It’s rare for me to come across a software developer as breathtakingly full of FUD as Benchmark Software. In a comment posted at AccountingWeb, it says, among other things:
There are obvious benefits to cloud-delivered software, but for most established businesses and accountants, the benefits aren’t significant enough and there is not enough pain being experienced with existing systems to make them jump over to cloud applications.
Wrong. Kashflow has hundreds of accounting partners. Xero’s growth in the last two years has been staggering. Cloud vendors of all stripes are showing massive growth. Now – if the market is as Benchmark thinks then where is this growth coming from? Thin air perhaps? As to benefits – check my post: This stuff sells itself.
Talking to our customers, mostly established businesses, many aren’t bothered about cloud computing even if they know what it really is. And I’m not talking about people who don’t know much about IT. Accounting software is a tool at the core of their business. It works and they aren’t going to change just because they can access the software from home if there’s a rail strike or someone can’t get a child minder?
You’re not telling the right story or your customers are over the bell curve laggards. Or maybe you’re making too much money from maintaining them? Pick two of three.
From what we’ve seen, there isn’t anywhere near the level of functionality in cloud accounting software that you can get with desktop applications. We feel one reason for this is that the development tools for developing cloud applications are not as advanced or mature as those for local applications.
I’m not going down this rat hole but if that assertion was correct then Intacct would not be a select provider for AICPA. FinancialForce would not have TMG as a customer. NetSuite would not have 6,000+ customers and SAP BusinessByDesign with its 10,000 plus processes would not exist. Maturity has brought bloat and as far as I can tell no-one wants that.
One comment was that this discussion wasn’t about technology. Of course it is. People don’t trust new technology and IT firms very much where their business is concerned. Unfortunately this is based on experience. They aren’t bothered about getting cloud software just because it’s new. In fact that’s more likely to put them off. Keeping their business functioning is too important and many are sensibly cautious.
I’ve been telling vendors forever that this is about marketing. Customers don’t care about tech, they care about value. I’ve not seen a single apps developer get funding for on-prem development in the last three years. What is that telling me?
There are also issues about broadband speeds and data centres being able to deliver the reliability and access people need. I saw a message recently: “Twitter is over capacity.Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.”! How is a business going to feel if that starts happening to them when they’re trying to allocate 5,000 order lines? Admittedly, they already experience down-time with existing systems, but at least they know what demands are going to be put on their IT systems and they are in control of dealing with it.
I live in Spain. Our broadband is appalling. I have no difficulty using cloud apps. There is not a single recorded case of disastrous business loss from cloud computing. Fact. Trying to equate Twitter (whose tech I know a good amount about) to business critical applications is preposterous. Do you want the list of IT failures in on-prem deployments? Check this out.
Another advantage to Cloud-based applications is the developer being able to update the software version at a single point and not having to upgrade each customer individually. True, but is this a benefit to the customer or the developer? One customer of ours doesn’t install the latest version of their CAD software until they see the first Service Pack. If the developer is in charge on when the cloud-based application is upgraded, how much hassle could a ‘buggy’ release cause businesses who have no control about when they start to use a new version?
Does Benchmark Software know how many bugs are shipped with on-premise apps? One fairly recent release of Oracle apps shipped with 200 THOUSAND. Has he not read the dismay of customers trying to wrestle with Sage Line 50′s most recent release? I’ve yet to hear of a cloud app upgrade that caused anything like that amount of pain. Or any pain for that matter.
We think we’re being realistic about what our customers’ needs and expectations are. Others may disagree, but experience tells us that it’s going to happen when businesses feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and this will take longer than people think.
OK – so some customers won’t be ready for cloud. Some may never move. That’s fine. But simply to put your hands up with nary a fight sounds like the last lament of a vendor that’s on its way to the deadpool.
