A price jump for Office 365, and other tech stories you may have missed

September 16, 2021 9:00 AM

Rate hikes from Microsoft, a host of accounting-related startups get funding, and other trends and developments in technology from the past month, and how they’ll impact your clients and your firm.

1. Microsoft raising Office 365 prices

Microsoft announced the below price increases for all of its Office 365 products, effective March 1, 2022:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic is going from $5 to $6 per user per month.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is going from $20 to $22 per user per month.
Office 365 E1 is going from $8 to $10 per user per month.
Office 365 E3 is going from $20 to $23 per user per month.
Office 365 E5 is going from $35 to $38 per user per month.
Microsoft 365 E3 is going from $32 to $36 per user per month.If you do the math you’ll see that the increases range from 10 to 25 percent. That’s per user. Per month. (Source: Microsoft)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Who knew the supply chain crisis would affect cloud applications? It hasn’t of course. It’s just that Microsoft hasn’t raised prices in a number of years and — like all other companies in these inflationary times — feels that now is the best time to take advantage. And what are you going to do, migrate your entire office collaboration system to something else? Nope, you’ll pay. We all will.

2. Pry Financials raises $4.2M for startup accounting

Pry Financials recently announced that it raised $4.2 million. Pry — which launched in March of this year — has over 200 customers and shared that it has seen a 35% month-over-month growth. With the additional funding, Pry has plans to develop more sophisticated predictive features and have industry standards integrated into its templates. (Source:

Tech Crunch

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Another entry into the crowded cloud-based accounting apps and we’re just getting started. Pry is geared toward making finances for startups less intimidating not only for those in charge of accounting, but for entire teams.

3. Mastercard to phase out magnetic stripes in 2024

Mastercard recently announced that it plans to phase out magnetic stripes on its debit and credit cards over the course of the next 10 years. With credit card companies moving in the direction of contactless payments and chips — alternatives that are more convenient and secure — Mastercard shared that it will be the first payments organization to start getting rid of the stripes, which have been around for the last 60 years and will begin the transition in 2024. (Source:

The Verge

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Say bye-bye to swiping. Mastercard’s move indicates, finally, an industry trend towards chips on cards that will ultimately lead to fully digitizing our credit cards through mobile payment apps on our smartphones. The chips are more secure. The stripe is just annoying. If your clients are in the business of taking credit cards, then they need to be ready for upgrades to their point-of-sale and payment devices.

4. Biller Genie secures $3.5M for cloud AR platform

Biller Genie — an accounts receivable software-as-a-service automation platform — announced this past month that it had raised $3.5 million. (Source:

Pymnts

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: The company’s software is cloud-based and helps small and midsized businesses automate payments online, present bills, and stay on top of follow up. According to the information released, the newly raised funding will help the company move closer to surpassing its objectives for growth by boosting its development and expansion goals.

5. The best cloud hosting services in 2021

benedetti68 - Fotolia

Editors at technology website Tech Radar recently reviewed and ranked their take on the best cloud hosting services for small businesses. According to the review, Hostinger was ranked as the best cloud web hosting provider, HostGator the best for hosting only websites, Cloudways was ranked best for ease of use and power, Bluehost described as an “exceptional” cloud web hosting provider, and Dreamhost was ranked for its cloud object storage and cloud server hosting. To see the full reviews,

read more here.

(Source:

Tech Radar

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Please don’t tell me you still have a server in your office with your core databases and applications. I’m pretty sure that no matter how good your IT support team is, they’re still not going to be as good — or your data as secure — than if you were to move everything to a reliable cloud hosting service. It’s what my smartest clients are doing.

6. Osome raised $16M to automate repetitive accounting

Osome — an accounting platform that is powered by artificial intelligence — recently raised $16 million in funding. The Singapore-based platform primarily offers accounting services online for small businesses in the ecommerce field. The company plans to use the funding to expand its international footprint to build new products. (Source:

Venture Beat

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Customers have their documents converted into reports and tax filings by accountants who then help check deadlines and compliance. Osome can tag, store and categorize the documents to ensure they can be traced.

7. Global VPN downloads soaring

Data recently released by Atlas VPN’s VPN adoption index indicated that virtual private network downloads have shot up to 616 million during the first half of this year. Last year, the amount of VPN downloads during the first quarter was 277 million. The top 10 countries responsible for the downloads did not change since 2020, with seven of them being Arab countries, likely due to the fact that those countries typically roll out some of the strictest restrictions for the internet in the world. (Source:

Computer Weekly

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Finally, I installed VPN software (

TunnelBear

) on all my devices and it’s about time. If you have people on the road their devices need to be equipped with VPN software as it will do much to limit your exposure to hacks and breaches. People are waking up to this fact, as evidenced by the “soaring” popularity of VPNs so far this year.

8. Google makes a play for the VPN market

Ore Huiying/Bloomberg

Google recently announced that it will be expanding its VPN service to more countries. The service, which is coupled with subscriptions for Google One cloud storage, will be available in the U.K., Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Canada and Mexico. When the expansion is finished, users in those seven countries will have the capability to enable the Google One app on Android. An exact timeframe for when the service will be available on Windows, macOS, and iOS has not yet been set. (Source:

Tech Radar

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: It’s important that you ensure that you and your employees are using some form of VPN service, particularly when they’re travelling or connecting to an unknown router. The encryption and privacy offered by VPNs can significantly reduce the chance of data breaches.

9. Trello introduces no-code automation features

List-making app Trello recently announced that its Premium users will now have unlimited access to the platform’s automation commands and features. Some of the automation features include the ability to prefill the most frequently used automation commands such as sorting lists by date, etc. Shareable automation commands — one of the new features — also lets users share automation commands to additional boards. Additionally, Snapshot reports will allow users to schedule and send email reports automatically. (Source:

Venture Beat

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Trello is an excellent productivity tool for teams that want to share tasks and project management responsibilities. The application is joining other popular apps by adding “no code” features for workflow and automation. If you’re a Trello user, you should ask for a demo.

10. GoDaddy launches website design for small biz

GoDaddy recently announced that it has launched a new service to help small businesses design websites. With the rollout of Website Design Service, the company is broadening its offerings to include more digital services geared toward small businesses, their budgets, and level of expertise. Within a few weeks, GoDaddy’s new service will provide professionally designed, modern WordPress websites for small businesses. (Source:

Daily News Egypt

)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: If your website is straightforward then this is a no-brainer. The company is offering many templates and easy-to-use tools for getting a site designed fast and up and running. Of course if you have more complex needs, you’re still going to need to shell out for an experienced developer.

Note: Some of these stories also appeared on Forbes.com.