Getting the message across

 Hi, I can only say I fully agree with you. Even the verb SaaS is irrelevant for accountants. IT people love to discuss about SaaS and Cloud Computing, even more when they want to turn their license business towards a SaaS business model. For us its a given as of day one, so we try to talk about it as less as possible. And even then its still a challenge! For me delevering solutions for accountancy firms there are roughly 2 areas for an accountant we can support, the efficient processing of administrations and the way they interact with their clients. Having online or on premise accounting software does not change that much in terms of efficiency. It can but you need more then just an online accounting system. Its a complete mind shift for the accountant where he needs to think how to have more interactive and efficient communication with its clients. For us we call in online collaboration, for an accountant also this verb is irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is how those kind of technologies enables them to be more efficient (cost reduction) or to create more business (increase revenue). 

John,

Replace 'cloud' with 'technology' in all previous discussions and debates about the cloud and its relevance to accountants and you'll find that under the covers its the same old problem that I've witnessed hounding large portions of the technology industry for the last two decades. 

Lots of technology people in sales roles (or management for that matter) can't sell.

For many people the word 'sales' still carries highly negative stereotypical connotations, indeed many sales people themselves cannot bear to include the word in their job titles, eschewing it in preference for the more cuddly, intellectual sounding names like account manager or business development consultant.

But the reality is good professional sales people are expert in getting to the bottom their clients problems, building genuine and long standing trust based relationships and helping those clients run more effective operations and be more successful.

The fact that a number of vocal 'advocates' couldn't sell their way out of a wet paper bag somehow confers some kind of universal ineptitude upon the entire technology industry is probably unavoidable in this medium, if regrettable.

For the avoidance of doubt; I'm not having a go at you - what you've written is excellent sales training material - I'm just a little sad that the community appears to find itself at such a kindergarten level of proficiency in this regard needs to be told it, certainly if the recent run of play in AccountingWeb's cloud discussion group is anything to go by.

@garyturner

You are absolutely right, however, there is a caveat. Look at Sage, a very sucessful marketing organisation that unfortunately sells rather questionnable software - so they are strong on sales but week on the technical aspects

Nevertheless, a great many in the profession use the Sage product and with every release there comes a flood of complaints; yet they still purchase it the following year

This is illogical but comes from a mindset which is quite difficult to change. One would almost be better to target the public & SME's with Cloud because at least has a chance of an open mind rather than the entreched attitudes of some within the profession. Anyway once the public have adopted Cloud the profession will have no option except to follow suit or loose business.

Yes the numbers stack up when targeting accountants (1 accountant = x clients) but not when the Sage mentality (complain about the product but won't change) is prevalent

@jstokdyk

Agree that Cloud vendors are missing a trick with the Sage issues

I too, marvel at those who continually buy Sage bookkeeping and IRIS payroll software when they are clearly inferior products. Having said that, I try to keep up with technological developments that might make my life easier, and I have still not decided to move to cloud bookkeeping software (except for one client, who uses a Mac).

It is not just the "it-worked-for-me-fifteen-years-ago-so-I-will-stick-with-it" brigade that needs to be convinced; it is the "how-will-it-help-me?" brigade too.

 @john:

1. Apart from our good friend Duane Jackson who has made killing off Sage his life's ambition (lol), the rest are quietly picking them off.
2. Sage are not going to answer you.
3. The conversation has moved elsewhere, is not as public but that's going to change very soon.
4. Most of the vendors are rather busy ramping up customers. Again, speaking of Mr Jackson, did you miss his announcement yesterday? Pretty important I'd say.

Hey I'm not going to argue with your findings John, but as someone who spends alot of time with the SaaS vendors my experience is vastly different. These guys are hoovering up customers left, right and centre so either they don't have accountants or they haven't told them they've moved from Sage! Having written software to help many these vendors (all the usual suspects )move customers from Sage I would say its a strong trend which is only rising.

Sure there are always going to be security and privacy concerns but I think the tide is turning. Startups like the low cost, the get started straight away coupled with the working patterns we all now adopt; not one pc and one location anymore and of course the accountant can log in as well. Does it make the accountants job any easier than the old method of sending your Sage backup? Probably not but the key thing is waht works for the customer, they are the ones paying the accountant fees!

Gary

http://www.domorewithsage.com

You make some interesting points.  There are many new Cloud Computing software products out there; some of them are very good and would no doubt bring enormous benefits to many Accountancy firms.  But how to make people stop and take notice of the Cloud services that are out there?  Accountants are busy people with their own agendas, deadlines and pressures.  They have their own priorities, which revolve around the demands of their clients.  Why should they take time out of their busy schedules to read about yet another IT product, which probably sounds boring, difficult to use and, what is more, expensive?

A news item that has loomed large in the UK press over the last week or so is the possibility of a national rail strike. This set me to thinking about how much most businesses could benefit from allowing and even encouraging their employees to work from home during times when commuting to work is difficult, and I came up with this article, 'Beat the Rail Strike' - hope it is of interest to other Accounting Web subscribers. www.EzineArticles.com/4018256

It looks like the strike has been averted for the time being, but the dispute rumbles along, and there is still a possibility that it will create travel chaos and massive disruption for UK business and commerce.

Accountants would mainly use the document management aspects of a Cloud service to exchange documents with a client.

 "But how to make people stop and take notice of the Cloud services that are out there?  Accountants are busy people with their own agendas, deadlines and pressures.  They have their own priorities, which revolve around the demands of their clients.  Why should they take time out of their busy schedules to read about yet another IT product, which probably sounds boring, difficult to use and, what is more, expensive?"

That's all a tad presumptive isn't it? But then as many have said before, the industry has not done a great job articulating benefit.

I'm not trying to be presumptive (presumptuous?) - just trying to make a case for the benefits of SaaS/the Cloud in a way that focuses on the reasons why people should consider using it, rather than getting bogged down in the technicalities.

As a recent convert to a Cloud Computing service myself (I am using Webforum) I find I am now able to work from home far more effectively than ever before.  No need to feel guilty about working from home when the need arises (say, when your childminder lets you down or you have a streaming cold) if you can be confident that you are actually being productive.

As an established business software developer, including accounts packages, we are keeping a close eye on the cloud accounting software market and wanted to make some comments from a developer’s viewpoint that wasn’t based on trying to sell our cloud application.

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. Yet. No doubt this will change but not at the speed interested parties say it will and maybe not for all markets. Accountsportal’s estimate of 5-10 years seems realistic. Getting some decent Broadband speeds might be a start.

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? They deal with these things already. (VPN’s aren’t that expensive or difficult to set up, and remote access software is child’s play.) The view is often that the cloud model is too new and unproven, security is not adequate (even if theirs is worse!) and broadband is too slow and unreliable. This will change, but it will take time.
 
There are early adopters in all markets and there are clearly benefits to cloud accounting software for many businesses, particularly sole traders and start-ups. However, I wonder how many of them will end up moving to more established desktop applications as their business grows? Ridiculous? Well, that depends on many factors including new operating systems and how quickly the functionality of cloud accounts packages develops.
 
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. What is available is fine for basic book-keeping, CRM, document management systems etc, but not for more advanced accounting. Looking at Microsoft’s Silverlight last year it was clear it just wasn’t up to the task. With the latest version, a lot, but not all, of these issues have been addressed.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
Are cloud applications the future? Certainly in some markets, but maybe not in others.  Cloud-based Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) software is ideal for global organizations, but that is completely different to accounting software for UK SME’s. We are developing cloud applications, but our customers tell us it will be some time before they’re interested in a cloud alternative to accounting software. As we’ve said, it’s a naturally cautious market. Are accountant’s who don’t embrace cloud accounting software right now going to disappear? I’m sure any accountant who has survived the technology changes of the last ten years will adapt to cloud computing as and when they feel it is appropriate and what their clients want and need.
 
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.