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Project Overview

Xero Touch enables you to manage your business on the go – you can check the balances of your bank accounts as well as incoming and outgoing invoices through your smart phone.

Invoicing on the run dramatically improves cashflow - simply create and send invoices right from the app.

After a meeting with clients, enter the expense claim, snap a picture of the receipt and you’re done.

At the end of the day you can relax with your finances under control - thanks to Xero Touch.

Organisation

Xero

Team

Product Manager
Matt Vickers

Developers
Craig Walker
Terrence Wood
Lynn Barneto
Kyle Barrow

Head of Design
Philip Fierlinger

Lead Designer
Brock Abernethy

Head of QA
Andy Leeb

Quality Assurance
Cecile Diamante-Tupaz
Brandy Harvey
Craig McCormick

Marketing
Richard Phillips
PJ Warren
Sam Grover

Project Brief

Our objective with Xero Touch was to recreate the experience of our beautiful accounting software web app on the iPhone (and soon Android phone), making the most of the native features of the device.

Our goal was to mobilise accounting and give small business owners the freedom to manage their business on the go. To deliver, we had to decide what business owners would want to do out of the office. The following features were highlighted as priorities for business owners:

• Bank accounts, credit cards and PayPal balances, outstanding invoices, expense claims and all contacts are the fundamentals for doing business on the run
• Bank statement lines let users drill into the bank balance for transactional details
• Create, approve and send invoices
• Upload receipts by taking a photo, do expense claims on the spot to avoid losing receipts
• Find contacts on a map, call customers and suppliers, and quickly save notes
• Multi-currency support for foreign exchange transactions
• Integration with payroll, CRM, inventory management systems, e-commerce and other popular apps
• 4-digit PIN code allows fast login

Project Innovation / Need

One of the features that we’re most proud of is the ability to see all your bank statement data in one place. By having visibility of your businesses bank accounts, credit cards and other accounts (like Pay Pal), you maintain financial control of your data regardless of whether you are at home or the office.

Xero’s single ledger platform means that Xero Touch users are interacting directly with the cloud. Gone are the days of saving different versions of updated files, Xero Touch lets you work on your finances in real time, with the data always up to date in the cloud.

One of the most requested features from our users is to solve the problem of managing receipts when you’re on the move. Xero Touch offers the ability to upload receipts simply by taking a photo. It’s expenses made easy!

Xero Touch offers advanced multi-currency support, unparalleled among other competitive apps, which means that our partners can offer their clients the ability to pay in the currency that they prefer.

User Experience

The app was specifically designed to improve productivity for small business owners who need to be able to get work done on the go.

Xero worked closely with business owners and accountants to detail a list of the most-used functions performed by businesses. We created a roadmap that prioritises these actions and are constantly re-evaluating these based on user feedback and statistics.

The touch optimised interface enables users to perform business tasks extremely fast – like sending an invoice immediately or taking photos of receipts to easily manage expense claims. Having the ability to do these activities when mobile has a dramatic impact on cashflow and increases business efficiency.

User feedback on the app has been exemplary. When we release new functionality (approximately every 8 weeks) we see a considerable percentage of users upgrade.

Project Marketing

Xero Touch began with a soft launch pending acceptance into the Apple App Store. We then seeded PR which resulted in pick up in notable industry publications along with word of mouth referral and positive app store ratings.

Xero Touch was launched with a blog post on the Xero site and targeted direct email campaign to existing Xero users and prospects. It gained further traction with a complementary 5 star reviews from MacWorld UK and further validation as one of the 26 winners from over 300 submissions in the 2012 IxDA awards in the Optimising category - making daily activities more efficient.

Xero Touch has a dedicated landing page Xero’s marketing site http://www.xero.com/mobile which enjoys significant traffic as a result of Xero’s broader marketing effort. Testimony based content marketing is Xero’s main marketing strategy and Xero Touch has been no exception.

We continue to communicate and promote new functionality as it is released to users and prospects.
We created a TVC-style video that walks through a day in the life of a small business owner carrying out their business activities on the go using Xero Touch. This video has been syndicated through various channels and targeted communities creating interest in a number of highly engaged audiences.