Awards 2003: Enterprise System Software Package

While not the biggest or most well-known player in the enterprise software market, OpenAccounts has consistently impressed customers with its support and service.

As proof of this the company has maintained a hugely impressive 99% of direct customers during the past 10 years. On top of this, in the last financial year, 42% of new business was through referrals.

The judges described OpenAccounts as an ‘extremely well-run company which is very customer-focused with solid research & development’.

The company also sees itself as innovative after becoming the first supplier to offer ‘break-out’ use of the accounting system to non-finance users.

The judges agreed: ‘Its innovative technology enables it to handle huge customer sites but not in the traditional way,’ they said.

One extremely telling statistic that highlights how successful the company has been in recent times is its growth figures over the last six years.

Profitable every quarter, it has grown at around 20% year on year – way above its key competitors.

The principle behind the software is to deliver all the core financial functionality required, but to do so simply. This helps to free up time so that operational and finance staff can spend more time on value-added projects.

It succeeds in doing this while maintaining a fully-functional suite of software with 18 modules offering a breadth and depth of features that meet the needs of today’s larger organisations.

Another example of the company’s technical innovation comes with its practical use of new technology such as XML. Through using XML for data transmission and integrating closely with desktop publications and portals, finance departments can expect to see dramatic changes in their ability to automate processes.

As ever, and especially in the current economic climate, cost is as important a consideration as any, and this was one of the main reasons why Inge Kettner, group finance director at Whitefriars chose OpenAccounts.

‘One of our major considerations when choosing a vendor was the overall cost-of-ownership,’ says Kettner. ‘We felt the OpenAccounts system not only won the functionality contest against the other three vendors, but that it could be deployed in a modern thin client environment.’

Cost, functionality, ease-of-use, reliability and customer service are the top five considerations for finance directors looking for a suitable system.

Jeremy Kraft, financial director at CB Hillier Parker, feels OpenAccounts delivered them all. ‘In my experience software companies are either product focused or customer focused,’ he said. OpenAccounts is the only company that I have come across that is both.’

This was an opinion backed up by the judges, who said that the company is ‘very willing to listen to its critics and take on board what they say as valuable information. It is a very well-run company’.

OTHER SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES:

• CedAr, e5

• CODA, Financials

• Open Business Exchange, OB10 electronic invoice delivery network

• PeopleSoft, PeopleSoft Financial Management Solutions

• Version One, Db Archive.