Business Management zone

SME nominees take on the giants in Software Satisfaction Awards 2008

Organised by Sift Media, the company behind BusinessZone.co.uk, UK Business Forums, AccountingWEB.co.uk and other professional web communities, the Software Satisfaction Awards are designed to highlight those developers who go the extra mile to keep their customers happy.

The biggest single category, small business accounts, attracted more than 1,800 respondents, who voted in sizeable battalions for Sage, QuickBooks and MYOB. But also in the running for the small business category is KashFlow, the winner of last year's prize for web-hosted accounts systems. Danish newcomer e-conomic received an honourable mention - although it scored well for customer satisfaction, it had less than 5% of the votes in this category.

KashFlow and e-conomic demonstrate the growing reach of web-hosed software as a service (SaaS) systems. The numbers of respondents who used such software more than trebled, accounting for just under 10% of the accounting and finance sample.

Online software was even more prevalent in the customer relationship management (CRM) and HR categories. In the small business category, for example, 60% of the respondents used on-demand CRM software. The on-demand NetSuite and Really Simple Systems applications were nominated, alongside Sage's desktop contact management program ACT! and Mamut Enterprise.

In the payroll category, two companies that focus on the smaller busines market - 12Pay and Moneysoft - were nominated alongside OpenPeople from COA Solutions and KCS's k-PAYE, which is now part of the Sage stable.

Below is a summary of the nominees for the small business categories in the Software Satisfaction Awards 2008. The winners will be announced at the ceremony on the evening of Thursday 30 October, at The Brewery in London. The Software Satisfaction Annual containing the detailed results will be published on the night of the awards and be available as a PDF download the next morning.

Visit the Software Satisfaction Awards 2008 website for further details of the event and a full listing of all the nominated companies.

Small business accounting
KashFlow
MYOB Accounting Plus
QuickBooks Pro 2008 from Intuit
Sage 50 Accounts

Honourable mentions
e-conomic
Mardak Construction Accounts
Mamut Enterprise

Web-hosted accounting
e-conomic
KashFlow
Liquid Accounts
Pearl Office

Paperless office
DbArchive from Version One
Docusoft
Rapport from Practice Net
Draycir Spindle Professional

Honourable mention
CaseWare Paperless Accounts

Small business CRM
ACT! from Sage
Mamut Enterprise
NetSuite Small Business
Really Simple Systems

Accounting & finance reseller of the year
dhc
Enhanced Computer Solutions
Minerva Computer Services
Profile Technology Services

Honourable mention
Sapphire Systems plc

CRM reseller of the year
Armstrong Consultants
DMC Software Solutions
Sapphire Systems

Honourable mention
Aspective