Business management and accounting software provider Access Group is moving into the SaaS business intelligence space with the acquisition of French HQ’d Prelytis. Terms were not disclosed. Having previously outlined its cloud strategy, this acquisition marks the first in a series of moves to execute on its SaaS plans.
Prelytis brings its LiveDashBoard product which provides users with a new way of viewing real time business information, plus a customer base of 100,000 users spread over 300 companies (including ADP, LaSer Cofinoga, Takasago and Johnson Controls). The dashboard can be viewed on multiple devices (laptop, smart phones, tablets, desktops) and usefully, it uses HTML 5 which marks it as a modern application particularly suited for mobile deployment.
As far as the financial impact is concerned, Access expects the acquisition to accelerate its current organic growth rate of 13%. The company has been concentrating on developing the business since the Lyceum Capital-backed MBO in 2011 (see Lyceum gets access to Access) and has made several acquisitions since but this is the first in the SaaS space. It is late to the SaaS market so has a lot of ground to make up. It has a long way to go as it still faces the hard challenge of aligning license and subscription business lines but the first steps are being taken.