Accountancy

Richard Messik strikes out

June 21, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Last Friday (I did a number of quickie meetings) I met with Richard Messik and his lovely wife Marilyn who is a marketing specialist with a razor sharp mind for detail. I’d been gagging to sit down with Richard since he is one of the few SaaS enthusiasts inside the profession who truly ‘gets it.’ [...]

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A Xero day update

June 21, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Last Friday I met with Gary Turner, UK CEO of Xero for a breakfast catch up on the company, its progress, initiatives and the like. The meeting was opportune because it was almost a year ago to the week when Gary was announced as Hamish Edwards successor. At the time I remember Gary grinning from [...]

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Going pear shaped: TAS style

March 23, 2010 Humour

I have fond memories of TAS Books before it was acquired by Sage in 2001. Great software, did what it said on the packet, excellent entry level accounting package that never realised its market potential – hence it was acquired. So you have to ask yourself – what did they do to deserve this entry [...]

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What can CPA2Biz teach us?

March 22, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Last week I had a fascinating conversation with Michael Cerami, VP partner alliances at CPA2Biz. It is the commercial arm of AICPA. There is no UK equivalent even though ICAEW has monetization efforts alongside its main membership. The backdrop to our conversation was an email where they said: “What’s unique about this is the fact that [...]

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Customers speak, vendors no longer control

March 19, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Customers speaking out represent the most powerful voices. When they complain, the world knows. When they heap praise, the world knows. It’s something over which no-one has control and especially not the vendors. Professionals should take notice because we are starting to see a regular stream of customers saying both good and not so good [...]

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Pearl sticks its claws into IRIS

March 4, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Pearl has developed an integration to IRIS. It had to happen and it is an important landmark. I’ve long felt that the battleground among SaaS accounting providers will be fought on two fronts: directly with customers, which is already happening, and by the extent to which the providers can either give the professional what they [...]

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Intacct: in tune with the SaaS trend

February 4, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Yesterday evening I fielded a quick fire, in depth conversation with Intacct executives. If you’re a UK based business or vendor the name may be new, less so in the US where they’ve accumulated 3,300 customers (representing some 30,000 users) and have a pipeline of more than 1,000 CPA firms interested in SaaS solutions. Average [...]

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PWC and EY heavily implicated in unlawful privatization

October 13, 2009 Tax and Ethics

The Sri Lankan Sunday Times/Financial Times has a detailed account of the role of the auditors in the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) privatization. For the first time, we see the extent to which PWC and EY partners were implicated in what has turned into something of a scandal in Sri Lanka. The accusations levied [...]

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Make me love you and you will be rewarded

September 30, 2009 Marketing

John O’Nolan commented on the story I wrote about his experience with accountants summed up in a Tweet. The comment contains so many gems from which professionals can draw lessons that it is well worth putting out as a post in its own right with my comments interspersed: Hi Dennis, thanks so much for this [...]

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Firm Spy: a must read

June 16, 2009 Featured

A wee bit of stumbling about on the Internet yielded Firm Spy. In its own words: Australasian professionals need an outlet to share the real news — and in so doing, to hold their industries and employers to account.  Our mission is simple: to give Australian lawyers, bankers, accountants and consultants a voice and allow [...]

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