May 28th, 2009

http://www.charged.co.za/frontpage/pastel-takes-accounting-online-for-small-medium-businesses

Softline Pastel – a member of the Softline Group and a local leader in accounting, payroll and business software — has launched Pastel My Business Online, its first online accounting system, which targets small to medium businesses (SMBs).

Very often, products become complicated by the sheer volume of features added to it over time, says Softline Pastel managing director Steven Cohen (pictured right), who explained that by developing Pastel My Business Online from scratch, the company had the opportunity to design the software specifically for business owners who were either starting out with very little bookkeeping knowledge, or who only wanted a basic system.

Pastel My Business Online is a multi-user system with dashboards, graphs and drill-downs to source transactions, and we believe it will be a joy to use.

The company has integrated My Business with the Apple iPhone and Cohen reports there are plans to port it to the Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms in the near future.

Mobility, portability

According to Softline Pastel, accounting over the Internet not only gives the user greater mobility, but extending it to mobile devices makes it even more portable.

Users can view customers sales histories and contact details and write notes while on the road, or in front of a client.

Being online also allows an accountant to log on to the system without travelling to the customers premises to check accounts.

Softline Pastel states that it has accumulated some 200 000 users during its 20 years in business; during this time it has taken users through various shifts in technology.

These include:

* transitioning from the DOS operating system to Windows,
* 16-bit to 32-bit operating system changes, and now
* accounting over the Internet

Pragmatic

When we developed Pastel My Business Online, we used all our 20 years of experience to deliver a product that was user-friendly, intuitive and fun to use. We also disciplined ourselves to keep the product clean and uncluttered, said Cohen.

He explains that Softline Pastel took a pragmatic view and used the most appropriate developer technologies and delivery mechanisms for the development of the system.

Technology continues to move at a fast pace and with the growth of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Web 2.0 technologies we had to use a platform that will have legs in the future, he added.

However, while there is no doubt that the market for SaaS applications and service based software is growing — and we expect this trend to continue — we also believe that demand is not universal. Adoption will be gradual and will vary widely across markets, as customers in different sectors have different needs. Many businesses will adopt a hybrid approach to their business software and services, using a combination of desktop and SaaS applications.

Current systems

To this end, Softline Pastel will continue to enhance its current systems.

Our clients expect us to deliver the best software available while keeping an eye on new technologies that will make them more efficient, he said.

The launch of Pastel My Business Online is another show of our ongoing commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions. We really offer the best of both worlds which makes customers feel comfortable and secure with Softline Pastel as their vendor of choice.

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