SingerLewak Systems, part of the technology consulting arm of California CPA firm SingerLewak, will no longer be a value-added reseller for Intacct, while its manager Jim Hart has joined cloud accounting VAR Sererra as director of business development.
SingerLewak Systems will continue to represent cloud-based social CRM offerings from Avectra, but for the foreseeable future will not act as a VAR for any other product. The group operates under the umbrella of the firm’s Enterprise Risk Management Services tech practice, where the firm is able to offer a range of IT consulting, from outsourced CFO, CIO and CTO services, to ERP and business management software selection, and disaster planning and recovery.
The firm added SingerLewak Systems to the fold in late 2010 as interest in the cloud was already on the rise from clients, as well as its other in-house departments, including the tax and audit divisions. But after much consideration, the group decided to discontinue being an Intacct reseller and focus more on its other service areas.
“We’re still a very big Intacct fan and we will continue to recommend them and have a relationship there, but we discovered that being in the VAR business long term would be more of a commitment of resources and energy than we were willing or able to do,” said Bob Green, a firm partner and head of the ERMS practice. “It takes a number of years to go from zero to VAR and be successful at it, and we found that the time to have a profitable cloud ERP practice was underestimated. Our team knew implementation and sales and really thought we could do it, but ultimately we found it was hard to justify [being an accounting/ERP VAR] over time.”
As to Hart’s subsequent departure, Green said it was more about the business opportunity at Sererra for him and believes he will have “great success” at the firm. Hart reiterated that the business opportunity for him at Sererra was too great to pass up and found his time at SingerLewak to be invaluable.
“I'm excited to be working with Sererra and appreciate everything SingerLewak did for me personally and with the Intacct channel,” said Hart. “Bob [Green] and I continue to work closely together to support existing SingerLewak clients and partner on industry events. I have hit the ground running at Sererra and, on my first day, am already engaged with clients and prospects.”
