Marketing

Tools you can easily use to track stuff that matters

November 12, 2010 Marketing
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One of the problems people face when using social tools comes in figuring out whether they have any value. If you can’t track what’s going on then it is all pretty pointless. Agreed? That seems to be changing. Last evening Chris Lewis, CEO Lewis PR pointed me to ChatterScope, a tool that measures sentiment around [...]

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Progressive Practices: Mazuma puts the fun into accounting

August 18, 2010 Progressive practices
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Formed in 2005 by a couple of childhood friends who trained in accounting, Mazuma (a Yiddish word for ‘money’) is one of a new breed of ‘accounting factories’ that is taking the commoditization of compliance services to an entirely new level. Earlier today I spoke with co-founder Lucy Cohen, the marketing brains behind Mazuma who [...]

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How well do you know your clients?

August 9, 2010 General

Ask any practice partner about their understanding of the client base and they’ll likely be miffed at the implication they might not be au fais with what clients really think. After all, if there is no real client retention issues beyond the usual death or sale reasons then why would be concerned? Except that in [...]

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Professional development dates you should not miss

August 4, 2010 Marketing

Rick Telberg’s excellent CPA Trendlines is a mine of useful statistics on what’s happening in the profession. Whether you are UK or US based, the likelihood is that you’ll recognize or identify with the issues he surfaces. There will always be tweaks and nuances but the issues remain broadly the same regardless of location. In [...]

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Sexy SAP? Surely not!!

July 28, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

I get a regular stream of people telling me they are looking for a SaaS/cloud upgrade to Sage Line 50. They’re ready to move on and don’t see the remainder of the Sage line of products as particularly appealing. They’ve usually found out something about this ‘cloud stuff’ and are curious to know more. This [...]

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Xero tilting at Sage?

July 7, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

Gary Turner’s post: Long distance running, icebergs and Sage contains this intriguing passage: …building a business that gets to 1,000 paying customers is very tough, but getting to 5,000 or 10,000 and beyond is exponentially much, much harder and more complex, particularly if you have to change course or undo decisions mid-way through. So, it’s [...]

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Brightpearl raises $1.5 million, beefs up team

June 24, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

BrightPearl, formerly known as Pearl has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Eden Ventures and Notion Capital. This is the largest single seed round for a UK based SaaS accounting solution. Chris Tanner, one of the founders called me up last evening to discuss the round and provide context for what is happening. I [...]

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Adding the Service into SaaS

June 23, 2010 Cloud Computing/SaaS

As SaaS/cloud providers mature and harden their applications, we are starting to see a range of new services emerge. For example, within hours of yesterday’s UK Budget, Emily Coltman had provided an easy to follow summary of the main provisions affecting FreeAgent users. While no substitute for professional advice, FreeAgent users can readily understand the [...]

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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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