Archive for the 'SaaS' Category

SmartPayroll Gets on the Service Theme

Published by Ben Kepes on May 12, 2009 in Business, IT and SaaS. 0 Comments

I don’t blog often over here on Diversity any more – CloudAve takes much of my attention these days. Diversity is more about an opportunity for me to be opinionated or to tell stories of Kiwi success stories – I try and do that over on CloudAve too but for some reason some US readers get sick of my parochialism ;-) .

A few weeks ago at the Web09 conference in Auckland I finally had a chance to meet CEO of SmartPayroll, Asantha Wijeyeratne – we immediately found much in common, especially regarding our views of what the real barriers to growth are for small businesses and the potential of connected applications to drive efficiency and productivity gains for SMEs (excuse the volley of buzzwords there).

Anyway, Wijeyeratne just pinged me to tell me that SmartPayroll has just completed it’s integration with Xero. SmartPayroll is the largest of the IRD registered payroll intermediaries through their relationship with Datacom and they’re obviously looking to augment this offering with the addition of a software plus services offering. As part of this integration, Xero have nominated SmartPayroll as their Premium Payroll Partner in NZ.

With another twist in this story, for $83 per month customers can get SmartXero – so what is SmartXero? It is Xero bundled with a high level service and integration offering. Despite all the Web 2.0 tools in the world, as a SaaS vendor grows to scale it simply cannot continue to offer high levels of individual service – as an example Xero provides email support, but no phone support – that’s fine for those of us prepared to either wait or to tinker, but arguably doesn’t address the needs of those who want help from a real person – and now.

So that’s where SmartXero jumps in. I questioned Wijeyeratne about the difference between the monthly subscription to Xero and the offering they are providing – his response? “We will set up the chart of accounts, set up the Bank feeds etc and the general set up. We will then send a trainer to sit with the customer while they do the first month. So all that eliminates the fear of the changeover. Then we back that up with 0800 24×7 telephone support backed up with on-site support if required.”

Of course the biggest gain to be made is by users who use both SmartXero and SmartPayroll – they’re then leveraging both a technology integration and a high level services offering. Asantha indicated the potential to provide a reduced bundle price for those using both products.

While it’d be nice to think that SaaS requires no third party help – the reality is that SMEs need handholding – SmartXero is providing a valuable service for those businesses.

Update – SmartXero has had a name change! It’s now known as SmartBooks Plus

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A New Learning Resource from LearningSource

Published by Ben Kepes on March 4, 2009 in IT, New Zealand, New business, SaaS and Strategy. 0 Comments

After many months spent in super stealth mode, Another local SaaS product is coming out from under the covers.

Training management system vendor LearningSource has gone public with their offering. Learning Source is a fully featured, end-to-end training management system that LearningSource believe will;

  • streamline business processes
  • help manage business relationships
  • enhance the learning experience in, and beyond, the classroom

LearningSource has a number of benefits including;

The reduction of administration cost through the automation of communications, built in CRM functionality, centralisation of course creation and automatic dynamic updating of a companies website connected to LearningSource

The strengthening of customer relationships through tracking key contacts, recording all information and managing communications centrally as well as targeted marketing of courses to specific clients based on customer information

Enhancing the value of existing courses by providing a centralised repository of course resources with the ability for attendees to submit content as well as enabling the integrated use of wikis, discussions and blogs.

Improving customer experience through the integration of SMS reminders, mapping information and calendaring.

Enabling continuous improvement via the built in customer feedback system.

The ability to move business information online including storing and managing documents, communicating company new and announcements, coordinating events and activities and the aforementioned facilitation of online collaboration.

LearningSource is designed to either be used as a standalone product, or to be seamlessly integrated into a customers own branded website. The solution has been designed to be easily and rapidly skinned to suit a customers individual requirements. Below is an example of this integration this one for a government funded business growth agency.

What I find really refreshing about the LearningSource offering is that they realise the real value they can add to training providers by giving them an end-to-end management solution – that takes all course and student information and wraps it up in an integrated LMS, CRM and back office management tools. I’m excited to see where LearningSource, another local SaaS startup, takes their offering.

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Another Local Payroll Entrant

Published by Ben Kepes on February 12, 2009 in Business, Efficiency, IT, New Zealand, New business and SaaS. 0 Comments

Awhile ago I wrote about iPayroll, a local SaaS payroll provider. New to the scene comes Flexitime, another payroll option.

Whereas iPayroll is an official IRD intermediary, meaning that they can act as a company’s proxy when dealing with the IRD, Flexitime is a standalone service which means companies will still do the traditional cheque sending to the IRD.

In use Flexitime is simple, pretty and intuitive. I’ve gone on record saying that I’m a bit of a fan of applications built on top of flex, in my experience it just seems to increase the chances of creating an application with a great user experience – I’m not sure why but it’s just my observation.

I’ve attached some screenshots below to show how it works. Robert Owen, founder of Flexitime, sent me an email the other day to say that they now allow file downloads for ASB, ANZ, BNZ, National Bank and Westpac. For payroll files.

Go have a look – Flexitime costs $20/month or up to five users. It’s also fully integrated with Xero, creating another time saving (no more horrible journal entries to reconcile an archaic payroll system with an equally archaic accounting system!)

The pay window – probably the first window you’ll see each week;

Enter the hours for an employee – pretty simple;

The all important payslip;

And a nice, correctly formatted PAYE return for the IRD;

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Diligent – The End Is Nigh

Published by Ben Kepes on January 21, 2009 in Business, Efficiency, IT, New Zealand, New business and SaaS. 1 Comment

Diligent Board Member Services (lots more info here) yesterday announced that they’d been successful in raising another round of funding. Diligent is positive saying that;

[Diligent] hat its ability to raise capital under such severe market conditions underlines the quality and potential of its Boardbooks product. This investment will strengthen Diligent’s financial position through the current fiscal year so it can continue to drive sales and build its corporate governance focused business.

But funding at what cost?

Looking at the terms it seems like a pretty predatory sort of a deal – vulture-some even

  • Spring Street Partners gained 20000000 shares at 10cents a pop – remember that original investors paid $1. SSP shares are also preferential further eroding the investment of the original shareholders
  • SSP receives a guarantees 11% dividend. This despite no dividend being paid to other shareholders – win/win for SSP: if diligent flies their shares rocket and if it doesn’t they still get to scrape all the cash out of it
  • The SSL shares rank a higher priority both in the event of a liquidation and a general dividend payout
  • SSL can require Diligent to convert it’s shares into cash any time after 60 months
  • Get this – upon a liquidation of DIL, a sale of the majority of DIL’s issued stock or assets, or a merger by DIL with another entity, DIL will be obliged to make a cash payment to Spring Street equal to 1.5 times the face value of all Preferred Shares, after which point the Preferred Shares will convert to common stock and participate pro rata with common stock in distributions to stock holders
  • SSL must consent to a liquidation, a change to the constitution, new borrowing or the issue of more equity

The tale of two listings huh – at the same time that Diligent listed so to did hometown success story Xero. One has built a global product and is ramping up revenue in number of markets, while the other is struggling for its very survival.

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Another Global SaaS Accounting Player

Published by Ben Kepes on December 20, 2008 in Business, IT, New Zealand, SaaS and Strategy. 4 Comments

Xero promised a global version in 2009. They’ve just announced that as of Monday, over a week earlier than the promised earliest date, they’ll be releasing their international version.

Read the full details here.

Let’s observe how this Kiwi battler takes on the world!

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SageLive – Yet Another SaaS Accounting Product

Published by Ben Kepes on December 19, 2008 in Business, IT, SaaS and Strategy. 1 Comment

Sage has just released the first iteration of their new on-demand accounting product.

Names SageLive, the product has some really smart features, along with some glaring holes.

The biggest question is whether a traditional vendor can really commit to a subscription based product on an ongoing basis – Sage are adamant that SageLive won’t cannibalise sales but I’d not be so sure.

Check out the complete article here.

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Sold – To the Company With the Biggest Chequebook

Published by Ben Kepes on December 11, 2008 in Business, Efficiency, IT, SaaS and Strategy. 0 Comments

I posted about a month ago about the suitors for accounting software company MYOB. I’ve just been told that MYOB has accepted an offer from Manhattan pending shareholder approval. Details below.

As I said to another accounting software industry player, I guess the saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is Manhattan’s rationale…. I wonder if now MYOB will build a real on-demand product instead of the horrendous Business Basics Online (review here)

The board of MYOB Ltd says it intends to accept a takeover bid from private equity consortium Manhattan after it raised its offer by about $14 million.

The new offer from Manhattan, a joint venture between private equity firm Archer Capital and US investment firm HarbourVest, values MYOB at about $451 million.

Manhattan’s previous offer of $1.1215 per share for full company control valued MYOB at about $437 million, but was rejected by the software company as opportunistic.

Under the new two-tier offer, Manhattan is offering MYOB shareholders $1.0564 per share.

If Manhattan receives acceptances reaching 90 per cent its offer will increase to $1.1564 per MYOB share, valuing the company at about $451 million.

MYOB chairman Simon McKeon said the board intended to accept the latest offer in the absence of a higher bid.

“The board is pleased that we have been able to agree an improvement to the bid structure, which now allows shareholders to gain a higher price for their shares without risking being forced into accepting the lower price,” Mr McKeon said.

“We encourage shareholders to think carefully about the options presented to them.”

MYOB has also agreed to pay a special fully franked dividend of 8.15 cents per share, subject to Manhattan declaring its offer unconditional.

The takeover bid will only proceed if 50.1 per cent of acceptances are received before December 18.

Andrew Gray, Chairman of Manhattan, urged MYOB shareholders to act quickly on the offer.

“In terms of timing of acceptances, MYOB shareholders should have the last Qantas takeover attempt top-of mind,” he said.

Qantas was the target of a controversial $11.1 billion private equity bid in 2007, which had board approval but failed to receive the required shareholder approval.

MYOB shares closed up 8.5 cents, or 8.76 per cent, at $1.055.

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Diligent Nears the Deadpool

Published by Ben Kepes on December 5, 2008 in Business, Governance, IT, New Zealand, SaaS and Strategy. 1 Comment

It had to happen – news that Diligent is close to out of cash, has fired a huge chunk of it’s staff and has no real idea if its search for cash will succeed.

Apparently they;

will run out of cash at the end of April unless…able to access new sources of funds

The company has also disclosed that its sales team has been cut to just 10 from 23 and five other staff members let go as it strives to save costs.

And founder shareholders of Diligent have pledged a further 11.5 million of their shares in the company as security against a US$6.7 million loan they received from Diligent.

Oh and thanks to Daniel for the tip…

More here;

http://diversity.net.nz/diligent-shareholders-consider-fight/2008/11/28/

http://diversity.net.nz/gut-feel-investing-101/2008/07/01/

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Sage Upping the SaaS Ante

Published by Ben Kepes on December 2, 2008 in IT, SaaS and Strategy. 1 Comment

We’ve been waiting for a really compelling on-demand accounting offering from one of the big boys. Thus far we’ve had Intuit deliver QuickBooks Online (CloudAve review here) which got a "nice try but back to the classroom" grade. MYOB delivered the first generation of the BusinessBasics Online product (Diversity review here) which at best gets a "could do better" rank. MYOB and Intuit are the big players in Australasia and the USA respectively. What about the UK?

Sage is the gorilla in the room in the UK market, until now they’re been silent about their SaaS intentions. Until now…

With a hat tip to Duane who through some semi-illicit snooping managed to get the scoop we’ve been waiting for…

Sage has an on-demand product slated for release next month. Some more details over here at CloudAve (why not subscribe at the same time)

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LeftClick Scores a Coup

Published by Ben Kepes on November 27, 2008 in Business, Efficiency, New Zealand, New business and SaaS. 1 Comment

Great to see some press time for LeftClick, a company I’ve had a bit to do with in an informal advisory role.

LeftClick’s motto is “Make Every Click Count” and that’s what they do – increase the return on investment for web businesses by ensuring that more visits convert into the desired outcome.

Anyway – LeftClick are now responsible for the rebuild of Harcourts real estate websites worldwide – both back end and customer facing.

I’ve posted previously about a new product LeftClick is developing, they’ve also just moved to a swanky new office (they’d have been better five doors down but never mind ;-) ) and now they’re getting press time for their wins.

Well done Alan, Sally and the gang!

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