Final countdown for Software Satisfaction voters

The 2011 Software Satisfaction Awards (SSAs) are getting serious as the voting deadline on 20 June approaches.

Now in their sixth year, the SSAs, organised by BusinessZone.co.uk publisher Sift Media in partnership with Intellect, are the software industry’s most coveted awards because they are decided on an open vote of software users. So far, more than 8,000 people have had their say on applications ranging from payroll/HR and CRM to finance and accounting.

As the businesses they serve have cut back expenditure, software suppliers have faced difficult market conditions during the past two years. Staying close to customers, understanding their needs and coming up with ever more productive solutions is fundamental for their continuing success.

The SSAs encourage the software industry to focus on and improve this aspect of their performance. The annual survey data that determine the nominations and final placings also highlight where growth taking place and which software business models are winning.

SSA results over the past three have tracked the fast-growing challenge to traditional “on premise” suppliers posed by web-based “Cloud” applications, even among supposedly conservative accountants. Yet the 2010 enterprise accounting software winner was Access Dimensions, a long-standing supplier of client-server applications in the UK mid-market. Sage 50 Payroll also overcame Cloud rivals to win its category.

In the tax and practice management categories, TaxCalc and DRIVE both repeated their victories from the year before and Draycir Spindle repeated the feat in the small business document management category.  Version One was 2010’s enterprise-level paperless office software winner.

In what looks like it will be the most energetically contested category, previous small business accounting award winners FreeAgent Central (2010) and KashFlow (2008 and 2009) face competition from Arithmo, Brightpearl, Liquid and Xero.

Which of these contenders will get your votes? Remember, you have until 20 June to have your say.