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Showcases: Xero
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What is Xero?
Xero is an online accounting system that provides financial confidence and clarity to small business owners and their advisers in real-time.
Founded in Wellington, New Zealand in 2006 by successful technology entrepreneur Rod Drury and specialist small business accountant Hamish Edwards;
Xero listed on the main board of the New Zealand stock exchange in June 2007.
Recently, Xero was launched in the massive UK market and is currently undertaking market entry research into Australia. The company continues to
grow and now consists of 50 staff with offices in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and London.
Xero - the product
Xero's point of difference is enabling the relationship between accountants and their clients through online collaboration.
Xero is a full accrual accounting system. Currently some features included in Xero are:
- Cash book and general ledger
- Automated daily bank feeds
- Automated matching of bank statements
- Accounts receivable invoicing
- Accounts payable
- Employee reimbursements ( expense claims)
- GST reporting
- Budget and variance reporting
- Tracking or divisional costing
Designed for small businesses, Xero is operated on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis where the application is hosted by Xero and delivered over
the internet and customers pay a small monthly subscription.
Businesses that have already proven to be particularly valuable to Xero generally display at least one of the following characteristics:
proactive about business growth; working from multiple locations; geographically dispersed; feeling the limitations of a cash book or; in need of
better cash flow and invoice management.
Many service-based businesses are using Xero including: consulting, software, marketing, architecture, construction, accounting, property management,
investment property owners and real estate agents.
Xero - the technology
To build an application that was both complex and that has to scale globally to a large market Xero needed to design a framework specifically developed
from the ground up to be a technology enabler for SaaS-based application development. The Xero Framework has been designed using best-of-breed technologies
including SQL Server, ASP.NET and LLBLGen Pro.
Finding a technology for all database interaction that integrated perfectly within the Xero Framework was crucial from day 1, and LLBLGen Pro was easily
the best and most mature technology available. It was important to us to find a tool that integrated into our processes and our architecture, was easy to
use and maintain and that was fast - both for developing against and in execution against our SQL Server databases. It was imperative that this tool
provided both the necessary abstraction and robustness for us to focus on business functionality and not technology, so we could release new
functionality to our customers early and often.
LLBLGen Pro wins out on all these counts - it is a key part of our technology strategy and our ability to compete in a global market.
Craig Walker
Chief Technology Officer
Xero
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