Xero Ahead

I met up with Rod Drury in Wellington on Friday and he gave me a brief demonstration of the Xero Accounting system that he and a highly talented team of designers and developers are currently taking to market through a limited public release.

Rod is perhaps best known in New Zealand for the successful development and eventual sale of the enterprise email archiving system, AfterMail. Xero is an entirely different proposition however and is probably one of the best examples of a NZ-inspired SaaS solution in the public domain at present.

The interface itself is based around a Dashboard, which hosts a number of essential small business accounting functions. Some clever proprietary graphics create some great visual effects allowing the user to assess data through a multi-dimensional view. Enough of the product however.

What makes this a standout proposition from my perspective is the high quality team that Rod has built around the business. He has contracted some of the brightest and smartest that NZ has - and not just on the development side. This is what makes it such an interesting project to follow.

Xero is currently only available to New Zealand businesses. The Xero website says that the company is looking to develop the core application for both the UK and the Australian markets. Clearly because of the nature of the product, compliance reporting for local tax requirements and integration with local banks means that different versions need to be developed for different markets.

It is how the Xero management team manage this process from New Zealand that is of greatest interest to me. From earlier posts, anyone who has read this blog will understand that most of my own focus is on developments and relationships with partners offshore. This brings its own special challenges in identifying the most appropriate models to follow when entering different overseas markets.

With the collective brain power that sits behind the Xero team, it will be very interesting to follow its progress. I suspect that it will create a great case study for other NZ-based software entrepreneurs and businesses, as well as being one that gives us all something valuable to learn from.

I left Wellington feeling pretty impressed.