How much do you care about your business software?

The Sift Media Software Satisfaction Awards 2009 take place this October, and the race is now on for BusinessZone.co.uk readers to make their voices heard! Voting closes on 30 June, less than seven weeks away, and the scheme is the biggest opportunity for entrepreneurs to rate the software their business relies on.

Now in its fourth year, the SME categories in the Software Satisfaction Awards have always been a veritable cauldron of competition – and 2009 is no different. It's a genuine struggle between the David and Goliaths of the small business software world, as on-premise goes head-to-head against those in the Cloud, and traditional solutions vie to stave off an insurgency from upstarts!

The SME HR category is one area of significant interest in 2009, and is already building up a lot of excitement amongst providers. Jane Lacey of Select Software UK, producer of Select HR, reveals exactly why SMEs have to answer the call and vote: "Being a winner in the...Software Satisfaction Awards would tell all our competitors just how seriously Select Software takes customer service!"

She adds, "The Software Satisfaction Awards are voted for by genuine buyers and end-users so they are one of the most meaningful areas of feedback available to software companies like our own.  To win would be a real achievement and one we would want to shout about!"

The HR category for SMEs, like accounting and CRM, is a perfect storm featuring contenders from across the software spectrum. A couple on the short-list (the aforementioned Select HR, and Cascade HR) are trying to establish themselves in the SME sector for the first time, whilst last year's winner, Octopus, will be trying to regain its crown from the rest of the pack, which includes newcomers like OrgPlus Professional from HumanConcepts.

Perhaps the greatest tussles at this year's awards will take place in the SME accounting category, where a dozen software solutions are preparing for war. Kashflow and Liquid Accounts will reconvene their rivalry once again, whilst battle-hardened veterans like Sage (with their two short-listed entrants) will try to show that there's still fight left in on-premise software.

Julian Shaw of first time short-listed SME accounting provider, Arithmo, explains why winning the category is so important: "We want to be able to show that, within the bounds of what we are attempting, we have provided our clients with the most satisfactory solution - the best fit for what they need. It's not about who has the most toys in their toybox, it's having the ones that other kids want to play with."

Despite the battle for supremacy amongst the SME accounting contenders, the race for the small business CRM title shouldn’t be discounted as a minor scuffle. In fact, it has the potential to explode! 

Last year’s winner, Really Simple Systems, faces a gargantuan rival in NetSuite, which won the top prize in both the mid-range and enterprise categories in 2008. Can the battle in the cloud provide the category winner, or will fresh attempts by Sage and SalesForce.com pip them to the post? Or will category newcomer, FileMaker Pro 10 from FileMaker, take home the prize on its Software Satisfaction Awards debut?

The fate of all these software providers, and more, are in the hands of BusinessZone.co.uk readers! Go to the official Software Satisfaction Awards 2009 website, and show your support for the business software vendors that help you with your business all year round.