tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75797786500078542412024-03-14T18:46:59.245+00:00SaaSintheUKSoftware-as-a-Service. Pure and Simple.Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-85565034186632228812014-01-23T12:04:00.000+00:002014-04-19T21:20:05.784+01:00Value Added Resellers of SaaS<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No doubt SaaS and its brethren has turned the world of IT and IT delivery upside down. As a result, traditional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_reseller" target="_blank">VARS </a>(Value-Added ReSellers) have been pushed aside. Certainly at the lower-end of the market where all the exciting stuff is taking place. Simply put <b>when software is delivered as a service there seems little need for a service to deliver software</b>! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, there are organisations springing up now who do add value to SaaS and cloud applications. That is the new wave of integrators. Not to be confused with old school System Integrators (SI's), the likes of <a href="http://www.ifttt.com/" target="_blank">IFTTT</a>, <a href="http://www.onesaas.com/" target="_blank">OneSaas</a>, <a href="http://www.cloudwork.com/" target="_blank">CloudWork</a> and <a href="http://www.bondable.com/" target="_blank">Bondable</a> focus solely on building (and selling) plug-ins that automate transactions between SaaS applications. They do this by utilising the API each vendor provides to allow secure access to their service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Integrations and a free public API have always been an essential ingredient in the SaaS go-to-market recipe</b>. Now the sheer volume of services out there is creating a demand for these dedicated integration services. Making it even more important to provide an API with your SaaS product of course. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it's early days for these guys. I would suggest they're a bit ahead of the curve. Yes, the market is getting evermore savvy but for the players in this space and their backers it is a long game! But services that offer additional functionality to SaaS are ideally placed to become the trusted advisors to small business customers looking for simple, straightforward technology that does nothing more than help them run their business as efficiently as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I expect to see the integration players start to leverage their position and the relationships they have with the vendors. If done right <b>their domain could be a compelling one stop shop for SaaS customers</b>. For vendors a new, reliable sales channel. For the integrators, extra revenue and greater customer interaction and satisfaction. <b>Trust and added value are a heady mix</b>! Step forward the Value Added Resellers of SaaS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-89588255674721030982012-10-26T13:45:00.001+01:002012-10-26T13:56:30.911+01:00Software-as-a-Service Is All About Social Justice<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Software-as-a-Service is the elegant answer to a relatively recent and quite profound question</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> posed to civilisation. That being - how to provide equal access for all to the power of business software. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until the recent revolution in software design and provision, this technology was both prohibitively expensive and designed deliberately so that it was virtually impossible to use without access to expensive and time-intensive training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> subverting the traditionally elitist world of software and business software in particular, SaaS and its brethren has truly struck a real blow for social justice!</span><br />
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQs0pt9h4tXjHmxW4n4GZ1gGdtOTX4F1igzPK-fYncTRFSQdGbb" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQs0pt9h4tXjHmxW4n4GZ1gGdtOTX4F1igzPK-fYncTRFSQdGbb" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now anybody can easily access tools to enable them to truly </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">participate in the capitalist society. Beautifully crafted applications, easily procured, for nominal commitments have levelled the playing field for small and micro businesses. People are empowered to follow their dreams and craft their preferred lifestyle while providing their fellow humans with the benefit of their expertise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Likewise, those same people can create those very same SaaS solutions, while using said solutions to do so! You want philanthropy? I suggest there is little more satisfying than creating and providing technology to empower the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">average guy-in-the-street to reach his potential. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So yes, <b>SaaS is the democratisation of software</b>. But more so, <b>SaaS is real democracy in action</b>! Well it's far more significant than just ticking a box every few years!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is why </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love SaaS! Pure and simple.</span><br />
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Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-31104693267748542852012-05-09T05:14:00.003+01:002012-11-01T01:04:23.017+00:00More SaaS Accounting in the UK (Part 1) - The Bananarama Principle<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess I'm biased, but I really do see <b>the UK's small biz SaaS accounting scene as a barometer of how software democratisation in general is gonna play out</b>. It has all the crucial elements, including simplification, disruption, utter intuitiveness, innovation and creativity, heavy emphasis on customer experience, mobile platform strategy, product with personality and a sense of community amongst users...need I go on?</span><br />
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<a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwzOaBGXNgsToBQxnsN3AF7doJy4ytUhnkwj7iLwYPIgtT43osIg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="88" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwzOaBGXNgsToBQxnsN3AF7doJy4ytUhnkwj7iLwYPIgtT43osIg" width="320" /></span></a><a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOUfnrMKvbCIWc4Y7MKnTB5nheLY3gTasBYZmz7sGZlUIzK452zg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="79" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOUfnrMKvbCIWc4Y7MKnTB5nheLY3gTasBYZmz7sGZlUIzK452zg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sector and its <b>key protagonists signpost the eventual commoditisation of small business services on the web</b>. What's fascinating, is watching them get there!</span><br />
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<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRHZlzcq60bbsSEvsvyBdARIpzFr_BzzZlUtCStZQNhhEYnH1Ph" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRHZlzcq60bbsSEvsvyBdARIpzFr_BzzZlUtCStZQNhhEYnH1Ph" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be more specific, watching them from early on, choosing different routes and then navigate those very different routes to get there. Using very different modes of transport, stopping at different destinations en route....finish with your own travel analogy! </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the More Obvious Differences</span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different funding models</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">consequent different emphasis on cashflow</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and consequent different expansion strategies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different marketing budgets and marketing strategies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different sales strategies - including channels
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">implementation of social media strategies at a time when social media has entered the fray and grown at much the same time.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">varying reliance on zero-touch/light-touch sales via website etc</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different eco-system strategy - use of API etc</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">differences in support infra-structure</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different tactics for foreign markets (different importance placed)</span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Technology With Personality</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the many particularly interesting aspects to an old SaaS biz geek like me, is how all the action and manoeuvrings in recent weeks highlights the very different ways that each of the leading protagonists goes about their business. This has been evident from the get-go of course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in the day we had software. It was bland, bloated and a turn-off (I can vouch for that 100%) sold by software companies. Any pretence of product 'personality' was a contrivance of PR relating to the CEO's <i>despite</i> the product - enter Bill Gates, Larry Ellison & co. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I asked <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/so-is-steve-jobs-godfather-of-saas.html">"Is Steve Jobs the Godfather of SaaS?"</a>, this was partly prompted by the phenomenon of <i>a personality permeating the technology</i>. Use Jobs and Apple's virtually instantly legendary products as an example and people get what you're talking about. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accounting software with personality??</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As technology moves from software provision to service provision, personality enters the fray, even enabling this transition. Service is far more personalised than software of course and with the relentless, almost daily re-iteration of the tech that supports the service, integrated with meticulous use of social media, digital marketing, PR etc it is now possible for a brand to take on a far more nuanced and more solid, almost <i>touch-it, </i>identity. An identity that includes human-like flaws as well as a desire to delight users; and other contradictions, for example.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once attuned to the brand and its product offering, it's possible to align that persona to how features are implemented and are likely to be implemented when new features and functionality hit, further down the track. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The very different back-stories of the Founders affect the brand persona's at a profound level that includes implementation and deployment and not just the (more obvious) strategies and strategic decisions that each player makes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The consequence is that, for the first time, users buy into the brand persona of a service provider (of accounting software!!) which includes the personality traits of the Founders and 'significant others'! Including, how they:- </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">implement new features</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">present new innovations and features </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">declare war on the traditional incumbent software companies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">present arguments for implementing strategies and tactics</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">communicate with users and the outside world</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To this old SaaS biz geek, the intricately entangled mix of psychology, marketing, culture, brand, funding model, cutting-edge technology, ethos and business plan is absolutely fascinating, but more importantly is absolutely business critical!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But, It's Just Accounting Software!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And as some march on, others (including cloud vendors that are hugely successful in their native markets) watch on in wonderment, wondering why their supposedly more rounded product just can't get a competitive footing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course the point is, <i>the product </i>is just a part of the solution! Anyone can replicate the feature-set of old school software and deliver via the cloud, for example. Many can improve on the functionality. Users want not only elegant solutions, but an ethos they can buy into. They want to know who and what you are!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I call this the...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Bananarama Principle</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chant:-</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"It's not what you do but the way that you do it, </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(repeat loads)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And that's what gets results!"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Yes I know that this was actually a collaboration between Bananarama & Fun Boy 3, but that's besides the point. To make a point, I call this <i>the Bananarama Principle</i>. It's a valid point!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Next!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Acknowledging that this generation of fanatical users buy into how a particular vendor implements features, informs discussions around strategy, branding etc and can even help to predict vendor behaviour. It also helps vendors understand that strategy is about playing to one's own strengths rather than copying others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This will inform a closer </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">look at <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2012/02/29/kashflow-implies-insecurity-among-saas-finance-solutions-using-yodlee/">all the fuss around Yodlee and bank feeds</a> in Part 2, and why some SaaS co's might choose not to get involved (at this stage), while s</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ome non-SaaS co's choose </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to get involved</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">! What are <a href="http://www.kernelmag.com/comment/opinion/1874/rage-against-the-machine/">Crunch </a>up to and are they are a viable alternative?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the same time, a closer look at the FreeAgent growth and what it all means, for all.<a href="http://www.freeagent.com/central/crossing-the-pond"> Their acquisition of a US co no-one's heard of! Yep FreeAgent is betting big</a>. Why are Xero and FreeAgent looking at the USA and KashFlow apparently not.<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9FNAJ8jR4c"> Are Clear Books wrong to sink their resources into payroll, CRM etc?</a> What it all means in respect to the original <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/saas-accounting-in-uk.html">SaaS Accounting in the UK </a>post from the first week of 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-25972370862649151402012-04-22T22:05:00.002+01:002012-11-01T01:05:21.851+00:00At A Click<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a bar-be-que at mine today. Like many, I like to enjoy a social occasion in the garden or down the beach, whenever the (ever more accommodating) British weather and other considerations allow. And I gotta say, there is something rather special about the tang of good BBQ food. You can't beat it! Anyhoo, while doing '</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the man of the house' thing, I got to thinking...</span><br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTNTA-UTlHWz7mlYKui7PoJ1YWyWZGjny8EBIXXpvlnb-1SvzTh" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTNTA-UTlHWz7mlYKui7PoJ1YWyWZGjny8EBIXXpvlnb-1SvzTh" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, back in the day, whether as a kid or as a young adult globe-trotter, I would happily build a small fire with an ad-hoc grill and cook some pretty basic sounding grub, that would taste fantastic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether on a sun-kissed beach, deep in the woods or a dank mountain-side, I and whoever I was with, would think nothing of putting in the effort for a cool social occasion, with great food. There was never any concern about the effort it took etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we threw some charcoal - 'optimised for the BBQ' - on a purpose made, 'optimum height' metal contraption. I then squirted some purpose made BBQ fluid over the charcoal and put a lighter to it. Shortly after we were serving up our first wave of food. Within a couple of hours we were clearing up just before the weather turned. Job done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now even that is too involved for some. Shell out a fair amount of money (compared with free) and you can buy what is really no more than a glorified gas cooker for the garden. Incredibly, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the glorious tang of BBQ'd food is sacrificed in exchange for that convenience. Quicker, cleaner and that last crucial element sacrificed: people pay for that privilege. Some will even pay a premium for a hat-tip to good industrial design. Imagine that!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-90134726555099320062012-04-13T15:45:00.000+01:002012-11-01T01:05:59.459+00:00Will Sony Be The Next Kodak?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just had to share this hilarious video with you. 'Sony Releases Stupid Piece of Shit' from <a href="http://www.theonion.com/">The Onion</a>, is over a couple of years old now and has had well over 5 million views so there's a good chance you've seen it already. But it's only a couple of minutes long, so watch it again; it's so worth it...and poignant!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Footnote to Fear and Paralysis</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This makes a neat third and final(?) post in <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sagelive-my-part-in-its-downfall.html">the series that has, up til now used the SageLive debacle</a> as a vehicle to discuss the phenomena of large, well-resourced organisations being <i>gripped by fear</i> when challenged by upstart competition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These posts have certainly got a bit of attention. Thanks to all who shown an interest and for your comments and thoughts via Twitter et al. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/benkepes">Ben Kepes</a> wrote a fine <a href="http://www.diversity.net.nz/responding-to-competitionin-the-cloud-worldits-all-about-raising-the-tide/2012/04/04/">follow-up piece over on his Diversity blog</a> (and syndicated to <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/">Cloud Ave</a> and elsewhere). In it, Ben interweaves chunks of (part 2), <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/goodbye-sagelive-hello-same-old-sage.html">'Goodbye SageLive, Hello Same Old Sage'</a>, with his own experiences of other incumbents </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in similar circumstances. In short, he confirms seeing the same phenomena of fear and 'paralysis', all too often.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>And so to Sony</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_953888374">Sony announced massive</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16205898"> losses</a>, with consequent job losses totalling 10,000 globally! This news is of no great surprise to observers of course. Even <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/so-is-steve-jobs-godfather-of-saas.html">Steve Jobs</a> hinted at it, as described in his biography. And of course, Apple are always the yardstick for this kind of discussion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You'll easily find well-researched, qualified analysis elsewhere. I'm gonna put a stake in the ground, right here, right now! <b>It always comes back to organisational culture </b>and the consequent strategy or lack of! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The very best SaaS offerings have their own type of great organisational culture which includes an ethos where <b>customer experience is paramount</b>. This is a huge differentiator when the whole organisation is totally behind it. Lip service is not enough. It's a cultural thing! Got it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ66pOtfOYg">I digest</a> (sic). Sony is one of the world's great companies. Their products in various forms have featured in all our lives in a variety of ways, for decades. Their problem is far from unique, but in sharp relief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are a massive organisation that grew quickly in very different times. Scroll forward to today and you have a fractious organisation with multiple silo'd 'departments' all pulling in very different directions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Any strategy they might have appears to be no better than, <i>do everything</i>. The cliché, <i>left hand not knowing what the right is doing, </i>barely seems adequate to describe the <i>extreme, cultural dysfunctionality</i> that now exists: it is a natural consequence of such direction-less leadership.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It Wouldn't Happen at Apple</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What has made Apple so different from nearly all other mega-companies (until now at least) is that it's strategy and structure has more resembled the nimble, world-class tech startup. Single-minded and totally focussed on a handful of connected offerings and doing those brilliantly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The benefits of an autocratic leadership style is that the whole organisation knows what the company mission is. Not only the employees, but every stakeholder knows and gets their strategy. <b>Customers even buy into it</b>. Try asking Sony employees what their <i>mission </i>is? Let alone (potential) customers!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best a corporation (like Sony) can do under the circumstances, is a knee-jerk reaction. A tactic that never works because the results won't be good enough. This is ridiculous, given the enormous resources at their disposal, including talent, IP, patents...and cash. They could just buy their way out of trouble <i>with the right strategy</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Instagram Acquisition as an Example</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This model has been born out by the news, this week, of <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/facebook-instagram-buy/">the Instagram acquisition by Facebook</a>. Facebook's issue of course, is to not let their platform become so broad that everything they do is not good enough. Many analysts believe that buying Instagram is part of dealing with that issue, asides from other strategic motives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Besides likely spawning a multitude of me-too photo apps (cos there aren't enough of those right?), what Instagram prove is that a small organisation totally dedicated to producing the very best solution possible, with a very narrow remit, is the way to do it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Another Kodak Moment?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a Tweetchat, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/ospero_JasonC">Jason Currill</a> remarked, 'another Kodak moment looming me thinks'. This depends. If it means that Sony has a similar, fundamental strategic decisions to make then yes, it is. If it means, 'that's the end of Sony', it really doesn't have to be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the warning shot. Like all big threatened organisations, they've got enough in reserve to do something about it. They just need to be decisive and play to their strengths. If they do end up like Kodak, that will not only be sad, it would be a crime!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Final Thought</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last night I caught up with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=27092933&authType=OPENLINK&authToken=EQ6G&locale=en_US&srchid=c6b8d5cc-8ee5-4df8-8d0c-b1b08e1e0937-0&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3998&goback=%2Efps_PBCK_alex+king_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&pvs=ps&trk=pp_profile_photo_link">Alex King</a> over a couple of beers for the first time in too long. Alex is the knowledgeable MD of <a href="http://www.tfmcentre.co.uk/">The Financial Management Centre</a>, probably the largest network of its kind in the UK. Alot has happened since I worked with him on the conception of <a href="http://www.theonlinebookkeeper.co.uk/">The Online Bookkeeper</a>, their online accounting property.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While shooting the breeze, on a broad range of branding, strategy, marketing and analysis subjects, he touched on the tendency of corporate Japan to defer important decisions by engaging in endless meetings. Once again the subject of <b>fear raises its ugly head</b>. All concerned are too worried about making the wrong decision. The consequences of failure are too monumental to be entertained. No-one is prepared to take the lead. The potential result, paralysis and even, god-forbid, a Kodak moment!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-69542729594125570252012-03-23T23:44:00.000+00:002012-11-01T01:06:34.707+00:00Goodbye SageLive, Hello Same Old Sage<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what was the last post all about? Why <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sagelive-my-part-in-its-downfall.html" target="_blank">bring up an old subject like SageLive</a>? I mean, that's <i>old</i> news right? Everyone knows that it was an almighty cock-up! But that's ancient history and anyhow, surely it's been superseded by the 'robust' <a href="http://www.sageone.com/" target="_blank">SageOne</a> hasn't it? So all is hunky-dory now, surely? <a href="http://www.sage.com/" target="_blank">Sage</a> know what they're doing now; lesson learnt and all that? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or not! The SageLive saga is just a case in point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With all the romantic reminiscing of the previous post (which proved quite popular with the readership;), it would be easy to miss the theme of over-reaction and obsessiveness by Sagees with a perceived competitor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On its own it may have meant very little. But it's a trait I saw repeated a-plenty, every time I encountered Sage employees. And not just I; others noticed it too!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Totally Out Of Perspective</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be clear. At that time (late 2008), KashFlow had circa 2000 users paying no more than £15.99 a month. Sage had hundreds of thousands of customers, equating to a much greater ARPU (average revenue per user). Competition was <i>perceived, </i>not real. The only threat was what they represented - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in short (very short) <i>the future</i>!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(among other things)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> commercial threats (perceived or real) are purely for the upper echelons of a multi-billion pound/multi-thousand employee organisation to be aware of and to deal with. Not the 'rank or file' to worry about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet the only significant senior management tale I have is from an ex-Sagee who I respect. When he called the appropriate Director to make him aware of <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/blog/sage-live-security/" target="_blank">the post exposing the serious security flaws in SageLive</a>, he was on his way home on a Friday evening. His response amounted to - it can't be that important that it can't wait until Monday! The rest, as they say, is history!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Poking Fun at Elephants With Sharp Sticks</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OK, some fun was had at Sage's expense. Though it's possible that it might have fed a pathological urge, the handful of well-aimed blows were purely to serve a purpose. A business purpose. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, we giggled like schoolgirls as me and Duane Jackson dodged patrol cars in 'riot-torn' Pitsea while <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dOquN65SaY" target="_blank">setting light to a Sage software box</a> and then videoed the proceedings. The whole office laughed riotously upon receiving notice <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/2484/david-and-goliath-2-0/" target="_blank">from Trading Standards of a complaint by Sage against KashFlow</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could go on, but you get the idea. The interweb has more if you're interested. Piggybacking other brands is a well known <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing" target="_blank">guerilla marketing</a> strategy. All the more (cost) effective in the internet age. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite naive and surprising protests from some quarters that such baiting doesn't work (try telling the likes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson" target="_blank">Richard Branson</a> and <a href="http://www.michellemone.com/" target="_blank">Michelle Mone</a> that) and is doomed to fail. It did and it wasn't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">An Organisation Gripped By Fear and Paranoia</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Time and again, Sage employees at various events shared their fear and awe of KashFlow with me and others. A very reliable source even shared with me the tendency of <a href="http://www.sagenorthamerica.com/" target="_blank">Sage North America</a> reps to bring the 'KashFlow latest' to meetings over a period exceeding 12 months!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Incredibly, all seemed convinced that <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/" target="_blank">KashFlow</a> existed purely to annihilate Sage. Like a seventies era anarcho-terrorist cell. On more than one occasion I even pleaded that KashFlow staff did not spend every waking hour plotting the downfall of Sage; they did not spend their waking hours muttering their hate and loathing like possessed madmen, complete with wide-eyes and salivating like devil-dogs! But each time it just would not be believed! This paranoia had spread and had gripped the organisation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why was an entire organisation of such magnitude allowed to be gripped by such terror? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why (and how) are thousands of employees of a multi-billion pound organisation all obsessed with one guy and his tiny company. I repeat, why? WTF??! This company claim to be <a href="http://www.sage.co.uk/why-sage/why-sage-for-erp.html" target="_blank">the world's 3rd largest ERP vendor</a>, amongst many other things. They have fingers in plenty of pies. Why oh why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It Wouldn't Happen at a SaaS Company</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every single SaaS vendor with any measure of success cares little for what others are up to. Even the closest of competitors. This is a time of fundamental change in the delivery of IT services. The potential market is massive, whatever the niche. They just want to get their share and then some! There's no time to waste worrying about others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's plenty of land for everyone. Of course, common-sense means be aware of what the others are doing, but it doesn't distract from the total confidence that is all-pervasive in a real SaaS org. Their culture is more concerned by there only being 24 hours in the day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I mean, can you imagine the entire workforce of <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/" target="_blank">Dropbox</a> seeking counselling because Google<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/why-googles-gdrive-wont-set-the-cloud-fire-186279" target="_blank"> announce GDrive</a>? Or Zuckerberg going on a month long bender because of Google+? Does <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-57341023-62/why-amazons-current-cloud-domination-helps-us-all/" target="_blank">the latest play by Amazon</a> leave <a href="http://www.rackspace.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rackspace</a> crying in their milk? I could give thousands of examples. The point is, those that are serious about what they do just double down and focus on the mission. They differentiate; pimp their USP; provide the best UX. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Single-mindedness, focus and confidence in the mission - all traits common to successful SaaS vendors. A singular belief in what all involved are doing as a team - as a collective - is what drives those that thrive. Disrupting the old ways of doing things, yeah, but more so improving the customers lot and gaining commercial success as a by-product. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Swansong?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you're an incumbent, you're a sitting target. You've gotta expect others to take aim at you. Especially in tech. You don't take it personally. It's a compliment! At worst it's a wee kick up the butt. You deal with it by putting together a winning strategy that plays to the strengths of your organisation, (not somebody else's) and a single-minded dedication to what you believe in; to what you do well. Not blind panic and an all-pervasive nihilism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don't blatantly imitate others, without knowing why it works for them. If you did understand that, you'd know it won't work for you! The reason that SaaS accounting has room for <a href="http://www.freeagent.com/" target="_blank">FreeAgent</a>, <a href="http://www.xero.com/" target="_blank">Xero</a> and <a href="http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/" target="_blank">Clear Books</a> and others is that each plays to their strengths and ploughs their own furrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you're not sure how to achieve success when it seems like you have everything, bring in someone from outside the organisation to conduct an entirely objective, root-and-branch review of your organisation and its solutions. They will identify your strengths and weaknesses in the new SaaS landscape and from there, produce a compelling roadmap and a winning strategy! If there is someone at Sage with the clout to make an autonomous decision to drag them back from the brink, you can contact me via Twitter @SaaSitUK !</span><br />
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<br />Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-20196092065494960392012-02-14T01:19:00.001+00:002014-03-20T00:14:43.948+00:00SageLive - My Part In It's Downfall<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I want to tell you a story!</b> This story is the first part of two posts put together to emphasise my contention that <b>SaaS is a cultural thing</b> as much as anything else and that's why therefore, large pre-SaaS organisations struggle with it (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've split it in two purely because it's too long as one post and it divides quite conveniently).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During a recent discussion on Twitter </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/topaccountants">Adrian Pearson</a> asked me whether I considered <a href="http://www.sageone.com/">SageOne</a> to be a SaaS solution. I replied: </span><br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/topaccountants" rel="user" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #323232; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #87c2ed; cursor: pointer; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><s style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;">@</s><b style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">topaccountants</b></a><span style="background-color: #323232; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px;"> For me, No. It's an attempt at SaaS by a non-SaaS biz that don't get SaaS and it competes with some SaaS products </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What follows is some background as to why this is the case.</span><br />
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<a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUFGHIvZbxStK7sEoC3W6IuMmYYYvLo4a3EFCtE-Ewxfi35V5yYg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUFGHIvZbxStK7sEoC3W6IuMmYYYvLo4a3EFCtE-Ewxfi35V5yYg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Main Event</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Late 2008, <a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTNgqKrn8BzMPP-Nf4OQhBDP68yDL1CWbMlLQdByljHToh3s9D_">DuaneJackson</a>, KashFlow CEO, asked me to accompany him to</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the BStartUp Expo at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_(London)">Kensington Olympia</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Being my boss at the time, I curtsied reverently and off we went!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As is often the case,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.sage.com/">Sage</a> were the major sponsor of the event. Hence the largest stand, dead centre and visible from all angles, with an army of staff. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We got there latish and flew around quickly in anticipation of battling with the east London traffic on a Friday afternoon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We stopped by the Sage stand on the way out as it would have been rude not to. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TBH it was all pretty uninteresting as we </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">made small talk with a couple of the guys.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Until that is, I spied a laptop ticking away at the end of one of the counters. For some unknown reason I remarked to Duane that it looked like a SaaS solution! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To this day, I don't know what it was about the green and black screen that made me think that (what does a SaaS solution look like from about 15ft away?). As</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Duane rightly responded, Sage didn't have a cloud offering. As it happened, he was wrong (kind of) and uncannily, by chance, we happened to be chatting to the proud parents of (the soon to be) </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">infamous <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/2599/going-live-with-sage-initial-review-of-sagelive/">SageLive</a>. And I mean proud: they were positively bursting!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Situation Comedy</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There then played out a classic, farcical, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitcom">sitcom</a> type scene whereby the guys could hardly contain themselves as Duane (by now, very interested) proceeded to rain down questions on them. All the answers had a common theme, such as:-</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Yes, it is at least as good as KashFlow"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Yes, KashFlow are the main competitor"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Yes, it does this and that, just like KashFlow"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"KashFlow are definitely the driver for developing this product"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Of course there are others, but KashFlow, KashFlow, KashFlow...."</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Get the ide</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here were representatives of a multi-billion pound organisation - <b>one of the world's largest software companies and the UK's biggest</b> - obsessed with a small start-up with about half a dozen staff and less than 2,000 customers, each paying £16 a month or less!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a couple more minutes of having his ego fed, Duane relented and showed them his business card! From here on in the whole scene just got really surreal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was <i>the delight </i>as these guys realised they were not only meeting<i> their hero </i>but had a golden opportunity to talk to him as well as show off what they'd built. They just couldn't contain themselves. T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">here was also the furtive glances of the Sagees as they whispered to each other (in effect) "That's KashFlow"!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If this all sounds like unlikely, over-dramatised, romanticised nonsense, good! It's meant to. Because that's what it was. That's what made the whole scene so surreal. To this day, one of the most surreal I've both witnessed and been part of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next few minutes was taken up with a brief dem and the general impression Duane had was that it seemed pretty good. Or that was at least the impression he gave, though he was only half taking it in! Likewise it looked OK to me (for what it's worth). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ultimately, just how 'good' it was or wasn't, was besides the point. Duane was formulating a plan! Anyhoo, we finished up pretty quickly, quite abruptly in fact. Handshakes, back-slapping, card-swapping etc and off we marched leaving behind a cast of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire_Cat">Cheshire Cat</a>s! "Wow, that was...and he liked it", etc etc etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>An Education </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So off we ran (pretty much), back to the car. Duane was excited to say the least. In hindsight, probably the most excited I've ever seen him! The next two hours we sat in that dreaded traffic-jam, trying to get back to the old KashFlow offices in Pitsea, Essex. And Duane didn't care one iota. He'd already got to work before we got to the car. Calling a small PR co and immediately on to <i>pulling the strings</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The truth is we were really surprised to have stumbled across SageLive. There had been rumours of a Sage response to SaaS. Much debate about how and why Sage should and would react, or not. And the general consensus was that the sooner <a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/elephant-in-the-room.html">the elephant</a> known as Sage, validated the market, the better for all those smaller SaaS vendors in their efforts to educate the marketplace! But until that day, there had been nothing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then out-of-the-blue, an unpublicized, public outing. Why? I don't know what their thinking was. <i>What were they thinking?</i> I don't know that such an action had even been sanctioned. But, it was a downright stupid thing to do. Made all the worse, because their <i>perceived </i>nemesis stumbled upon it and then had the savvy to know how to use it to a maximum effect. Made all the worse<i> because they had a perceived nemesis!</i> But more on this later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was pure gold of course to Duane and KashFlow and an education for me. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using mobile phone and 3G laptop, <b>he did what the Sage PR and marketing machine had failed to do. Tell the world about it</b>! Thus making sure that from then on in, every search and mention of SageLive came with 'added KashFlow'!!!! </span><a href="http://www.kashflow.com/blog/sage-live/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the blog post that he wrote</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> that very day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This all took surprisingly little effort, but paid in spades. In both marketing and PR, but more importantly, trials and paying customers for KashFlow! As the news spread, all commentary noted Duane's part in unveiling the existence of SageLive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sage's initial 'no comment' type attitude was incredible. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Incredibly, having kicked-off on a Friday evening seemed to mean that Sage weren't even aware of what was happening for two and a half days, at least! </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">their</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> product for Chrissakes! It was almost like they were embarrassed about it! By the time they started to deal with it, it was far, far, too late. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To this day <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=blacberry+delete&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:%7Breferrer:source?%7D&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADFA_en&redir_esc=&ei=ECenTfTEIYe2hQfX0vjbCQ#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US%3A%7Breferrer%3Asource%3F%7D&rlz=1I7ADFA_en&source=hp&q=Sagelive&oq=Sagelive&aq=f&aqi=g1g-s4g-v2g-sv1g-v2&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1722l7540l0l7845l23l14l0l0l0l4l174l1294l8.5l14l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=991c8d6badbd6119&biw=1366&bih=667">Google SageLive</a> and find all the commentary of it's appearance, existence and sudden demise in two short, but eventful months, from several high profile titles; all with a hat-tip to Duane Jackson/KashFlow, but nothing from Sage!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How it all played out is almost legend and you can find it all easily enough. If you interested to know more, this is the <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/blog/sage-live-security/">infamous KashFlow post</a> about 8 weeks after the Bstartup show revealing the glaring security holes that signalled the demise of SageLive. Should you want to know more about what happened, ping away and I'll try to help. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The point</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look, I got a real education being up close and personal, watching one guy and his bootstrapped startup pulling the strings of a multi-billion pound org: getting untold marketing mileage out of them and making sure any pathetic attempt they made to compete or even stomp on them just added fuel to the fire!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, this is not some KashFlow 'love-fest' - in true BBC stylee, "other excellent SaaS accounting solutions do exist". Just trawl this blog to find plenty mentions of most of the other players! Or vendors can even tell us about yourselves in the comments below, if you like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had to mention what it was like from (my perspective) the KashFlow side of the fence whilst on the subject (I've been asked about this a few times), but the main reason for telling this story is to lay the foundations as to 'why and how <b>Sage is fighting a losing battle in going toe-to-toe with the SaaS vendors in the UK</b>' (part 2 of this post).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fact <b>that Sage made a complete pigs-ear of SageLive from a technical POV is symptomatic of the fact, not the reason why</b>. My personal experience is a good example of what is probably true throughout the software industry. The follow-up to this post recalls other anecdotes from the intervening three years as well as diving into this debacle and gels nicely to prove the point. Meanwhile I'll let you digest this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Footnote:</b> The title to this post is a homage to the glorious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Milligan">Spike Milligan</a>; paraphrasing the title of one of his seven short autobiographies (<a href="http://seven%20short%20autobiographies/">Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall</a> - on Amazon for less than £5!!) which are all truly hilarious genius and highly recommended.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-48650182250878426732012-02-08T00:28:00.000+00:002012-11-01T01:08:48.962+00:00To SaaS Or Not To SaaS...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have mentioned before, <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.com/2012/01/dedicated-follower-of-fashion.html">how some of the world's biggest companies have fallen over themselves in a vain attempt to be known as SaaS</a>. A classic example of a dysfunctional organisation getting the wrong end of the stick, while arrogantly swimming in their own hype. Blatantly ignoring who and what they are as an organisation, let alone whether it's a viable option for them. </span><br />
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<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTkb2gzJDAf_pgeOzl0SmE36BUbFoKf465RLfvG0SNvEu0dD9W63A" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="357" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTkb2gzJDAf_pgeOzl0SmE36BUbFoKf465RLfvG0SNvEu0dD9W63A" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A well documented phenomenon is t</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he difficulty that traditional software companies experience in migrating their products to the cloud, <b>let alone morphing their entire organisation to SaaS</b>. Social psychologists will tell you that cultural change in even the smallest of organisation is nigh on impossible; let alone when you have thousands of employees and a management team that just don't get it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fact of the matter is, you can try to emulate the SaaS model, but <b>if you approach it with the same old, trad software company attitude, you're just gonna fail</b>. Period. Or err full stop!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So maybe some credit is due to those who don't try then. Maybe they truly do get this fundamental issue; understanding that it would be simpler and much less painful to simply set fire to their platform than attempt the excruciatingly painful, cultural shift required to have a chance of success! Maybe!?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Technology Company or Service Organisation? You Decide!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Therefore, it's best to make the conscious decision early on as to whether you want to go down the SaaS road or not. I mean <i>early </i>on. Like, even before a line of code has been written is not too early! Certainly, long before delivery is strongly advised. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If, 'to SaaS or not to Saas' is the question, then there are many perfectly adequate answers. C</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">hanging strategy or trying different tactics, even to pivot entirely are relatively easy undertakings and likely necessary as things evolve, but to change organisational culture is an altogether different animal entirely. SaaS done well, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">looks </i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">easy (that's kind of the point). But, the majority of tech companies aren't SaaS for a good reason!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>But decide now before it's too late</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During my tenure at SaaS accounting vendor, KashFlow, we were aware of new potential competitors appearing at least once a month and often on a weekly basis. Often the actual cloud software element looked great, h</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">owever, 99% of the time they would disappear just as quickly! Why? Because they hadn't made <i>that</i> decision. Consequently, their hard work was destined for the black hole of history before they even started. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Just Add Website</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Likely, the talented bedroom developers were totally unaware that they had to make any non-programming decisions. They probably believed that infamous misconception, 'great products sell themselves'. But a</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">s KashFlow Chairman, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Young,_Baron_Young_of_Graffham">Lord Young</a> liked to put it, "<b>you can have the best bus in the world, but it's useless if nobody gets on it</b>"! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your potential customers have got to know that your bus is coming! H</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">aving a domain to match your product name is simply not enough on its own. How many more times? <b>You are not Facebook</b>! They got a Hollywood revision because they are the exception, not the rule. Great products <i>do not</i> sell themselves. Your duty is to load the dice as heavily as possible in your favour!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before breaking things down into the key elements of SaaS, so that you can load the dice, let's cover off some fundamentals to consider before you proceed with changing the world. Next!</span><br />
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Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-75734386052312469252012-02-03T01:19:00.001+00:002012-02-03T11:35:51.124+00:00Has LiquidAccounts got the X-Factor?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The strap-line for this site expresses a desire to cover more <i>news. </i>This is not as easy an undertaking as I would hope. I guess if it was, there would be even less justification for teams of journo's than there is presently (bearing in mind the disruptive pressure of the web and all that).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With that in mind I wanted to share what I'd heard of the latest comings and goings at <a href="http://www.liquidaccounts.net/">LiquidAccounts</a> as quickly as possible and chew on the fat a little. Having navigated today's scheduled meetings et al, I got down to getting out what was to be a short update. Including:-</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After a relatively quiet first month of 2012, some news! At the same time</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> as <a href="http://blog.xero.com/2012/02/more-capital-spp-and-workflow-max/">Xero sharing the highlights of what to expect in the annual summary</a> at the end of March - including acquiring the excellent <a href="http://www.workflowmax.com/">WorkFlowmax</a> (congratulations to Gavin and the team - well deserved). Both <a href="http://www.diversity.net.nz/xero-raises-another-round-and-acquires-workflowmax/2012/02/01/">Diversity</a> & <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/">AccMan</a> commentate on this story comprehensively so I'll concentrate my focus on... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...it's all change at LiquidAccounts! Matt Holmes & Lisa Kendrick (CEO & Marketing Director respectively) have been <i>ousted</i> amid rumours that the Board were less than enamoured with <i>how</i> they were keeping the company's books." <<~~ <i>Diplomatic description!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was then made aware that AccMan <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2012/02/02/liquidaccounts-illiquid/">had got in their first</a>!! Hey-ho. But seriously, it's not about who's first with the gossip; this isn't Facebook after all. What about the why's and where now? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TBH - it's always sad to hear about the sort of thing that has happened at Liquid (and they're not the only ones in some form of hell!). So much blood, sweat and tears gets poured into these ventures. It's easy for judgement to get clouded. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-years-must-have.html">mentioned LiquidAccounts</a> (be warned this link is to an epic post!) previously when I suggested that building their own payroll module was a bad move. This is indicative of a strategy likely to fail. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Amid all the hype of cloud and the sexing-up of SaaS, it's easy to ignore the fact that it's an incredibly tough business model for a vendor early on. Especially at the entry-level, where every customer - that costs the vendor money to acquire - is giving you just a few quid a month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It requires a real single-mindedness not to be distracted from the long-game, while making things viable in the short-term. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Witness the extreme funding route of Xero. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaaS with longevity requires focus on a narrow remit by a team <i>on</i> a mission, continually reiterating and revealing more depth. It takes real discipline not to be distracted by the quick money of bespoke development work, for example! But it's worth it, in the long run.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've said before that all the elements of a SaaS business must be given equal priority. Because it's so true! Sometimes it must feel like the competition have divine</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> intervention as you bust a gut with a product that they honestly can't see to be inferior in any way. No wonder that some decide the only option is to build more stuff; to throw more tech at the problem. But that way is folly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dennis Howlett wonders as to whether others will be tempted to pick up the IP and the existing customer base et al. Like him, I doubt it. Doubtless plenty will sniff around, like they have plenty of others. But in reality there's still not enough for the big guys to get their teeth into at this stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could be wrong of course. It only takes one after all. Though I'm sure what's left of LiquidAccounts would prefer at least two!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is another option. Go all in! You've come this far after all. Find someone to give the organisation direction. Make some tough decisions. Cut out all the fat, the techie bloat that undermines all the advantages that you have. Keep the existing customers on board. That's your fan-base after all. And ongoing revenue of course, while you turn this ship around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Place bets on optimising an essentially powerful product to play with the big boys in the SaaS market place. 90% of the hard work has already been done. Put in play the likes of integration and creative channel partnerships. Optimise the zero-touch side of the business. Get all parts of the organisation performing and performing together. <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.com/2012/01/saas-accounting-in-uk.html">I outlined the size of the market up for grabs</a> just a month ago. A massive opportunity for LiquidAccounts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And we've still a long way to go before this particular X-Factor final. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-43034447294190469892012-01-30T11:44:00.000+00:002012-01-31T19:47:06.507+00:00Spies Like Us! - On Non-Disclosure Agreements<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is prompted by a debate with some SaaSi colleagues a couple of weeks back. That in itself was prompted by me </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">answering the inquiry "what are you working on?" with something like "I'd love to tell you but I'm under </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NDA</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">". TBH that's not true. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The truth is, NDA or not, I've been entrusted with this stuff so I'm <i>not </i>gonna share it, with <i>anyone</i>. The NDA makes no difference...to me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TBH what I said was just a flippant alternative to</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the likes of, "I could tell yer, but I'd have to kill yer"; which may have been slightly amusing way back in the day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>So just what is the point of the NDA? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We all know that not everyone has scruples. That there is a minority that do indulge in skulduggery: who cannot be trusted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These <i>cockroaches</i> prey on peoples trust and good nature.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The damage they do can be far-reaching. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think of them as the spam of consulting and freelancing. The virus, the con-man or simply, low-life. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The NDA (or Confidentiality Agreement) is purely to cover off against these arseholes and provide peace of mind to those with something to protect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look, anyone who knows me, knows about my loyalty and my integrity. Know me well on a personal level and you'll know that you can trust me with absolutely anything. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Likewise, when it comes to my chosen profession. It's </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">chosen </i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">for a good reason. It interests me. Whisper it quietly, I love it! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often, even when 'off-duty', I might even ask whoever I'm in the company of, about relatively sensitive topics. I and others don't ask these questions because we're spies! I ask because I'm genuinely interested. As those who know me, know. And they answer my questions because they are able to and because they know it won't go any further.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are far from unique qualities. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know that I'm not the only guy who doesn't freely divulge this type of info: whether paid or not. I get paid for knowledge accumulated and then </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">distilled. Not to blurt out everything I've ever been told in good faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But more often than not, I'm hired by someone who doesn't know me so well. What they do know is that I have dealt with alot of SaaS orgs in the UK on many different levels and therefore it's likely that I have existing relationships with guys at some of these and likely, one or two of those are gonna be competitors. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is an incredibly common occurrence of course; throughout the business world and especially the tech world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bearing all this in mind and how the world works it makes nothing but good sense to ask me and anybody else in the right circumstance to sign an NDA. It's not a besmirch on my character. It's common-sense on the part of people I believe in. And make no mistake, I work with people because I believe in them. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why wouldn't you want to sign an NDA?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The NDA is an opportunity. 'Always selling' is a truism. Whether it be an idea, a concept, a partnership, a product, a service or yourself. It's a process. What better way to say I'm your man, than to suggest signing an NDA. If you're serious about what you do then it's not a problem. Don't baulk at it, embrace it. What better way to put someone at ease. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What a trust factor!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the tech and SaaS world it is not uncommon that the CEO/MD and even Founder have investors to appease. I</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">f it was your money you'd want assurance at every turn too. They have to sell to these investors in the same way. The NDA that you sign is part of that process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So as soon as the question of disclosure is raised (and it will be), you offer to sign an NDA. What's the big deal? You're a man of integrity and you love what you're being asked to do. It's a no-brainer. Put all at ease and move on to the real nitty gritty! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-68684956847888760732012-01-27T11:36:00.000+00:002012-01-27T11:36:39.666+00:00Thank Twitter<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I follow <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/TechCrunch">TechCrunch</a> on Twitter. TC outputs far too much content, of which only a fraction interests me, to be viable for my <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Reader</a>. RSS works well for the dozens of feeds that output much less volume than the <a href="http://mashable.com/">Mashables</a> of this world; but with a much higher ratio of interesting content. This includes <a href="http://eu.techcrunch.com/">TechCrunch Europe</a>! As an aggregator of content, Twitter works brilliantly for me; and for plenty of others. But that's not all Twitter is.</span><br />
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<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCRMkFyf1BajzL5gAVQX7qb35-SZx-UzMJACHDRO47LgNdSFYh" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCRMkFyf1BajzL5gAVQX7qb35-SZx-UzMJACHDRO47LgNdSFYh" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was via Twitter that I came across a <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/16/of-course-twitter-is-a-social-network/">repost by Robin Wauters on TechCrunch</a>, to a post by <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/benchmark-capital">Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital</a> - a Twitter investor. In a nutshell Bill had argued that Twitter should not be "pitted" against Facebook by being called a social network when it is really a "better <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS">RSS</a> reader" and "information utility"! True, it is, but there's much more to it than that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Robin (correctly IMO) counters that while Twitter <i>is</i> used in that way, it is actually used by many different types of people in lots of different ways, <i>including</i> as a social network. All be it a very different one to Facebook. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The multiple tools that are now available on Twitter make it possible to do most of what you can do on Facebook, but without having to stand naked in front of millions of strangers and the consequent harassment! Yeah, I don't have a personal Facebook account!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like many others, I ridiculed friends and colleagues who used Twitter in the early days. In my defence, much of it's usage <i>was</i> updates on visits to the toilet. But this did evolve and very quickly. Much quicker than I realised TBH. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm sure the Twitter Founder's never envisaged it being what it is now - as is often the case. And you have to persevere with it before you find your sweet-spot. That in itself is incredible. That millions of users take the time. On the web, where patience is in notoriously short supply. This is only possible because it's 'free' of course. And instant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me Twitter is all of the above and <i>much</i> more besides. I use it in every which way. It continues to evolve; to morph over time. As I and the rest of the Twitterverse does. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twitter really starts to give, once you give to the discipline required to communicate with persons known, yet mainly unknown, in bursts of no more than 140 characters. This is a surprisingly different 'skill' to the 160 characters of SMS and one which few, if any, likely get straight out of the blocks. But thanks the work put into the Twitter platform, it's a far more powerful and creative transaction than SMS. It does come to you <i>eventually</i>, as it is starting to come to me. Believe it or not, using Twitter takes practice!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A benefit of this discipline is the summarising of subject matter concisely. Something I'll readily admit is not a forte of mine. A good example of this came in an exchange between myself and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/topaccountants">Adrian Pearson</a> a couple of days ago. In discussing what differentiates SaaS vendors from the rest of the world he succinctly summarised my point with "taking tech out of the equation, it's about what you do and how you go about it"! Fair enough. Thank Twitter! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without Twitter, it's likely we wouldn't have even been aware of each other, let alone 'met' or 'chatted' briefly or walked away enlightened and with a soundbite to boot! Nor would I have been inspired to come back with a tongue-in-cheek one of my own. I call it 'the Bananarama Principle' (after that 80's poptastic classic), "<i>SaaS is not what you do, but the way that you do it</i>"! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank Twitter indeed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-84070515629807794902012-01-24T02:25:00.001+00:002012-01-25T15:28:26.853+00:00Dedicated Follower of Fashion<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back in the day I attended a meeting of what is now known as the</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.intellectuk.org/intellect-groups/4857" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Intellect Software as a Service Group</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. This group evolved from what was just an occasional and very informal gathering of some of the guys at the helm of the UK's original SaaS accounting vendors, in a nominated London pub. Whereby they might share their experiences of disrupting the staid world of accounting software over a beer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By time of my attendance things had evolved a little.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Gatherings were now more regular and at <a href="http://www.intellectuk.org/about-intellect/find-intellect">a regular location</a>. While welcoming a more diverse and representative group of SaaS solutions, as word got out, the SaaS Group also played party to some groupies!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Microsoft-as-a-Service</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The meeting prior to the one I attended had the touch of the surreal about it by all accounts. Apparently it had been dominated by a couple of 'spotty geeks in short trousers' <strike>hung out to dry by their employer</strike> pleading </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">at every possible turn </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that Microsoft (the employer) is a SaaS company!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember at the time, that it was thought of as just an amusing blip and an equally amusing anecdote. Incredibly a similar thing happened at the meeting I then attended. Though this time it wasn't Microsoft, but 3 other 'smaller' companies. If memory serves, one of said co's sold printers and one of the others, white goods...or they might as well have been!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As it happens, what happened at these gatherings of what were really just minnows in the massive pond of the tech industry, was being repeated throughout the tech world in every which way. Organisations, some as big as countries, were falling over themselves to be known as SaaS. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaaS was like the cool kid at school. Or top of the hit parade with paparazzi all over them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course like all fads, SaaS wasn't <i>the</i> cool kid for long. Likely, those same boardrooms had decreed that a broader, more generic term be founded and pushed as the new cool kid. One that wouldn't need so much refraction for them to be party to. And so cloud computing with it's far erm, cloudier definition reigned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The Moral of this Story is...</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well every story has one right? We're not interested in debates on what is SaaS or not SaaS. It's besides the point. No </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">manifesto's from some poor fashion victim desperate to belong.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nope, no Microsoft execs here. Or Sage for that matter!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A great SaaS solution is a near perfect blend of all the business elements in one neat package. SaaS is a chance to indulge and exhibit an artistic flare for marrying great:- customer service, marketing, branding, technology, usability, strategy, user experience, zero-touch selling techniques etc. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More than marrying these elements, they are completely entwined. An intriguing interplay that creates a whole greater than the sum of the parts. With the customer front and centre. And though I have definite ideas of what works in SaaS, it gets real interesting when an organisation goes off script and cracks it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Contrast this to the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">clichéd</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> corporate monster of silo'd departments that each pull against the rest of the organisation. A world where feature-heavy, resource-intensive, software that the average guy could maybe, just about switch on, ruled the roost. A SaaS organisation just <i>isn't</i>, if it in anyway imitates this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many excellent resources focussing on the elements that feature in a SaaS product.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> All worthy of a mention.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blogroll to the right of this article is a good place start hunting them down. (BTW - If you think your blog or another's should feature in the list, just drop us a line) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaaSintheUK will feature many of these key elements in coming posts. Scratching the surface of what makes up the big picture; in bite-sized chunks. Cos SaaS is about putting together a compelling solution for business, not about following fashion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Footnote: The Intellect Software-as-a-Service Group</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I believe I was not the only one not to return for future meetings after the event I described. It's hard not to get despondent (to say the very least!) to some degree after sitting through a couple of hours of the 'what is/who is SaaS' red herring. I guess you could say, they kinda done a job there. But the hardcore industry veterans who've been around the block a few times were never going to be knocked off course by such nonsense. Organised resistance against the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt">FUD</a>-mongers can be no bad thing and these guys deserve a pat on the back for what they do, such as this <a href="http://www.intellectuk.org/publications/intellect-reports/5534">'Business Case for SaaS'</a>. Do check out <a href="http://www.intellectuk.org/intellect-groups/4857">their website here</a> if you're interested and/or might like to get involved. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-7613547078779812592012-01-06T09:02:00.000+00:002012-01-29T18:59:00.006+00:00SaaS Accounting in the UK<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MJVdpXM1uqMISoXAYyLOp7kW6kE7Xb0YH3d-13ArHiLyqhRUjYGiAvfPav8mrpZdyxwHVFhQs6ruHea8wFYejqm6r1YwOd8ZlUHlQ9ezcbLYut80zuNP03c7W5wSSIC-7crLZZQK/s1600/FreeAgent+growth.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MJVdpXM1uqMISoXAYyLOp7kW6kE7Xb0YH3d-13ArHiLyqhRUjYGiAvfPav8mrpZdyxwHVFhQs6ruHea8wFYejqm6r1YwOd8ZlUHlQ9ezcbLYut80zuNP03c7W5wSSIC-7crLZZQK/s320/FreeAgent+growth.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is inspired by a presentation I gave to some esteemed gentlemen at <a href="http://www.iod.com/home/default.aspx">the Institute of Directors</a> in Pall Mall a couple of weeks before Christmas. The intro to which is perfect material for that blogging staple - predictions! In this case, SaaS accounting in the UK. Knowing where the sector is at and how things </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">might </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">play out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's pretty obvious that three vendors in particular are setting the pace at the moment. There is definitely a 'premier league' of </span><a href="http://www.freeagent.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">FreeAgent</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://www.kashflow.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">KashFlow</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="http://www.xero.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Xero</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (who have fallen away a little from the other two recently). It's worth mentioning that Xero are a New Zealand based PLC with a global strategy (and funding to match), whilst FreeAgent & KashFlow (and most others mentioned here) are very much UK based with the UK market as their primary focus. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just to be clear: this is entry-level cloud accounting - SaaS for start-ups and sole traders etc upwards to well below the Sage 50 sweet-spot: with </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'simple sign-up - immediate deployment' processes and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">utilising predomi</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">nantly s</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">elf-serve and zero-touch online sales models (though not exclusively as most if not all are active with other channels that offer the opportunity for multiple licence deals).</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The highlights:-</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">market size (very approximately) 2 million</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of which <a href="http://www.sage.com/">Sage</a> (50, Instants et al) users (approx) 250K - >15%</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">users of other trad desktop software (approx) 50K</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">both combined much less than 20% of available market</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">current amalgamated SaaS vendor user numbers no more than 40K</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">still early stage - awareness and education phase - hearts and minds etc</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">all combined = no more than 20%. Remainder spreadsheets/pen & paper or 'don't know' as outsource management/control/visibility elsewhere</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">top 3</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> SaaS vendors in UK are firmly in to 'hockey stick' growth</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by end 2012 the top 3 will have 100K users combined</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by end 2013 the top 3 will likely have c.100K <i>each</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">combined for all SaaS vendors in the UK by end of 2013 c.400K (easily surpassing user numbers for trad desktop)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">size of market for potential users will grow </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">many current UK based SaaS accounting vendors (roughly three dozen - depending on interpretation!) outside the current top 5 will cease trading in next 24 months - one or two will be acquired for the tech - one or two (or even a couple more) will tick along</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sageone.com/">SageOne</a> - the Sage attempt to imitate SaaS vendors has appalling take-up - approx 1400 in almost 12 months despite low price and telephone support (red herring!) - proves that can't just trade on brand if don't get the SaaS basics</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the prevalent vendors come 2014 will likely look to use cash reserves and start to acquire complimentary (back-office) vendors (payroll, expenses, timesheets etc) - mirroring front-office/CRM space as before</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course all such predictions rely on all parties pulling their weight and performing to expectations. There are many factors that could effect how things play out. Not least the following packs getting their relative acts together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of the next tier of vendors of the most notable are </span><a href="http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clear Books</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. This may surprise some, as they have had a pretty rocky time from a PR perspective over the last couple of years. </span><a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.com/2011/09/clear-books-spotted-with-foot-in-mouth.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I chipped in with a little comment on just one occasion</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (there are many other 'occasions' where I chose not to). There are some other notable names in both this tier and what I choose to identify as the third and bottom tier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's slightly harder to identify exact market penetration levels at this end of the market because the vendors are typically more secretive and less transparent about what they are doing, not just commercially but also in communicating in general. There are even some who choose to 'fly under the radar' as a strategy. For now we'll let them follow that flight-plan without exposure! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I can't help but point out what must be more than just a coincidence. There is a direct correlation between good use of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">social media, PR, marketing </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and confidence in communicating to users, potential users and the world at large and actual commercial success in this space. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Good quality, open and honest communications with all interested parties, on all levels, about all subjects is obviously a good strategy for growth. Being overly sensitive and secretive, probably not!</i></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://www.arithmo.co.uk/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arithmo</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, <a href="http://www.liquidaccounts.net/">LiquidAccounts</a>, <a href="http://www.e-conomic.co.uk/">E-conomic</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">etc e</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">tc. There are many. All of whom could surge or falter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is just a brief overview. Not the why's and wherefores. Of which there are plenty. And plenty of scope for discussion, views and conjecture of course. I'm sure others have their own view. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's fair to say there's alot of land out there for the grabbing and things are just about to start to get a little bit crazy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Disclosure</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">. I worked at KashFlow for couple of years up to the Autumn of 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Image taken from FreeAgent blog. Thanks to them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-75749900052431968922012-01-05T11:02:00.002+00:002012-01-05T15:32:25.071+00:00It's Software-as-a-SERVICE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBhEEGZDZe7aD_de83ktX0xs7M5md2KN3_Pu7EcUzPFv1Z2tlH" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBhEEGZDZe7aD_de83ktX0xs7M5md2KN3_Pu7EcUzPFv1Z2tlH" width="387" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Customer Service is the new marketing. A marketing mantra itself of course. Particularly useful for those punting customer service/support solutions! But like all true marketing it's founded in truth. This truth is the rise of the web and latterly, social media. <i>Where the vociferous lurk</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nowhere is this more true than in the SaaS world. Software delivered as a service is defined by the quality of its customer service. Think you can succeed and ignore this? You do so at your peril! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quality customer service is something that larger organisations particularly struggle with. Often this seems to be because of a cultural shift, whereby the customer is no longer deemed the most valuable commodity in the business.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are anecdotal exceptions of course. And many more stories that confirm the fact. While there must be a good dollop of self-confidence and even arrogance to believe in the service you provide, often with commercial success, this bleeds over to total ignorance in the way companies treat their customers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first week of the new year has seen a few timely reminders of this. The most astonishing example has to be this <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html">email thread</a> where a total ignoramus in the games accessories industry shows all the signs of believing his own hype. You have to read it to believe it! Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/justinpirie">Justin Pirie</a> for initial pointer via Twitter. I did notice that <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/martijnlinssen">Martijn Linssen</a> drew attention to this tale over at <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/16461/afraid-of-socmediots-email-works-just-as-well/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CloudAve+%28CloudAve%29">CloudAve</a> - making the point that working from home has fuelled a rudeness culture. I'm not so sure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dennis Howlett brought attention to <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2012/01/02/dell-and-skype-vendors-i-will-be-hard-pressed-to-recommend-in-2012/">2 more tales over at AccMan</a>. Firstly his ongoing issue with Skype is a classic tale of corporate arrogance morphing into total ignorance in how they treat their punters. Skype is now part of everyday language. From disruptive start-up to establishment in a decade or so. Not bad! But a blatant disregard for a small minority of the small minority who actually directly contribute to Skype's coffers, leaves a bad taste every time I skype a colleague/client. Some might say that with this attitude, it's entirely appropriate that they've been acquired by Microsoft. Make up your own mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other tale relates to Dell. In particular <a href="http://stuartlynn.co.uk/tag/dell/">the mess they made of a personal transaction with Stuart Lynn</a> is a timely reminder that business customers are consumers too. Whether an honest mistake or systemic poor customer service, one transaction can have direct consequences even before it hits the Twitter-stream. In this case Stuart holds IT purse strings for the UK's largest software company, Sage. There is every chance that his poor experience when trying to buy a Xmas present for his 13 year-old son will influence later purchase decisions at work. What Stuart decides in the future is up to him of course; the point is that customer service is subject to the laws of cause and effect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could mention more, but they all present a common theme. That is very poor communication. Something that consumers hate and find unacceptable when there are so many direct and immediate communication channels available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We all know that <i>the customer isn't always right</i>. And it's very important to know how to say no. The art of good customer service is to manage expectations. It is also a fantastic way for SaaS biz to differentiate and show its true colours. Just don't make promises you can't keep. 'Under promise, over deliver' anyone? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-31409240199273076532011-12-15T00:31:00.001+00:002012-03-27T11:15:09.186+01:00What's in a Name?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4jv5VeKyqwgobvdyfLA8YcYhFyFUuyaxPXW7fxN5J6UbUqD2m" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4jv5VeKyqwgobvdyfLA8YcYhFyFUuyaxPXW7fxN5J6UbUqD2m" width="356" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've all heard of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch">elevator pitches</a> and boiler plate
pitches; fag packet pitches and even pitches in 140 characters or less. But, what about pitching with your company/product name (as well as your logo and <a href="http://spotlightideas.co.uk/?p=127">strap-line</a>)?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most times this is all you’ll
get. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The common theme is the impatience of those whose attention you want</b>. No time to rough 'em up a bit - it's got to be a knock-out punch straight from the bell!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best advertising might be free, but most free advertising will feature
just your name; likely in copy, text chat, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/SaaSitUK">Twitter handle</a> even. A good name is
an advert.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just like the first set in an epic five set tennis match, the first session of 31 frames of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker">snooker</a> or the first day of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes">Ashes test</a>: you can't win in the early stages - with these early decisions, but you can lose. <b>Get this wrong and you might as well pack up and go home</b>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So just what do you want to say with your SaaS identity? You
want to convey those things that will likely appeal to your customer base. You
want to convey that you are a high-tech, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">web 2.0</a>, SaaS, design (usability) led,
responsible, reliable, robust, customer orientated, technically proficient, world class, imaginative, creative,
innovative, <a href="http://www.digitaltonto.com/2009/what-is-disruptive-innovation/">disruptive</a>, technology service organisation, specialising in *****(whatever). Shall I go on? If you can convey all this with your name then
job done! Drop me a line and tell me where I might buy shares :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So <b>naming your SaaS product is extremely important</b>. There
are many things to consider. <b>It’s a key marketing element</b>. You want to tell the
world you exist; who you are and what you do. There are many tricks and clues.
For example, the current vogue for two or more words joined together with
capitalisation for each word works. Instantly it implies technology; web 2.0.
Of course it doesn’t mean you’re not these if you don’t employ this technique,
but use it and you can move the conversation on quickly.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article was kind of prompted by a recent bit of hand-bagging between
a couple of SaaS support solutions. In short there was an implication of one being a copy-cat. The basis for this seemed to be because both used ‘desk’ in their name. Without getting involved in the argument (cos I don’t care and its beside the point),
what both companies are doing is simply using a recognised identifying tag to let people know what
they do. I know that desk in a product name is an indicator that it is likely a
support/customer service solution. A potential customer certainly would. That out of the way, both vendor and client can then move on to the next part of the process. And closer to the money! Simples.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the goal when choosing a name is to have one that, when
inserted into a piece of a copy or even when written on a blank page with no other
identifiers, the reader has a good idea of what the offering might be. The next goal is to imply that you are proficient and one of the very best in that field. That's where your logo and strap-line come in. More on that next
time.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update: </b>Another great support/customer service solution Assistly has recently been acquired by <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/">Salesforce</a>. It is has since been getting the full rebrand makeover. Now Salesforce know a thing or two about branding and they've also got a couple of quid. The first big announcement was renaming the service to...<a href="http://desk.com/">Desk</a>! They realise just how important this name matched to the (not cheap) .com is in defining their solution and ultimately its success. The big question is of course, did they read this post first?</span></div>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-39558903791229220782011-10-22T23:08:00.000+01:002011-10-22T23:08:05.160+01:00So is Steve Jobs the Godfather of SaaS?<a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRu8P1aUUso3ENyoUWZkSi5UuUhjYKeJCYIYOijYI-4-HrsHQqd" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRu8P1aUUso3ENyoUWZkSi5UuUhjYKeJCYIYOijYI-4-HrsHQqd" width="400" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My son turned three in August. For over half of his young life he has been an avid user of the iPhone. And I mean <i>avid</i>. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That doesn't mean he's been managing 'contacts' and making calls (on purpose;). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, he does navigate past what's of no interest to him and to what is - using the menus to access his favoured YouTube videos and play his various games etc. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I discovered, from speaking to the parents of his peers is that he is far from alone! A poignant quote relayed by <a href="http://confusedofcalcutta.com/about-me/">JP Rangaswami</a>, on his <a href="http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2011/10/08/steve-jobs/">Confused of Calcutta blog</a>, from a mid-eighties interview with Steve Jobs - "Older people sit down and ask, 'What is it?', but the boy (that SJ mentions in the article) asked 'What can I do with it?'" Poignant and probably why, two decades later, the omnipresent Apple products are so simple a 2 year-old can use them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The true 'democratisation of software'!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sad news of Steve Jobs recent passing has led to an insane amount of tributes, epitaphs and bios. A few of these have an understandably, rosey tint</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Nevertheless, for a guy who in plain business speak was a salesman (all be it a bloody good one) and to everyone else a mega-successful capitalist, to receive so much 'love' is absolutely incredible: unheard off and likely, never to be repeated.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've scanned many of the bios and one of the many recurring themes was his emphasis on <i>usability</i>. Fundamental to all the Apple products that are now household names. The same focus on usability that underpins SaaS. Suffice to say it's usability - utter intuitiveness - that defines SaaS for me. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before SaaS <a href="http://saasintheuk.blogspot.com/2011/09/geek-will-out.html">I felt like many others</a> - alienated. That's why for me this is <i>the</i> fundamental tenet of SaaS. Sorry, but cloud-based, accessed via a browser etc is just not enough. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, in spite (or because) of the <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/">KashFlow</a> office (then) being run entirely on Windows/BlackBerry at the time, we were instantly taken by the synergy in usability of the iPhone Operating System when we first saw it. It was a natural step to marry utterly intuitive online accounting with the utterly intuitive operating system. A commercial success it was too. KashFlow is far from alone in this regard. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, I may have been alone in not putting 2 and 2 together and realising the influence of Steve Jobs on SaaS and its respective masterminds.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Usability as a tech business strategy</u></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">It seems obvious now that Steve Jobs' adherence to the needs of the consumer (i.e. all being able to use it) driving the development of these iconic products has also strongly influenced a generation of designers and developers, entrepreneurs and online services. Just as profound will be the pervasive influence, akin to how the Beatles continue to influence contemporary music almost fifty years later.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Does this make Steve Jobs the Godfather of SaaS? The SaaSfather even? Probably not. Though he obviously played an influential role like many others. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Footnote:-</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course some day (relatively soon) we won't even mention it if services/products are accessed online. This will only be discussed when a service/product isn't delivered so. Installed/desktop/offline will not be the norm and therefore highlighted. Likewise all products will just work and be piss-easy to use. <i>Now that's a legacy</i>!</span><br />
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<br />Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-50514728518818780072011-10-12T15:31:00.000+01:002011-10-12T15:36:44.750+01:00Twinfield and The Future of Accounting<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V3KWSsjYKcI?fs=1" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Check out this excellent video I found in a post by <a href="http://www.cloudave.com/15383/twinfield-show-their-vision-of-the-future-of-accounting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CloudAve+%28CloudAve%29">David Terrar on CloudAve</a>. It's from a presentation by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">given by Twinfield founder and CTO, <span id="goog_1137099483"></span><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_1137099487">Andre </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.andrekwakernaat.com/">Kwakernaat</a><span id="goog_1137099484"></span> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">at their annual conference in Holland a couple of weeks ago.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been watching the recent comings and goings at <a href="http://www.twinfield.co.uk/">Twinfield</a> with interest, as they </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">are an integration partner of The Online Payroll Solution, <a href="http://www.mypaye.co.uk/">MyPAYE</a>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Their recent <a href="http://www.wolterskluwer.com/Press/Latest-News/2011/Pages/pr14june2011_1.aspx">acquisition by Wolters Kluwer </a>seems to have reinvigorated their efforts to gain traction in the UK. They are already ramping their sales efforts, leveraging the the significant presence that <a href="http://www.cch.co.uk/">CCH</a> has within the UK accountancy scene and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">aided by fast-tracking (probably long overdue) UK specific developments.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All in all interesting times for Twinfield. The video shows that they have the vision and explains why services like MyPAYE have invested resources supporting them.</span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-84284659602941893522011-10-08T00:19:00.000+01:002011-10-08T00:23:05.007+01:00A Meeting of Minds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In one of those strange quirks of fate, last Saturday morning saw me deep in conversation over coffee in the living room of a consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. Very interesting it was too. Working for a top-end consultancy contracted by the major pharmaceutical brands, while pointing out to them what, how and why, and being the difference between their success and failure on a particular project? Fascinating! As was chatting to a guy who does just that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without giving too much away, he'd recently been in the Far East as part of a project for a multi-billion pound org, prepping for a launch for a new product in a massive market-place. You might think that an organisation of that size, with the experience, history and resources that most of us might kill for, would not have need for 'outside help' to do what they've done many times before. It turns out that they are not so arrogant. The big picture has so many aspects. So why leave anything to chance. They understand the need for acute specialisation and blunt, objective honesty. They call in the commercial geeks! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>If your commercial strategy and tactics are absolutely perfect and cannot be improved at all whatsoever, then you have no need for an objective point-of-view from someone who does nothing else but spend all their time researching and understanding what you need to know.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This commercial geek was really interested to hear about the SaaS scene. I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">just love it when someone from another industry gets why I'm so excited about SaaS. As you might expect in this case, he very quickly got its benefits and what a game-changer it really is and consequently, its massive potential. He became quite envious when he realised that SaaS is at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that stage in the cycle</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> where there is so </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">much scope for creativity and innovation in market-play. Such a rapidly shifting scene makes shaping a successful strategy particularly exciting.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course his industry is very different. He and his agency are often engaged for six-figure and even seven figures on occasions - for particularly long and involved contracts with a broad remit. On other occasions h</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e can be just a sounding board for the many different ideas a management team already has, hired purely for industry knowledge or intelligence or he might draw up (many strands of) a strategy on a blank piece of paper and so on. Whatever the need, a level of trust is required and found before engaging</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> your consultant. You want a stand-up guy or gets it, not a blagger or a yes man. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A final thought he left me with before I went on my merry way. Of course there'll be some reluctance in tech/SaaS start-ups to engage consultants. Some may view them as a luxury. But, a different (objective) perspective with a complimentary skill-set can be the difference between success or failure. It's simply another value proposition. Food for thought indeed.</span><br />
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<br />Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-81456872102437738652011-10-07T09:30:00.000+01:002012-02-14T20:33:50.897+00:00Sometimes 2 Really Is Better Than 1<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm a soppy, sentimental old soul. I must be cos whenever I hear talk along the lines of proper broadband access
being a ‘fundamental human right’<i> </i>and
an ‘essential commodity’, I've always felt a touch uncomfortable. It just don’t feel right, while I’m still
frequently being exposed to images of millions of people who can’t even access food
and water!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyhow this is <i>not</i>
to be some kind of political diatribe. I’m not <i>that</i> guy and this is not the platform. Of course, in our reality,
the discussion has moved on rapidly. When we talk democratisation, we’re
talking 'software'. And of course, we all know how democratised software is
delivered. I guess if I’m one thing, I’m some kind of *<i>SaaS fanboi* </i>(*insert as appropriate*). Consequently, I
do believe that in this day and age, access to quality broadband should not
even be an issue – in the same way that access to food and water etc should not
even be an issue.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simply put, we have 2 carriers in the UK – that’s it. You can pick from a multitude of logos for your bill, but if ain’t Virgin, then you’re using BT. My broadband </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">service is delivered by Virgin
Media; in practice (without a doubt) the better service e.g. my service never
drops below 80% advertised and is usually over 90%, while my ‘BT’ neighbours
rarely get over 10%! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For about a decade I’ve had no real gripes...until the last
month or so. Over the last 5 weeks my broadband has gone AWOL just as many
times. On all but one occasion, I was offline for the whole afternoon. It has been driving me crazy! Sorry sentimental types, but this is
now my life-blood. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On one occasion, I was 10 minutes in to a (much-anticipated)
5-way online conference meeting...and I was the 'Presenter' and 'Organiser'. The meeting collapsed of course. Fortunately I was able to use the Skype app on my
iPhone (3G) to ping email addresses to a colleague who was able to step into
the breach so to speak. And this was not the only uncomfortable moment. Simply put:
‘it’s not funny’!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If your organisation is run in the cloud, then good on you:
you know it makes sense. The benefits so leave installed software in its wake,
that it’s a no-brainer. So much so that we all know, before too long, it will
all be done that way. In a few years time, we’ll be looking back and laughing
at the ‘good old days’ - that’s if we’re not already! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And so the antiquated
ways of accommodating back-ups, disaster recovery et al: nasty, cumbersome and
clunky, massively resource intensive processes consigned to the dustbin of
history. Nice:)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It may be tempting to think that in the new SaaS reality, we now hand-over responsibility for our service reliability to our carefully selected vendors. Wrong! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We all know that, barring rotten apples, service up-times already piss all over the old-guard. But, m</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">y
experience is far from unique and a stark reminder that there are still some
things that are down to us to sort out. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>If you don't have at least 2 separate feeds, one from each of the carriers, to run your business you are being at least negligent and most probably, stupid.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>This is the
most cost-effective insurance policy you will ever invest in for your cloud-powered business. </b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Same goes for the vendors and related providers of course. In the same
way that you have multiple back-ups and mirrors located hundreds of miles apart,
all set-up to kick-in at the flick-of-a-switch should half the country get
blown to smithereens or you are the number one target for tech uber-terrorists
a la ‘Die Hard: 4.0’, you also make sure you’re not left prone to the vagaries of
the service provision of the ‘monopoly’ that is Virgin/BT. Don’t you? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Honestly, I know there are still SaaS start-ups out there offering superb, well subscribed solutions to the world, who are leaving themselves vulnerable by having the one feed. For the cost of a handful of users per month! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Head Office reliant on Virgin or BT, but not both, to stay connected to the world. Seriously, what is that all about??</span></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My experience with Virgin and dealing with their Customer Services raised a few issues worthy of comment - stay tuned.</span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">For latest updates ‘Follow Us’ using the button on the left-hand side of the screen.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-60180163501303687752011-09-29T13:00:00.000+01:002011-09-30T10:03:16.099+01:00I Hated Computers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back in the day <b>I hated computers</b>. 'Back in the day' needs some perspective. For at least 3 and a half of my 4.2 decades, I hated computers. For all of that time I could not differentiate between hardware and software (and just what is middleware? Is it like knitwear for the midriff or the middle-aged or both?), it was all just <i>computers. </i> A conspiracy by those that didn't get out much (at all) against those of us that did!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More perspective:- just as I was leaving the massive comprehensive school I attended, as a disaffected ex-mooted-OxBridge candidate (if there is such a thing), there was a rumour that there was a computer in one of the science labs. But, I never saw it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shortly after leaving said school I had a mate who convinced me to burn the midnight oil playing 'games' on a Sinclair Spectrum for about 18 months - what was all that about? It would be many years later that I would confront computers in a relentless and fruitless battle of wills that would render me consistently questioning my supposed intellect. Apparently me and the mythical two short planks were 'like that'!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wind forward to my mid-twenties and I've finished aimlessly wandering the globe (avoiding computers because I hated them). I get a small business (a taxi thing) and the conspiracy being what it was I was forced to give away a bunch of my hard earned to someone who could use computers - he was called something like 'a cu...count, er, no, annacon, got it, an accountant! Not to be confused with the modern definition of the word; a customer-focused, free-thinking and forward-thinking individual who wants to do his very best for his clients<i>.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I only spoke to this guy at about the same time each year. With hindsight I imagine cos the rest of the year he was living the life of riley at the expense of a numpty he knew. The privilege of having this guys phone number was pretty darn expensive. Pretty much my biggest outgoing each and every year. But, I paid him because:- </span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he kept me in the good books of HMRC and all that </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he used computers</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that's two things that computers had taught me:-</span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm thick</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm worthless</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saving money is bloody expensive </span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OK, that's 3 but hey, I'm thick! Remember?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few years later. I've moved town. I've got married. Work is cool. Though opportunities are limited cos I'm stoopid and computers are ubiquitous. I've even got one of the bloody things in the corner of the living room: where it sits mocking me. I'd lost yet another of those</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> fruitless battle of wills. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes my wife would do something with it; conjure up a CV or write my name in pretty graphics maybe. Sometimes friends would come round and sit on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer">PC</a> and 'play' Flight Simulator all night while they drank my beer. Oh those were the days!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then scroll forward a couple more years and BANG. It hits me. My eureka moment if you will. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what changed? What happened? How could such a negative, ungiving relationship turn on its head? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How? Why? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Suspense killing you? You won't have to wait too long.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Want immediate notification when a new post is published via Twitter? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Then click that blue 'Follow Us' button on the left hand side of the screen. You know you want to.</span></div>
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Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-58396060458212627382011-09-27T21:54:00.000+01:002011-09-29T00:02:04.271+01:00Myths Debunked While-You-Wait<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/_images/_sitelogo/1/CloudAdvocates.com.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="86" id=":current_picnik_image" src="http://cloudadvocates.com/_images/_sitelogo/1/CloudAdvocates.com.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">'<a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/cloudaccounting21">Cloud Accounting for the 21st Century – Debunking the Myths</a>' was the name given to the seminar I was at last Thursday (22/9). A conference room in Kings Cross was filled by over 50 (my guesstimate) guests of <a href="http://www.cloudadvocates.com/">Cloud Advocates</a>, a new consultancy offering from the co-joined minds <a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/_m1711/Who-We-Are">of Richard Messik & David Terrar</a> respectively. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">Both guys are equally well-respected and experienced as <i>advocates of the cloud</i> (see what I've/they've done there?) with successful consultancies already, so one could argue that CA is a natural and logical progression. If you're interested in what these guys do behind each others backs you can click <a href="http://www.d2c.org.uk/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.rfmassociates.com/">here</a> :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">I landed half-way through what turned out to be quite an interesting and positive discussion, featuring key users of <a href="http://www.twinfield.co.uk/">Twinfield</a>, <a href="http://www.xero.com/">Xero</a> and <a href="http://www.e-conomic.co.uk/">E-conomic</a> respectively on 'using cloud accounting in practice'. Grabbing the only spare seat I could see at the back of the room, I quickly realised this was where the collected vendor reps were encamped. Great to see some friendly faces, to meet one or 2 others - where only emails/phone calls/tweets had been exchanged previously - and also to be introduced to other new interesting contacts of course.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; line-height: 15px;">The point of such an event (and CA of course) is to put across the very real benefits of cloud computing to those who will really benefit from it, in plain English, free of techie jargon. This is very much dear to my own heart, coming as I do from a distinctly non IT/software background. As David Terrar put it on the day, '</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; line-height: 15px;">I've not been tarnished by the software industry'! - not yet David, not yet!!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; line-height: 15px;">I've long been aware that the software industry stands guilty as charged of t</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; line-height: 15px;">alking over the heads of potential users, patronising them and being condescending in general - having been a victim myself. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; line-height: 15px;">I also know that on occasions cloud co's can lapse into jargon if unchecked. But, <a href="http://www.internetslang.com/tbh.asp">TBH</a> the more <i>successful</i> SaaS co's rarely do. This is not a coincidence. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">Unfortunately I missed <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/about/">Dennis Howlett's</a> presentation via Skype early on. I understand it had a surrealist air to it so a shame I missed that! I at last got to see <a href="http://www.bookmarklee.co.uk/">Mark Lee</a> present, which was an interesting surprise as I didn't expect him to be the 'anti social media guru', which was refreshing and a relief. I don't think the irony of his relentless self-publicity (about half the slides featured 'where to find Mark Lee'!) was lost on anyone however, but maybe that's the point? Nice work if you can get it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">To prove a point, on more than one occasion I've suggested the tearing down of a Facebook page (for example). Purely because it was not being administered...at all! A blank Facebook page has a much more negative effect than no Facebook page IMHO. The same goes for Twitter and the rest of them. No-one can argue the benefits of social media when one gets it right. But one must have both the resources and the vision, i.e. joined-up and with a goal. Of course it will evolve and grow etc. But, otherwise don't bother. BTW - I know what it's like not be cool too - I work with techies.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">All in all, it was a good event. If I sound surprised it's because, I have found most similar events tedious and/or hard-work TBH. Not all, but most. Without a doubt there is a need to for this sort of event, especially well put-together and well managed events such as this. Including a tight focus and a good mix - maybe 90/10 or 80/20, with a vendor minority and the majority a mix of significant partners and users conveying their experiences and success stories that highlight the benefits much better than the vendors could do themselves. And genuinely interested potential users of course.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">I think a maturing on my part may have some part to play in my appreciation of the event. Hence when a discussion got hijacked by the security <strike>red herring</strike> question for 5 minutes, I didn't storm out the room or start slamming my head against the wall. I simply took a deep breathe, just like the rest of the room. Likewise, when the days most surreal event took place - a short presentation by a desktop virtualisation provider (yes, you read it right) - I simply opened up my Twitter client, like the rest of the room. Yep. I'm getting old alright;)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of virtualisation here, but I did get to wondering 'when is a SaaS provider, not a SaaS provider and vice versa?'</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">A big thank you to all in involved. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MyPAYE">MyPAYE</a> certainly appreciated the love in the room! </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 15px;">Other coverage:-</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://camroseconsulting.co.uk/2011/09/put-your-head-in-the-cloud-but-keep-your-feet-on-the-ground/">http://camroseconsulting.co.uk/2011/09/put-your-head-in-the-cloud-but-keep-your-feet-on-the-ground/</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/david_terrar/cloud-accounting-for-the-21st-century"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.slideshare.net/david_terrar/cloud-accounting-for-the-21st-century</span></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/cloudaccounting21">http://cloudadvocates.com/cloudaccounting21</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/_m1696/the-cloud-advocates-blogs/The-Cloud--Debunking-the-myths">http://cloudadvocates.com/_m1696/the-cloud-advocates-blogs/The-Cloud--Debunking-the-myths</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://cloudadvocates.com/_m1696/the-cloud-advocates-blogs/Social-Media-for-accountants--my-take">http://cloudadvocates.com/_m1696/the-cloud-advocates-blogs/Social-Media-for-accountants--my-take</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2011/09/22/debunking-myths/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.accmanpro.com/2011/09/22/debunking-myths/</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">If I've missed any please add them in the comments.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Thanks to Kevin McCullum (FreeAgent) for the title, inadvertently provided via Twitter (I would have thought of it anyway:)</span></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-62315869164317230962011-09-15T01:34:00.003+01:002011-09-28T01:48:21.715+01:00Loadsamoney for FreeAgent<a href="http://www.seedcamp.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/freeagent-logo-300x70.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="http://www.seedcamp.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/freeagent-logo-300x70.png" width="400" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">FreeAgent have just announced significant funding of "£2.25 million"! Firstly, congratulations to the whole team for obtaining the major component required to move on to the next level. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For anybody not in the know (where have you been?),<a href="http://www.freeagentcentral.com/"> FreeAgent</a> are having it out with <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/">KashFlow</a> as the front-runners in the UK's SaaS accounting vendor scene! The other major player in the top division being the New Zealand based, <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/xero">Xero</a>. Between them all, they lay claim to over 30K paying users in the UK and they leave a decent sized gap between them and the next tier of baying competitors. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's be clear, that this is the distinct sector of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service">SaaS</a>, small business accounting whereby anyone even thinking about going into business can access their back-office functions at entry-level (read: next-to-nothing) pricing. As the <a href="http://www.freeagentcentral.com/downloads/pr/Series_B_Investment_Release.pdf">FreeAgent press announcement </a>trumpets - this is the democratisation of accounting software. What all these guys have proved is that there is real business to be had from this previously neglected customer-base, for a well put-together, targeted offering.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I believe this sector to be most interesting and very important as it signposts the cultural revolution in software for small business. From the typically resource intensive, resented imposition of product by a typically arrogant software industry into an incredibly easy to access and use, supportive, service provision. This alone highlights why the traditional software incumbents are scrambling to find a response to the new wave of dedicated SaaS vendors. They are software companies - the SaaS vendors are service providers!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But let's be equally clear, this is still relatively early days. The FreeAgent investment is not on the scale of a Facebook announcement for example! (I mean FreeAgent sells stuff ;-) However, I do believe it will be, ultimately no less important. Ultimately, every start-up business will get it's accounting software in much the same way as it's other commodities, enabling not just the Facebook's of tomorrow, but also your local plumber et al.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While there is little doubt that most of the accumulated SaaS numbers are coming from <a href="http://www.sage.co.uk/softwaresolutions">Sage</a>'s traditional fresh meat market. At this stage in the game their established user base still leaves supposed competitors in their wake. A couple of years ago, I was saying "don't believe the SaaS hype. By far the majority of potential customers are not even aware of an alternative to Sage, let alone a <i>SaaS</i> alternative". Hence the readiness to engage with any productive channel and the need to explore every other - get the word out! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We were at and still are at, the awareness stage: education, education, education. This situation has not changed to any significant degree. I could point to many significant deals from any player to prove my point, but it seems right that I use this fairly <a href="http://www.freeagentcentral.com/central/freeagent-powers-mybusinessworks-for-barclays-startups">recent announcement from FreeAgent</a> about their arrangement with Barclays and then <a href="http://www.freeagentcentral.com/central/behind-the-curtain">this subsequent post</a> about numbers (which they've acknowledged was strongly influenced by the Barclays deal) to demonstrate my point.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So it's a land-grab scenario. That's why any (in-vain) attempt at competition from the big boys (<a href="http://www.sageone.com/">SageOne</a> anyone?) is warmly received by all as market validation. Likewise significant investment stories like the FreeAgent story. Any SaaS announcement is good PR for all...and they all get it. That's why most of the guys in the space get on, everyone's in it together. Game-changing doesn't have to be a lonely pursuit (of course, like all families, there is the odd black sheep). That's why when announcements like this one surface, the immediate 'competition' are usually first up with the back-slapping. 'Let's go get the big boys'! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, I just want to draw attention to both what sets the front-runners aside from the also-rans and the front-runners aside from the other front-runners. A source of fascination for the commentators/observers/analysts and other geeks (I included) is the different funding models that each of 3 big players have utilised. Another differentiator has been marketing strategies and brand-building. I could go on. Each has gone about this in different ways; they each have distinct and different identities. But all are successful...until now at least. I hope to explore all of these elements in the not too distant future.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know the FreeAgent guys are good guys doing a great job. They've truly earnt their success up til now and their clear vision and disciplined, sense-of-purpose will likely carry them all the way.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Congratulations and all the very best to Ed and the FreeAgent crew.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-81164210225853952112011-09-01T22:00:00.000+01:002011-09-28T01:48:37.660+01:00Clear Books Spotted with Foot in Mouth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2Huxph2W4dUwWJ7LJrrsw4iKPUgXp8mm4os6IX3VRSY4TxBNuezN5_EhSh39mDg-E5bqGWq4I7VuOKGTR7F4_duoMNCDNd_g8ps6jqH-Ct2vqB_3-y1CopdTtAapVcw_PyA_pqOK/s1600/photo+%25282%2529.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2Huxph2W4dUwWJ7LJrrsw4iKPUgXp8mm4os6IX3VRSY4TxBNuezN5_EhSh39mDg-E5bqGWq4I7VuOKGTR7F4_duoMNCDNd_g8ps6jqH-Ct2vqB_3-y1CopdTtAapVcw_PyA_pqOK/s400/photo+%25282%2529.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Previously I had hinted that I intend to dig a little deeper into <a href="http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/">Clear Books</a>, along with <a href="http://www.libertyaccounts.com/">Liberty Accounts</a> and <a href="http://www.liquidaccounts.net/">LiquidAccounts</a>. The reason - each had swum against the tide of their 'competitors' by deciding to build their own integrated payroll modules. A not insignificant undertaking for a 'start-up' accounting vendor with minimal resources, minimal paying users and with so many other sexy, unique, differentiating features that they could be focusing on instead and, I would argue, a foolhardy undertaking. Reasoning I feel that is backed up by the main players in this space who do not entertain wasting their precious resources on something that would be nothing more than a distraction from their core competency and pretty pointless, as they have willing partners who already do it fantastically well. I hope to follow-up soon with analysis on what I see as a classic case of throwing technology at the problem of not getting the rate of market traction expected. History shows that the winner is rarely the most bells and whistles - in small biz SaaS I can guarantee that's the case.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyhoo, I digress. The screenshot above is from a post that appeared briefly on the Clear Books blog on Wednesday evening. It got pulled pretty quickly once the belly laughs of pundits began to reverberate around the planet, i.e. the guys at the <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF11/">SalesForce gig in San Francisco</a> got involved on Twitter. Kind of ironic as the annual <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/company/leadership/board-of-directors/#benioff">Benioff </a>sales-pitch is probably the biggest 'SaaS'/cloud gathering on the planet, i.e. a good place to embarrass yourself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately Clear Books have got some form for this sort of thing. TBH, Clear Books would make an ideal case-study on how not to take a 'secure', online small business accounting app to market. Tempting though it is to catalogue these disasters here, I shan't. Restraint and all that. Hey we all make mistakes right? It's not like I'm holier than thou - no Pearly Gates for me I expect. Actually I just can' t be bothered. Maybe later!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just to be clear the above post is a Comparison chart, where they seem to have Googled every online accounting product they could find, proceeded to list them and then proceeded to claim that none of them have any features whereas Clear Books does absolutely everything bar make you a coffee in the morning - though that's probably on a road-map somewhere!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the sort of thing that identifies those that don't get it. With a huge land-grab going on from ignorant, cumbersome incumbents. Where <a href="http://www.sageone.com/?mckv=smrvgvJUK&pcrid=12666083494&plid=&kword=sageone&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=sageone&utm_campaign=Pure+Brand&gclid=CN3imNGa_">Sage producing a 'SaaS' type offering</a> that works for a change, validates your sector who do you go after? I can only presume they've got confused and think they are one of the global CRM vendors who expect to have mud thrown and hurl it back with glee. Probably be a patent suit next against someone for using the term 'invoice' or similar. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it's also that subtle messaging thing. Your users and potential users and lots of other vociferous observers have inbuilt bullshit detectors. All your good work - and Clear Books is a good product - is undone in an instant. To be Clear, it's not the best product who wins, but the most loved. My concern is that the foot was just first course before Clear Books proceeds to eat itself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-59255127938267337362011-09-01T15:30:00.000+01:002011-09-28T01:48:57.932+01:00Ian Hendry – RIP<br />
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<a href="http://media02.linkedin.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_80_80/p/1/000/005/369/29e227f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://media02.linkedin.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_80_80/p/1/000/005/369/29e227f.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before proceeding any further with SaaSintheUK I must pause
to reflect on the passing of<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ianhendry"> Ian Hendry</a>. Like many others I knew Ian as the CEO
& Founder of <a href="http://wecando.biz/">WeCanDo.BIZ</a>. Unlike many others I hadn’t known him for very
long and didn’t know him very well. And the meeting we intended will now never
happen. Something suggested during our last telephone conversation, probably 2
months ago. Ian had just returned from an impromptu holiday, full of ideas for
WCDB and excitement at finalising some major deals he’d been working on. I
recall some mention of sickness, but thought no more of it, until the shock
announcement a couple of weeks ago, that he’d “passed away after a short
illness”! Suffice to say this was a major <i>shock</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our paths crossed because of my brief flirtation with cloud
CRM. Ian belonged to that rare group of industry veterans; brought up in the old
school software ways and acutely aware that there was no place for it in the modern
world: that the traditional ways of doing software and in particular CRM, just
don’t cut it, but that also understands that those humble enough to admit this
and why, to learn from the mistakes of the past etc, have a helluva lot to give
in ‘the brave new SaaS world’. Not only that (to qualify for that ‘rare group’),
he was prepared to give industry non-veterans - who are only involved because the
‘brave new world’ is far more relevant - the time of day. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That very first telephone conversation, less than a year
ago, was the best part of 2 hours. There would be a handful more of similar
duration up until the last time we spoke. For no other reason than that he was
just very easy to talk to and a genuine nice guy. He appreciated the viewpoint
of someone who had no real interest in software as was, only in software as is
and as it might be and will be. When his name appeared on your caller ID, you really
didn’t mind cutting into your working day either when he called out of the
blue, chatting, gossiping and shooting the breeze, as well as the nitty gritty;
and it passed so quickly. I would not be surprised to hear that others had
similar experiences and a similar view.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Receiving the news was a real slap in the face. It’s a stark
reminder of life’s fundamentals that one easily forgets. They say its life’s
only guarantee along with taxes. It’s also true the greater the role death
plays in one’s life as one ages – like a mathematical equation. It’s a cliché,
but it really does make you take stock.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ian had put considerable effort and resources into
WeCanDo.Biz, along with his biz partner, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=2443554&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=AuEK&locale=en_US&srchid=98dd5cdf-1b12-4dbb-ae01-cc93aeb4f5a4-0&srchindex=1&srchtotal=1671&goback=%2Efps_PBCK_chris+butler_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_true_*2_*">Chris
Butler</a>, focusing hard on providing a social business network that provides
tangible benefits. They have a loyal customer core in a very competitive space.
The challenges I don’t envy. This is going to be a hard fought arena over the
coming years. The irony being that he won’t be around to see the future success
after putting in the hard yards. If you’ve felt frustration at the lack of
tangible benefits provided by many of the networks please do check out
WeCanDo.BIZ. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Likewise he won’t be around to see me get SaaSintheUK out of
the door, rather than just talking about it. He was aware of my plans and he’d
appreciate that I’ve actually done it at last. One’s time is finite. Leaving
things to tomorrow is not the best strategy. With that in mind I dedicate this
to Ian’s memory.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know Ian had plenty of closer friends than I, far more
qualified to comment on this sad news, but I could not let it pass.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To all those who were close to Ian and especially his close
family who must be feeling his loss deeply, our heartfelt condolences.</span></div>
Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7579778650007854241.post-80923094936303441522011-08-31T21:41:00.000+01:002011-09-28T01:49:19.586+01:00This Years Must-Have!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA_t8d7T8B2sHsJG_1OL0nxz5WsT41lGbGNCF0GNZIO3B1V5Gmu0a0xbh0W_2cVfwPRrK4iFwIE72-Wh-7d2U8Z9qmRK-gOG3GT88YJH8kBpZOCNffGHdoibhae7vNZ40yvDO7H0Zj/s1600/PayCycleLogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA_t8d7T8B2sHsJG_1OL0nxz5WsT41lGbGNCF0GNZIO3B1V5Gmu0a0xbh0W_2cVfwPRrK4iFwIE72-Wh-7d2U8Z9qmRK-gOG3GT88YJH8kBpZOCNffGHdoibhae7vNZ40yvDO7H0Zj/s400/PayCycleLogo.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No doubt you, like many others, thought it might be one of <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/">Apple’s next gen pieces of shiny hardware</a> or even one of the competing pieces of <a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQpvDfz3-OwpM8Qwuqqt4g8zhJjAyZxIJcHaU-VZtuIFUzo5o7MZw">(not-quite-so) shiny gadgets</a>. But, you’re wrong. It’s not even a subscription to SaaSintheUK, believe it or not! In the first of what is likely to be a slew of firsts, industry insights and worldwide exclusives (it’ll be like The News of the World never left us) here at SaaSintheUK, I can reveal that it’s....(X-Factor style pause)...online payroll that the in-crowd is falling over themselves for! Hey, come on, calm down.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m actually referring in a large part to comments and discussion brought about by the news a few weeks back that New Zealand based online accounting vendor, <a href="http://www.xero.com/">Xero</a> had acquired the Australian online payroll vendor <a href="http://www.paycycle.com.au/">PayCycle</a> or to be more exact, the article <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2011/07/21/xero-acquires-paycycle-lessons-for-all/">Xero acquires Paycycle: lessons for all</a> on <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/about/">Dennis Howlett</a>’s AccMan blog. Incidently, <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/">AccMan</a> is one of the few go-to sites to visit for clear, concise, insightful and unbiased commentary on such topics. And I, like many others, keep a close eye on it for this very reason. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shortly before this the same author indulged in some crystal ball gazing. What <a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2011/07/06/accounting-in-2015/">accounting apps might look like in 2015</a> did include the prediction - </span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Integrate seamless PAYE handling. There’s no money in it but it is a differentiator to have it baked into the solution and not an add-on </span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- in the list. It's possible this was prompted by insider knowledge of the pending Xero/PayCycle deal. Whatever; that’s beside the point. I almost responded to both posts at the time. But, I had in mind more in-depth articles further down the track for SaaSintheUK that covered much of these points. Anyway, I was busy. I was in that well known stage seen in software development known as the ‘procrastination stage’. Hence, nothing until now. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post will likely meander to cover many points, so just to be clear –</span><br />
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<li><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><b>The acquisition of PayCycle by Xero does not herald a flurry of payroll app acquisitions by the accounting vendors!</b></span></b></b></li>
<li><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><b>Nor do I believe this to herald the start of a Xero spending spree.</b></span></b></b></li>
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Why? Two main reasons - </span></b></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">1. </span></b></b><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">It’s 2011. </span></b></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">2. </span></b></b><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Australia is a unique market-place and opportunity - especially for Xero. </span></b></b></span><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Now suffice to say this topic and those related have played a major role my whole SaaSing life...in one form or another. Consequently - my interest and my urge to share my point of view on the subject. Indeed my pre-occupation with this subject matter from ‘day-one’ at <a href="http://www.kashflow.com/">KashFlow</a> is to a large extent, directly responsible for me working with <a href="http://www.mypaye.co.uk/">MyPAYE</a> years later and also correlates with the integration strategies of both companies and even the corresponding strategies of others in the same space. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">On that mythical day at KashFlow, I established that no self-respecting, start-up/early-stage accounting vendor is going to throw valuable resources at building, maintaining, supporting, up-grading etc a payroll module, especially when one considers all the amazingly, creative, innovative, game-changing features and functionality that can be incorporated in ‘accounting’. A fraction of which the main players have revealed and plan to reveal and will continue to reveal for years to come; limited only by the imagination and creativity of the respective organisations and the man-hours available to them (this is the really exciting thing about the SaaS accounting market; where it’s going to go, which can/will be anywhere and everywhere - the sky’s the limit and all that). In short, payroll is a massive distraction from ones core competency and should be left to the payroll vendor -the specialist.</span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Among other things, a viable payroll offering (in the UK) needs full <a href="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ebu/acclist.htm">HMRC accreditation</a>...all the time, year after year. And unlike say, the ‘accreditation scheme offered by <a href="http://www.icaew.com/">the ICAEW</a>, this is not achieved by simply handing over a fat cheque. One has to prove compliance by passing rigorous checks and testing. This involves having the HMRC parked on your lawn for a couple of weeks while they check and recheck your elaborate in-app security (as only a public sector org might specify) and test to within an inch of your apps life that it still don’t break, having implemented all the massive annual legislative changes that happen without fail each and every year and that you must have ready and working for each tax year, without fail. And so on. This is very different to what is required with accounting and would be a bit of a culture shock to those vendors I would suggest. Once again, vendors in the main understand this. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">As a footnote, I think it’s worth pointing out that HMRC accreditation should be of a great comfort for customers as all those security & reliability questions are dealt with at a stroke: a far more robust message than ‘<a href="http://www.rackspace.co.uk/partner-programme/">partnering with Rackspace</a>’ or ‘secured by...’ whoever. So in short payroll is a massive distraction from ones core competency and... Get the idea? </span></b></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">T</span>here is undoubtedly a demand for payroll that integrates with ones accounting solution (a demand that the incumbents know too well). It just ties up all that back-office stuff neatly; a more compelling proposition as I’m prone to say. At the same time, at this evolutionary stage in SaaS, users will accept unconnected solutions to begin with if they have to, because the net gains are still massive. But the payroll question remains and recurs. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The plain simple fact is that for everyone who employs someone in any way whatsoever, a cloud-based payroll solution that goes that bit further and programatically drops each pay-run into the accounting solution of choice is a much more compelling proposition. It ain’t rocket-science. The vendors get it (bar one!) cos their customers and would-be customers get-it. So, consequently in a SaaS accounting utopia, all vendors would build their own fully integrated module. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Much like CRM before it with the ‘front</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span>office’, accounting is at the vanguard of putting the back-off processes online. Likewise, other specialised processes are following behind it: payroll, receipt processors, expenses, timesheets etc. And like the CRM scenario, the accounting vendor has far more scope for ‘out of the box’ creativity and innovative solutions, greater breadth and depth and general blank-page, blue sky awesomeness. CRM is now a very broad church covering a multitude of sins and 'accounting' will ultimately cover a very broad range of functionality, in much the same way. There are already competitors by the bucket-load specialising in all manner of niches and verticals while climbing that Everest of the perfect UX, like 100 metres sprinters chipping away at the world record. </span><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The more specialised, less sexy, back-office products are not so plentiful - for obvious commercial reasons. While gaining some early adopters to keep things ticking along, they have a much narrower potential user-base, with an almost tool-like feature set. But the challenges to innovation are much the same and when the imagination overcomes the shackles it is still a beautiful thing to behold: offering more than just the text book SaaS benefits. <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/MyPAYE">MyPAYE</a> for one, have proven this and over the next few months will astound I’m sure. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">So in common with the prediction on AccMan, the future of online payroll aligns with the future of online accounting. But... </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Day one at KashFlow also led to an understanding of the API and its importance. Incidentally, the API is integral to the usability of any serious online application and a big part of marketing/going-to-market. It means that the accounting solution can do a helluva lot more than listed on the 'features' page; than has been developed so far and is likely to be in the near future. It means that despite limited resources, the solution is always applicable to all manner of circumstance cos the ‘salesman’ can always answer the question “Does it connect with...?”, with the answer “Yes. Just get your guys to do the stitching”! It is no coincidence that the more successful SaaS solutions have an API and an integration strategy built around it. (Much more about this in coming posts). </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Economical, efficient and bespoke. The need to find online payroll partners evolved to a strategy of integration with a range of small business solution partners that worked fantastically for KashFlow and for many of their partners such as MyPAYE (likewise the competition got it pretty quickly too). Among other things, such partners bring other potential partners to the table. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Such partnerships lead to all manner of places and off in all sorts of amazing and crazy directions. This included to a handful of conversations with potential Australian partners. Similar conversations to those that led to many successful partnerships across Asia and Africa! It became quickly apparent (read - bloody obvious) that partners in Australia were only going to happen if KashFlow had payroll built in i.e. they are one and the same. Read this as, a fundamental requirement for anyone to get traction in Australia is fully integrated payroll. This is a curiosity of the Australian market. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Like many sectors in many industries in many territories, the culture is determined by the dominant players. Now I’m sure <a href="http://myob.com.au/">MYOB</a> (like SageintheUK) do the new wave many favours by the way they carry on; their behaviour alone causing customers to go looking elsewhere, pushing them into the waiting arms of the upstarts, but unfortunately this is a case where they don’t. MYOB seem to be directly to blame for this idiosyncrasy in Australia’s small biz software culture. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Consequently I was always surprised that Xero were investing so much time and money on Australia without the payroll functionality. Had I really been so misinformed by so many informed people? Were they getting away with it? Were Xero proving the local market analysts wrong? From afar it just didn’t add-up. Of course in reality, it highlighted the determination on Xero’s part not to get directly involved in payroll or anything else apart from their core competency, accounting. Consistent with an early declaration in the ‘Xero manifesto’. They simply went as far as they could in Australia without getting their hands dirty with payroll!</span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">It certainly added-up that they should go after Australia which, with the limitations of the New Zealand market place, is virtually their home-market and with a <a href="http://www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneur-watch/20090415-craig-winkler-starts-his-comeback.html">MYOB founder </a>onboard, it also made sense to ‘go after’ MYOB (Australia by default), much like KashFlow has done with <a href="http://www.sage.com/">Sage</a> in the UK. I assumed they were making some gains and the PayCycle integration did suffice after all! A rather lame attempt from<a href="http://blog.xero.com/2011/03/payroll-has-arrived/"> Xero at a universal payroll feature</a> IMHO, that was only ever gonna receive universal condemnation was obviously of no use and I imagine some at Xero Towers might hope it’s forgotten. But ultimately it must have become bloody obvious that the only way to guarantee success in Australia was the payroll acquisition. I think know they would have preferred not to, but like many before they realised acquisition was the only way to avoid a protracted battle over a territory that they could not allow themselves to lose. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Make no bones about it. Xero had to buy PayCycle or similar, if similar exists. Xero has a war-chest of c. $20millionNZ. War chests have one function. And that isn’t to lose. There would have been a lot of eggs on a lot of faces if the guys talking about taking the USA couldn’t even sort out Australia. I mean...Australia. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">There is no doubt, that the other major markets do not need or require the same level of embedded payroll functionality that Australia requires. Ironically it’s a major Xero shareholder who is almost directly responsible for them having to take this reluctant path. Craig Winkler being a MYOB founder is great validation of course, but I dare say there may well have been some banter over this. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Xero is the only truly global player of the SaaS accounting start-ups from the last 5 years, purely because of their funding model. Doubtless they’re gonna have a big say in how the market shapes up globally. So when they start acquiring, it’s gonna be news. The only prior similar activity was a minority investment in WorkflowMax, a fellow (excellent) Kiwi, project management solution, to encourage them to work on a Practice Management offering for Xero. Very different. But Xero do not need to, I’m sure have no desire to, nor intend to, buy any more payroll apps in other territories or any other apps for that matter, unless they encounter a similar scenario for a particular territory in the future. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">For the immediate future and beyond they need to swell that war-chest for their aggressive plans to take the USA by storm. And let’s be clear, these plans are very aggressive. Historically the USA is a huge burial ground for companies of all sizes trying similar to Xero. And the US incumbent, <a href="http://www.intuit.com/">Intuit</a> is far more ingrained to the small business culture of the USA than even MYOB in Australia and if with some semblance of a SaaS/cloud strategy or at least a recognition of its existence and importance. And, to be just as clear, the Xero team are well aware of all this. I don’t expect them to be throwing themselves off tall buildings because of what I’ve written here! </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The knowledgeable <a href="http://www.diversity.net.nz/who-we-are-2/">Ben Kepes</a> over at <a href="http://www.diversity.net.nz/">Diversity</a> suggests that Xero are looking at raising a further $50 to $100 million NZ (?) for this project alone. I’m not surprised. I’m sure they’ll need it. Xero don’t need to be ‘wasting’ their money on acquisitions meantime. The likes of <a href="http://www.mypayusa.com/">MyPayUSA</a>, the sister online payroll product of MyPAYE for the USA (that sings and dances as required for the USA) means Xero (and others) can hit the American ground running. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Integration with payroll has worked and is working well for Xero, KashFlow et al. It provides all the required and possible functionality while building the respective brands and customer-bases. Each gets class leading functionality and usability while getting exposure to a warmed-up pool of users. As the market evolves it will see tighter partnerships with the payroll vendors. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">MyPAYE & MyPayUSA is already the embedded payroll engine for <a href="http://www.interprisesolutions.com/">Interprise Suite</a>, in both the UK and the USA respectively (and has been for over 3 years). This means that users of this desk-top ERP have payroll functionality built-in to the existing user-interface (UI) and use it happily in ignorance of the supplier.
SaaS accounting and ERP vendors have also decided to copy this model using MyPAYE as the payroll engine powering their UI. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">This is the best of all worlds for all. Accounting vendors get a fully functioning payroll engine, a significant chunk of reliable and robust value-add in next to no time, enhancing the brand proposition with no distraction from core competencies. Users get the same user experience (UX) as their preferred accounting/ERP solution. And the payroll vendor gets exclusive access to customers that get it and want it. Expect significant announcements around this from MyPAYE in the very near future. Also don’t expect some because, some want keep the relationship quiet as they proceed to add their brand. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">2015 is a long way off. The scenario above certainly subscribes to the prediction on AccMan. By then the leading accounting vendors may well have accumulated a treasure trove ready to invest and acquire as they cement their positions at the top of the accounting tree. They may well buy their own payroll apps as well as other complimentary functionality. It's certainly more likely than bothering to build their own. If the situation arises, I’m sure said vendors will buy and let it run as a separate department (as Xero intend with PayCycle) for all the reasons described. Of course they may share resources when required, but I can’t emphasise enough, payroll is a very different beast. Meantime, I suggest they can get all the payroll functionality they and their users need without investing any funds or resources.
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Interestingly there are three vendors in the UK that have swum against this tide. Using (wasting) precious resources on what the much better resourced, more successful players simply don’t. <a href="http://www.diversity.net.nz/liquidaccounts-and-clearbooks-update/2011/08/19/">Two of the three have had some commentary</a> very recently. I think it’s a safe assumption that they don’t agree with my point of view. Do you agree with them or me? Tell us all and why below! The three vendors in question are what you might call 2nd and 3rd division players - my terminology based (as always) on 'published' paying user numbers. I believe their mixed fortunes are more than a coincidence and validate what I am saying. More about <a href="http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/">Clearbooks</a>, <a href="http://www.liquidaccounts.net/">Liquid Accounts</a> and <a href="http://www.libertyaccounts.com/">Liberty Accounts</a> to follow. </span></b></b><br />
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">As indeed, there will be much more about much more from here on in. Meanwhile, I’m sure you’ll agree there is plenty here to get your teeth into. Let us all know your thoughts. Do you agree, disagree or not care about what is written here. Have your say below and/or tell everyone else about this post and catch you again very soon ;-) </span></b></b>Neil Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12158191050343508282noreply@blogger.com0