Accounting market remains untapped

Resellers are missing an opportunity to push sales of accounting software into the UK small-business sector

Resellers are missing an opportunity to push sales of accounting software into the UK small-business sector, according to a survey by analyst firm Vanson Bourne.

The results showed that 43 per cent of SMEs do not currently use any form of accounting software package. Vanson Bourne questioned 400 UK business owners with fewer than 20 employees on behalf of accounting and payroll software vendor MYOB.

Of that 43 per cent, 31 per cent either intended to purchase such software in the next 12 months or were still undecided.

Simon Smith, general manager at MYOB UK, said the sector contains more than 500,000 such businesses.

“The figures are concerning. All businesses need to make financial accounts so there’s always an opportunity for resellers. Software prices should be affordable and scalable enough for every size of business,” he said.

However, only 13 per cent of those who had already implemented accounting software had bought it from a specialist reseller, compared with 11 and six per cent that had bought it directly from their accountants or from high-street retailers respectively.

The figures also show that businesses are more likely to use accounting software as their number of employees grow. Four out of five sole traders do not use accounting software, but nine out of 10 firms with between 16 and 20 employees do.

In 2002 MYOB launched a three-tier programme for its UK partners to gain more market share and offered VARs discounts, pre-sales and technical support, and partner-only product lines dependent on accreditation.

Simon Kujawa, customer services director at VAR Technology Services Group, said the figures are representative of the market.

“It’s obviously an untapped market for accounting software resellers. We see the most attractive part of the market being in the small-business sector.

“Small-business IT needs also grow vertically and horizontally, so there could be sales opportunities further down the line as well,” he said.