Accomplish takes on Xero

Privately-held Accomplish is a well-established New Zealand-based accounting software, with 25,000 customers across Australasia.

Now, it faces an insurgency from a new generation of competitors like Rod Drury’s Xero (with 7000 customers) that offer their software as a service (SaaS) that sits on the internet, rather than on a client’s PC.

Accomplish has hit back with a new hybrid approach, launching a SaaS version of its product, but maintaining its offline version as well (a similar approach to another of Xero’s rivals, MYOB).

Unique "undo"
General manager Grant Hewson told NBR that the new online version of Accomplish (which costs $45 a month to Xero’s $49) has a key advantage over rivals. Most SaaS products offer a full back-up and restore facility, but only at one point in time. Mr Hewson says many of his company’s clients in the offline world like to chose a back up from a couple of days or a week or longer ago if they want to “undo” an error, and the SaaS version of his product replicates this ability to choose between multiple restore points.

Stuck in the mud
Your correspondent related to Mr Hewson how when his accountant offered him a choice between Xero and MYOB, I leaned toward Xero, figuring a pure-play SaaS company would not be torn between the on and off-line worlds, in the manner of a publisher constantly making calculations about what resources to put into print, and what to allocate to the web (for the record I chose neither).

Why stick with an offline version as well?

Mr Hewson said he believes SaaS is secure and reliable, but says some customers are still dubious about the speed and reliability of broadband, and some will simply never feel comfortable with having their data stored in the cloud.

And some small businesses prefer the more conservative model of paying for shrinkwrapped software over SaaS' monthly fees.

“A lot of clients simply don’t want to go online,” Mr Hewson said “History may reveal them to be stuck in the mud, but that’s how it is right now.”

Two products, one look, and one set of data
While MYOB (now Australian-owned) bought a Kiwi company - Exonet - to help it push into SaaS, Accomplish has extended its offline product into the online world.

Mr Hewson says there is no difference in features and functionality between the SaaS version of Accomplish and its offline version, which sells for between $466 and $1106. Files can be transported across both versions of Accomplish.

And while the online version of Accomplish offers the same bank feed facility as Xero, the company will not follow Rod Drury’s foray into distribution via Telecom, Telstra and BT, instead sticking with its more traditional network of 1000 accountants.

Blind push
Accomplish is also starting to gain some traction in the US and UK markets, Mr Hewson said, but not for any reasons related to SaaS.

Rather, the company has become a pioneer in developing accounting software for the blind, which is starting to draw a lot of attention from organisations advocating for the visually impaired, particularly in North America, Mr Hewson said.

In three weeks time, Mr Hewson will attend a major National Foundation for the Blind conference in Chicago, which he expects will lead to more business for Accomplish:

“In the current economic malaise these kind of initiatives are important. If you just hunker down it can get pretty ugly.”