Red-IT MD Ara Martirossian quoted in Microscope article by Simon Vail

Ara Martirossian, managing director of reseller Red IT, says it has signed up with Accounts IQ, an Irish supplier of SAAS accounting because it has won official accountancy software accreditation. He reckons that large companies will want to run their accounting software in-house – with an IT department to support it – but that more and smaller businesses and start-ups want to buy accounting software on-line.

“We wanted to expand into browser-based solutions as we have been running virtual offices for the last 10 years. We have pushed everything into the cloud, as I believe that is the way people are going to go,” says Martirossian.

Red IT has sold Sage 50 and Sage 200 products for years, but is attracted to Accounts IQ because it will do away with a bookkeeper, financial director, and accountant looking at slightly different versions of Sage accounting information, often a week old.

He denies that SAAS products will eat into his existing Sage business. “That business will not go away, but it is changing. Business people and accountants like owning assets, but the cost of maintaining those assets for a particular size of company has now become disproportionate to the benefit they are going to get.”

You can see the article here...

http://www.microscope.co.uk/welcome/managing-business/accounting-software-firms-adapt-their-offer/