Resellers urged to get involved with cloud accountancy
Customers are shifting away from legacy technology and expecting the channel to meet those needs
On the back of its reseller programme launch earlier this year, cloud accountancy specialist Iplicit is looking for more channel action in a market that should provide partners with extra revenue.
The firm kicked off its reseller programme in January, reaching out to partners to reach the target customer base of those looking to move beyond an entry-level system without adopting an expensive enterprise resource programme.
The accountancy specialist has been building up its customer base, with its cloud accounting platform already used by 800 customers, with 10,000 daily users, giving the channel a springboard to expand from.
The attraction for those that get involved with the cloud accountancy proposition should be the recurring revenue streams that, over the course of a few years, could run into six figures thanks to the 30-40% margin on new licence revenue and 20-24% renewal margin.
Alexis Gorton, channel manager at Iplicit, said there continued to be a base of partners that had yet to embrace the possibilities for the cloud.
“Many resellers of legacy on-premise software have built a fantastic business, but the future is in the cloud,” he said.
Resellers looking to grow will need to provide software that businesses can scale from, and on-premise systems will not do that job,” added Gorton. “Many of the resellers’ existing customers had outgrown their entry-level accounting software – and many would not entertain having their data stored on their own servers with traditional on-premise systems. If a reseller is not offering true-cloud accounting software, its competitors will be.”
Meeting users’ needs
He said that customers were changing and shifting towards the cloud, and the channel needed to meet users with a proposition that met their needs or risk losing out to competitors.
“If resellers offering cloud packages could build new sources of recurring revenue, they may attract customers who have outgrown on-premise systems and do not know where to go,” said Gorton. “Building a base of strong, repeatable, annually recurring revenue gives the reseller a picture of where their business could be in a few years.
“It also makes their business more attractive to investors and potential buyers, who are not likely to see much of an opportunity in a business whose books are full of on-premise customers,” he said.
Recent research from Sage uncovered general optimism from the SME customer base in the long-term prospects of their businesses, but a recognition that they needed to use technology to overcome some of the challenges that had been exposed by the pandemic.
