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| April 01, 2002 |
DSS's Kaufman named CO-Editor of Collin's AccountingSoftwareAdvisor.co |
J. Carlton Collins, one of the accounting industrys most prominent public speakers, has left technology consulting and training group K2 Enterprises to build what he hopes will become the "Consumer Reports" for accounting software.
His new Accounting Software Advisor business is an accounting software industry information clearinghouse and consulting service. It provides in-person consulting to accounting software vendors and resellers, and is building an information base on its Web site, www.accountingsoftwareadvisor.com, which is designed primarily for users and buyers of accounting software.
Collins, 42, has been refining the site and expects to have a final version completed in time for a formal launch that will coincide with the American Institute of CPAs Tech 2002 conference May 5-8. Collins is a familiar face at accounting industry shows - while at K2, he prepared or presented roughly 5,000 continuing professional education sessions.
"We want this to ultimately be thought of as accounting softwares Consumer Reports - the single most credible source of information on accounting software," Collins said from his home office, here. He is also recruiting leading accounting software resellers and consultants from around the country to comment on the product reviews and other accounting software information that is posted on the Web site, and to write their own reports for posting on the site, as well.
By early April, Collins had recruited 19 reseller/consultants and was looking for more. He wants to have one representing each of the 32 accounting software products that his group will cover. The ideal consultant would be a top reseller of the product that they cover for Collins group.
The vendors of products covered by the group range from Intuit and Peachtree on the low-end to SAP and PeopleSoft on the high end. The bulk will be from the middle market, such as Microsoft/Great Plains, Best Software, Accpac International, Exact (formerly called Macola), AccountMate and its parent BusinessVision, among others.
Collins said that business success will hinge on maintaining a reputation for fairness in his product evaluations. To that end, he said that he is not accepting any payments in return for publishing information about vendors or resellers.
However, Collins will be selling vendors consulting services on areas such as how they should design their products to meet new market demands. He said that that will not affect his judgment in product evaluations and may boost his credibility.
"If you are going to be an expert in accounting software, how can you not have the vendors coming to you for information on how they can improve their products?" he asked.
Other consulting-related work includes software selection services to end users and providing sales help to resellers. Collins foresees a big business from resellers recruiting him to conduct software comparison seminars for their clients.
Although sales for many software vendors have been down, Collins expects big demand for his new offering. "Accounting software is a billion dollar business that is growing and people need this information because the systems are getting more complex," he said.
Collins also said that he expects to fill a void since no technology analyst companies, such as International Data Corp. or Gartner Group, provide buyer information about middle-market accounting software. "We may be the only place for the smaller businesses to go because the only other sites with this kind of information are the vendors themselves," said Collins.
"Carlton has the right idea because we vendors in the middle market have lacked the attention from analysts that the high end has had," said David Butler, president of Best Software Middle Market Division. Brian Austin of AccountMate, added, "Carlton is filling a gap with information thats been needed for a long time."
Collins is encouraged by an accounting software page that he managed on K2s Web site. He said that that page generated 67,000 visitors a month and led one to five prospective buyers daily to e-mail him daily seeking more product information.
"I had a bigger vision for accounting software and I needed to venture on my own to pursue it," Collins said about leaving K2, where he was chief operating officer and a founding partner. He sold his interests back to K2s remaining partners.
K2 provides consulting and training related to all technologies of interest to accountants. Collins was the firms point person on accounting software, which is one of several types of software applications that K2 covers.
K2 continues its work in accounting software with executive vice president Randy Johnston taking over as point person. The accounting software page is still on its Web site, albeit some of its news content dates back more than a year.
K2s accounting software page covers much of the same ground that is covered by Accounting Software Advisor. That ground includes information on different accounting software products, including side-by-side comparisons of prices and features; industry reports, like surveys and other research; chat rooms; news releases from the top accounting software vendors; and links to those vendors Web sites.
Collins says that his new companys site will be bigger and better than K2s by providing more information about the products and accessing a deeper level of knowledge. "The thing is we will have 32 of the top consultants in accounting software contributing their knowledge," Collins said. "Nobody has 32 top national consultants on board."
It will also include buying features. Collins plans to add links to the Web sites that he considers to be tops in each product, which will likely include the resellers that provide consulting services to Accounting Software Advisor. "This would give us more exposure, and Carlton Collins has a solid reputation for knowledge in this field," said Peter Kaufman, of Dynamic Software Solutions, in Miami, one of the resellers signed up by Collins.
Other reseller/consultants in the fold include Gary Ellis of the Aston Group, in Vancouver, an expert on Navisions Axapta line; Kath Nohr of Aston Group, in Whitmore Lake, Mich., a specialist in Navisions Attain; David Harris, a Novato, Calif., specialist in Accpac products; Donna Greer, a Kingswood, Texas-based specialist on J.D. Edwards; John Woodburn, an Epicor specialist from St. Louis Park, Minn.; Howard Lapensohn, a Philadelphia CPA and specialist in BusinessVision; Fred Coad, a Peachtree specialist from Phoenix; and Tim Palin, a Best MAS90/200 specialist with Acuvar, in Walnut Creek, Calif.
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