XERO CEO Rod Drury says competitors can't catch up to Xero & Xero will be adding in inventory as the next free set of functionality

Ian Murphy for Cloud-Business.com writes: Cloud has been sold as the big equaliser for many businesses. In a lot of ways it is. If you are starting a business why waste money on infrastructure that you may not need or software licences that you won't grow into for years. If you are even moderately successful, the ability of cloud to move your capital expenditure (CAPEX) to an operational expenditure (OPEX), where you only pay for something when  you use it, means small companies and start-ups have been sticking it to large incumbents over the last few years.

But what about those companies who have already embraced the cloud and designed their entire software suite and even platform for the cloud? Is it as easy to catch, compete and overtake them? According to Rod Drury, CEO of Xero, a cloud-based accounting company focused on the SME market who have only been around seven years, the answer is a resounding no!

At Xerocon London, Drury took to the stage and in a measured speech, devoid of the histrionics and show business often associated with CEO keynotes, he attempted to rouse the audience with facts and numbers. Without wishing to encourage a stereotype, an audience of accounting people struggled to get any serious laughter, whopping and laughing going, despite the attempts by the Xero crew at the back of the room to encourage them.

This meant that there was nothing to distract from Drury as he made it clear why Xero were dominating their market segment and why he believes they will never be caught. Some of the facts and numbers included:

1000 staff with 445 added in the last year alone

19 offices worldwide

$171 million sitting in the bank available for investments presumably including mergers and acquisitions

15,225 accounting partners worldwide, all of whom are actively acting as Xero's sales channel

3,000 training and sales events to help the channel sell and to attract new accountant partners

$250 million invested in building out their platform

Payroll the latest feature to be added to the core package for no additional cost

The UK is the third largest market and growing fast

Transactions from NZ-based companies inside Xero represent around a quarter of the national GDP

Over 500TB in financial transaction data now stored on Xero servers

 (SNIP, the article continues @ Cloud-Business.com, click here to continue reading....)