After a 6 month sabbatical (long overdue long-service leave) I’ve had lots of time to think about the Saasu business and it’s future. This post addresses some transformation changes we are making to our business.
Here’s the summary of changes underway:
- Saasu will only offer Australian Tax Zone accounting files, for any new files, for the time being – we ceased offering new files for Tax Zones outside Australia (effective as of 1st March, 2018).
- Saasu will launch a new accounting app later this year. It will be an international product available via App stores. It is designed for sole traders, micro businesses, consultants, contractors and early stage e-commerce. We have traditionally supported the Small to Medium business market, so this is a re-focusing on the smaller end of that market demographic.
- Partnering with Saasu as an Advisor has been simplified – we’ll pay a flat 25% commission on 1 or more paying customers for Saasu Certified Partners.
- Direct Feed and In-App Payments focused – we are building the new app to be based on Direct Feeds only. It will also be a highly effective payments platform.
- Interface simplicity – all products in the market we have researched are overly complicated for this small/micro business segment. This needs to be addressed.
We are dedicated to minimalism in technology, and this change allows us to follow that vision. Incumbent products in the market at $50 plus price point are seen as overkill and expensive by many of these small business owners.
In business you must destroy your mothership and keep creating new, better versions. It is the essence of innovation. Being fearful of that is what makes technology companies stale, complex and slow.
You may notice I’m being a bit light on the details about the app we will launch later this year. It differs to what is currently available in the market, and won’t be liked by our larger competitors, so unfortunately we can’t elaborate at this stage.
Questions we expect you might ask.
What will happen to the current Saasu Web App?
From 30 June 2019 we will only be supporting Australian based files in the Saasu Web App. If you currently have a non-AU file this means that you are unable to use that file after 30 June 2019. This should give most non-AU customers time to complete the upcoming financial year, and make arrangements to move to our new international app (available at the end of 2018) or migrate to a better suited financial app.
For now it’s business as usual, particularly for Australian based customers. We will continue to operate the current Saasu Web App as normal. It will be refined and improved. We have a team dedicated to that. XL and Enterprise plans will no-longer be offered for new files and customers. We will make our Large plan more accomodating which will allow some of those customers to downgrade. However very large business, by employee size or transaction volumes, will need to graduate off Saasu onto higher end accounting platforms.
Why don’t you just migrate current overseas customers to the new App?
We would like to; it would be better for our revenue but we want to allow customers to have a chance to graduate to higher end apps if required or pick localised solutions in the tax zones they reside in. Some premium features in Saasu won’t be available in the new App.
Why change? I like it just as it is.
We really want to build clean minimal apps. Despite all the promise technology makes around efficiency, we see many business owners time dominated by all the systems they use. There’s a tendency for software companies to build ‘more’ and that is where things go wrong. Our belief is businesses should be designed to be operationally simple – use limited but effective amounts of technology – and focus instead on marketing, sales and inventing new products and services. Too many businesses unknowingly build themselves a digital birdsnest and end up hiring a lot of people to maintain it.
Is it just one app you are building?
We are also going to be building business productivity apps that we know are badly needed by small and micro businesses. We want to do something different. We have been in the market for 20 years soon (we started in 1998 and incorporated in 2000). We feel we can add value outside pure financial apps.
I’ve been a good customer for many years. Why are you doing this to me?
I think the hardest thing in business is to break up with part of your customer base that doesn’t align with your new future. It doesn’t mean we aren’t appreciative. This is about making sure we love what we do and follow the vision for our business. I’ve always recommended the same approach for you and your business. It’s hard to be everything for everyone and have a great result. The true win-win is where the ideals and visions of both you and your customers are aligned, and everyone is happy. Otherwise you may be sustaining a business relationship that denies your true calling and passion.
If you are a customer affected by the changes in some way you will receive an email in coming weeks. If you have any general questions just contact our Customer Experience team at service@saasu.com. Also feel free to email me directly at ceo@saasu.com. I will read and reply. Just allow me a few days.