QuickBooks™ Cloud Hosting Maximizing the Value of QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions with Remote Desktop Services
QuickBooks™ Cloud Hosting
Maximizing the Value of QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions with Remote Desktop Services
Remote Desktop Service helps reduce cost and save time.
QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions is a powerful, easy-to-use financial management system. Growing businesses find QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions advantageous because of its ability to support up to 30 simultaneous users and handle large amounts of data and transactions. Less commonly know is that QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions works with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) to provide even more convenience for larger companies with multiple employees working in QuickBooks.
RDS is a technology that offers an efficient and cost-effective way to provide multiple users access to shared applications and data files. When used with QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions, RDS allows businesses to install QuickBooks™ on a server where authorized users can access the application at any time inside or outside of the office—without ever having to install QuickBooks™ on individual computers. This setup has five major benefits that help businesses save time and money.
“The key benefit of Remote Desktop Services is that there’s only one machine to manage for multiple users to access locally or remotely. The remote aspect is important because everyone needs remote access today. There’s no reason to buy workstations that just sit in the office and do one thing. That’s just a waste of money. For the cost of three or four workstations, you can have a server.”
~Andrew Abrams, Executive Director and Co-founder of Technology In A Box
Five Reasons to Use Remote Desktop with QuickBooks™ Enterprise (Cloud Hosting)
Remote Desktop Service can enable a business to maximize the performance of their QuickBooks™ Enterprise.
1. Streamline IT Services
RDS simplifies QuickBooks™ setup and maintenance requirements. To start, system administrators can quickly give users access to QuickBooks™ by installing and configuring it one time on a server with RDS. Subsequent software updates only need to be performed on one computer as well.
As another benefit, Microsoft and third party developers provide Remote Desktop Connection client software for most operating systems, including Mac OS, Linux and older versions of Windows. This means a business can make use of its existing hardware and operating systems even though QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions is designed to be installed on personal computers running Microsoft Windows XP (Server Pack 2), Windows Vista or Windows 7. As a result, businesses can save on IT infrastructure costs since computer hardware and operating systems will not need to be changed or upgraded as frequently.
Furthermore, complementary applications such as Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Excel can also be provided on the same server so that users can easily access other applications they need when working with QuickBooks.
2. Faster, more reliable performance
Put simply, QuickBooks™ running on a network using RDS outperforms those that don’t.
In a network that doesn’t utilize RDS, the QuickBooks™ company data file sits on either a dedicated file server or a workstation, which is referred to as the database server. Each computer at which a user needs to use QuickBooks™ must have its own copy of the QuickBooks™ application installed and be connected to the database server in order to access the company data file. Work done on QuickBooks™ data on any one computer must be transferred between that computer and the database server to be reintegrated with the data file. When a single computer or connection is sluggish, processing time is delayed for everyone while the server waits for commands entered by each computer in the network to be completed sequentially. In this type of setup, the network speed is constrained by the slowest computer or the slowest connection.
In a setup with RDS, the QuickBooks™ application and company data file are both located on the server; individual user’s computers do not need a copy the QuickBooks™ application installed. Users log directly into the server, where the QuickBooks™ application is executed and commands are carried out. Because only keystrokes and mouse movements are needed from a user’s computer, the amount of data being sent through the network is minuscule. Processing speed is no longer determined by the slowest computer or connection speed because actions are centrally prioritized to allow everyone to work at their own pace. In this type of setup, RDS can also speed up application performance when users connect through wireless networks. And because the data always stays on the server, work will not be lost even if the connection is broken while a user is working in QuickBooks™ through RDS.
3. Better and more cost-effective remote access
RDS allows QuickBooks™ users to work anywhere: in the office, on the road, from a satellite office, or from home. Alternative remote access services offer similar capabilities, but users often find them to be slow. Compared to these, RDS requires a much smaller amount of data to be relayed, so QuickBooks™ performance is optimized even in low-bandwidth scenarios.
These remote access services also usually require a designated workstation in the office for each remote user to connect to. When a workstation is accessed remotely, no one else in the office can use it. Fortunately, RDS makes it possible to provide remote access to multiple employees using one shared server, so there are no tied up workstations.
5. Morecontrol
RDS gives system administrators more control over QuickBooks. The application and company data file are maintained in an environment only accessible by administrators.
4. Enhanced security
Protecting sensitive financial data is important for all businesses. RDS provides additional security to a business using QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions. To begin, system administrators must grant specific levels of access to each user who can log into the server. The system administrator can determine which applications on the server are available to each employee. This means several employees may be given access to the server for other purposes but QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions can be restricted to only those who need to use it. Furthermore, QuickBooks™ administrators also establish application level permissions to specify which functions individual QuickBooks™ users can access and the type of access they should have, such as view-only, create, modify, delete and print.
With RDS, companies are able to further reduce the risk of data being lost or stolen. Each user must log in to establish a session with the server. Subsequently, QuickBooks™ data is never directly transmitted outside the server, and therefore, chances of it being intercepted are lowered. Also, because the data resides on the server, compromised laptops should not contain copies of the company data file.
Setting up Remote Desktop Services
Many businesses find RDS relatively easy to set up. For those who want expert help, Merchant Light,LLC provides the appropriate expertise hardware, licenses, and configuration of the server for RDS. They can also offer guru help in installing QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutions. If your business has an IT department, they often already have the necessary experience and skills to maintain and update RDS Servers.
Try Virtualization to Save More Money
When using RDS to provide access to QuickBooks, you need a server to host the QuickBooks™ application and company data file. But servers are also useful for other purposes, such as email hosting and file sharing. Rather than purchasing servers for each application, savvy organizations set up one Windows Server Cloud Machine to accomplish various tasks throughout their organizations. Not only do you save the hassle of buying and maintaining expensive hardware, but you gain the flexibility of accessing your business assets from anywhere you see fit! . So when deciding whether or not to use RDS, keep in mind that it’s possible the server needed for RDS could also be leveraged for other applications. It may even be enough to support much, if not all, of your business applications.
Next Steps
For more information about QuickBooks™ Enterprise Solutionsand Remote Desktop Services, call (888) 255-9878 to speakwith Enterprise Solutions ProAdvisor Jay Thompson or simply fill out this form: