Capsule

SaaS taking off in UK small businesses

Online accounting provider Xero announced yesterday they have signed up 1000 customers in the UK and 4000 globally, with much of this growth coming in the past 50 days.  UK based Kashflow also recently announced reaching their 2500 customer milestone and postings from Duane Jackson their CEO, reveals the last 6 months have been particularly busy.  Well done to both.

While the numbers are still relatively small compared with take-up of SaaS in the United States, they clearly demonstrate a change in attitude by UK small businesses.  No doubt the accountancy partners of both Xero and Kashflow have been instrumental in this growth.  After all, while a SaaS accounting package has many benefits to the customer such as reduced total cost of ownership, the accountant also benefits from easier access to the all important business data.

It looks like predictions that 2009 will see an explosion in SaaS are correct.  This all bodes well for Javelin, our own web CRM designed for small businesses and launching soon.

The Image is from Xero’s website.