Archive for the 'SaaS Accounting' Category
Intuit’s Switch to Online Services
Last month, Intuit Inc., a business accounting solutions provider, had more than 300,000 customers stranded when a power failure shut down the company’s servers. This was perhaps a wakeup call for Intuit to consider Software as a Service.
As planned by Brad Smith, CEO at the company, Intuit will transfer more than 75% of its sales to Web-based services by 2015. Intuit will make a series of internet company acquisitions. Additionally, the company will reform operations and product features so that Intuit applications, such as for TurboTax and Quicken, will run dependably as online services.
“We don’t have the luxury of going down,” Smith says. “We are required to be available, 24/7, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
In the meantime, Intuit is making investigations into the June power outage and how it can be avoided in the future. Data centers will also be made more efficient and centralized. Smaller offices will be shut down and operations will be concentrated in an advanced, 240,000-square-foot facility built in Quincy, Washington.
According to Smith, the Intuit strategy since January 2008 has been to adapt from a desktop company to an internet company.
So far, the company provides online services to handle small business payroll and payments, manage health care costs, pay physicians, build websites, give financial advice, and process credit card charges over mobile phone. Intuit’s most conspicuous acquisition last year was $170 million for Mint.com, a service that records, analyzes, and creates graphics on data from consumer accounts on all spending habits. The company plans on integrating some Mint.com services with its other software offerings.
Popularity: 11% [?]
No commentsFinancialForce.com: Online Accounting Made Easy
FinancialForce.com announced that it plans on extending its functionality by adding electronic bank payment processing to its accounting SaaS. FinancialForce is a cloud accounting solution built on the salesforce.com platform.
FinancialForce will enable users to have a single system for managing customer accounts and monitoring accounts payable and receivable. Customers will enjoy the fully automated, cloud end-to-end payment system that will increase productivity and efficiency.
“These integrations are designed to make life even easier for our users and are part of a strategy that will see us extending the payment options available to our customers,” said President and CEO Jeremy Roche. “We are delivering a full, on-demand, end-to-end solution all the way to the bank to try to take this headache away from our customers. Through a fully integrated system like this, our customers can manage payments in a secure service environment without any risk.”
FinancialForce also encourages customers to pay their invoices on time because they will have easy access to their cash flow and budget control. The cloud accounting solutions vendor has found a way to simplify and optimize accounting processes. To further alleviate the stress of online banking, FinancialForce has added PayPal integration. With PayPal, users can choose to email invoices to customers, while their customers will have the option to pay securely online through PayPal.
For more information on FinancialForce.com visit: http://developer.financialforce.com
Popularity: 4% [?]
No commentsTax Calculation Made Easy?
IT solutions provider, SunGard, has released a new online tax calculation service that caters most specifically to benefit administrators requiring federal and state tax withholding support.
SunGard’s Omni Tax Calculator offers a simple way to calculate withholding taxes on pension distributions with improved efficiency. SunGard’s software as a service (SaaS) is available on a “pay as you go” basis and helps facilitate the entire tax calculation process.
The SaaS ultimately reduces the headache associated with tax calculation, which is quite a remarkable feat. Users will avoid dealing with costly hardware, technical expertise needed to deal with hardware, and daunting manual processes.
My favorite features of the SaaS-based Tax calculator are the automatic changes to federal and state tax withholding tables every time the government updates them and the automatic software updates. Genius!
The Omni Tax Calculator provides a simple solution for benefit administrators with its highly intuitive infrastructure. SunGard has made tax calculation easier for its users, now if only they could make it fun as well.
Popularity: 2% [?]
No commentsIntuit News: They’ll Be Partnering with Microsoft for More PaaS
Intuit and Microsoft announced today they will be partnering to create web applications that will automate tasks for small businesses. The main progression is for Intuit, which will now be able to reach out to the Microsoft .NET and Azure developer network.
The companies will be integrating the respective capabilities of their cloud platforms—Microsoft Windows Azure and the Intuit Partner Platform—with an aim to allow developers and channel partners to deliver products to enterprise users of Intuit’s QuickBooks. Developers can currently access the beta version of Intuit SDK for Azure, and toward the end of 2010, they’ll have access to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which includes SharePoint, Exchange, and Communications Server.
Intuit execs said the partnership will help them build a best of breed suite of applications for small businesses, which will eventually provide them collaboration abilities both internally and with business partners. Some tech pundits, like Dennis Howlett, see Intuit’s larger goal as this: using Platfrom-as-a-Services as a way for delivering lots of aaS functionality, expanding their reach, and developing deep domain expertise to encourage growth.
We’ll likely have to wait till later in the year to see what comes of it.
Popularity: 3% [?]
No commentsNetSuite Customers Make VAT Compliant Overnight
Yesterday, NetSuite announced that their customers doing business in the UK are going to enjoy full compliance with new changes to the value-added tax (VAT) rate, and without having to trouble with pesky upgrades. Thanks to NetSuite’s cloud computing model, and the flexibility of the Tax Engine in their financial and accounting software, NetSuite customers in the UK will have immediate compliance changes.
The change itself is due to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s announcement of a return to the 17.5% VAT rate, which he detailed in his pre-budget report last week. That decision wasa part of the government’s stimulus package, and will be effective January 1, 2010. Companies operating accounting and e-commerce software are therefore racing to be compliant, and those with on-premise solutions are obviously having the roughest time.
NetSuite’s SuiteBundle is the product that automatically updates customer tax codes, and it can be applied at any time before the January deadline, and will be updated automatically. NetSuite is already a major player in many business software segments, and with cases like this one it’s patently obvious why. Their cloud-computing model is thrifty and timely, and this a prime example of the abilities offered by cloud computing—hopefully one that will get even more people hooked on this kind of deployment.
Popularity: 3% [?]
No commentsThe IRS Chooses TaxWise For Specialized Accounting
In every industry there are a couple of trendsetters—those companies who do something and everyone takes note. Though most people only grumble about the Internal Revenue Service, it can be assumed that when they select a particular accounting platform, people take note.
Today, the IRS announced they selected TaxWise from CCH Small Firm Services (SFS) as the software their employees and volunteers will use to prepare and electronically file tax returns for millions of low-income, elderly, and limited-English proficient taxpayers. And TaxWise obviously takes pride in this being the 15th consecutive year their technology has been put to this task.
But even though it’s been doing the job for almost two decades, the IRS still vetted accounting software for two years. TaxWise’s most recent agreement is a 5-year contract, and covers about 10,000 IRS-supported Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counselors for the Elderly (TCE) locations, and IRS-operated Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs).
Part of the reason the IRS is so happy with TaxWise is its strong security provisions—and they said this of both the on-premise and online versions. Yup, that’s right—the IRS is not shying away from accounting data in the cloud, and approves of TaxWise Online.
Popularity: 3% [?]
No commentsSage Launches A Financial Certification Programn for Non-Profits
Sage wants its customers to be prepared for government financial regulations, and last month they launched a new certification program for the non-profit organizations using their Sage MIP Fund Accounting. The program helps non-profit professionals enhance their skills through continuing professional education (CPE) workshops, each lasting two to three days.
Seminar sessions are web-based, and tout certification in less time and at less cost than alternative programs. There has been a growth in non-profits in North America over the last decade, and the need for certified financial professionals is especially pressing in this economic climate. There are a number of certifications offered. From the high-demand disciplines, there are courses in Accounts Payable, Controller, Financial Reporting, and Senior Accountant. Other options include Budget Analyst, Financial Manager, Procurement, and Payroll, to name a few.
Sage reportedly serves 2.9 million SMBs and non-profits in the US and Canada, so these certification options are a good source of revenue. At the same time, it is a nice gesture to give financial experts a means of increasing their professional value.
Popularity: 2% [?]
No commentsCODA & Salesforce.com Create FinancialForce.com
Yesterday, Salesforce.com and CODA announced that they would be joining together to create a new financial software company, FinancialForce.com. Unit 4 Agresso, which owns CODA, will be the majority shareholder in the company, and it is currently unknown what Salesforce’s stake will be.
We do know a few specifics, however. First, FinancialForce will incorporate the on-demand application Coda2go. Coda2go is based on the development platform of Salesforce’s “platform-as-a-service,” Force.com, and it can thus be assumed that Salesforce will provide support for the new application, even though it will technically be a separate entity.
Support aside, the new company will reap the marketing benefits of the –Force suffix. The company’s CEO, former CODA CEO Jeremy Roche, calls FinancialForce an extension of the Salesforce data model, and also praised the application’s myriad integration abilities. Some, like 451 Group analyst China Martens, consider the application as a solution for companies looking for a step up from Excel or Quicken. Others don’t think of it as a threat within the financial software market and consider other products to be more mature than Coda2go. Still, FinancialForce is a smart addition to the Salesforce gallery. And despite Coda2go’s relative immaturity, it is hard to argue the benefit—regarding visibility and development—that FinancialForce will receive from being under the Salesforce umbrella.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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