Seeing as how The Avengers had the best opening weekend in history, it is clear that there is something enticing about the idea behind this film. And there is! For one thing, Marvel Comics has built up character backstories for years that people identify with either through comic books or the movies. But that is only one aspect that is appealing. The other is the interplay between these powerhouse characters and the fact that, though incredibly powerful on their own, only by combining their unique strengths can they overcome a massive, world-altering threat. It is this characteristic that businesses can learn from, particularly as it relates to the tools they use to solve their business problems. Can businesses really learn from comics characters? Absolutely! Lets delve a little deeper.

The Avengers Are Mighty Individually

Though it can be argued that certain Avengers are more powerful than others (Hulk, anyone?), it nevertheless remains true that each can stand on their own and still represent a potent and efficient fighting force. The same can be said of most quality business software. If a program is entirely dependent on another to be of value, then it is subject to weaknesses that might not befall a more independent system. Further, many programs like this do not represent a significant value, and are often upsells for a core product. While they might increase the functionality, they normally do so at a disproportionate cost. If a business chooses to abandon the core-product, the add-on will become worthless as well. Sunk costs like this can be very damaging.

They Work Better With A Leader

[Minor Movie Spoilers] In the beginning of The Avengers, the heroes are all tossed together and almost everyone gets in a conflict. These characters are all used to being at the top of their game, and they are all strong leaders. However, once they fall in line behind a certain spangly-bannered someone, they become much more organized and effective. In business, there are going to be certain programs that the organization is more comfortable working with. If other programs are proprietary and do not play nice with the programs that the business already feels comfortable with, then their value decreases dramatically. It is always easier to access information in just a few places. The more dashboards that employees have to go through, the more difficult it is to understand and execute on the information available.

Avengers Cover Their Weaknesses

The best part about the avengers is that, when they team up, they can overcome weaknesses. The Hulk has a group that can keep him in check and point him in the right direction. Iron Man has a moral authority to keep him grounded. Hawkeye has people to distract enemies while he shoots arrows from afar. The point is, they accentuate and enhance strengths while minimizing weaknesses. Business tools can and should do the same thing. If there is a facet of a comprehensive program, such as Microsoft Dynamics, that doesn’t quite work to solve your needs, another piece of software can be configured to jump right in so that you can keep going and get your work done. In the end, it’s all about minimizing problems and boosting efficiency.

Are your business tools super-powered? If not, take a look and see what will give them the juice they need to take on problems you face every day. That way, when a metaphorical planet altering invasion of space monsters occurs, you will be able to handle it.

Many businesses require approvals of employee time entry, the more flexible the better. In addition, they often require layered approvals, or approvals from more than one individual, whether that be from supervisors, HR, or managers of specific projects. Microsoft Dynamics, one of the more popular offers a basic level of this functionality in Business Portal, but unfortunately the approvals are set to allow no more than one approver and one supervisor to review the timesheet. While this may work for smaller and simpler companies, expansion and a desire to use timesheets in a capacity beyond administrative functions will require a more robust approval system.

Another issue with the basic validation levels concerns the ability for employees to edit timesheets even after they have been approved. This effectively renders the approval invalid. Time spent going back and double-checking all previously approved timesheets for discrepancies is obviously and needlessly wasted. Approvers need to be able to “lock down” a timesheet after approval, unless of course there is an explicit reason for later modification, in which case the approver should be given the ability to request changes as necessary.

Fortunately, it is still possible to reap the substantial benefits of the Microsoft Dynamics accounting programs. Journyx Timesheet combined with Accountlink for Microsoft Dynamics allows for full approval flexibility. Timesheets can be entered and approved through any web browser, and do not require any technical knowledge whatsoever to navigate and submit. Once the approval process has been completed, the data can then be easily transferred into the Microsoft Dynamics interface. In this way businesses can experience all the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics while maintaining the robust approval levels that modern businesses require. There is no reason not to experience the best of both worlds thanks to Journyx Accountlink for Microsoft Dynamics.

Unless you are living in utopian sci-fi society, all of your employees are human, and that’s a good thing because humans are smart and resourceful. They are also prone to make mistakes and forget things. The time entry functionality of Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal is unfortunately very susceptible to both of these flaws. If an employee makes a mistake or forgets to enter time by a set date, there is nothing to validate or remind them to do so.

That means, most unfortunately, that approvers will have to manually look through timesheets to check for errors or omissions with no real idea of where, specifically, an issue will arise. Since approvers are often managers or even higher-level employees, this waste of time can have a very real and detrimental impact to the operations of a company. Worse, because Business Portal doesn’t feature multi-layered approvals, it is possible that an erroneous timesheet could make it all the way to payroll, necessitating a lengthy period in which timesheet submission processes must be backtracked and fixed. Again, a waste of time for all involved.

Businesses must have a system in place that both validates timesheets to make sure there are no issues with the entered information, and that sends reminders so that timesheets are submitted at a designated time. Fortunately, Journyx Timesheet combined with Journyx Accountlink for Microsoft Dynamics allows for just such a functionality, and does so while still enabling all of the advantages of Microsoft Dynamics, extending its value by adding necessary functionality.

Data from Microsoft Dynamics can be transferred bi-directionally with data from Journyx Timesheet, so the robust validations and reminders set in Journyx Timesheet reflect in the Microsoft Dynamics program. Best of all, none of this requires any advanced technical skills, and data can be input and viewed over the web. It is a convenient solution to a very real problem, and can drastically improve the value of timesheet data through error eliminations.