved within 3 hours. We are beginning to understand why customers are disgruntled. Across all areas, we would discover the organization is mainly underperforming. See the full report here. One of the top executives is of the opinion we should optimize TAT(Turn Around Time) between 6 pm to 9 pm every day due to backlash from disgruntled customers. Do you agree? I wouldn’t agree, and data doesn’t agree with the executive. Let’s justify my disagreement. Turnaround time is the difference between when the issue was open and closed. Optimizing TAT could be that operator has other tasks, but between 6pm — 9pm, their only focus should be resolving the issues raised by the customer. The executive assumption is based on customers raising more tickets during that period, but data says otherwise. The essence of this article is to show you how to rather than show you the result. To be able to justify when to optimize TAT, a critical question to ask is what period customers raise issues the most. Sadly, ticket open time is not a categorical but a discrete variable. We need to find a way to make it an ordinal variable. To do this, create a new column on your service data, as seen below. What the column is saying is this. Let’s see this visually. Data clearly shows optimization should be done between 8am-12pm. Based on SLA, issues are meant to be responded to within 10 seconds after they are raised. What are the key factors leading to a delay in ticket response time? You can use the Key Influencer for this. If we go back to our EDA report here, we will discover that social media has the highest number (1.7k) of issues raised, with only 12% of those issues responded to within 10secs. Which Managers and operators are performing well, and which are struggling to meet up with the required resolution Time? In this case study, the average is not the most efficient metric for determining who is performing well or not. Consider the following scenario, Mr A and Mr B both worked on ten different issues. Before the 10th issue, Mr A’s average time to resolve the problem was 0.8 hr, while Mr B had an average time of 2.2 hours. But on the 10th issue, Mr A had outliers and didn’t conform to his typical performance, which then increased his average, making Mr B outperform Mr A. Let’s imagine the required time to resolve an issue is 2 hrs. Mr A success rate becomes 90% while Mr B’s success rate is 20% if we use the percentage of issues resolved within the stipulated hours. See the report here to see who was the best and struggling manager/operator. Now you have been able to tackle the business problem effectively. I will leave you to make recommendations for me.

I started learning about data using SPSS and working with University questionnaires from both undergraduate and post-graduate projects. Questionnaires were filled on paper and I had to hardcode the responses into SPSS. NB — Hardcoding is manually inputting the response into SPSS. For instance, what is your gender? Male or Female. So wherever the respondent tick Male, I type in 1 and if it is Female, I type in 2 Then comes the mountain of problems. Respondents leave some questions empty. What do I do? Reached out to my tutor, and his response was to replace them with the most occurring value i.e. the mode. The way it worked was that as I was hard coding into SPSS, subconsciously I'm storing which category I typed in more times i.e. have I typed more male than female? Is this the best approach? No What is the best approach? Below is my approach to handling missing values NB — variable refers to the column Step 1 — Type of variable The first question I ask myself is what type of variable am i dealing with. A continuous or categorical variable. Understanding the type of variable will help me understand what approach to use in handling the missing values Step 2 — Importance of variable The next question is, is the variable containing missing values important for my analysis? If the answer is No, I delete that column. if the answer is Yes, I go to Step 3 Step 3 — Percentage of missing values What is the percentage of missing values in the whole data? My benchmark is 5%. Note that this 5% is not industry standard and there is no industry standard. If the percentage is greater than 5% of my data, I never delete missing values. Also, I don’t just delete missing values if it’s less than 5%. Deleting missing values is also dependent on the volume of data I have. If the volume of data is small, that 5% might be very significant We’ve identified the columns with missing values and they are important for our analysis, hence the columns can’t be dropped. Deleting the missing values is also not an option because of our threshold. What manner of headache is this? Why can’t they collect clean data? Why can’t they use Data validation or ensure all questions must be answered in their Google or Microsoft forms? I just want to analyze data. Brighten up. The light at the end of the tunnel is here Since columns can’t be dropped and rows can’t be deleted, the next thing I do is take the following approach based on the type of variable I’m dealing with. Continuous Variable If the column where I have missing values is a continuous variable, I do either one of the following 1. Replace the missing values with the median or mean. 2. Create a regression model to predict the missing values. This is quite stressful as I would have to tweak my parameters to ensure my RMSE is as small as possible. Really stressful Replacing missing values with median or mean is quite straightforward. You just need to note one very important thing. How is your data (i.e. column) is distributed? If the data is either negatively or positively skewed, I replace missing values with the median. If the distribution is a normal distribution I replace the missing values with either the mean or median. That’s dependent on my mood. Categorical Variable There are 3 conventional approaches to dealing with a categorical variable having missing values. 1. Replace with the mode i.e. if “female ”occurs twice, replace all missing values with “female”. I don’t like this approach. For instance, all respondents who didn’t fill their gender can’t be all females. This approach can lead to you saying things the data isn’t saying. 2. Prediction by creating a classification model. Can be stressful also as you might have to tune parameters. 3. Assign a new category. This is my favorite approach. I just replace missing values with either “Not specified”, “Unknown” etc. With this, I’m certain I’m not saying what the data isn’t saying. That’s a peak view into how I deal with missing values in my day-to-day life as an analyst.