Q. What is a realistic timetable for a company to implement Agvance?

A. The timetable completely depends on the size of your company and sophistication of your accounting needs. The availability, aptitude and commitment of your key staff members is also a huge factor. A simple (in terms of active enterprises), single-site location with a dedicated staff can have their pre-training data setup complete within two weeks. Three to four weeks is more typical. A large multi-site company generally takes two to four months. Another factor to consider is whether the hardware and network will be in place to help facilitate the process.

Q. Which is the best value, onsite training or training at SSI?

A. Both have their advantages and what is best for one company may not be the best for the next. How many employees need to be involved? Do you have an office away from traffic flow that can be used on-site? Undivided attention of the user is essential for the training to be successful. Being onsite gives the user and trainer access to records that may be needed during the training. Training at SSI has the benefit of both undivided attention (away from the daily interruptions onsite) and access to multiple SSI support staff.

Q. How soon after I receive the program can we setup a training date?

A. An experienced implementation specialist will be assigned to your account when you finalize your Agvance license agreement. A key factor in scheduling your training is your projected "On-Line" date, the date from which all transactions will be entered through Agvance. We typically recommend scheduling your training one to two weeks after that On-Line date. Your trainer will be in contact with you soon after your license agreement is complete to discuss your software implementation and orient you to the Start-up Checklist. Your staff can begin immediately with the task of getting master data files entered, planning the movement of balances after the On-Line date working with the trainer to utilize features of Agvance to the fullest. A training date will be established by your staff and the trainer after some of these initial discussions.

Q. Will we be able to convert the data from our old accounting system?

A. If your old accounting system can export master files (names and addresses of customers and vendors, inventory product basic setup and general ledger account names and numbers) into an Excel spreadsheet, SSI can import them into your Agvance database. Because there are typically data differences between your old and new system (the maximum length of valid account #s might vary or customer first and last names might be one data element in your old system and in Agvance they are two separate data fields, etc.), there is often some data preparation you must do before SSI can import it. There are generally important Agvance data fields that must be reviewed or set after importing the data; therefore, each customer, vendor, etc. must be edited and reviewed in Agvance. We strongly suggest you enter your data in upper/lower case - this format looks much better with today's proportional spacing and laser printing. Most companies find that the change to a new system is a good time to "clean" things up and restructure data to take advantage of the tools Agvance has to offer.

Q. I have used many software programs; can I purchase the program without training?

A. Your familiarity with other software should be helpful during the implementation of Agvance. However, to receive the most from your investment, we require training. Although the documentation and our helpdesk can answer many of your questions, the sophistication and flexibility of our package may not be fully realized without the help of our implementation specialists. Your training will be some of the best time and money you spend in this move to Agvance.

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