Company:        Bill.com
Started:            2003
Located:           Palo Alto, California
Geography:      Global
Market:            On-Demand Accounts Payable
Products:         Accounts Payable Management

                         Bill Payment

Key Customers:

Website:           Bill.com

Blog:                Bills 2.0

Recent News:

 

Bill.com CEO René Lacerte Named to List of Accounting Industry People to Watch in 2009

Bill.com Wins ‘Awesome Add-on’ Award for QuickBooks

Bill.com and Intacct Get Together on Financials

 

 

I asked Rene’ Lacerte, Bill.com’s Chief Executive Officer a few questions about his business and his view of the SaaS market in 2009.

Did you start out as a Software-as-a-Service company?   

We built Bill.com as a SaaS solution from day 1.  I have been a huge believer in software as a service model since my days at Intuit, well before the term was even used.  When I left Intuit, I started PayCycle, the first and largest SaaS payroll company.  With the huge customer satisfaction we enjoyed at PayCycle, it became clear to me that there is no better way to build software.  Once you go SaaS you never go back.  As such, I designed Bill.com from the beginning to take advantage of “Cloud Computing” both for our customers and for us—Bill.com operates 100% SaaS for our internal systems. 

Why do your customers buy from Bill.com?   

Our customers buy from us because we are the easiest and most affordable way for businesses to streamline the entire bill management process from bill receipt through payment and reconciliation. We call it collaborative online bill payment, and it drives huge efficiencies both within organizations and between accountants/bookkeepers and their clients.  Our paperless workflow approach combined with online payments allows our customers to save over 50% of the time and money they currently spend on A/P.

What do you see as the key trend emerging in the SaaS industry?

I think a key trend is the need for SaaS companies to deliver on the “Service” part of the name.  Software in the cloud is great but it is just software.  To me the power of the cloud is that it creates an unprecedented opportunity to “service” your clients.  At Bill.com that not only means creating a “WOW” experience when customers call, but it means leveraging the data our customers entrust to us to constantly provide them with services they couldn’t otherwise easily (or affordably) get, such as connectivity to banking and payment systems (both online and offline), fraud protection, and unlimited digital financial document management. 

 What is your outlook for 2009? 

Even in these tough times we are gaining speed and momentum, so I am optimistic about 2009.  More than ever, businesses need ways to become more efficient and save money, but they need to be able to do it quickly, inexpensively, and without long term commitments. That bodes well for SaaS applications that are laser-focused on improving real world business processes.  Once you try SaaS, it becomes clear that it is the only way to build and use software.  In fact, I don’t think anyone will be buying retail applications to run their business in 5 – 10 years.  That means there is a lot of growth for SaaS this year and for the next decade to come.

 

Thank you to Rene’ Lacerte and Jeff Schultz for contributing to this profile.