I had quite a pop at More Software the other day but I did get in touch with business owner Bob Harper who is ex-Big Four and who has been in practice for some years. After a – I would say passion filled but that would be over-egging the pudding – email exchange, Bob called me and we had a lengthy and valuable discussion. At least it was valuable to me.
Unlike other vendors, More is attempting to deal with the pain of small business book-keeping. They’re not delivering an accounting package. The idea is that end clients take a measure of responsibility for their books. In return, More – or rather its practice associates – will buy the solution on clients’ behalf and make no charge for its use. It’s a condition of the deal.
Clients only get to use it when they demonstrate they have understood how More works. At the client end, More is a desktop application but is fired over to the practice as an electronic file for incorporation into an accounts production package or spreadsheet. In effect , it is a hybrid desktop-SaaS style package. Updates are done server side so when a client logs into the system, the server recognises whether updates are required.
More solves the age old book-keeping problem by presenting the client with what ‘looks’ like a book along with a comprehensive set of video tutorials (I mean like north of 40) the client must complete before they can be licensed to use the software. Bob reckons it will take the average very small business owner (VSMB) between 90 minutes and two hours to learn and get accredited to use the software. This is seriously innovative. Although they’re in the early stages of marketing the product I think this has a genuine chance of success. In fact I think this is a racing certainty. Why?
It is a win-win-win. The solution is packaged in lots of 50 ‘clients’ the practice licenses for £30/client/year. It represents barely a half hour of a junior/semi-senior’s time per client. Why is it a win for the client? As Bob and I agreed, the meat of current fees is in book-keeping and other totally non-value add, useless compliance tasks. Alongside sorting out mistakes and trying to understand errors in client records. It has always been so and was a reason why I couldn’t see a future in the profession back in the early 1990s. At the time, there was no readily identifiable solution. Today there is.
If Bob can persuade clients to take a level of responsibility, then that is the beginning of true partnership between professional and newly minted business person where the client feels they have a stake in the quality of their business records. It also means the firm can save a fortune in grunt work and concentrate on the real value add – managing cash flow, solving business problems, helping clients arrange their lifestyle around a controlled and systemetised method of managing business finance.
Given Philip Woodgate’s observations about the potential of the VSMB market, Bob’s onto a winner. However, I have one caveat. If More can take this innovation and apply it to the SaaS model, I think he’ll be onto a monster. Bob believes he could capture around 150K small UK businesses. And that would be an annually renewable number because of the number of new business that start up AND survive each year. That works even where clients grow out of the package. I think Bob’s being optimistic but it is feasible. If the solution is turned into a SaaS offering, that opens up a world of opportunity. the true Global Microbrand. Just as I think Stefan Topfer is onto something as well. As is David Terrar. Which is more than we can say for the Living Dead.
Bob said he thinks he’ll develop for SaaS in about 2008. I’ll wager a bet he’ll be on the case in 6 months. Thanks for the call Bob – let’s do it again. I learned something interesting.
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