Customers to benefit from Access brand elevation

June 30, 2009; 12:14 AM

Colchester, Essex - 29 June 2009 – Five companies, best known for the award-winning accounting software Access Dimensions, have undergone a customer-focused brand elevation to better reflect their combined consulting expertise and software solutions. The move will position the subsidiaries as one major mid-market player, a consulting company taking on the Goliaths of the industry. It will also position them as a key provider of organisation-wide software solutions, when they commence operating under the new Access brand from 1st July 2009.

Alistair O’Reilly, founder and group managing director for Access, commented: “We’re well known for our accounting software but we also have a very strong consulting capability due to the acquisitions we’ve made, and this is backed by a broad-based business software portfolio.

“We’ve considerable expertise in helping mid-sized organisations reduce complexity and increase efficiencies across their whole business. We now have 65 accredited consultants operating across the UK and Ireland and we’ve more than doubled our customer support team. We also provide solutions that extend far beyond the accounts function, into manufacturing, distribution, professional services, carbon emissions measurement, document management and CRM.

“As a business-led consultancy and software developer, we’ve combined the strengths of five companies to fully leverage their expertise and best practice. Customers will now be able to benefit across all industries including our key sectors: professional services, not for profit, manufacturing and distribution. Customers want integrated business systems that provide full visibility of their operations in a clear and straightforward manner; we can help them achieve this through the advice we provide and the software solutions we deliver.”

Russell Muldoon, group finance director for Europa, one of the UK's largest independently owned providers of property and infrastructure support services, has been through a similar exercise as a result of strong growth and acquisition. He commented, “Europa has been an Access customer for quite some time and its technologies play a vital role in the day-to-day running of our organisation. As our business has grown, Access’ software has adapted to meet our needs, helping us increase our turnover from £12m to £70m over the past four years. Access’ ability to elevate its brand in this way is testament to the strength of the organisation and the success of its software portfolio. We look forward to seeing the consultancy move forward with its complete solution to become a major player within this industry.”

With a 10-year plan to reach £100m turnover by 2017, the rebrand forms part of Access’ business strategy to drive growth towards achieving this target. The brand will be rolled out over the next few weeks, culminating with the new website, www.theaccessgroup.com, going live on August 3rd 2009. To hear more from Alistair on the Access brand view his videoblog at http://blog.access-accounts.com.