Winner: Iris

The leading player in practice management software, IRIS, has reasserted its dominance in the accounting practice market by winning the 2007 Accountancy Age Award for Practice Management Software Package of the Year.

IRIS Practice Management regularly tops market surveys and, with a 39% market share, is well ahead of its competitors, the closest of which holds only 15% of the market.

The judges, describing IRIS as 'the clear market leader', gave the software the nod ahead of rivals Practice Engine Group and APS.

'IRIS displays excellent functionality and a wide range of applications. There is evidence of high customer retention and growth in its user base,' the judges commented.

IRIS has built its success by offering wide functionality and excellent customer service.

The IRIS package offers seamless integration between tax, accounts production, auditing, secretarial and fee-logging applications.

Such is the popularity of IRIS among accountants that the number of new users in the 2006/07 financial year climbed 15% on the previous year from 11,372 to 13,087. Sales in 2006 hit £19m and the company hopes that this will grow to £25m by 2009.

On the customer care front, IRIS boasts a 97% retention rate and rather than distributing its product through resellers it has opted to run a direct sales team in the interests of building strong customer relationships.