The integration of business data is a serious and long-standing issue for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). Typically, an SMB buys a CRM, an operations management system specific to their business model, an accounting system, an invoicing system, and potentially a service management system. Add in their public web site, and a customer self-service portal, and the average SMB starts to feel like they are in the IT business, not their real business.

For a business managed by multiple separate systems, the clerical effort and loss of data quality associated with trying to keep data in the multiple systems in sync is both costly and inefficient. Operating a business based on these 'islands of information' is not an option in today's challenging business climate.

Yet trying to buy an integrated system that covers all these bases, matches the specifics of your business model, and is still affordable, if often an impossible task. And even when such a system can be found, migrating to a fully integrated system from today's multiple applications can be a difficult and risky process.

With info@hand, our approach is different. We created a Customer Relationship and Business Management System (CRBM) - a system with a CRM at the core, with integrated operations management, service management and order management features, plus integration with a customer portal and (optionally) the market-leading QuickBooks accounting system. We took this approach for several reasons, the three most important being:

• The lack of any real market need for yet another accounting system;
• The dominant QuickBooks market share in our customer segment (1-200 employees);
• An easier migration to info@hand from whatever the client is running today, when info@hand does not include an integrated accounting system. We believe that requiring a client to change both their front- and back-office systems at the same time with a NetSuite-like solution is unwise.

info@hand Finance is an optional module for info@hand that can link the key financial data within info@hand with a QuickBooks implementation. The key features of info@hand Finance include:

• info@hand Finance continually synchronizes Accounts, the Product Catalog (item list in QB), Invoice & Payment data, Opportunites (customer jobs in QB), currencies and taxes within info@hand with the QuickBooks Accounting system from Intuit Inc.;

• The synchronization is accomplished via the QuickBooks Web Connector (QBWC), at intervals controlled by QBWC. QBWC is free, and provides a SOAP-based web-services interface with which info@hand Finance communicates.

• info@hand Finance is compatible with info@hand 5.1, and later revisions;

• info@hand Finance is compatible with conventional QuickBooks software (2006 generation or later, Pro and higher versions). It does not currently support QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE).

info@hand Finance is a separately-priced add-on for info@hand - with a one-time license fee of 750.00 Euros (approx. $1,100.00 US at present), and an annual support fee of 200.00 Euros (approx. $295.00 US at present). for On Premise deployment. See the info@hand Finance Implementation Guide, and the How to Buy page for more details.

Note: QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc.