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Software firm's MD finds himself up in the clouds
THE head of a software development firm from Huddersfield has been elected as chair of an influential industry body on cloud computing.
Matt Holmes, the managing director of Liquid Accounts, is the new chairman of the cloud computing special interest group for the Business Application Software Developers Association.
Cloud computing systems run software and store information in remote, large-scale data farms that users and programmers access over the internet.
A spokeswoman for the firm said: "Mr Holmes is currently leading the debate on cloud computing... arguing that this is the new disruptive technology set to revolutionise the way we do things, as trains and railways did in the 19th century."
Mr Holmes, whose firm specialises in web-hosted accounting systems, will work closely with the group's deputy chair, David Turner, of Harrogate-based Coda.
Business interest in cloud computing has picked up since Amazon started offering storage and computing services over the web about three years ago.
Google and Salesforce.com are regarded as the other two early leaders.
Mr Holmes founded his firm in 2005 and spent three years on research and development.
He said Liquid's online software-as-a-service gives companies "mobility and flexibility" and helps them cut costs by saving money on expensive licences and upgrades.
The 40-year-old said: "One of the reasons I was appointed chairman is because we are seen as being among the people at the front. We have written all this software by ourselves. We have not outsourced it. It's UK based and it's difficult to do what we've done because otherwise everyone would be doing it."
Liquid last year won Best Web-Hosted Accounting Software at the Software Satisfaction Awards and has been shortlisted for Best Small Business Accounting Software at this year's awards in October.
It has eight full-time employees and three part-time, with a turnover last year of about 200,000.
Mr Holmes said: "We started selling it last year. Our sales grow every day."
Analysts say they expect the sector to grow rapidly over the coming years as companies look to slash costs by outsourcing costly data centre operations.
Gartner predicts that the market for such services will surge 31 per cent this year to $3.4bn, hitting $10.6bn in 2013.
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