How intriguing to read the article in Accountancy Age, “UK Software groups face takeover” (4th Jan, Page 3). It was a real reminder of the year 2000 when the infamous IT ‘slowdown’ started to tighten its grip and when the pace of consolidation in the UK accounting software market really picked up.
You might recall how the late 90s was a tremendous boom time in the accounting software industry with everyone, including Access Accounting, growing its business by 30-40% per year as the world prepared itself for the Millennium Bug. Inevitably with everyone having changed their system the previous year, most of our industry had difficulty winning any new sales at all for a while after 2000 and software companies started buying each other instead.
During 2001 I was personally taking 2-3 calls a day from people asking “if”, “when” or “to whom” we had sold the business. Gradually the questions fizzled out with the occasional fresh flurry of interest as some consolidator or other announced a new war chest or their plans for world domination.
Throughout this period we saw many of our competitors swallowed up. The UK accounting software industry, which used to be dominated by owner managed, self-funding, entrepreneurial businesses with heart, vision, and flair, became replaced by subsidiaries of large corporate organisations with development decisions being orchestrated in far flung foreign climes that perhaps put European or Global requirements ahead of the specific needs of British and Irish businesses.
It has to be said that we have found great advantage in this consolidating environment which has enabled Access to grow its turnover every year - including throughout the so called slowdown. And now we find ourselves in the unique and enviable position of being the largest independent business and accounting software house in the UK, which offers tremendous advantages to our customers.
Advantages include autonomy to react very quickly to the needs and demands of our customers in the UK and Irish markets. We don’t have to answer to the stock market or investors, which means we have the financial resources to invest in the R&D that is essential to maintain our customers’ competitive advantage. We are also continually first to market when it counts. For example we have already added HMRC’s ‘Standard Audit File – Tax’ export facility, referred to as SAF-T, allowing users to comply with requests from HMRC for VAT information in XML format. We are also ready to release the functionality for Reverse Charge VAT as soon as the legislation is ratified.
Don’t get me wrong I am not against consolidation, Access has joined this merry band, having acquired three companies in the last two years and then reversed all of them into our new holding company - Access Technology Group Ltd - which surprisingly enough has a mandate to acquire vertical market applications that require close integration to financials. Yes we do have a war chest - and it’s our intention to see it strengthened.
In contrast to the consolidators’ general trend of buying large user bases from management teams who feel unable to compete in this new environment and wish to retire, Access seeks acquisition targets in its own image. We seek entrepreneurial, sales-orientated owners with great technology who simply wish to achieve more new sales faster, with the help of the ever growing Access brand.
Our vision as a group is to provide the software and solutions that every user recommends and to this end we work tirelessly to provide the best solutions for our customers (and the best company for our staff to work for). It is only other likeminded companies who share this passion and can demonstrate a real determination to succeed that we would ever look to acquire. So yes the marketplace is interesting right now.
Alistair O’Reilly - Group MD of Access Technology Group Ltd
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