I was flicking thru our local paper over breakfast this morning and came across this special offer for free Sage software (at the time of writing, you can also see it here on the newspaper web site).  As a small business owner, I might be attracted by the offer but wary of the hassle of installing software followed by the learning curve and ongoing administration and maintenance costs.

What particularly caught my eye was that the offer was from EJBC, an accounting practice that uses e-conomic!  I was talking to Keilor and Emma at EJBC recently and heard that they have an important and healthy line of business with Sage, but they also have a number of clients on e-conomic and a positive view of online accounting.  They even have a log in to online accounting right on their home page.

Traditional accounting software is embedded in the processes of so many accounting firms that it’s obviously not going to disappear any time soon, but online accounting brings an extra dimension to their processes and client services.  Those who use e-conomic become accustomed to the benefits of being able to instantly see the results of work done by others and easily integrate data from other systems.  Not only are they able to do what they always did more efficiently, they can also provide services that, with traditional systems, would have been too costly for the client to afford.

This could form the foundation for an eye-catching offer comprising a new and innovative service that gives the client business owner something that they perceive as having real value, rather than just a bit of software.  How about a “Free monthly review, correction and approval of your books“?  (e-conomic provides the tools for this.)  The business owner would feel reassured by knowing that their books are accurate and up-to-date, it would also enable the practice to ensure that any issues are ironed out along the way rather than having to unravel a truck load of queries at year-end or at the end of the VAT quarter.

Such an offer might also help the accounting practice stand out from the crowd as a firm that offers great, innovative services.  The inclusion of a ”Free-for-12-months online accounting system, including free training and support” (e-conomic provides free training and support) would be the glue that makes such a service possible, but because the actual software cost is small there’s scope to add value on top.

The offer could also say: “The software is much easier to learn that traditional packages and we [the accountant] will be able to work with you more easily because we can log on with you – no need to send files to and fro – making it easier for us to assist you when you need to ask a question or when the time comes for your next VAT return.”

That starts to sound fairly compelling, providing you’re prepared to consider using an online business application, which more and more businesses are – especially SME’s.

This entry was posted on 10 March 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Market info, Miscellaneous, SaaS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.