Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Xero's "Ecosystem"

Posted on 6:21 AM by Unknown

Paul Scholes for AccountingWeb UK writes:   I've just spotted the press notice about it being time to make friends with Xero's Ecosystem and advising:
"If you are supporting clients on Xero, it's very much in your interest to stay up to date with their growing Add-on community"
From a Green Partner's perspective, I have found it difficult and time consuming enough to suss out what Xero itself is capable of and to match it to my clients, without having to trawl through hundreds of add-ons to see if there's something else out there that may be of use.
I made the point earlier in the year that it would be a great help to have a simple comparison chart in areas where there are several competing add-ons otherwise, as I did with one of my clients, I don't have the time to do the leg work Xero seems to see as being so beneficial for us, and so just move on to a system that has the facility built in.
If it's too time consuming for Xero to do this, how about providing a list of things Xero can't do so we at least know when an add-on will be needed, eg see Moonbeam's post below this one.
Finally, my idea of an Ecosystem is one that has evolved naturally and where all the constituent elements provide a near perfect environment for the organisms that rely on it.  In such an evolution, and to avoid chaos, there will only be a few elements competing for one place, ie the best suited finds its place until something better comes along.  Maybe it's me but Xero's methodology of multi-bolt-ons isn't an Ecosystem.
Comments

Moonbeam's picture

Too True, Squire

Moonbeam | Mon, 04/11/2013 - 15:22 | Permalink
I couldn't have said it better myself (said somewhat crossly)

Response to your comments re: our article    5 thanks

Eva Perrone - djca | Mon, 04/11/2013 - 17:35 | Permalink
Thanks for your comments, you've raised some good points!
It can definitely be time consuming keeping up with the continous growth of add on softwares, that's for sure. Your suggestion of some sort of comparison chart is fantastic too, and would help speed up the decision making process a lot. Perhaps Xero could be clearer about what it can do now, what it will do soon, and what it will never do. Could be a good suggestion to make in their community perhaps? 
However, I think your definition of an 'ecosystem' does match the Xero's version rather well. The growth of add-on software has happened naturally to provide a near perfect environment for those that rely on it. This is largely because those that rely on it, have a hugely diverse range of requirements.
If every business that used Xero was similar, we'd only need a few add-on's as you suggested, and it would all be a piece of cake. But because Xero users come in all sorts of sizes, their ecosystem needs to be adaptive to cater to this. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to create a 'near perfect environment' for them. 
I think it's actually this range that makes it quite the valuable ecosystem, as it promotes the 'Best of Breed' model that Cloud Software caters for so well.  Although it might involve a little extra research from us to begin with, we think you end up with a better fit for a happier client, that can save you processing time later down the track. 
Each to their own though!
Cheers,
Eva

Dan_Fairbairn's picture

Agreed, but there is help out there

Dan_Fairbairn | Mon, 04/11/2013 - 22:45 | Permalink
Disclosure - I am an implementation partner for Xero, and work with many accountants.
Totally agree Paul, I see the complication for Xero Add-Ons regularly, although there is help at hand. I'm aware that Xero are looking to further support their partners which new 'implementation partners' who can assist with this. I think this is a really good avenue as then you can involve a specialist for your clients as and when you need to.
I don't believe there should be a need for you to keep up with all of the latest software trends and updates, in the same way as I don't know all of the latest accounting changes. As mentioned above I work with various accountants in the UK, US and Australia/NZ who require some expertise for specific clients cases, and think this is the best way of working.
You stay an expert in your chosen field, and you can hire an expert in theirs.
Happy to discuss further with anybody who is interested.

Dan Fairbairn - Project Manager : Software Implementation


Paul Scholes's picture

Eva    1 thanks

Paul Scholes | Mon, 04/11/2013 - 23:11 | Permalink
Hi - thanks for your response.
I'm glad you think a comparison chart of add-ons would be fantastic, and so, with your standing in the Xero community, maybe you could put it forward? When I made the suggestion, I was ignored, the impression I got was "that's your job not ours".  
I don't mind if you put it forward as your idea, I'm sure the 1 or 2 staff members you pick each month to research the add-ons would be delighted to have this assistance in reducing their non-chargeable time.
As far as putting this sort of thing on the community pages is concerned, I've never seen this suggested by a user before, so a first.  As I say, I'm sure you have more clout, but, for me, the thought of trawling through 400 threads on add-ons and 1,100 feature requests is a non-starter. Ironically I made a similar point 6 months ago but, as far as I can see it's got worse (for us in the UK).
You say that the growth of add-ons has happened naturally which suggests that there is little, if any overlap, between them, ie they don't compete.  If this was the case then I agree Xero + its add-ons would indeed be everything to all those differing businesses.
However, just looking at the first three categories, Bills & Expenses has 13 add-ons, CRM 21 and Debtor tracking 6.  I've been around accounts for a long time but I doubt I could think of the sort of variety of methodologies indicated by these numbers, in fact I gave up after one in Debtor tracking. 
Seriously, it's Xero promoting these things to us as suitable (they have presumably been  vetted?) so it should be Xero that tell us why and what the various merits are, after all wouldn't that sell more Xero?
Finally, what's bugging me is why the other accounting systems in the UK, with their tens of thousands of users, haven't seen the need, or marketing opportunity, to trawl up hundreds of add-ons. I'm guessing that part of the explanation is that they offer more facilities as standard and prefer to target maybe 90% of UK businesses rather than 100%?

Michael Wood's picture

An Add-on's perspective    3 thanks

Michael Wood | Tue, 05/11/2013 - 06:59 | Permalink
Hi Paul,
As a member of the Xero Add-on community I thought it might be useful to jump in with that perspective...
- Xero are trying to build a platform rather than just a product. 
I know that can sound like tech jargon but what is meant is that Xero should be applicable (as you suggested) to 100% of clients. Clearly not all the functions for all industries and all needs can be built be Xero hence an ecosystem of other software companies to fill the gaps. This is the primary reason that Xero have made efforts to increase the Add-on community as much as possible.
- You don't need to keep up with all the Add-ons!
As the vast majority of these partnerships are for very specific verticals or processes there shouldn't (as Dan mentioned above) be a need to "browse" the Add-ons regularly. Instead I would recommend to "search" when a problem or a need arrises.
- The Xero Community and its reviews
In order to help users navigate the large number of Add-ons (and specifically those within a set category) Xero have launched the Community.
This enables Xero users to vote on their Add-on experiences and hopefully provide some assistance to those who are newer to the ecosystem or a particular category.
Hope that helps!

Michael
Co-founder
Receipt Bank


Moonbeam's picture

Involving specialists

Moonbeam | Tue, 05/11/2013 - 08:35 | Permalink
As to us hiring a specialist to help us decide which software to use for a (max) 15 person company Dan is not in the real world.
Clients don't want to pay anything to us for our recommendations of software. They assume we have used these products extensively or have enough knowledge about them for it to be easy for us to pick the right software for them. There is no money to pay for a "specialist" and if we all knew what was on offer there would be little need.

Fundamentals …    2 thanks

JC | Tue, 05/11/2013 - 09:06 | Permalink
@Eva Perrone – djca
The issue @Moonbeam encountered demonstrates is that there are huge holes in the Xero offering which haven’t been plugged despite being around a while and having raised finance many times - http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group-thread/sales-and-purchase-order-pro... - Many businesses regard stock/order processing etc. as fundamental and for Xero to have only recently addressed this area is a major oversight
A few years ago ASP products first came to market missing chunks of functionality - revenue over functionality was the priority – but xx years on and still having no proper functionality fails to ‘wash’! In fairness Xero were not the only ones at the time, KashFlow was another
Web-services (api etc.) are a breeze to implement once good foundations are in place and Xero seems to have relied on this 3rd party approach more than others – get others to do the work for you to enhance your product, which is one way of avoiding the costs (upfront & support) of providing ‘proper’ systems. Although, it is interesting how api’s for eCommerce etc. can operate properly without their own stock/order processing systems - Eh!
@Paul Scholes seems to have hit the nail on the head in respect of other SaaS products ‘..the explanation is that they offer more facilities as standard ..’
Paul may remember a while ago I put up a post about data portability over different providers and the fact that the next logical step would be a universal standard data structure used by all providers with ‘add-on’ fields identified by <tags> and accessed by a single global set of web-services. Well excessive use of 3rd party api’s against a standard Xero db structure would seem to be going in that direction -http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/apis-popular-accounts...
A short step from a localised ecosystem (Xero) to a global ecosystem which is provider agnostic. We would then have a global community in place of a Xero community offering far greater benefits to the customer

daveforbes's picture

@JC

daveforbes | Tue, 05/11/2013 - 09:54 | Permalink
Now that does sound like a good idea ....
   :-)


Dan_Fairbairn's picture

I think there is possibly a

Dan_Fairbairn | Tue, 05/11/2013 - 11:18 | Permalink
I think there is possibly a little confusion here. Being as open and honest as I can, many services which a specialist implementation partner offers can be got by a client through some other way (every piece of software has a help file available), but that in itself involves time and money. This is the mistake far too many businesses make, and someone earlier mentioned the 15 person business with no budget for a specialist. What they will often fail to see is the huge amount of time and lost productivity in changing systems and processes without external support. Certainly the demands for services in the market says this is the case too.
Case in point - I recently updated websites and branding, something which I didn't 'really' have the budget for, and could have done myself through Google and general forum support plus late nights, however the several hundred to a specialist was a better option than the stress and many lost hours.
Also, every add on to Xero I've met is happy to answer any questions and provide current clients to talk to for referrals and recommendations, plus most implementation providers (including ourselves) are prepared to have initial open conversations without signing away the chequebook. Hope this helps, and I do also agree that there is some functionality in development which would really assist the majority of add on queries if it were in Xero (quoting and purchasing)


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