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April - A Month of Records
In the last edition of the Newsletter we reported that we finished our financial year end with a record quarter. April has continued in the same vein with a number of additional records and notable achievements.
Rob Lambden won two IAB awards for achievement and we received also accreditation by Sage as the first "Sage Authorised ASP Partner." This recognises the successful operation of the service over the last 18 months and the demand for online accounting services.
The Online<>50 servers have been working harder than ever for more users, but with no increase in support calls, over the year-end period. The service has been running and scaling up exceptionally well and the coming months will see the opening of our second datacentre with a tripling of server capacity and a further scaling up of the systems.
We thank all our existing business partners for your continued support and we look forward to continued growth of our user base and to welcoming new practices to the Online<>50 business partner program in the coming month.
Sage Pricing Changes
Many of our clients will be aware that Sage are introducing significant changes to the way their products are licensed on the Online<>50 platform. Previously, Financial Controller was the only version of Line 50 available and it was licensed in blocks of 10 companies. Other products were simply not available.
Recognising the achievements of Online<>50, the first Sage Authorised Application Service Partner, Sage have introduced some changes that recognise the potential of the ASP model to become the norm for the delivery of accounting software to the SME market.
Consequently we now have terms that offer monthly pricing for all versions of Line 50 online; Accountant, Accountant Plus and Financial Controller, as well as Sage Payroll, for end user and bureau use.
End users will now pay monthly charges for two components, the hosting fee and the software charges, which will depend on the version of software required, the number of users and number of companies required. The way business partner users are licensed has also changed. Unlike the offline bureau licence, which specifies a number of licensed companies, bureau users of Online<>50 are allowed access to unlimited companies online, regardless of whether or not the client has access. For accountants and bookkeepers looking for greater flexibility this offers a number of benefits over the offline model, especially as it facilitates remote working and the outsourcing of back office functions.
Overall, existing and future Online<>50 users will benefit from an increased range of software as the new terms extend the range of accounting and support services that business partners can offer to clients.
Year End Sees Record Logins
Many users of Line 50 with experience of running large datasets will be familiar with performance issues resulting from heavy use on a local network. Users often find, for example, that one user running reports can hog the network resources such that the entire network runs slowly or even crashes.
Online<>50 addresses these problems by removing the need to run Sage on the local network, and is extending the boundaries of the Line 50 application daily. Over the last month we have seen increased activity on the servers due to Year Ends, with a record 600 logins to the system on April 20th clocking up a total of over 720 hours of processing time on that day. Typically, not all users are logged in at the same time, but even at this level of activity our servers are running at less than 20% of their capacity, and our support desk only received 12 calls relating to operation of the system.
Since Online<>50 began commercial operation in October 2003 our user base has expanded rapidly, at an average of 15% compounded per month over the last six months. This is a terrific endorsement of the robustness and scaleability of the Online<>50 platform and confirms our position as the UK's leading online accounting software provider.
Rob Lambden Wins Two IAB Awards For Achievement.
At the International Association of Bookkeepers’ Seventh Annual Business Enterprise Awards, Online<>50 Architect and Managing Director Rob Lambden won two awards; Software Manager of the Year and Business Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.
The awards aim to encourage and support best practice across the small business sector and we are delighted that Rob has been recognised for his achievement.
Online<>50 has revolutionised the delivery of bookkeeping and accountancy services by enabling scaleable concurrent access to a Sage Line 50 system from multiple locations over the internet. With over 70 practices, including 4 top 30 accounting firms, now using the system the user base is growing exponentially as business owners and accountants realise the benefits of working more closely together.
Sage Commits to ASP Software Delivery
As a result of the success of Online<>50's commercial operation since October 2003, Sage are now committed to Application Service Provider (ASP) delivery of their software. On 31st March 2005 the Online<>50 service became the first 'Sage Authorised ASP Partner'. This decision follows careful observation by Sage of our progress and reverses a previous group-wide Sage decision not to provide ASP software delivery, to which we were the only exception.
Sage will allow parties to sign up to an ASP Partner programme that allows them to deliver Sage software online, in similar fashion to the Online<>50 service. This move is welcomed by Rob Lambden, Managing Director:
"This move indicates a shift in policy and official recognition by Sage that ASP delivery of their software is demanded by the marketplace. We look forward to increased user demand for the online delivery of Accounting Software, and we are well placed to service that demand. Accountants have been able to provide the Online<>50 service to clients since our launch in October 2003, and we look forward to serving many more accounting bureaux and end users."
This move by Sage will only relate to the provision of a Sage ASP licence, and will not provide any technical expertise with regard to hosting or the provision of third party licenses, such as Microsoft, that will be required to make the system work. As Rob Lambden explains:
"The online provision of Sage Line 50
presented us with a number of technical challenges as Sage Line 50 was not designed as a multiple user application on a single installation. It uses shared configuration files, for example, and expects to have full access to, and use of, all available resources on the computer on which it is installed. This means that providing multi-user simultaneous access has a large number of security and scalability issues. Our system software is extensive and addresses all of these issues. It runs in the Windows kernel, as a system service, and as the user application environment, and has been designed specifically to enable the shared operation of 'mis-behaving' programs in a simultaneous multi user environment."
Any parties interested in partnering with Online<>50 to provide online accounting services to their clients should contact the Sales Desk on 0800 195 0835 for more information.
