Global businesses have shifted technology procurement dollars into SaaS platforms with increasing speed over the last several years. The shift has become so pronounced that industry analyst Gartner predicts that global public cloud revenue will rise by an astonishing 21.4% in this year alone. Despite the enormous growth, the sector of the SaaS market aimed at small businesses has lagged behind.
There is one company that is looking to help make 2018 the year of small business SaaS, though. SaaS solution provider Xero has recently announced a whole raft of new features coming to their platform at their annual partner conference in Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve also been supporting the increased availability of eLearning opportunities through Xero courses available online. The efforts are part and parcel of the company’s shift from a cloud accounting provider to a full-fledged small business platform, epitomized by their “beautiful business” slogan. Here’s a look at the most important features they’ve added.
Automated Bill Entry
One of the most intriguing new features that Xero announced at the conference was the addition of an AI-powered automated bill entry system. The AI backend is designed to scan and extract data from bills and invoices to automatically populate the details into the Xero accounting system with little to no user intervention. The feature should save hours of manual labor for small businesses that use the platform, and reduce costly data entry errors that multiply losses at reconciliation time.
Upgrades to Xero Projects
The Xero Projects system is a simple-to-use project tracking tool for small businesses. Soon, users of the system will be able to track time and costs within their projects, to provide high visibility to managers and business owners alike. Additionally, the Android and iOS versions of the Xero Projects app will gain a timer function to help measure billable hours, and the ability to record projects for viewing by off-site managers. Most importantly, the whole system is now available to customers in the US, giving Xero a global reach into small business project management for the first time.
Xero Ask and Relationships
One of the biggest challenges that bookkeepers and accountants face, especially in the small business sector, is gathering information from customers and employees. It’s costly to pay accounting professionals to do the requisite legwork required to gather accurate responses to questions that could affect the reliability of their work. The Xero Ask system provides a centralized and automated query center that connects accountants, clients, and staff to eliminate any ambiguity in financial data collection. Early users of the system report that they receive complete responses to their questions within one week 83% of the time, which represents huge time savings over traditional data collection methods.
A Comprehensive Solution
The new features coming to the Xero SaaS platform indicate how serious they are about transforming into a one-stop-shop for small business accounting and operations management. The AI and automation features should finally give small businesses a true glimpse of the kinds of cost savings that larger companies have enjoyed for years through enterprise-level SaaS systems. That’s the real takeaway from the flurry of announcements at the Xero conference. By tightly integrating the latest technological advancements into a system aimed specifically at small businesses, Xero stands a good chance of finally making SaaS a core component of small business success now and into the foreseeable future.
