Unit 4 Agresso creates new company with minority investment from Salesforce.com – CODA 2go becomes FinancialForce.com

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

29 September 2009

• Unit 4 Agresso to launch a new company to develop, sell and support the only accounting application delivered in the cloud 100% on the Force.com platform
• FinancialForce.com is a spinoff from Unit 4 Agresso - salesforce.com is a minority investor in the new company with Unit 4 Agresso retaining the controlling stake in the company
• Investment represents significant commitment to accounting in the cloud

Unit 4 Agresso (NYSE Euronext: U4AGR), parent company of financial software specialist CODA has announced that it has joined forces with salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company to create FinancialForce.com, a new company that delivers finance and accounting applications in the cloud. Both Unit 4 Agresso and salesforce.com are investing in FinancialForce.com, which leverages CODA’s cloud accounting application formerly known as CODA 2go, which has been transferred into the new company.

FinancialForce.com aims to change the future of accounting and finance by delivering unique accounting applications in the cloud that give finance professionals and CFOs the efficiency, success and confidence they desire. Built on salesforce.com’s enterprise cloud-computing platform, Force.com, FinancialForce.com offers accounting solutions delivered via the cloud for both salesforce.com and non-salesforce.com customers alike.

FinancialForce.com delivers the power of a real-time, enterprise accounting system to organizations of all sizes. It will support such businesses as they evolve, expand and outgrow more traditional accounting systems while offering all the benefits of cloud computing including ease of implementation, rapid return on investment and reduced cost and complexity. FinancialForce.com’s rich functionality is built using CODA’s 30 years’ experience in designing and building world class financial applications combined with the security, reliability and availability of salesforce.com’s trusted real-time Force.com service infrastructure.

The CODA 2go team and products have transferred to FinancialForce.com, which will be run from the company’s new corporate headquarters in San Mateo, California as well as from its EMEA headquarters in Harrogate in the UK. FinancialForce.com already has established sales, pre-sales and support teams in North America and the UK to take the new solution to market. Salesforce.com will provide first line support for FinancialForce.com, giving customers of both Salesforce CRM and FinancialForce applications a single consistent point of contact.

Jeremy Roche, CEO of CODA, has been appointed President and CEO of FinancialForce.com. George Hu, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Alliances at salesforce.com, Chris Ouwinga, Chairman and CEO of Unit 4 Agresso, Edwin van Leeuwen, CFO of Unit 4 Agresso and Jeremy Roche make up the FinancialForce.com Board of Directors.

Jeremy Roche, CEO for FinancialForce.com, commented: “In establishing FinancialForce.com we are revolutionizing the future of accounting. FinancialForce.com will do for finance and accounting what salesforce.com has done for CRM. We are enabling customers of all sizes to choose accounting as part of a broader, integrated cloud computing solution and giving them the power of enterprise accounting without the pain of owning the software themselves. As a pioneer on the Force.com platform, CODA has worked closely with salesforce.com while developing and launching CODA 2go. We believe that having a native solution built on the Force.com platform will give us a significant competitive advantage when selling to salesforce.com customers and is key to our go to market strategy.”

For customers using or evaluating Salesforce CRM, FinancialForce.com comes with an unequalled level of integration between its accounting functions and salesforce.com’s Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. This allows users to make the most of customer relationships - from making initial contact to ensuring smooth accounting processes and accurate invoicing, right through to the ongoing customer relationship. For non-Salesforce CRM users, FinancialForce.com offers a new choice of a comprehensive accounting solution built around salesforce.com’s enterprise cloud-computing platform. FinancialForce.com will revolutionize the future of accounting by delivering a cloud computing application that helps companies get real-time insight into data from across customer services, sales and accounting, giving a complete view of the business position at a time when cash flow has never been more important.

FinancialForce.com customer Sallie Kennedy, CFO for Compliance Team, Inc., said: “Since selecting FinancialForce.com we have benefited from the improved efficiency and agility that cloud computing delivers. In addition, we have cost effective, real-time access to FinancialForce.com’s best in class financial management capabilities but without the headache of owning, managing and maintaining the software ourselves. We can access business critical financial information at anytime and from any Web-enabled device and can act on the information quickly and decisively. We also have peace of mind knowing that FinancialForce.com is built on salesforce.com’s infrastructure so our data is secure.”

George Hu from salesforce.com, said: “FinancialForce.com’s mission is to create applications that make the finance department as successful as sales and service teams are with salesforce.com.  That means creating and delivering the world’s only finance applications that are as easy to deploy and use, and as customizable and trusted as Salesforce CRM. Together with Salesforce CRM, FinancialForce.com gives existing salesforce.com customers one solution for the front and back office delivered on the Force.com platform.”

FinancialForce.com – Revolutionizing the Future of Accounting with Cloud Computing

FinancialForce.com provides rich functionality for businesses around the world:

-     A complete accounting application; featuring general ledger accounting, user defined budgets and spreadsheet integration, full accounts payable, accounts receivable and invoicing

-     Multi-currency and multi-company support; allowing organizations to manage accounts across different countries, divisions and companies

-     Support for global accounting and reporting requirements; reducing concerns about meeting the specific reporting and tax legislation of different countries

-     Real-time accounting; all ledgers are instantly updated to deliver real-time financial data and ensuring the system can never go out of balance

-     Quick to implement; with no infrastructure to worry about, businesses can be up and running in hours or days

-      Scalable; no matter what size the business today or in the future, the product will be able to support the management of cash flows, debtors and creditors

-      Access anywhere; because FinancialForce.com is accessed via the cloud, businesses can access their accounts from anywhere that has an internet connection, without the need to acquire and maintain servers, so deployment is fast and cost effective

-      Predictable license fee; with no infrastructure and maintenance fees to worry about, a business just has to pay a regular subscription based license fee

-      Robust and secure; because FinancialForce.com is built on the Force.com platform, customers benefit from the reliability, security and availability of salesforce.com’s proven real-time infrastructure.

Pricing and Availability

FinancialForce.com is now available to salesforce.com customers as well as non-salesforce.com customers. Pricing for the current release of FinancialForce applications starts from $125 per user per month. To order, or for more information, please visit:http://www.FinancialForce.com.

- ends-

About FinancialForce.com –www.financialforce.com

FinancialForce.com aims to revolutionize the future of accounting by doing for finance what salesforce.com has done for CRM. It delivers unique cloud accounting applications that give accountants and CFOs online, real-time financial information, always in balance and always up to date. This gives them a better understanding of their business, with the confidence of reliable figures, from secure systems, looked after for them by the world's most trusted enterprise cloud computing platform.

FinancialForce.com is backed by Unit 4 Agresso (parent company of accounting software specialist CODA) and salesforce.com. It combines CODA’s 30 years of designing and building financial applications, with the salesforce.com platform’s decade of dependability, availability and security.

The result is a range of revolutionary cloud computing applications, including FinancialForce Accounting – a full Software as a Service (SaaS) accounting application, delivered on a subscription basis; the first international SaaS accounting system developed on salesforce.com's cloud computing platform, Force.com.

Spread the word...
     

onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('http://www.coda.com/Art?AID=2746');">

ABOUT CODA

CODA creates, markets and implements a comprehensive range of software systems designed specifically to meet the needs of Financial Directors and Finance Departments. These include financial management systems, analysis applications, and business process management and control software to implement compliance solutions. Its service oriented architecture also makes CODA software easy for clients and other vendors to integrate with their business applications.

CODA was founded in 1979 and has around 500 employees working at 18 offices in 14 countries. CODA software is designed for multi-currency, multi-language, multi-country, multi-company and multi-site operations, and is used by around 2,600 medium and large organizations in over 100 countries in a variety of markets and within both public and commercial sectors.

CODA is a Unit 4 Agresso company. Unit 4 Agresso is a leading international producer of business software for service companies and organizations. With offices in 19 countries, including the United States and Canada, and sales activities in several other countries, annual revenue of €393.6 million was realized in 2008. Unit 4 Agresso is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and employs about 3,500 people.

News Source : Unit 4 Agresso creates new company with minority investment from Salesforce.com – CODA 2go becomes FinancialForce.com