By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Marc O’Dwyer, CEO, Big Red Cloud
Irish company Big Red Cloud plans to aggressively target the SME clients of international accountancy software giants
Irish accountancy software provider, Big Red Cloud, is expected to compete with larger international competitors following the addition of Open Banking to its package. The new facility will allow Big Red Cloud’s existing and new customers using the software to “completely overhaul” the way they process daily financial tasks.
The company say the development and roll out of their Open Banking module has the potential to transform the way SMEs engage with financial institutions, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs across the board.
The groups says, “until now, business customers in Ireland with more than one bank account could only view and access their transactions, balances, account details through a bank’s app. Big Red Cloud’s offering means these business owners and managers can greatly increase the visibility and efficiency of financial transactions by viewing multiple accounts through the BRC platform.”
Big Red Cloud has integrated with Plaid, a data network powering over 3,000 fintech apps and services globally, such as Coinbase, Expensify, and Transferwise. to facilitate the launch. Plaid, which launched in Ireland in November 2019, will enable Big Red Cloud’s customers to connect financial accounts at over 11,000 institutions, including AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, and Revolut to streamline managing their business finances.
We are launching probably the most important feature we have developed to date.
Commenting on the launch, Marc O’Dwyer, CEO of Big Red Cloud, said: “We are launching probably the most important feature we have developed to date. Our Open Banking module will enable businesses, and their accountants if they so wish, to have a direct feed of all banking transactions with their pillar banks. This significantly speeds up data processing and cuts down on errors. This will be a gamechanger for Irish SMEs.
“Up until now, some accountants might typically have suggested that their larger SME clients sign up to one of the overseas software providers, but this enhancement puts us on a level playing field with these providers and offers the added advantage of coming from a wholly owned and operated Irish company. By using Big Red Cloud for their accounting software businesses can be sure that by using an Irish provider they will be keeping revenues here in Ireland and not have them repatriated to other countries. We also cater 100% for all Revenue’s requirements – unlike many of our overseas competitors”.
Big Red Cloud say developments in Open Banking, which came as a result of PSD2 – an EU directive which aims to unlock bank’s previously restricted access to the data of its customers – completely changes the ownership of data, from banks to customers.
Mr O’Dwyer elaborates: “It’s really just connecting to your bank electronically. The customer has full control of how it can access their data – and has a choice to give certain permissions to Third Party Providers (TPPs) like ourselves to improve their day to day finance operations. It is a completely regulated environment and we have partnered with Plaid, one of the most experienced and established open banking facilitators in the world.
“This is the link in the key to ensure business have an automatic full turnkey view of their banking transactions in their accounting system.”
