Corporate Vision September 2017

32 CORPORATE VISION / September 2017 , Game-Changing Software Xero provides online accounting software for over one million small businesses and their accountants, across all sectors. We spoke to director of financial web & ecosystem, Edward Berks to find out more about the company and their thoughts onwinning the Best FinTech Software Development Company 2017 accolade. “The team at Xero is delighted to have been awarded the Best FinTech Software Development Company 2017 accolade. In the 10 years since it was founded, Xero has transformed the way small businesses and accountants operate, helping them work smarter and faster in the cloud. As such, they are thrilled to have been recognised for their services by Corporate Vision.” Director of financial web & ecosystem, Edward Berks explains more about winning this prestigious award and tells us about the Xero’s collaborative approach. He also introduces the company’s work in providing online accounting software and their impressive growth, as the interview kicks off. “We work hard to provide a pure cloud model for over one million small businesses and their accountants. This is changing the game for customers - by being able to access their financial data anywhere, anytime and on any device - they can take control of their cashflow and run their business more strategically. Xero’s collaborative approach, through our add-on community has also changed things for the small business and accounting community, giving customers a huge range of innovative cloud- based B2B apps that help them to make the art of doing business that much easier. “Xero provides online accounting software for over one million small businesses and their accountants, across all sectors. Combining real-time connectivity, with easy- to-use software tools and apps, Xero uses the cloud to give users instant access to up-to-the-minute data. Users can access their financial data anywhere, anytime and since launching, popularity in the small business and accounting communities has seen Xero become the UK’s leading online accounting software for small businesses. “Most recently, we announced that Xero will surpass 200 staff and £25 million revenues in the UK and that we’ve expanded our Milton Keynes HQ, to accommodate 100 new sales and customer experience staff.” Edward then reveals the company’s overall mission and what differentiates them from their competitors. “The company’s mission is to provide beautiful accounting and payroll software for small businesses and accountants, to help them thrive. Our software simplifies - automates and streamlines the tasks that small business owners dread, saving time for accountants and giving business owners the time back to concentrate on the reason why they started their business in the first place - which is very rarely because they love doing their finances! “Xero was the first technology provider to incorporate bank feeds into its software platform and continues to deliver user-friendly interfaces and features, that help users to work both smarter and faster. A key part of our platform is its Xero Add-on community, a thriving technology ecosystem, that gives software developers fast access to small businesses and owners and directors of those small companies a huge choice of innovative cloud-based B2B apps. “In the last year, this application community grew significantly. Now there are well over 500 certified add-on solutions from all over the world – comprising everything from CRM systems to point of sale and inventory management – integrating directly with Xero.” Edward then provides a fascinating overview of the wider technology industry in the UK, 1707CV14 including any specific challenges or outside influences affecting it. “Building in the cloud takes huge investment and, as such, Xero has taken 10 years and over $200 million to build the functionality for its platforms. Adding to the high cost market, the competition in fintech is notoriously high. To fight the competitive nature of fintech, we pride ourselves on continually upgrading our platform throughout the year. “Very few vendors offer as much flexibility and transparency as we do, as upgrades are taken care of and available the next time a customer logs in anywhere in the world. The Xero roadmap for development is planned in response to user requests and emerging trends, such as the adoption of all things mobile, banking as well as US payroll. Accounting partners are also consulted in advance on features specific to them. “Another challenge when building a fintech platform, is realising the wide array of tools needed by an SME. This means we could have never stopped at simply building accounting tools - we went on to develop business tools that larger enterprises take for granted. To do so, we created a small business network