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This is a great opportunity ....
.... to review (downwards) the prices of tax books, should they be a part of the 600 titles.
I find it galling that tax annuals basically contain the same information, year on year, with obvious updates for budget changes, yet I am expected to pay the full price for information I purchased in the previous year's edition.
Well, I have news for the publishers: I have seriously cut down my expenditure on books and increasingly use resources which are FREE or sensibly priced. Thank you AccountingWeb et al.
There is no reason why publishers cannot operate some kind of Loyalty Discount Scheme which would reward its customers and also retain them. How about something like: "Buy this year's Tax Annual and get all subsequent editions at 50% off normal retail price, provided that you bought the previous edition from us."
Who will suffer in the bloodbath?
What the news from the above suppliers indicates is that that information and software supply is much more sensitive to price than they used be. The prevalence of some information and even some software free availability on the WEB is forcing suppliers to rethink pricing and marketing policies. To echo Michael O' Leary a when discussing the low cost airline industry "there is going to be a lot of blood spilt over the coming few years".
CCH, Iris and Sage are well established in their respective markets and are extremely sound financially. Some of the smaller companies such as PTP, Dromore and VT may have a settled small client base and low overheads.
The companies that are at greatest risk are the ones such as MYOB who were Solution 6, who were Viztopia. Although providing capable software solutions there are no USPs in any of their products or in the manner which they service their customers. Companies like this will have to dramatically change their strategies; perhaps some of their management and/or have very deep pockets to survive the "bloodbath"