Accounting, Fintech, Future

QB Connect 2016 – The review no-one else will write

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In mid September I published an article: “XeroConSouth2016 – The review no-one else will write“. With the help of a response and tweet from Rod Drury, the article “went viral” (well relative my usual readership) and I managed to get a few extra views and likes than usual. A similar article on the biggest player in world SMB accounting tech, is a logical formula for me to follow. My mantra, go beyond the platitudes and compliments and critique the elements of the conference and strategy that warrant more in depth consideration – something I feel no-one else will do.

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Accounting, Future, Technology

August Cloud Accounting Industry Update

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The accounting software conference season is upon us, with Xerocon, QB Connect, MYOB Partner Conference all hot on the heels of Sage Summit. Apart from the likes of Clayton and Wayne racking up even more frequent flyer miles and social media posts, what can we expect from these events? Much of the same I expect. I don’t see any major announcements being likely.
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Accounting, Future

MYOB Acquisition spree – who’s next?

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Yesterday’s announcement of MYOB’s acquisition of ERP provider Greentree, won’t be the end of MYOB’s buying spree, according to their CFO Richard Moore. Moore, courtesy of Yolanda Redrup’s AFR article, states:

we do have a list of potential acquisition targets and we’ll keep reviewing that list in the coming months

This got me thinking, who else might be on that list? Based on what we know in the public arena, throw in some gut-feel and some muck-raking, here’s my guess at the MYOB shopping list:
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Accounting, Future, Technology

My titbits from Xero’s AGM

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I had the pleasure of attending my first Xero AGM this morning. With the share price up 6.5% today, I wasn’t the only one who got swept up in the positive vision, confidence and passion that was presented!

Whilst there wasn’t a lot of new information above and beyond the already released Annual Results (which I wrote about in my subsequent article), I took a few tasty titbits away that I thought were interesting:
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Consulting, Sales, Technology

How to compete with Status Quo

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Why carrots motivate donkeys and whips drive racehorses

In my role as an advisor to a number of app developers and service providers, I am regularly quizzed on the question of speeding up sales to SMBs.

“We have the best _________[insert product/service offering] on the market. Our existing SMB customers love us/it. Everyone we talk to loves it. But the challenge is getting new customers to act in a timely way, en masse… how do we speed up adoption?”.

In this article, I share my thoughts on how to compete effectively with Status Quo, as a key success factor in accelerating growth, particularly within the SMB space.
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Accounting, Fintech, Technology

Intuit Q3 Results – QBo in focus

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This morning (Aussie time), Wednesday May 25, Intuit released their Q3 update to the NASDAQ. Acknowledging its a quarterly update, rather than full year results, it doesn’t say much, but there is some interesting commentary particularly in the conference call, rather than the Fact Sheet, that clearly lays out Intuit’s strategy for QBo into the future.

Just a note upfront: Intuit is a much bigger company than QuickBooks Online (QBo currently accounted for only 3% of revenue in the quarter OR $78m of the total quarterly revenue of $2,304m), but when looking at industry trends and for a comparison with Xero, this is my focus.
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