How Microsoft Is Going To Win The SMB Accounting Battle

cgross — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:01:00 GMT

(Disclaimer: I am part of the Small Business Accounting beta - but all information provided in this post is publicly available from both Microsoft's web site & various technology 'first looks' reports)

If you haven't already heard, Microsoft is prepping a new accounting package aimed at businesses with up to 25 employees. Small Business Accounting as it is called will be a key part of a new Microsoft Office edition tentatively scheduled to be released later this year - Microsoft Office for Small Business Management.

The SMB Accounting market is pretty fierce, with several key players releasing new versions annually. With Microsoft being the new kid on the block coming into the small end of the market, you may initially wonder how they're going to compete against entrenched products like Intuit's QuickBooks & Best Software's Peachtree Accounting. Admittedly, Microsoft has an uphill battle in front of them in this aspect - but Small Business Accounting is going to be a much needed blast of fresh air into this market.

So just how is Microsoft going to win the battle for keeping small business' books? Well, there are actually two answers to this question. First and foremost, they're giving small business users something they aren't used to having: native ODBC access to their financial data. No proprietary data format, no closed database schema, no having to spend extra money on a cumbersome 3rd party product to access their data. Since Small Business Accounting uses Microsoft SQL Data Engine (MSDE) for its data store, users have the ability to access their financials from any ODBC compliant application, allowing for advanced reporting and analysis using the entire Office suite, including Excel, Word & Access. IMHO this in itself is huge.

The second part to this answer is that Microsoft is giving Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) the tools necessary to quickly and easily build a wide array of 3rd party solutions for Small Business Accounting - from add-ins that operate within the Small Business Accounting application itself, to industry-specific LOB applications that directly integrate with Small Business Accounting - allowing the 3rd party solution to focus on the industry-specific stuff while depending on SBA for the accounting end. So how does this compare to what is available on the market now? It blows it away - plain and simple. Sure, Intuit provides a Developer SDK - but it's very low level, requiring the developer to code most of their own functions for manipulating the data. Best doesn't provide any sort of SDK for Peachtree, but MultiWare, Inc.'s PAWCOM has long since been considered the best solution available for accessing and integrating with Peachtree. PAWCOM is a top-notch product, but the one major disadvantage it has compared to Small Business Accounting is that it is a 3rd party product. Microsoft's Small Business Accounting team has built extensibility & accessiblity into the product from the ground up, with a complete .net solution - with key business logic functions exposed for developers and ISVs to leverage.

The combination of open data access and ease of integration for ISVs is going to be the primary catalyst for Small Business Accounting. ISVs will be more likely to develop add-ons and vertical market solutions for SBA than other accounting applications because with SBA being based on open technologies such as .Net and SQL, ISVs will have a diminished learning curve. That combined with the presence of already exposed business logic functions will result in a significantly shorter development time thus resulting in lower development costs which in turn makes their solution more profitable. Users already familiar with Office will appreciate the familiar, intuitive interface. Admittedly, many users may not realize the benefit of having and open data store, but I would think that most advisors (accountants and IT partners) would bring this to the small business owner's attention.

One things remains certain: whether you love or hate QuickBooks or Peachtree (or other SMB accounting applications), the introduction of Microsoft's Small Business Accounting is going see a flurry of competition that the market hasn't really seen in a very long time - which can only be good for the small business customer.

For more info on Microsoft's Small Business Accounting / Microsoft Office for Small Business Management:

Office for Small Business Management:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/smallbusiness/accounting/default.mspx

PCWorld.com - First Look: Microsoft Small Business Accounting:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118495,00.asp

The .NET Show: Small Business Accounting Platform:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/episode048/default.asp

Microsoft Small Business Accounting:
http://www.sbadeveloper.com/

Hey all you Peachtree users . . .

cgross — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 23:28:00 GMT

You guys know all about PAWCOM from Multiware, Inc. - right?

If you're using Peachtree (or have clients using Peachtree) and you want / need to extend it's functionality, PAWCOM is the only way to go. So what is it? PAWCOM is a COM interface that let's you connect to your Peachtree data from any COM-enabled development environment. I've used this for one large on-going project with a client who had industry-specific invoicing / tracking needs, but they weren't impressed with any of the low-end industry-specific solutions available. We used Access 2002 to build them a custom invoicing / tracking application that uses PAWCOM to connect to their Peachtree data. The Access solution looks up customers, inventory items, etc. from Peachtree - so there is only one set of master lists that has to be maintained. Furthermore, all transactions are written seemlessly into the Peachtree sales journal. Cool, huh?

And if you're looking for any other reasons to use Peachtree, how about the fact that it runs just great in user mode without any registry hacks (unlike another popular product that shall remain nameless) . . . :^)

New blog link added

cgross — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 01:54:00 GMT

For those of you who actually visit my blog via a web browser, you'll notice that I've added a new link for Aaron Margosis' blog. Why should you be reading Aaron's blog (if you aren't already)? Because it deals exclusively with running with least privileges on the desktop, which is one of my big goals for all of my clients over the next few months. (Although I have to admit that all of my clients running Peachtree Accounting 2004 already are running with least privilege . . . another reason I prefer Peachtree to QuickBooks . . . no reg hacks necessary - it just works. There you go Susan & Anne - want to light a fire under the Intuit gang? Tell 'em that apparently Peachtree employes real developers who understand security, since they understand running under least privilege and encrypting credit card & social security numbers natively . . . ;^)

Anyway - if you want to check out Aaron's blog, you can find it here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/

Or point your aggregator here for the rss feed:
http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/Rss.aspx

Aimless Ramblings from a Blithering Lunatic . . . : Peachtree

How Microsoft Is Going To Win The SMB Accounting Battle

Hey all you Peachtree users . . .

New blog link added