A rose by any other name .........
This is a huge week for us in the small business R&D team. We crossed the one year mark since the release of SBA 2006 and its sister products Outlook with Business Contact Manager update for 2003 and MS Point Of Sales 2006. This is also the week we went into public beta of our next release and started getting the first-look reviews from some of the industry’s most reputed and knowledable journalists. We could not be more thrilled at the resonance of the product with our end customers and the extremely positive comments from PC Magazine, PC World, CNET and SmallBusinessComputing.
Tis also the week we announced the new name for Office Small Business Accounting !
Drum Roll…..
The new name for this software as we go forward is Office Accounting.
So we have essentially simplified the name and made it more crisp. A learning from our first year and after a lot of feedback from our customers and partners. After all the product is built for small businesses, sold to small businesses and used extensively by small businesses So it is redundant to put it into the name.
I am super thrilled with the new name. I love the play on words “office accounting” with “office” being both a brand name and a place to work and manage the business J. It also sets the framework for a tremendous amount of increased investment we will be making on this product line in the future. More on that later. There is a lot in the pipeline in that respect.
Overall the first year was extremely exciting. The product won every review and much critical acclaim and awards. Our installed base is already well into the six figure mark (we don’t release volumes so at least this allows us to celebrate the success in public !). Our three channels of distribution are now fully active (Retail, VAR and OEM) and we took a significant piece of the market share of new business users from our competitors.
While we are very happy at the performance in our first year, we are on a long journey and have hundreds of dedicated professionals working round the clock to innovate and create value for our customers. In that sense, the first year, in the bigger scheme of things is simply a baby step.
I am so eager for the launch of our next release that I am actually counting down the days to general availability. We love our customers and cant wait to get the next release to them. Just a few more weeks to go…….
