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Software Satisfaction Awards shortlists revealed

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23rd Oct 2013
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The race is on to identify the best accounting solutions in AccountingWEB’s annual Software Satisfaction Awards.

This year more than 5,000 users rated 12,000 products in this year’s online survey across nine business software categories, and these are the ones that made it through to our shortlists, which are published below.

A word about the figures and shortlists

The lists you see below are NOT the SSA13 winners. Instead, they show which companies are in the running for the Awards. Our statistical team is working through each category to confirm the ratings and prepare commentaries on the different software types and the final results will be announced on Thursday 7 November.

The figures that are shown indicate the share of the category ratings that each supplier received, but not the ratings on which the Software Satisfaction Awards are based. The percentage shares are a significant consideration. With so many votes coming in and big differences in the sample sizes across the nine categories, we use a statistical threshold to ensure that a handful of enthusiasts for an obscure program don’t prevail over a product that might have been rated by many more of its users.

To allow for the differences in voting patterns, our threshold is based on achieving 50% of the category average. This is shown as the “bar” figure in the headings for each section. For a category such as SME accounts with a very big pool of ratings (4,850) spread among a large number of contenders, this threshold can be as low as 2.5% of the sample, while the bar goes up for smaller categories contested by fewer developers - for example 6% in the case of business intelligence, which remains something of a minority interest among AccountingWEB members, with just over 200 votes cast.

Small business accounts (bar 2.5%)

Big Red Book

(3%)

Clear Books

(6%)

FreeAgent

(22%)

Kashflow

  (10%)

Quickbooks

  (8%)

Sage 50

  (17%)

Sage Instant

  (7%)

VT Transaction

(5%)

Xero

(5%)

Mid-range financials & ERP (bar 3%)

Access 

(17%)

Corero Resource 32000

(4%)

Exchequer

  (5%)

Microsoft Dynamics GP

(3%)

NetSuite

(5%)

Pegasus

(8%)

SAP Business One

  (13%)

Sage 200

(21%)

Payroll (bar 2.5%)

Big Red Book

(3%)

Brightpay

(22%)

IRIS

  (6%)

Moneysoft

(10%)

Quickbooks

(3%)

Sage 50

(18%)

Sage Instant

(12%)

The Payroll Site

(3%)

Expenses management (bar 5%)

FreeAgent

(11%)

ReceiptBank

(7%)

WebExpenses

  (53%)

Business intelligence (bar 6%)

Access 

(13%)

Cognos 

(8%)

Pegasus XRL 

  (14%)

Sage 200

(26%)

Tax (bar 3.5%)

BTC 

(17%)

CCH 

(5%)

Digita

  (5%)

IRIS 

(18%)

Keytime 

(15%)

PTP 

(6%)

Sage 

(7%)

TaxCalc

(11%)

Accounts production (bar 4.5%)

CaseWare

(10%)

IRIS

(22%)

Keytime

  (9%)

Relate 

(5%)

Sage

(12%)

VT Accounts 

(23%)

Practice management (bar 4%)

BTC

(16%)

CCH

(8%)

Digita

  (6%)

IRIS

(25%)

Logical Office

(8%)

Relate DRIVE 

(11%)

Sage

(6%)

Workflow Max

(6%)

Document management (bar 3.5%)

Draycir Spindle

  (18%)

INVU 8

(8%)

IRIS OpenDocs 

(4%)

Lindenhouse

(7%)

Logical Office

(4%)

V1

(15%)

What happens next?

Over the next two weeks, the AccountingWEB stats team will work with our survey partners at Smith & Henderson, the ICAEW IT Faculty and the CIPP to analyse what’s happening in each sector of the accounting software marketplace. We will publish more detailed commentaries on the contenders during this period, leading up to multimedia announcements on 7 November.

After that, the results will be compiled into AccountingWEB buyer’s guides for each category of software.

The results will also be compiled into benchmark reports for software vendors. For more information on these detailed market insight documents, please contact the AccountingWEB sales team.

Replies (8)

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avatar
By Rob Connell
24th Oct 2013 12:43

Business Intelligence short list

I for one will be interested in the results for the business intelligence listing, Access is a database, Cognos has our biased vote for enterprises as our main investor is an IBM Premier Partner! Pegasus is only for their accounting sw customers(?), and Sage 200 is clearly established for mid-market. I hope it won't be long before Smeebi can fill the gap for SME's and smaller accountancy practices, and that we have all the integrations in place to get more noticed here!

Thanks (0)
avatar
By JOhnnyK
25th Oct 2013 10:48

Business Intelligence - Sage Intelligence - formerly Alchemex

Has anyone got experience of Sage Business Intelligence (formerly Alchemex).

As a chartered accountant, I am currently evaluating their product line with a view to becoming involved as a BI consultant.

Alchemex was recently purchased by Sage to integrate with their accounting systems.

http://www.sageintelligence.com/

All reports end up in Excel directly, without using .csv!  

Can anyone give me any feedback?

Johnny Kipps

[email protected]

Thanks (0)
Replying to CMPACDGDB:
avatar
By Vidpark
25th Oct 2013 12:28

Sage Intelligence and UK Sage Products

Spent some time on and off looking at this offering over the years.

Looks reasonable IF your accounting system is one of those on the current integration list but, given the Alchemix legacy, you might find that it does not currently integrate with many of the Sage offering in the UK beyond Sage X3 ERP. There is good coverage for US and South African products.

Sage use the same name (Sage NNN) for different products in different countries so you might find that the Sage Intelligence integration with, say, Sage 50 is actually referring to a US accounting system not a UK one.

 

 

 

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avatar
By timpcole
25th Oct 2013 10:55

Business Intelligence - Access

Hi Rob,

The Access in the Business Intelligence shortlist is not the database. But the Access Insight Business Intelligence solution from Access: http://www.theaccessgroup.com/solutions/business-intelligence.aspx

Tim

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avatar
By Rob Connell
25th Oct 2013 11:09

BI Suitable for SMB?

Thanks for clearing that up Tim.

Had a quick look, no pricing transparency so I assume this is targeted at mid market and above and a consultancy led sale?

Rob

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avatar
By timpcole
25th Oct 2013 12:38

BI Suitable for SMB

Hi Rob,

There's also aCloud Insight: http://www.accessacloud.com/solutions/acloud-insight.aspx

A SaaS based version of the product could be more suitable for SMB's.

Thanks,

Tim

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avatar
By JOhnnyK
28th Oct 2013 13:59

Sage Intelligence - formerly Alchemex
Hullo Vidmark
Thanks for quick response.
I gather that as long as the OBDC driver is installed, Sage Intelligence can link to
any Sage product, including Sage 50.
Recently working as an FD I, and my team, spent much time at month-end keying in figures for board reports; I am looking at offering a service to help customers speed this up.
It's a big plus for Sage Intelligence that reports go straight into Excel without export/import.
Is anyone interested in helping explore this for their customers?
JohnnyK

Thanks (0)
avatar
By skhan
29th Oct 2013 17:46

BTC

Its the best

Thanks (0)