This week Intacct announced a 36% increase in total bookings during its third quarter 2017. Recent announcements such as the Big Ten Conference saw business wins increase over the previous year. Looking ahead Intacct will also benefit from the signing of new partners such as Arctic IT.
Unlike other accounting and ERP vendors such as Sage Intacct are not a public company. This means they do not need to provide the figures behind that bold statement. This is slightly disappointing. Intacct should be a little more open about what the statistic they used in the press release actually means.
So what is the growth
Intacct has not clarified whether that 36% relates to the number of subscribers or number of companies won. IT also says that the average deal size has increased in the same period as it wins business from legacy ERP solution.
What is clear, is that Rob Reid, CEO of Intacct believes that this these are strong results. Reid commented: “The top ERP vendors offer widely differing approaches when it comes to delivering product functionality and handling customer engagement. Clearly, our approach – featuring rapid innovation and a focus on customer success – is working, and that shows with our strong performance in the market. These financial results are in line with our plan towards becoming a publicly traded company.”
If Reid wants to take Intacct public then he should really consider share more financial information each quarter. If the growth is strong then it should only have a positive impact on an IPO.
Betting on accounting
Intacct was one of the first accounting solutions to present a solution for ASC 606 and IFRS 15 to the market. That strength in core accounting is one of their differentiators. Enterprise Times spoke to Reid late last year about the functionality. However, many of their competitors now have their rev rec solutions ready now. Intacct really needs to offer a new update to their software. While successful in the G2 Crowd, scoring well for customer satisfaction, they cannot be complacent. NetSuite are also highly placed and with Oracle support, it will provide an increased threat to Intacct.
“The key to business growth is having the ability to understand the performance of your organization in real time, so that you can quickly make the right decisions,” added Reid. “Mid-sized companies need a cloud ERP system that is easy to use, will scale to meet their needs as they grow, and enables them to automate processes and gain critical real-time insights into their business. When they evaluate their options on the market, Intacct is their solution of choice – from both a technology standpoint, and as a company they know is focused on accelerating their success.”
There is a risk in focussing too much on accounting rather than business outcomes. Measuring the capability of an ERP for a business should not merely be about whether it meets compliance legislation. It also needs to meet the wider needs of the business. Intacct is betting that several firms will have a CFO driving the purchasing process and this will place them favourable.
Conclusion
These are positive results for Intacct and may indeed see them seek a listing in the near future. It will be interesting to see when, how much they look to raise and whether they do reveal more figures
