Robert Reid, chief executive of cloud-based accounting and financial technology provider Intacct Inc., appealed to the companys partners and technology vendors to think big in helping the decade-old business reach the next level of growth.
Reid, who has been at the helm for just over a year, stressed to the nearly 400 attendees at the Intacct Advantage 2010 partner and user conference, held here, that the company cannot do it alone as the entire business environment has changed. There is lots of opportunity for the cloud to change the way we work, Reid said. We are asking you to also think big, and work with us to help make things easier to work, remove the complexity typically associated with financial systems, and help you to be more profitable.
The CEO stressed that the company sees itself emerging from the economic downturn of the past two years. Reid said Intacct experienced a 53 percent growth in revenue last quarter compared to the year-ago quarter, although the privately held company does not divulge precise revenue figures. Intacct currently has 3,300 customers, according to Reid.
Going forward, he added, all businesses need to think differently if they too want to continue to grow. We are living in a different world and the last couple of years have caused us all to take a step back, said Reid. Organizations need to be more agile and all of that has to be tracked and reported. While you are here, I want you to ask yourselves how you are thinking about your business, how you can learn from your peers, and how you can change it with us as your partner.
Reid also took the opportunity to showcase customer success stories, and bring CPA2Biz CEO Erik Asgeirsson to the stage for a quick Q&A about their working relationship and why Intacct was selected for CPA2Bizs Trusted Business Advisor Solutions program. He asked about the challenges Intacct currently faces within the accounting community.
The profession knows that cloud computing is making an impact, and they and their clients need time to move from their current systems, said Asgeirsson. This is a transforming time for the CPA profession, on par with what tax software did for the profession in the 1990s and what PCs did in the 1980s. Intacct was the right solution to select [for the program] because they sustained their model through some tough years and theyve always been a few years ahead of the competition.
In addition, Reid took his keynote address as an opportunity to announce the launch of a new capability: customizable technology that provides users with tools to create their own financial solutions within Intacct.
The goal of the new technology is to allow users to build new reports, portals, workflows, and anything that will help improve they way they work in Intacct for their own business, explained Intacct chief technology officer Aaron Harris.
We built this for VARs for problems we havent solved, for commercial software vendors who can help fill the gaps that we havent filled, and for the accounting and finance departments so they can get out of their spreadsheets and databases, said Harris. There are no real skills needed outside of accounting and finance to customize whatever you need to do. If you have developers, then you can build even more powerful solutions.
