Posts Tagged: Brexit

Brexit Day is here!

BrexitFour years after the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union, the day has come when the UK will officially exit the EU. This will happen at 11pm UK time this evening, Friday 31st January 2020.  There then follows an 11 month transitional period. During this transition, the UK will continue to abide by EU laws and regulations. At the same time, it will negotiate it own trade deals with both the EU and the rest of the world.

As we are a UK-based business we wanted to take this opportunity to again reassure our customers about our position and the impact on MIDAS during this transition.

We’d like to remind customers that all our administrative operations are based here in the UK. Our primary server infrastructure resides in the United States (with backup systems in the UK). We have no staffing or physical infrastructure in other EU countries. Therefore, the UK exiting the EU later today will not affect the day-to-day running of our own operations going forward.

Over 90% of our customers will reside outside of EU countries once the UK leaves the EU. Consequently, any subsequent volatility within the EU itself will have a negligible impact on our financial position.

We continue to do business across the globe – including with other EU states. Our current and future EU customers are no less valued than our customers in any other country. This won’t change after today’s Brexit.

Pricing and Exchange Rates

As you may be aware, we recently revised the pricing model for the cloud-hosted edition of our software. We have now, however, adjusted our prices as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

As we offer payment for MIDAS in a number of global currencies (including Euros), our prices automatically update daily based on global exchange rates. Previously these automatic updates were based on the exchange rate that particular day alone. Since the Brexit vote was delivered back in June 2016, and the fluctuations this caused in currency exchange rates, we’ve improved our exchange rate calculations. They are now instead based on an “average” of the exchange rate over the previous 8 weeks. This helps smooth out any short term “blips” that may occur from day-to-day. The result is a more consistent price is shown on our website for non GBP currencies, including Euros.

In conclusion..

We’re hopeful and excited about the UK’s future in the global economy. Whilst we are “Brexiting” today, our EU customers – both existing and future – won’t be treated any differently. For all intents and purposes, it continues to be “business as usual” here at MIDAS HQ!


Reducing International Price Fluctuations

 
 
 
 
 

As you may be aware, we are a UK based business. Consequently, our “base” pricing is in Pound Sterling (GBP).

However our customer base is global, with around 70% of our customers residing outside the UK.

Because of our global reach, we also accept payment in a variety of other currencies too. This includes Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), and US Dollar (USD).

As our core pricing is referenced back to Pound Sterling (GBP), our systems routinely retrieve daily the current exchange rates between GBP and each of the other currencies we support. We obtain our exchange rates from the ECB (European Central Bank). We then use this data to automatically adjust the prices you see on our website. This occurs each day and for transparency, we display the date & time when the exchange rates were last updated.

This may mean that if you view international (non-Sterling) pricing on our website on any given day, and then check back another day the prices may have changed from those listed upon your initial visit.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the prices you’ll see on your return visit will be higher. In fact, in many cases they may be lower! Indeed, since the UK voted to leave the EU back in June last year, our non-Sterling prices have been on average 10% lower than they were before 23rd June 2016.

We’re committed to fair and transparent pricing. Our core Sterling pricing for MIDAS has remained fixed for a number of years now and has not been raised as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

However, due the wider instability and uncertainty in global markets that have become more prevalent in recent times, as a result of – for example, Brexit and the Trump presidency – this had tended to mean that our international prices have fluctuated a little more day to day than they have done previously.

Therefore, for the benefit of all our customers, we’ve now introduced a small improvement in the way that our systems automatically adjust our international (non Sterling) pricing each day.

Increasing Exchange Rate Stability

Instead of using the current exchange rates on each specific day itself in isolation, our systems now take an average of the daily exchange rates over the previous 7 day period. Effectively, we’re now using a “rolling 7 day average” to adjust our international prices.

This helps smooths out and reduce small price fluctuations you may see on our website from day to day!

We also know that many organizations require a formal fixed-price quotation. We’re very happy to provide quotations upon request. The prices given on these quotations would be fixed for a period of 30 days. Please contact us for a quote today if interested!