IRIS disrupts itself with KashFlow changes
- Summary:
- A responsive design, more connectivity and three new versions sees IRIS up its game with KashFlow
First, IRIS is offering three versions of the software - from the blurbs:
The ‘Starter’ edition offers value for money for freelancers, contractors and low-transaction businesses at £5 a month whilst the ‘Business’ edition is ideal for growing organisations and limited companies. At £10 per month it supports multiple users, unlimited multi-currency invoices and bank transactions. ‘Business + Payroll’ edition is only £15 a month, and includes all the benefits of the ‘Business’ edition plus the newly integrated KashFlow Payroll product for up to five employees.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that the starter edition is aimed squarely at the SageOne market as is the £15 edition. The fact IRIS mentions freelancers and contractors implies they are also going after the FreeAgent market at a price point that would be difficult for FreeAgent to sustain. There's a certain irony in this approach since IRIS continues to own a substantial chunk of FreeAgent's stock.
Second, IRIS is touting a redesigned interface that will work with any connected device. IRIS has opted to go for a responsive design. This is a development technique that allows the developer to tweak a single code base so that the solution appears properly formatted regardless of whether it is a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.
It calls the new UI 'revolutionary.' Hmmm...that's pure PR. Responsive design has been around for a few years.
I have my doubts about this approach although I give IRIS credit for attempting to think this through. Right now, most developer organizations are concentrating their effort on 'mobile first' designs. These are extremely difficult to get right on mobile phones for solutions that involve transaction processing. There are examples where it works well, such as expense handling, and approvals but much more than that gets to be pretty tough on such a small form factor.
I have for example seen how, at the upper end of the market, vendors have iterated very quickly as they discover what works, and which business processes can usefully migrate to the phone. The key comes from getting plenty of customer feedback.
Third, IRIS is improving the connectivity between its professional practitioner systems and KashFlow. This is really an extension of the work KashFlow was already doing in providing a professional user dashboard. In this announcement though, IRIS has gone a lot further.
Depending upon the number of KashFlow users a professional practice brings to the table, the practice gets progressively improved marketing support. At the highest level and assuming that at least half of the KashFlow customers are on the top end package, then IRIS opens its marketing budget to an 'advertising fund.'
In a conversation with Phill Robinson, CEO IRIS Software Group, he claims their research suggests that cloud solutions have reached nine percent of the market and that in the next two years, that will rise to 26%. He also says that professional accountants recommend software for their clients in 50% of cases. That sounds about right based upon my understanding of the numbers although I am less sure about the speed of adoption he implies.
Verdict
These are bold moves by IRIS but they come with a caveat.
It's important to realize that IRIS has a big chunk of the professional market - about 50% - but what it is doing is little more than what Xero has already done and which FreeAgent is working upon anyway.
You can argue that having the existing professional franchise in place positions it better but then the choice of accounting software comes down to a feature/function issue that will be different for different customer types.
FreeAgent for example is sticking very close to its stated objective of serving the freelance and contractor community. Xero on the other hand is appealing to what it believes is a different type of accounting practice, one that only sees the book-keeping element as a pathway to selling advisory services. Xero has the advantage of a massive war chest with which to continue development although much of its effort is currently directed towards meeting the needs of its fledgling US operation plus some verticalization for its home turf.
I wonder whether these latest developments are enough to incentivize the rump of IRIS firms that have yet to see the value of cloud based solutions. Most of that group have been slow to adopt - or rather - the comp plans for the IRIS sales people haven't been good enough to get accountants recommending cloud solutions in large numbers. The integrations will definitely help but it is an open question as to how much this will move the needle.
Images via IRIS