Three Out Of Four In Xero’s Ecosystem Say New Business Opportunities Have Arisen As A Result Of COVID-19

Staying focused and optimistic: two thirds of Xero’s ecosystem used the opportunity to innovate more in their markets

Xero, the global small business platform, today released its Ecosystem survey, looking at the effects of 2020 and how the Xero ecosystem community has innovated to solve their business challenges.

The Xero ecosystem community surveyed included 1453 app partners, developer partners, enterprise and financial services partners, alongside accountants/advisors and SMBs that have developed their own integrations or apps inhouse.

Facing major disruptions in 2020, Xero’s community seized the opportunity to do business in new ways. Seventy eight percent of the ecosystem cited being better able to adapt than competitors as crucial to success in 2021, while 64 percent of those surveyed felt they had innovated more in 2020 than previous years.

Nick Houldsworth, Executive General Manager Ecosystem, Xero, said “Innovation is at the heart of our ecosystem community, and our community has shown remarkable resiliency. Almost three-quarters (74%) of the Xero ecosystem community believe they have identified new business opportunities as a result of the pandemic, and 72 percent saw the development of tailored solutions for their customers as a key opportunity area going forward,” Houldsworth added.

The survey found 64 percent of the community invested a little or more on innovation in 2020. The community defined innovation in their work life as increasing efficiency (50%), turning ideas into something that worked (40%), anticipating tomorrow’s needs (35%), and producing positive change for the customer (35%).

Beyond spending on innovation, the pandemic also saw a re-focus on the human element of Xero ecosystem members surveyed. Forty eight percent of respondents saw positive influences on company culture, and 46 percent said it was positive for work-life balance. Four in five (79%) feel well equipped to help their clients in difficulty grow again post-pandemic.

Other key facts from the report:

• Two-thirds of ecosystem community members felt they have innovated more in 2020, with three in ten (30%) saying they’ve innovated a lot more and a third (34%) innovating a little more.
• 54% are focusing on maintaining their market share, 33% on subscription-based growth, 27% on expanding into new markets.
• Xero ecosystem community members most commonly describe the relationship between API/platform providers and developers across the industry as positive (33%). This increases to 43% among Xero developer partners and 41% among Xero app partners.
• 31% of the Xero ecosystem uses the Xero App Store (formerly App marketplace) to keep up with the latest apps and solutions.
• 52% of those surveyed said access to the Xero platform has been critical to achieving their goals, 39% of partners say the Xero ecosystem represents ‘critical automation’ to them.

About Xero

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses with over 2.7 million subscribers globally. Through Xero, small business owners and their advisors have access to real-time financial data any time, anywhere and on any device. Xero offers an ecosystem of over 1,000 third-party apps and 300 plus connections to banks and other financial partners. In 2020 and 2021, Xero was included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and in 2020, Xero was recognised by IDC MarketScape as a leader in its worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled small business finance and accounting applications vendor assessment.

About the Xero Ecosystem survey

The Xero Ecosystem Survey was a 26-question survey conducted amongst 1,435 members of the

Xero ecosystem community around the world. This study aimed to uncover and explore the opinions and experiences of the Xero ecosystem community in 2020. Fieldwork commenced on Monday 30

November 2020 and was completed on Sunday 17 January 2021.

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