Cloud accounting provider’s ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001 accreditations ‘lay foundations for expansion’

Accounting software disruptor iplicit has achieved international standards for information security and quality management as it gears up for more growth.

Accounting software disruptor iplicit has achieved international standards for information security and quality management as it gears up for more growth.
The company secured the ISO/IEC 27001:2017 accreditation for information security management and ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, building on its existing recognition as Registered Account Information Service provider with the Financial Conduct Authority.

The cloud accounting provider, which entered the market in 2019, recently recorded 10,000 users and is on track to reach 80,000 by 2025. Its chief executive, Lyndon Stickley, has said it is disrupting the market “like Netflix did with Blockbuster”.

iplicit's chief operating officer, Ed Gairdner, said the latest accreditations followed an extensive third-party audit and showed the whole organisation, led by the board and senior management, was committed to information security and quality management.

“I think people associate information security with the engineering department and think it’s about data centres and how the product is built. Whilst this is key, it’s also about how we, as the employees of iplicit, understand our role within the management of information security, because at the end of the day, most data breaches are through human error,” he said.

“We’re putting the right processes and structures in place from which to scale the business.”

Gap in the market

iplicit was launched to fill a gap in the market for businesses that have outgrown entry-level or on-premise accounting systems but find the big enterprise-level systems unattractive or cost-prohibitive.

“In that mid-tier market, there is great scrutiny on how information security and quality management is being undertaken,” said Gairdner.

“As part of their due diligence on us as a key service provider, clients rightly need to know we have robust procedures in place.”

A four-day audit looked at iplicit’s security policies, procedures, training and evidencing how iplicit conforms to both ISO standards.

“This kind of accreditation was always at the heart of the way we wanted to establish the business,” said Gairdner.

“It’s putting the foundation blocks in place, from which we can truly grow, and ensuring information security and quality management are front and centre in how we execute our strategy of creating the most intuitive and affordable yet powerful accounting solution.”

iplicit began with a team of around five and expects to have 80 employees by the end of 2023.

The company became a Financial Conduct Authority-registered account information service provider in 2020.

It was named Mid-market and Enterprise Accounting Software of the Year at the Accounting Excellence Awards in 2020. It then secured gold in the Enterprise Accounting/ERP category of the AccountingWEB Software Awards 2021, a customer satisfaction poll voted for by thousands of users.