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Jim Arnold

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Principal, Zen Analytics

146 points

Zen Analytics helps client's develop competitive advantages using actionable knowledge.

We do that with processes that provide business value for the long term with business people as the users of the information.

We work with our clients to understand ...

Zen Analytics helps client's develop competitive advantages using actionable knowledge.

We do that with processes that provide business value for the long term with business people as the users of the information.

We work with our clients to understand their most important business processes and leverage technology to find intrinsic actionable knowledge.

Check out our website at www.zenanalytics.com for more information or contact me at jarnold@zenanalytics.com.

Let me show you how you can get competitive advantages from actionable knowledge.

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WEB: Zen Analytics

Jim Arnold and 1 other person answered this question

Oct. 3, 2010

What do you do when a planned budget falls short for a project?

So how much money does he have? If the project can be downsized or put into stages then possibly do that. If he can take money from other projects and apply it to this project then do that or a combination of the two. If ... more

Project Management

Jim Arnold and 4 other people commented on a brief

April 29, 2010

Obtaining Business Capital in this Difficult Economic Climate

There are other potential solutions not mentioned here. Since I am unsure of the amount of capital needed I will provide a broader list:
1. The business owners themselves.
2. Friends and family.
3. Angel investors.
4. Find a company that may be willing to ... more

Financial Services

Merchant Cash Advance

Jim Arnold and 2 other people answered this question

Jan. 20, 2010

C Corp vs S Corp: What's the difference?

It depends. A "C" Corp is its own taxable entitiy, vs an "S" corp which passes all of its income or losses to the stockholders who pay the taxes. You had better get a tax attorney or a CPA to advise you here because once ... more

Financial Services

Jim Arnold and 1 other person answered this question

Oct. 12, 2009

What are the advantages and disadvantages of semi-monthly payroll and a bi-weekly payroll?

The advantages are that people are paid every other week. You may also get a slight postive benefit in cash flow as you are paying out smaller amounts twenty four times a year, then you have to cover the additional two payrolls which is the ... more

Human Resources

Jim Arnold and 6 other people answered this question

Oct. 2, 2009

Are monthly internal financial statements obsolete?

I was only speaking of internal reporting. GAAP external reporting would still be required as would audits. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear here. more

Jim Arnold and 3 other people answered this question

Aug. 23, 2009

In response to a question on linkedin, someone said new customer acquisition is not an issue. It's much cheaper to keep existing customers.

I agree. Most any business will always have some type of customer churn so you will have to replace the customers that leave. However the real issue in this question is whether a firm wants to grow. Unless a company has considerable untapped penetration in ... more

Jim Arnold and 2 other people answered this question

Aug. 2, 2009

Given the economic environment, where can I cut costs without impacting business performance?

I would recommend taking a look at using activity based costing methodology. This can help you find where your costs are and then you can implement a plan to begin reducing costs. Robert Kaplan is the guru on this. Is there any benchmarking of costs ... more

Financial Services

Jim Arnold answered this question

Aug. 2, 2009

What’s better in a down economy, buying or leasing office space?

This is certain ways is economy independent. What are your real estate needs going to be in the long term? If you are rapidily growing, purchasing is probably not your best bet. If you are going to be stable in size, then it may be ... more

Financial Services

Jim Arnold and 3 other people answered this question

Aug. 2, 2009

How do you go about selecting your business partner?

From what I am gathering from the comments here, a "Business Partner" is not a partner in the traditional sense but a person or firm an organization may team up with to do a project or projects. I consider this much different from a true ... more

Financial Services

Jim Arnold recommends this comment by Gary Allen

July 30, 2009

What the Heck Is Cloud Computing?

Very interesting comments on google, amazon, apple, microsoft, and IBM. The advent of the ability to provide Microsoft Office as software service from the cloud could be extremely advantageous to very large customers. I am the CTO for a school district in texas with 13,000 ... more

Cloud Computing

Jim Arnold and 4 other people answered this question

July 13, 2009

With the downturn in the economy, ERP vendors are seeing decreased business. We were considering purchasing an ERP solution in the next 6-9 months - does it make sense to start that process sooner if we feel we can negotiate a better deal?

A question, has your business environment changed enough that you will still need a new ERP in the next 6 to 9 months? If so, you have the funds, etc. then it would probably be wise to accelerate your purchase assuming that you can get ... more

Jim Arnold and 5 other people answered this question

June 20, 2009

I am coming to the end of my service contract with my ERP vendor, is it more cost effective to upgrade to the most recent version or completely replace the system with something that is hosted?

Don't forget some hidden costs of a new system like training and lower productivity to start out with. When you say your contract is coming to an end, how far away is the end? If it is less than a year you may not have ... more

Jim Arnold and 2 other people answered this question

June 12, 2009

What are the benefits of outsourcing payroll?

Ian is correct from the standpoint of actually producing the payroll once it has been calculated. Depending upon the complexities of your business ADP, etc. may not be able to calculate the payroll before it is produced. Over the years I have seen a lot ... more

Financial Services

Jim Arnold published a brief

June 12, 2009

To BI or not to BI - that is the Question

General Management

Information Technology

Jim Arnold and 1 other person answered this question

June 12, 2009

How important is getting a DBA?

If you are going to use a name other than your own for your business even though you are a sole proprieter, then yes you need a DBA certificate. Not only will the state require it banks will require it also in order to open ... more

Jim Arnold and 4 other people answered this question

June 10, 2009

As a small business, should I outsource accounting or use a software?

How small is small? What do you want the accounting system to do? Quickbooks, Peachtree etc. are good to a point, but you can't do a lot of detail analysis and you are limited in how you can roll up data. Do you need to ... more

Accounting Software

Jim Arnold answered this question

June 7, 2009

Do I need an MBA to become an ERP Consultant?

No, What role do you want the ERP consultant to play? That should define the person's educational requirements. If this person is to deal with both IT and the buiness side and MBA might be good, or someone who has a great understanding of business ... more

Jim Arnold and 5 other people answered this question

June 7, 2009

I'm researching CRM systems and I would like to get some relative pricing so I can do a cost comparison. Is there any way I can do this without speaking to the vendors?

Pamela,
Please remember that the software cost is only part of the cost of the CRM implementation, maybe 35%. You have to have it configured, documented, installed and then you have to train your people to use it. Not to mention any the integrations costs ... more

Information Technology

Following 4 Topics

Business Finance

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