Ernst & Young is one of the “big five”
consulting firms that is in the business of helping businesses stay in
business. Its application service provider offspring, formerly known Ernst
& Young Technologies, was officially spun-off during a first round of
financing in mid-August.
With the financial infusion came a name change and EYT set up shop to provide
high-growth dot-com and telecom firms with end-to-end ASP solutions.
It should come as no surprise that EYT has set its sights on becoming a
premier ASP, but some analysts may be astonished that the accounting
offshoot launched its first service offering Wednesday that targets low-end
start-up firms, seeking to outsource financial services.
EYT picked one of the top e-business application companies, Lawson Software to power its GoEYT initiative.
As a Lawson partner, EYT is set to deliver its GoFinancials ASP offering as
a scalable solution for fast-growth firms that need to get a handle on
their financials.
The GoEYT strategy provides a comprehensive Lawson-powered application
offering, which allows customers to utilize GoFinancials from start to
finish. Clients are able to add additional GoEYT modules or upgrade to a
full lawson.insight e-business solution as their business needs evolve.
Brad Osborne, EYT president of solution development said the idea of
GoFinancials is to create a place for dot-com and telecom firms to start
outsourcing their financial services.
“The idea of GoFinancials is to provide high-growth companies with a full
Lawson engine that has been reduced to specifically meet the requirements
of startup customers, at a lower cost for entry,” Osborne said. “We provide
interfaces to specific business functions appropriate for vertical
industries in easy to use format.”
Just because GoFinancials is price sensitive, does not mean EYT’s first ASP
solution is a stripped-down version of a Lawson enterprise
resource-planning program.
As an ASP member of the LawsonTone remote-computing program, EYT maintains
and hosts the applications, providing all the necessary infrastructure
support through an affordable subscription-based model.
Jim Hunt, EYT chief executive officer, said the innovative ASP solution
alleviates burdens on customers in-house IT staffs, enabling them to remain
focused on growing their core business.
“EYT has a history of successful Lawson implementations under its belt and
we are excited about our newest joint effort, GoFinancials,” Hunt said.
“Providing smaller businesses a best-of-breed financial solutions through a
customer-friendly ASP model gives startups the chance to leapfrog their
competition without the burden of timely and costly infrastructure support.”
GoFinancials empowers customers with the ability to automate all financial
functions over the Internet, including general ledger upkeep, invoice
generation, bill payment and bank transaction recording.
The outsourced end-to-end solution offers customers a rapid time-to-market
financial application system to meet immediate business needs without
delay. In an e-commerce business segment where rapid success kills, the EYT
GoFinancials offering is designed to help thriving companies keep pace with
the demands for their goods and services.
In addition to lower start-up costs and implementation assistance,
GoFinancials offers customers around-the-clock application access and
support as a value-added service. EYT’s Osborne said the Web interface is
simple enough for clients to start using GoFinancials with little or no
technical support, but its there if customers need it.
“We think this offering is somewhat unique,” Osborne said. “With
GoFinancial we bring the entry point down to a level not currently
available in t
he market place.”
“We are willing to minimize the costs involved by offering short-term or
moth-to-moth fees for our services,” Osborne added. “Startup takes several
days to a week and GoFinancials was developed with the idea that customers
could set themselves up through the Web interface.”
GoFinancials has been in beta testing for the past two months. Broadstar Networks was one of
the first firms to give EYT’s GoFinancials program a spin.
John Diamond, Broadstar Networks president said the program was a dream to
use and allowed the firm to focus on delivering its special breed of
broadband services.
“GoFinancials will allow us to focus more time on our core business of
providing cutting edge broadband services as opposed to spending time and
money on financial operations,” Diamond said.
The LawsonTone remote-computing program integrates network, hosting and
business process expertise with Lawson’s enterprise-class e-business
solutions as delivered over the Internet. LawsonTone partners currently
serve 467 customers with its brand of hosted delivery model e-business
solutions.
Eric Morgan, Lawson executive vice president or digital markets, said as a
new LawsonTone ASP, EYT is helping smaller companies receive the same kinds
of benefits normally reserved for large e-business enterprises.
“The availability of Lawson-powered e-services like GoFinancials validates
Lawson’s vision, and provides proof of Lawson’s leadership as the provider
of e-business engines for the world’s ASPs,” Morgan said.
EYT’s Osborne said that while ASPs and their related services come and go
in the market, Go Financials is certain to rise to the top of outsourced
financial solutions with Lawson.
“We think we will be there in the long haul,” Osborne said. “We come to the
market with some advantages and one is our association with EY. If you look
at the market the ‘big five,’ we have relations with market channels
unparalleled by other ASPs.”
As a one-stop shop for financial consulting services, EY is sure to land
potentially lucrative accounts for EYT’s GoFinancials program. Its
relationship with EY grant EYT access to qualified customers, it also gives
the newborn ASP a premier partner to work with that already understands
what customers need to get up a running.
While EYT stays focused on providing end-to-end financial ASP solutions, EY
is ready to take high-growth start-up firms from first round financing to
initial public stock offerings, achieving a veritable end-run on rivals.
