xero ups the ante in the uk saas small busines

Let's hope Xero wll be emulate the MCs of Netsuite, Workdays and then Salesforce, in 2-3 years.

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Xero ups the ante in the UK SaaS small business accounting arena

Posted on 11/11/2013,

Category Business Application Software,SaaS,Software
Following the announcement that Xero raised some USD150 million in new capital from its investors, we took the opportunity to talk to the company to find out its latest plans.

Xero is a pure play SaaS-based accounting software vendor, originating in New Zealand, which has expanded into other English-speaking markets. It targets small businesses and accounting firms. Australia and the UK are Xero’s other major territories, and it is eyeing the US as the next big region to take on.
…….

....The company has been growing fast, and expectations are high.

Xero broke the USD20 million revenue bar in five years.
By comparison, it took
Salesforce.com (MC-$34B) four years to reach its first USD20 million mark,
five years for Workday (MC=US$13.2B)
and
eight years for Netsuite 9M+US$7.4B) .

Given Xero is targeting small and micro-enterprises, a market that is open to Cloud and to technology disruption in general, the company’s momentum may be just beginning.

…………

Xero reported over 30,000 customers in the UK as of September 2013; that is less than 1% of the total number of small business in the country. In its ambition to reach 1 million customers, Xero would look to attract about 170,000 small businesses in the UK, which would mean a 4% market share.
In PAC’s view, that is a plausible target given the investment and the financial backing Xero has and the still high fragmentation in the supplier landscape.

The company takes pride in having signed up over 1,200 UK accounting firms. These represent a major channel to reach micro- and small enterprises, as well as revenue in its own right. 60% of new client signups are driven through accounting firms, while the rest is more or less direct – e.g. through web sign-ups.


PAC’s View

The adoption of SaaS-based accounting is definitely challenging the “establishment”, with UK vendors such as Sage or Iris scrambling to adapt quickly to the SaaS era before it’s not too late.....

http://blog.pac-online.com/2013/11/xero-ups-the-ante-in-the-uk-saas-small-business-accounting-arena/