Xero Raises Another Round and Acquires WorkFlowMax
Exciting news today from Xero ahead of their user conference tomorrow that spans two important announcements. I’ll cover them individually. $20M Raised from Existing Shareholders Existing shareholders have reinvested to the aggregate tune of $20M. Sam Morgan, Sam Knowles, Craig Winkler and Peter Thiel’s fund Valar Ventures have all taken
The Path to the Cloud is Paved…. With Jagged Rocks…
It’s always interesting to watch companies looking to move from their “traditional” approach of software delivery to living in the cloud. One company I’ve had a first hand glimpse of making that shift is MYOB (see disclosure). In its home market of Australia and New Zealand, MYOB is facing a small, but growing, and increasingly [...]
SaaS Accounting Roundup
I’ve been travelling for the past couple of weeks and haven’t kept up to date with news from the SaaS accounting companies that I usually watch closely. Here’s a summary of stuff that’s happened of late. Quick general disclosure though, I have consulted to a number of the companies below – more information here. Xero [...]
Xero Now Hosted by MYOB
It’s not Friday, but it’s time for a Friday funny… A couple of years ago, Xero got hold of the URL relating to MYOB’s new (at that time) SaaS product Business Basics Online. I posted about it at the time saying: But in the craziest turn of the story, check out this link –www.businessbasicsonline.co.nz. Yes [...]
MYOB Goes SaaS…. Again
I wrote almost a couple of years ago now about MYOB’s (see disclosure statement) first foray into the world of SaaS. I wasn’t overly impressed, saying at the time that: MYOB has the experience, the money and the clout to bring a product to market with the features that users need. Under this measure MYOB [...]
Online Finance – Rigid Segmentation Doesn’t Work
Recently ReadWriteWeb started a series taking a very high level look at online finance. One of the posts discussed the evolving online finance ecosystem. In the post, RWW editor Richard MacManus interviewed CEO of Xero (see disclosure), Rod Drury and repeated Drury’s assertion that online finance can be separated into four distinct types of markets: [...]
SaaS, Accounting, Microsoft Money and Hyperbole.
Over on Accounting Web, a right royal stoush was started when Aqilla’s Hugh Scantlebury wrote an op ed piece opining what the withdrawal of Microsoft’s Office Accounting product means and, more importantly, what is behind the move. For those who need the history, Microsoft discontinued its Office Accounting product line, having determined that; existing free [...]
Your Business Cloud – Holy Grail Anyone?
I’m a cloud evangelist from what I believe is a totally pragmatic perspective – I believe the cloud in general, and SaaS in particular, deliver significant added value merely by virtue of the fact that they’re connected, connectable and able to leverage aggregate knowledge. I’m not however completely dogmatic. While I understand the arguments for [...]
SaaS Accounting – Six (or Seven) Months On
I’ve been running my Accounting 2.0 series since the very first day of CloudAve – now, seven months on, it seems a good time to look back on what I’ve seen. In the past seven months I’ve reviewed around 25 SaaS accounting products, and written 30 or 40 analysis pieces looking at accounting 2.0. I’ve [...]
Xero Announces Second Funding Round
Xero has just announced its second funding round – they’re raising NZD23.2 million to enable a further scaling of their business internationally. This fundraising will be priced at $0.90 per share being a roughly 5% premium on the 5 day weighted avergae share price, but a 10% discount on that paid by the initial shareholders [...]
Old-timers Getting SaaSy
I’m always looking for interesting tales that show the backroom moves of incumbent players manoeuvring into SaaS plays. My team of intel gatherers have picked up an interesting story along these lines. Late last year Michael Jackson, the ex-chairman of Sage, tried to buy UK SaaS accounting player KashFlow for £2.3m. At the time KashFlow [...]
Finding a Babel Fish for Data
I guess the Babel Fish won’t mean much to the new generation of readers of this blog. In the 1981 series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel Fish was a creature that, when placed in ones ear, allows anyone to understand anything said, no matter the language being spoken – (see video at [...]
Fixed Assets an Important Piece of the Puzzle
According to some informed insiders, a fixed asset register is the second most requested features for one of the big three desktop accounting software companies, beaten only by advanced and highly flexible reporting . I’ve never really worked out why fixed assets aren’t covered by the incumbents, by my way of thinking it’s a legacy [...]
It’s a Numbers Game – On SaaS Uptake
Xero posted recently detailing the result of a customers survey looking at what accounting solutions were used prior to the move to Xero. Now all companies are entitled to do a little bit of chest-beating (last week it was KashFlow’s turn). Looking beyond the spin however builds some insights for the individual company, and the [...]
The Beginning of the End for the Incumbents?
MYOB announced yesterday that the takeover attempt (more here) by Manhattan software has received over 50% acceptance thereby triggering the compulsory acquisition process. Readers will recall that MYOB is the dominant player in accounting software in Australasia as well as having made forays into other markets. MYOB also recently release an initial SaaS product (review [...]
