Xero Blog

Another September, another Apple Event. Apple’s relentless annual rhythm grinds on, and the tech media has gathered expectantly around to see what pops out – or rather, to check the accuracy of the rumors that have already been extensively reported.

How did trust, that fundamental building block of human behaviour, become a cornerstone of modern business? Once something that required significant time and investment to build, maintain and yield results, trust is now being made and broken by strangers at speed – and that shift is being commoditised.

Open platforms are driving innovation in Australia’s technology industry, Xero CMRO Andy Lark this week told a room of nearly 200 startup founders and entrepreneurs in Sydney, on the eve of Xerocon South.

It’s no secret that Xero CMRO Andy Lark is passionate about small business. He’s a huge believer in the power of small biz networks and the importance of ecosystems. So, in the lead up to Xerocon South – the theme of which is ‘The Network Effect’ – Andy has invited CEOs from leading startups Hubdoc, SMB Consulants and Redii to join him for a panel discussion, focusing on the importance of ecosystems in driving global growth.

The proliferation of cloud technologies is bringing the world closer together. Connecting people and companies that were once rivals, on central platforms. This network effect is establishing a new generation of company, one that chooses to collaborate in a coordinated ecosystem in order to innovate and give customers the best experience possible.

The first ever SXSW event was held in March of 1986. To put that year into perspective in terms of tech: Email was referred to as ‘electronic mail’, and it’s primary users were the military and universities.

For many accounting professionals, the question is no longer “how will I move to cloud accounting?”, but “when?”. Xero Global Vice President of Education and USA Head of Accounting, Amy Vetter, recently sat down with Chris Curran and Mike Michalowicz for an episode of their Grow My Accounting Practice Podcast.

Xero Lead Security Architect, Aaron McKeown, recently shared several of his tips to help small business owners stay safe online. Ahead of his workshop at computer security conference, Black Hat, where he detailed some practical techniques small business owners can deploy to protect themselves against data breaches, here are a few of his top tips.

Having too many recurring payments coming in doesn’t seem like the worst problem to have, but for the founders of Rerun, this was their reality before starting the company. They found that, as a software developer with a growing number of customers on monthly and annual support plans, the costs associated with administration of these payments was growing.