Fear of data loss is holding UK finance leaders back study shows

Over 12,000 UK organisations are struggling with outdated accounting software, as finance decision-makers fear losing data if they move to the cloud.

New research reveals that over a quarter of UK finance decision-makers (26%) cited historical data loss and having to pay to use historical data as major barriers to changing accounting systems.

The sizable survey, undertaken by award-winning accounting software provider iplicit,  gathered experiences from 1,000 UK-based finance decision-makers working in organisations that employ between 50 and 500 employees. The survey revealed the top three reasons why UK finance decision-makers are hesitant to change accounting systems:

• Losing historical data (14%)
• Cost of having to pay for a Right To Use (RTU) licence in order to access historical data (12%)
• Too expensive (11%)

Lyndon Stickley, Chief Executive Officer at iplicit, explains: “Given the importance of accessing historical financial data, the industry really does need to do more to ensure finance teams have access to their data, especially as an RTU licence costs typically 50% to 100% of the standard software licence!

It begs the question, ‘why are finance software providers holding customers to ransom?'”

Stickley continues, “Ultimately, a hesitance to change systems may be holding the finance function back, seeing as finance leaders are trapped using legacy, on-premise software in their finance departments – all to the detriment of their organisation.”

“Finance leaders are often divided when it comes to the cloud. In my experience, it comes down to understanding the benefits that cloud accounting software can offer.

I’d encourage them not to be scared of embracing change. Cloud provides the most reliable form of data security – far greater levels of security and redundancy compared with legacy on-premise systems, and there are a host of other benefits of migrating to cloud-based accounting software.”

“UK finance decision-makers need the ability to export and store historical data and immediately overcome this barrier.

If you are looking at new accounting software make sure you do your research and check if you can access legacy data without requiring a costly and unnecessary RTU licence,” concludes Stickley.

You can view the full results of the independent market research in the report titled: ‘A study into how to overcome the barriers of moving to a true cloud accounting system’.

By iplicit

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