November 5, 2025 • 5 minutes
Let’s give credit where it’s due: our industry has started to pull together, which deserves real recognition. For too long, the sector was seen as fragmented, with different voices pulling in different directions. This year, however, a shift has become clear. Whether it’s providers, platforms, agencies, or compliance bodies, there is now genuine alignment beginning to emerge.
A big reason for that change is the role of trade bodies and working groups that act as conveners across the sector. BASDA (The Business Application Software Developers Association) has been instrumental in ensuring that collaboration extends to the software community. By operating through representation and shared knowledge, BASDA ensures that the voice of the UK business software industry is heard at the highest levels whether in government, among policymakers, or within industry media. In the same way, the FCSA’s industry group is a great example bringing together diverse perspectives, focusing on practical solutions, and driving meaningful conversations across the supply chain.
As members of BASDA, we’ve seen how collective efforts like these strengthen the principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness in business software values that are essential not only for compliance, but also for building trust and driving sustainable innovation across the sector.
BASDA’s Role in the Industry
BASDA plays a vital role as the collective voice of the UK business software sector, ensuring that the concerns of its members are heard by government, policymakers and wider industry stakeholders. Through its Specialist Interest Groups, BASDA members collaborate on key issues, share knowledge and shape the agenda in areas such as payroll, HR, accounting, pensions and construction software. Alongside organisations like CIPP and the FCSA, BASDA contributes to practical, evidence-based policy discussions ensuring that software providers, their customers, and ultimately end users benefit from fairer, more effective outcomes.
Our Engagement with BASDA
We’ve been proud members of BASDA for more than six years, working closely with the association to strengthen the collective voice of the business software industry. Through this collaboration, we’ve been able to contribute to driving innovation, influencing policy, and championing the future of business technology.
Our Product Director, Adam Herridge, plays an active role as Co-Chair of the BASDA Payroll, Pensions & HR Specialist Interest Group, helping to maintain close links with government bodies and shape the implementation of critical policies. One example of this has been our involvement in discussions around the forthcoming 2026 joint and several liability changes, where BASDA has enabled the industry to present a more unified position.
At the heart of our engagement lies a commitment to BASDA’s core principles, values that are essential to maintaining trust in payroll, pensions, and HR software, and ensuring the sector continues to serve both organisations, their employees and ultimately, their customers responsibly.
Adam’s Role
With more than a decade of experience in the software industry specialising in payroll and accountancy, Adam Herridge brings both technical expertise and strategic vision to his role. At Kintec, he is responsible for product strategy, roadmap planning, and compliance.
Within BASDA, Adam has played an increasingly active leadership role: first as Vice Chairperson of the Payroll, Pensions and HR Specialist Interest Group (SIG) from 2021, before being appointed Co-Chairperson in January 2024. His contribution was further recognised in June 2023 with his appointment to the BASDA General Council, where he has applied his insights in payroll and software development to support the association’s broader aims and objectives. Through these roles, Adam ensures that industry perspectives are represented effectively, while also contributing to the development of fair, practical, and future-focused solutions across the software sector.
The Value of Industry Collaboration
When industry bodies and software providers work together, the benefits extend far beyond individual organisations. Collaboration creates the ability to anticipate and respond to legislative change more effectively, something especially important with the significant 2026 joint and several liability legislations on the horizon. By preparing early and working collectively, the sector can ensure compliance while minimising disruption. Collaboration also enables members to share knowledge and expertise, strengthening industry standards and raising the bar for everyone involved. By collecting resources and insight, the industry can achieve greater cost and time efficiencies, avoid duplicated efforts and accelerating the delivery of reliable, compliant solutions.
Looking Ahead
The next few years will be pivotal for our sector, particularly with the 2026 joint and several liability legislations set to reshape compliance requirements across payroll, pensions, and HR. Preparing for these changes will demand not only technical readiness but also close cooperation between providers, trade bodies, and policymakers. By continuing to work collectively, we can ensure that solutions are both practical and fair, safeguarding the interests of organisations while protecting end users.
Looking further ahead, the principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness will remain central to building trust in business software. Industry collaboration will be key to embedding these values, enabling innovation while ensuring that software continues to meet the needs of employers, employees, and regulators. BASDA, alongside its members, has an important role to play in sustaining this momentum helping to create an environment where collaboration is the norm, and where collective progress delivers benefits that no single organisation could achieve alone.
Conclusion: A Call for Collective Action
We’ve seen first-hand the value that comes from working collaboratively through BASDA. We’ve been able to share our experiences, contribute to shaping policy, and engage with peers across the industry. It’s clear to us that only by coming together can we anticipate challenges like the 2026 joint and several liability reforms, influence how they are implemented, and build solutions that serve organisations and their people responsibly.
We remain committed to the principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness not just in how we build software, but in how we contribute to the wider sector. But this isn’t something any single organisation can achieve alone. The momentum we’re seeing now from BASDA, the FCSA, and across providers, platforms, and agencies shows what’s possible when the industry speaks with a united voice.
The changes ahead won’t define us; how we prepare for them will. And we believe the only way to prepare well is to prepare together.
