Relate Software was formed by the management team of Apex Software, which was one of the largest suppliers of software solutions to the accountancy profession in both Ireland and the UK. Apex Software was one of the great success stories of the Irish software industry when it was sold for €25 million to Sage plc in 2000. Offering the most advanced systems of their time, Apex Software’s market-leading service and understanding of the accountancy profession drove their success. At the time of sale, 92% of practices in Ireland were using Apex solutions with over 3500 in the UK. Apex has stood the test of time in that almost 8 years on with limited upgrades over 22% of UK firms still use Apex for Windows (now called Sage Accounts Production).
Since its inception in 2002, Relate Software has been developing new and exciting solutions for the accountancy profession. Our philosophy is based upon the fact that information must be readily available to all staff within a firm. An integrated product suite is a cornerstone of our development strategy. |
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In the last 3-4 years over 60% of Irish
practices have moved to Relate Software |
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We launched in Northern
Ireland in May 2006 and already almost 15% of
the market has moved to DRIVE. |
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In Jan 2007 we opened our
Scottish office and we have begun to make
inroads to the UK market. |
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| Geography |
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| Relate
Software continues to expand and currently
employs 47 staff including a team of 28 Senior
Project Managers, Programmers and Quality
Assurance professionals. We have offices in
Ireland, England & India and we have recently
opened offices in Scotland and Mauritius. |
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| Developed Internally |
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| DRIVE is developed and owned by Relate Software.
We sell and support to accountants directly in Ireland and the UK and not through a reseller network. We do have resellers in other parts of the world. |
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| Accreditations, Certifications and Partnerships |
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Relate are a
Microsoft Gold Partner Gold Certified Partners
represent the highest level of competence and
expertise with Microsoft technologies and have
the closest working relationship with Microsoft.ssss |
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DRIVE
by Relate was a World Finalist in the Worldwide
Innovation Technology Partner of the Year
category at the 2006 Microsoft Worldwide Partner
Conference. DRIVE was particularly praised for
its innovative features and has been recognized
as an extremely competent product in delivering
exceptional results to the Accountancy
Profession using the Microsoft Technology Stack. |
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Currently
Relate Software are part of the Microsoft Metro
Programme for Visual Studio 2008 Developers.
This is only given to dedicated Microsoft ISV’s.
DRIVE was one
of the first .NET programs in Europe to be
accredited by Microsoft VeriTest lab. Relate
have been working with SQL & .NET technologies
for 6 years now and our experience of such
implementations is the most comprehensive within
the accountants community. |
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| Accountancy Institutes |
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Relate have a close working relationship with
many of the UK & Ireland’s accountancy bodies
and have presented at the Practice or IT
Conference of all major UK and Ireland
Accountancy Institutes (ICAS, ICAI, CPA, ACCA,
CIMA & ICAEW).
In 2007 Relate were invited to speak in New York
at IIN an international conference of all the
major Accountancy Institutes from around the
world on the future of practice software.
In October 2008 Relate will speak at the ICAS CAPS conference and a number of their regional events.
Relate are members of ICAEW’s xAPL working group on the sharing of data between suppliers of software to accountancy practices. |
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| Why did we build DRIVE? |
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DRIVE is our
flagship award winning product designed for
Accountants in Practice. During the 90’s and
with the advent of Microsoft Windows accountants
everywhere began to use IT to automate processes
within the practice including the production of
accounts, the computation of tax, the logging of
time, etc.
Over the last 8
years the larger plc’s bought up almost all the
suppliers to this market leaving them with a
collection of independent products servicing a
wide range of requirements. Relate spotted a
flaw in this business model however as the plc’s
ended up with a collection of products that are
built in different languages on different
databases that don’t connect well to each other.
At some stage Accountants would want all their
data in one place.
With this in mind Relate
embarked on a mission to build one program that
would run the entire practice. No integration –
just one program – one database. DRIVE was the
result. Paper is reduced and all client
information is at the touch of a button. The Less Paper Practice was born. |
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| What does it include? |
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| There are 4 key areas to DRIVE and
practices pick and choose the sections the modules they
require. |
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CRM - Finally a CRM system built for accountants. Overnight the correspondence folder becomes electronic as DRIVE managers all emails, letters, phones calls, SMS texts, diaries, document management, excel spreadsheets, etc. A centralised client list makes Marketing and Datamining a breeze. |
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Practice Management - DRIVE encompasses a complete Time & Billing system while also managing your complete Practice Financials, Credit Control and Client Accounting. |
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Compliance - DRIVE will manage all your compliance needs whether through our systems or by linking to your existing systems. |
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Workflow - Get rid of those excel sheets. DRIVE handles all your deadline requirements, enables you to plan both staff time and jobs while also keeping track of Books In. |
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