Practice Ignition has been relaunched under a new, simplified brand Ignition. Ignition is a client engagement and commerce platform targeted at the professional services sector. While its original name made sense in the professional services sector filled with practices, the connotation that it was a test environment was probably one of the factors that led to its name change.
Bronwyn Karaoglu, Vice President of Marketing at Ignition, said, “Over the last two years, we have seen profound and fundamental changes across the professional services industry, from the rapid digitisation of accounting services to changing client expectations. In an increasingly uncertain and competitive environment, accounting, bookkeeping and professional services businesses need to strategically position themselves for the future and manage their client relationships effectively.
“Our new brand is a representation of where Ignition is today and how we’ve evolved our core offering to meet the needs of customers now and into the future. We’re excited to introduce Ignition to the world as we continue to expand into new markets and industries and bring our vision of helping our customers build lasting client relationships with ease to life.”
Founded in Australia, the company raised US$50 in a Series C funding round in November 2021. The intent was to help with global expansion into the US and other markets. JMI is a US-backed VC. Besides the investment in sales and marketing, Ignition has also ramped up R&D.
What is Ignition
Ignition enables its users to automate the proposal to cash cycle for professional services firms. It integrates Xero, QuickBooks and Zapier as part of its starter solution and Xero Practice Manager (XPM) and Karbon for higher tiers. The solution enables users to create proposals, eSign them, create invoices and process payments for customers.
The platform is already used by more than 5,000 customers and has processed over $2bn in payments. Proposals are created from predefined templates and enable organisations to simplify the services engagement process. This removes some of the barriers to engagement and can improve revenue. Ignition targets accounting, bookkeeping and professional services businesses.
Recent improvements include:
- Improved integration with XPM enables the matching of client invoices in Xero, improving efficiency.
- The ability to import and export multiple contacts from a client.
- Proposals now include a billing start date that improves billing automation and ensures billing starts when it should.
Ignition continues to develop new features and add integrations such as the enhancements to the Xero Practice Manager workflow experience mentioned above and a new Smart Billing integration with Gusto.
Guy Pearson, Founder & CEO of Ignition, commented: “Our new name and platform reflects our mission to deliver even more value across the entire client journey for customers.
“Our expansion from proposals and payments to client engagement and commerce is a reflection of 18 months worth of product investment. We’ve created an all-in-one client experience that is designed to meet specific business needs and regulatory requirements while giving accountants and bookkeepers the clarity, confidence, convenience and control their businesses need to reach their full potential.”
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
Ignition is an interesting company and is effectively a CPQ solution for smaller professional services firms. It is a similar market to that Zimit targetted before its acquisition by Workday. While Zimit targeted more complex mid-market and enterprise firms, Ignition initially set its sights on the SMB market. It has aligned itself with Xero and QuickBooks for its expansion in the US and Anglophone countries.
While it has integrations with practice management solutions such as Xero Practice Manager, QuickBooks Practice Manager and Karbon, there are no direct integrations with CRM solutions. This would infer that its current target market is bookkeepers and accountants. Also, if it wishes to target the UK market, it may need to create an integration with Sage Accounting. However, it may feel that after Sage bought GoProposal the investment is not justified.
With a new sparking look and funding laid aside for growth, expect to hear more from Ignition as it looks to grow its presence in the CPQ for services market. One thing that will help it is the enthusiasm of its customers.
Carrie Christino, the Company Owner at Elm Street Accounting in Orlando, Florida and a customer of Ignition, commented: “I consider Ignition the single best app that I implemented to grow my business. Not only does it allow me to put together amazing proposals, but it also gives me a lot of confidence in presentation to the client. It has streamlined that whole process and I am so happy that I have Ignition.”
