AccountsIQ secures major deal down under
Pictured inking the deal in Melbourne are, from left: Tony Connolly, CEO, AccountsIQ; Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Australia; and Ireland's Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, His Excellency Mairtin O Fainin
AN Irish online-accounting technology firm has struck a deal with Deloitte in Australia that will see the accounting giant roll out online professional services to thousands of businesses down under.
The deal transforms accounts software from an office-based application to something that resides online and can be paid for from operational spend, as opposed to a large capital investment.
The technology, which was developed in Ireland by AccountsIQ, will be offered as an online service through the Deloitte Digital division as an own-branded solution.
In Australia, Deloitte Digital is pioneering the delivery of online professional services. It expects AccountsIQ to play a central role in expanding the services it offers, helping it to change the paradigm for the delivery of professional accounting services.
"AccountsIQ provides customers with the ability to securely record transactions, monitor performance and prepare financial reports. We see this as a fundamental change in the way accountants work and in the type of the work they can do," explains Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital.
"It changes the nature of the client-accountant relationship from a 'once a year' contact to an ongoing conversation, from accountant to business adviser," he adds.
Speaking from Australia, AccountsIQ chief executive Tony Connolly says the deal with Deloitte was struck after a rigorous evaluation process.
"Deloitte Digital sees the online delivery of accounts solutions as a way of bringing value to businesses by combining technology with a professional service.
"By evaluating the way accounting has traditionally been done, Deloitte found that 30pc of the time the client was swapping files over and back. It sees businesses enjoying huge productivity gains from this," he says.
As the service will require monthly subscriptions, the value of the deal could be worth millions to AccountsIQ in the coming years.
"This opens us up to the Asia-Pacific market, and Deloitte is the ideal reference customer," affirms Connolly.
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