The ever changing face of business and accounting software

While Leonardo da Vinci is a household name synonymous with painting, sculpture, observation and invention, few would be aware of the name Luca Pacioli, Leonardo's friend and mathematics teacher and father of the modern double entry accounting system.

In 1494 Luca's textbook "Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità" was published and included most of the accounting cycle as we know it today. He described the use of journals and ledgers, and warned that one should not go to sleep at night until the debits equalled the credits. His ledger had accounts for assets, liabilities, capital, income, and expenses. He demonstrated year-end closing entries and proposed that a trial balance be used to prove a balanced ledger.  Fast forward almost 500 years into the digital age and we continue to conform to the now ancient rules of debits, credits, journals, ledgers and trial balances albeit now on personal computers in various guises.

So, why the need for a Research and Development team in an accounting and business management software Company like Intact Software?

While back office accounting standards have remained relatively constant, modern organisations are continuously striving to become leaner and more competitive. Leveraging technology enables businesses to automate laborious manual processes freeing up key staff and empowers company principals to focus on their growth. This results in businesses operating within the same market having different processes, different measures and ways of doing business. The net effect is that an out of the box software solution cannot meet the requirements of both businesses.
While many software vendors often implement "best practice" on their clients, the companies that have grown, and continue to grow, have done so by increasing customer satisfaction through ever tweaking & improving their business process. Removing that competitive edge by conforming to off the shelf software is not the approach modern companies are now choosing to take. They simply want to automate and computerise these lean processes that have served well though the years.
To provide these lean and tailored solutions, Intact Software invest heavily in staying ahead of the competition, understanding trends in the SME markets and responding to the ever modernising needs of a worldwide customer base encompassing over 10,000 users of our solutions. The culture within our company is one of continuous improvement through listening to the demands of our customers & partners and of course our soon to be customers & partners.

Our boldest R & D move in recent years was to relocate the team to a separate geographical location and away from the day to day operational demands. We sought a suitable location where we could control access to the team and therefore maintain the required focus on innovation and bringing our third generation product Intact iQ to market. After months of investigation, we relocated to a space synonymous with start-ups and not with companies over 20 years in operation. Surrounding our team with the entrepreneurial spirit of the start-ups was a hugely advantageous side effect.
While the rules of accounting remain constant, it is important that innovators like Intact Software continue to enable new business processes to be included and measured within the Luca's ancient standards.