Battling global giants

Far from the clutches of US patent attorneys, packaged accounting software group MYOB is extremely upbeat about the local market, while also optimistic about its plans for expansion overseas.

'We're seeing that the market for accounting software continues to be buoyant - in terms of units through the channel we saw growth of over 30 percent last year,' says Andrew Fiori-Dea, MYOB general manager business division.

With its acquisition of former ASX darling Solution 6, the company now accounts for about 70 percent of the local market for accounting software, a fact that Fiori-Dea sees as strong evidence that Australian companies can excel on their own turf.

'At the end of the day the key to our differentiation is our customer service, along with our ability to develop a locally produced and customised product that is tailored to local conditions,' he says.

Heavily dependent on the channel, MYOB is slightly sceptical about the move to ASP, yet has not ruled out the possibility of exploring web-based models where appropriate in the future.

MYOB's new suite of 'M-Powered' solutions is designed to make it easier for smaller companies to conduct billing and other business transactions electronically. The company believes that this capability is now essential to compete in the accounting software game.

'We view M-Powered services as facilitating the process of our customers operating their businesses smarter and electronically - but without them feeling they need to move from one platform to the other.

'This saves a whole lot of re-training and double-handling and is therefore a big time saver for our customers while being critical to us maintaining our competitiveness,' Fiori-Dea says.

But for companies that are not in a mainstream commodity stream, the game is really all about quality over quantity.

Derek Rippingale, managing director of mid-market ERP player Professional Advantage, says that one of the most important objectives for his company is to develop opportunities for marketing IP rather than try to survive selling 'commodity' products. 'It's always been the company's intention to develop IP in relation to projects that we are doing for clients,' he says.

PA has around 200 staff in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and recently opened an office in the US. This year it expects to hit turnover of $35 million.

Having started as a reseller, PA has plenty of experience working directly with customers in deploying ERP software, enabling it to nurture specific areas of expertise.

The strategy has been very successful, with the company recently selling its IP to Microsoft after having identified opportunities to improve the Great Plains software suite.

'We really see ourselves as developing software that is complementary to mainstream solutions,' Rippingale says. 'Big vendors can't always mobilise to develop these smaller things.'

While acknowledging that his company has certainly had some good fortune along the way, Rippingale believes that talk of the cultural cringe is completely overblown in Australia, and that companies that complain they are hard done by should basically reorient themselves for success. 'I don't believe there's any real cultural cringe at all. There's plenty of opportunity out there you just need to tune into the right ones,' he says.