Keeling bids farewell to BASDA title
Dennis Keeling, chief executive of the Business Application Software Developers’ Association, is to step down after 15 years at the helm
Speaking to Accountancy Age at the Softworld exhibition, Keeling
said: ‘I will no longer have to adhere to the gagging order that BASDA placed on
me five years ago, so it will be nice to be able to say exactly what I think
about some of the software.’
Keeling, who will stay on at BASDA in a part-time role, said he was stepping
down at a time of major change in the business software landscape.
‘About 15 years ago there were 800 business and accounting products. Today
there are less than 100. Probably only 50 of those are in development mode, the
rest are in maintenance mode,’ Keeling said.
‘There are going to be fewer vendors for people to choose from. It is going
to be much more difficult for new entrants to break into the market because as
companies consolidate functionality is enhanced and it becomes so much harder
for new entrants to match.’
Keeling also predicted that browser-based technology would soon come to
dominate the industry.
‘We are seeing greater use of the web in the insurance, travel and hotel
industries. All that has to happen now for the web to be used for business
software is to understand how to adapt processes to use it,’ Keeling said.