I promised to say more about Xero and have now had time to sift through some of the customer stories. Regular readers will know I place far more credence on these than I do on what a vendor has to say. They’re encouraging. Even more encouraging are the words of Andrew Sandiford, Head of Business Advisory and Assurance at Target, Chartered Accountants:
Target see themselves as Financial “Guardian Angels” to businesses, and this is now possible using Xero, as Andrew explains:
“We can keep an eye on client’s accounts as and when we want to; we can just login and look at what their current financial situation is, and contact them as required. We offer the monitoring services of an FD to companies that could not afford that level of expertise otherwise. But we can only do this because of how Xero works.”
As to what using Xero means for his Accountancy firm, Andrew is clear: “Xero offers us the unique chance to really be integral to our clients’ businesses like we have never been before. We will add greater value to the relationships we have with existing clients, and I know this will mean we attract more clients in the future.”
The full case study can be found here.
Xero is still very much in the ‘testing the waters’ stage to figure out what works and what doesn’t but even so, having this kind of endorsement from a firm of professionals can only do them good.
I like they’ve organized all the essential data any business needs into a dashboard that’s readily understood. As the old saw goes: a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Having embedded help tips for each section adds value for end users.
It will be interesting to see how Xero progresses in the UK, especially given they’re aiming at the ’spreadsheet hell’ crowd that wants to keep a full set of books but doesn’t want the hassle normally associated with book-keeping, yet is prepared to put the modicum of effort required to do the job properly. That won’t be everyone but the market is large enough for it to be attractive to on-demand players of all kinds.
During my discussions with co-founder Hamish Edwards, we talked about alert mechanisms. I like the idea but figuring out how it works is tricky. As a professional, do you want to know every transaction that might be incorrect, once a day (where applicable), weekly, monthly? Think about this from a marketing perspective. If you’re able to help clients solve their problems in a pro-active manner, then you’re fostering a strong relationship. You’re delivering value by focusing on the most important ’stuff’ and ensuring that clients know you care. That’s simply not possible with desktop and client/server applications.
That’s why, rather than talking about software as a service (saas) I am now leaning towards business as a service or BaaS. That’s how it should be, don’t you think?
