I was talking to a Sage salesman today. He claimed that Sage had 92% of the accounting software market. It didn't really matter to me because I go by what appears to be better software for a small business. I thought QuickBooks were claiming 25% of the market in small business accounting software. 92% isn't representative of Sage in the small businesses I come across. I would be surprised if Sage had 25% of the market.
Does anybody know how the small business accounting market is split? What do other people think?
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Do they include TAS Books
... in Sage's share of the market? It is a much better product that Sage bought years ago, but have always kept separate.
Only 1 of my clients use Sage and that's because it was the only system that linked to their e-commerce website at the time a few years ago.
Most desktop clients use VT and Quickbooks.
Most online clients use Freeagent and Kashflow.
Perhaps they mean that 92% of all accounting software sold is Sage - completely different to whether it's used or not. I've seen dozens of times where someone has bought Sage but never used it in anger after giving up trying to set it up!
client mix
not that we are starting a poll or anything.....
Firstly I would say at 92% he is telling a porky pie. 60/70% maybe and only those businesses with several employees or those who are established.
I would say if I looked at my client mix of businesses (excluding one man band xl spreadsheet types here) I would say
Sage 25, Quickbooks 7/8, TAS 1, microsft 1, bespoke 1.
All the clients I have of any size (5 employees to 100) all use sage with one exception on quickbooks, I have neither pointed them that way nor away from it.
If I think back to my days in a larger firm where we had probably 1000 + proper business clients the sage % was probably similar - or maybe higher a few years ago. And some of the larger ones used sage 100 or sage 200
I guess that it is because sage "got in first" and became the industry standard before anyone else came along, I feel it will shrink overtime but will never fall too low.
Lemming factor
I suppose "good" marketing people recognise the Lemming Factor.
So, promote a product NOT as being good but rather as being "the majority choice" and watch the Lemmings' reaction.
You might ask "What is a Lemming?"
Here's a Google search result:
"
A member of a crowd with no originality or voice of his own. One who speaks or repeats only what he has been told. A tool. A cretin.
"
Abuse of market power
Suppliers in any given industry who claim to hold a near monopoly should be wary of potential consequences - OFT investigation.
Excessive market power is attained by some by acquiring competitors to the detriment of customers.
Worldwide perhaps or just payroll?
I'm with everyone else, only one of my clients uses Sage accounting (well they use it but haven't much idea what it all means).
Wikipedia says they are the biggest provider to small businesses worldwide and on Sage's website it says over 830K UK companies use Sage to help run their business which immediately made me wonder whether that includes what must be a significant number that use Sage Payroll? I've known many companies in the past that used Sage payroll but not the accounting. That experience is several years old but so is Sage and, traditionally, people who have only ever known Sage stick to it.....why do my thoughts turn to The Titanic?
Anyway 800K companies (or businesses) doesn't sound much to me.,,,what about weight of the box & manual? Do they still supply the software in a box with the CD and manual? If so it might be tonnage supplied is 92% of the market?
Peter if it was me I'd get the salesman to give you the source and background to his claim.
always knew I was odd...!
Seems I am the only one who has the majority of "business" clients on sage.
I am no great fan of sage but as with probably most of us we have been brought up on it and had to learn it as default.
I am told (not tried it yet) that the new 2013 version is miles better and has Quickbooks style drilldowns but I haven't yet used it so cannot comment.
I think the biggest issue is price and monopolisation.
As they are so big and are the SME industry "standard" clients feel they have to use it or have bookkeepers who have used it before, then for that reason people just accept (albeit often with a moan) the price and get on with it. (some would argue a bit like we are not keen to pay the price for Microsoft office full version but we have no choice)
If it were free people (myself included) probably wouldn't complain as much and live with some of the problems. To my mind the problem is it is expensive and "not the best" therefore we all suffer (and believe me I pay around £1,000 pa as an accountant to get the practice version that I need with so many clients on it so believe me price is a factor!)
I just decided to swallow it and smile when another potential client tells me they are on sage and look at them as a contribution towards the cost I pay!!
Tally ho !!
92% by value?
Sage is so expensive that if the measurement is by turnover, they might possibly be right!
Market share by vendor...
Seeing as we host a complete mix of practices of all sizes, I thought it would be interesting to look at how many use each bookkeeping application.
Results as follows - this is only a quick, rounded estimate and is of course only based on our hosted platform users (which are 99% accountancy firms). Approximately 11% of firms use at least 2 desktop bookkeeping applications - in this situation I have counted the one they use the most....
Sage 50 - 39%
QB - 19%
VT - 14%
TAS - 4% (should be included in Sage I guess)
OTHER - 24%
The "other" section is all those firms who either use bookkeeping apps locally or are committed to using the on-line offerings - Xero, Freeagent, Kashflow, E-conomic, etc.
Interesting reading.
Dan
Hosted Accountants