Numbers and Voices

By James Gaskin, NetworkWorld.com, 06/06/06

Perhaps it's just because I spent most of last week with the Intuit people at their first ever QuickBooks Enterprise User Conference, but all I see everywhere now is number programs of one kind or another. PC World has a review explaining how Peachtree 2007 Improves MS Office Integration. Of course, Peachtree battles QuickBooks in the small business accounting market, as well as the new Small Business Accounting from Microsoft (and a wide variety of other accounting packages). One of the "features" of Microsoft Small Business Accounting is integration with Microsoft Office.

The tight integration of Microsoft Office applications into accounting programs strikes me as a giant disaster waiting to happen. Security breaches in Microsoft products are the norm, not the exception, because of how Microsoft years ago opened cross-application programming interfaces without strict internal security controls. That's how spam mail attachments get into your Outlook address book and blast your friends with mail supposedly from you. And we want this pathway opened to our accounting applications and data? I'll need to see a lot more real-world testing data over time before I even consider such an application link.

I'm not a big spreadsheet user, but I know people who can't get through a day without creating something in Microsoft Excel. If accounting applications want better spreadsheet integration, which I can understand, why don't they provide their own spreadsheets? There are plenty available for free or cheap they could include in their products, and bypass all the VisualBasic and ActiveX security hole headaches you get with Microsoft Office.

You can now even use a Spreadsheet in the Sky, or at least in your browser. Google to Launch Web Based Spreadsheet outlines the newest attack from the Googlers on Microsoft. Now we just need to wait a bit until one of the many online accounting applications to support the online spreadsheet and provide accountant browser-fan nirvana.

Free is a great number when used as a price, isn't it? I wrote back last September about Another IM-VoIP Advantage: How about free global teleconferencing? and now Skype upped the ante. Or rather they dropped the ante, as Skype Offers More Free Conferencing. Up to 500 people can now talk together, although you'll get better results with two talkers and 498 listeners. Still, teleconferences for 500 people for free, even with the restrictions, can open some wonderful opportunities for real time meetings, training, and sales pitches.

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