Another set of features we’ve released today around Contacts allow you to link from Xero into other systems.

Firstly, you can now make Skype Calls directly from Xero.

We’re hearing a number of our accounting partners are working from home, walking through Xero alongside their customers using Skype. Now that is Accounting 2.0!

We’ve also added the ability to build your own custom links to your CRM system directly from Xero contacts.  You set up Contact Links under your Organisation settings. We have a link builder that makes it easy to match contact fields inside Xero to your other systems.

Let us know what other systems you link to and what their link formats are and we’ll look at adding them in directly.  What CRM systems are you using?

Rod Drury, CEO of Xero, has been invited to speak at a Rackspace and Microsoft hosted event in London entitled ‘The Route to SaaS and Beyond’.

It’s a crucial half-day seminar and networking lunch for people interested in Software-as-a-Service and the on-demand application delivery model.

When is it?
Thursday 2nd October 2008, 9:30am - 1:30pm

Where is it?
Microsoft London, 100 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL

How much does it cost?
This is a free seminar.

Get the full details and register now.

This article I wrote in response to comments on the Capital Market Development Task Force appeared on NBR online today.

Listing benefits greater than just cash

Read the rest of this entry »

Proworkflow is the latest application to connect with Xero. When people use Proworkflow to raise an invoice it automatically appears in Xero.

This is remarkable because…

• Proworkflow can now offer an accounting solution as an extension of their product
• The accounting solution works seamlessly with their existing software
• It’s super easy for their customers to start using instantly
• It was super easy for the developers at Proworkflow to setup

The list of applications that connect to Xero is growing quickly. It’s impossible for each of these SaaS providers (software-as-a-service) to write their own accounting system. But that’s what their customers want and need. Now they can just connect to Xero. They get an accounting system that integrates perfectly with their software, while Xero becomes the accounting engine for any application on the internet.

With platforms like the Xero Network, SaaS providers can offer their customers a more complete solution with a wider range of options. It also opens up a very effective way to reach new customers.

I seem to be on a bit of a speaking tour at present with the CIO Summit in Auckland being my most recent event. I was there to talk about our security work with Aura Software Security and how they’ve been critical to the success of our security story.

Our reputation depends on providing airtight security and from the early days of Xero we have been working with the experts at Aura to continually audit our security and provide us independent expertise on how to integrate secure practices throughout our organisation. Aura have been highly impressed by Xero because “the security of Xero was embedded in the company’s mindset and filtered down from the CEO right through to the admin team”. It is this “holistic” view of security throughout Xero that has been the driving force behind this success.

Below are some of the security precautions we take. There are many more that we won’t publish because, as you might expect, that wouldn’t be good security policy:

• We model our security on the policies and measures taken by banks. To be as “secure as a bank” is an aspirational goal for us and one we continually strive for.
• We use 128 bit SSL encryption, the same used for internet banking.
• Our servers are hosted with a world leading hosting provider, delivering the highest levels of availability, performance and security.
• Only a select few authorised personnel at Xero have access to the Xero production environment and all access is actively monitored and logged.
• No one has access to your organisation unless you’ve invited them. You can remove any invited users whenever you want. You have the option to invite Customer Care, but it’s for support purposes only and completely at your discretion.
• There is an audit trail of everything a user has done in Xero and you can monitor the activity of all your invited users.
• Users must choose a strong password and we enforce automatic lockouts when incorrect usernames and passwords are entered, alerting us to any attempts to hack in.
• We don’t allow the browser to save your login information which mitigates unauthorised access from a stolen or compromised computer.
• If you are logged in and don’t use Xero for an extended period you will be automatically logged out in case you’ve left your computer unattended.
• Security is an ongoing process, not a singular event – we continuously reinforce our defences.

How is Xero more secure than desktop software?

• Unlike desktop applications your data isn’t stored on your computer, so if your laptop is lost or stolen no one can access your data without a login.
• Providing access to your data by inviting specific users into your organisation and controlling their access is much more secure than emailing your data around or giving out discs with your data on it.

While we continually work very hard to keep Xero and your data secure there are some simple steps you can take to stay protected as well:

• Create a password nobody can guess, so no dictionary words or family names. Be cryptic or use multi-word pass phrases - easy to remember, hard to crack.
• Don’t write your password on a sticky note and attach it to your computer.
• Don’t share your email address and password with anyone else. Xero allows for unlimited users for each organisation: that feature is there for your security - use it!
• Keep your browser software up to date. For enhanced security we recommend Internet Explorer 7 (download here) or Firefox 3 (download here)
• Make sure you have anti-virus software installed and kept up to date.
• Make sure you only login at https://go.xero.com/.

Interesting post from Paul Graham on ideas they’d like to fund.

Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund

We get some nice hits in there but from a broader perspective this shows some of the great opportunities that the SaaS world is leaving open.

I especially like this one …

7. Something your company needs that doesn’t exist. Many of the best startups happened when someone needed something in their work, found it didn’t exist, and quit to build it. This is vaguer than most of the other recipes here, but it may be the most valuable. You’re working on something you know customers want, because you were the customer. And if it was something you needed at work, other people will too, and they’ll be willing to pay for it.

I’ve always found that’s the best way to start a technology business. AfterMail and Xero were both like that for me.

Anyone that thinks that selling SaaS into the small business market is easy - hasn’t done it before.  It’s taken a huge amount of work to get out there and just talk to lots and lots of people.

Small business owners are very busy. They aren’t looking for new solutions and they usually haven’t had good experiences with software.  So for our first year it was hand to hand combat.  Each sale we had to win.

But a year or so in and we’re starting to see the benefits of that hard work.  I was in Hawkes Bay with the family when I stopped off to pick up some stuff from a local small business.  The owner spotted me looping the building looking for a park and came down to serve me himself.  I asked how his business was going and he said it’s booming but all that growth is stretching his systems.

Never one to miss an opportunity I of course asked what he used for his accounting system.  He responded with the well known 4 letter word brand and I asked how that was going.  Normal response of frustration.

With 2 fingers already around my business cards I introduced myself to which his eye lit up and said ‘Xero’, my son was raving about it last week. He’s been on for two months and loves it.  We’re looking at changing soon. 

That’s the sort of response that we’re starting to hear more and more.  We’ve learned that small business is about word of mouth, not advertising.

You do need to build a brand. A great way to accelerate your brand through partnering. Here’s an example of how the BNZ promotes us inside their business banking site.

Linking ourselves to the BNZ accelerates our brand credibility and trust.  We put a lot of work into these partnerships and try to provide lots of value to them, which allows them to help out newer companies like ours.

The next step is educating customers as to why they should change.  We do that by trying to drive people to our website.  That’s a challenge all on its own but once there our approach is to have our customers tell their stories. We put our two new case studies today.  Wellington Open Source hero’s SilverStripe and the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a charitable trust.

Once customers are in, then it’s all about customer care.  We’ve invested a lot in a team and systems to track customer feedback and be able to pass questions around so that anyone in the team can answer a question and that feedback and learnings from the care team get into the product. Customer care is what creates evangelists in your user base.

We doubt that anyone changes accounting systems without checking it out with someone else first.  Word of mouth is absolutely key.  That’s why todays Xero moment was such a buzz. As I’ve often said - in the immortal words of business legend Rachel Hunter - “It won’t happen overnight but it will happen”