SaaS accounting market 2010

Last week, Alan Wright of Liberty Accounts was kind enough to drop a list of saas applications/providers onto AccountingWeb. It’s something I’ve been meaning to get around to doing for some time. I took the opportunity to review Alan’s list and update it for services I’ve found that he’d not listed, clear out dead links and add more data such as pricing. It has 61 entries. If you just want to stay here – see below:

Some points:

• I’ve only included service providers that I’ve seen having a demonstrable UK presence. That’s not to say that others haven’t got customers in the UK, just that I don’t come across them. If you think otherwise then let me know and I will update the table.
• This will surprise some people but I’ve excluded SAP Business ByDesign. That’s because it is not generally available despite having 100+ charter customers. When that changes then it will be added to the list.
• There is a case for including CRM services, whether stand alone or linked via API to an accounting application. If people feel this would be valuable then I’ll create a new cateogry and add in.
• As I compiled the table, I saw a good case for providing a list of those professional firms that are named as using one or other or more service. I know for instance that Xero, FreeAgent and Kashflow all have firms on their roster. However, such a listing would be incomplete because (in this example) Kashflow doesn’t provide a listing on its own site. Rather than be discriminatory, I’ve asked the firm whether they can make that available. In the meantime, Xero’s listings are here, and FreeAgent’s are here.
• There is a case for providing numbers of customers. Part of the buying decision will be an assessment whether a vendor is viable. Like it or not, customer numbers count and will be part of any evaluation. That information is spotty. While I have some numbers and can guesstimate others, most are missing. There’s also the question of definition. In my mind there is only one kind of customer – those that pay. That doesn’t work for open source registrants for which there is a different model. If vendor readers wish to provide that information then I can add it into the table.

Longer term, I want to take the table as the basis for providing more complete market data as a way of helping potential customers make informed decisions. To that extent, I’ve embedded the table into a wiki which can be found here. If you’d like to edit the wiki then please request access.

Tagged as: Add new tag, ERP, freeagent central, KashFlow, SAP Business ByDesign, xero