IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions Doubles Size of R&D Investment

LONDON - Strengthens Focus on Quality Product Delivery Whilst Expanding Team to Meet Demands of Increased Legislative Change

IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions today announced that in the course of the past twelve months it has doubled the size of its Development organisation, strengthening its focus on product quality, whilst significantly expanding resources to meet the demands of increasing legislative change.

In line with a Group wide initiative to invest GBP20m in R&D during 2009, IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions (www.iris.co.uk/practice) has now brought together its Engineering teams from IRIS, PTP and Drummohr and has concurrently delivered new releases of all three product lines for the new tax year.

“Version 9.3 and the associated PTP & Drummohr releases together, were our biggest release ever,” said Phil Dawes, recently hired, Group Director of Engineering. “We have radically increased the size of our Business Analyst, Engineering and QA teams, to ensure that v10, which comes out in October, incrementally includes a further 300% increase in Development effort.”

“The last three years have seen unprecedented levels of legislative and fiscal change; this is only set to increase in the years ahead. Through this investment IRIS will ensure that it is well placed to keep its customers compliant and well ahead of the competition. Changes to legislation mean that the upcoming October release will include a redevelopment of the entire core of our Company Secretarial module, to support the Companies Act 2006. Furthermore HMRC & Companies House mandation requires all CT-Comp and Accounts filings to use iXBRL by April 2011, both are significant and complex undertakings.”

Phill Robinson, Managing Director for IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions commented “IRIS has been a leading supplier to the Accountancy market for 30 years and is now by far the largest third party provider of internet filing returns to the HMRC. We take our commitment to each of our 14,000 practice customers in this sector very seriously. By doubling the size of our Development organisation and working closely with HMRC, we will ensure that at a time of unprecedented legislative change, every one of our customers remains compliant. Whilst doing that we maintain a passionate focus on continuing to improve the quality of each release.” He added: “At a time of economic uncertainty, and particular turmoil in the Software industry, IRIS customers can be confident in their choice of supplier and its ability to continue to deliver world-class products to market.”

About IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions

With over 14,000 accountancy practices of all sizes and with over 40% of the top 50 firms as clients, IRIS is the market leading provider of software and services to UK accountancy firms. IRIS’ objective is to provide the tools and services to empower accountancy professionals, optimise operational efficiency and enable the best chance of competitive advantage.

IRIS Practice Software is a fully integrated suite comprising compliance modules for tax, final accounts, company secretarial and formations, plus practice management including customer relationship management, document management, time and fees, and workflow. In addition IRIS offers products and services including outsourcing for accounting, HR and payroll as well as expert tax consultancy.

There is also a comprehensive range of great value compliance products and added value tools under the PTP software brand, renowned for excellent customer service and essential basic tax tools are available from Drummohr.

With an unparalleled wealth of knowledge and experience of the practice software market and a first class reputation for delivering the highest standards of software and service, IRIS demonstrates consistent success in the surveys conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and has an outstanding customer retention rate of 97%.

IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions is part of IRIS; one of the fastest growing and now the largest privately owned software and services business in the UK. It has revenues of cGBP120m p.a. and c1,200 employees servicing over 60,000 UK businesses from a national network of offices.

Source: IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions

Carolyn Gordon-Smith, Cimma, Telephone: +44(0)1386-859090, e-mail: cgs at cimma.co.uk