Strategic Information System For Accounting Software Packages: Xero

History of Accounting Software Package Xero

Discuss about the Strategic Information System for Accounting Software Packages.

The Literature review depicts the crucial necessity of adaptation of online accounting software packages to overcome or mitigate the challenges that used to occur in the primitive days of accounting system. The review will demonstrate the development and adaptation of Xero accounting software package in Australia, by small and medium enterprises.

It will also mention the way through which the software helps the enterprises to gain competitive advantages from the marketplace. The current market size of Xero will be illustrated but at the same time the users of Xero has stated that the software is lacking certain technology based support, those market gaps or challenges are identified in this literature review. At the end of the review it will provide some recommendations or suggestions that will help to mitigate the technological challenges.

During the analysis of Xero accounting software package it has been found that, this is one of the most widely used, online accounting software. Since last four years, QuickBooks has taken the leading position among the accounting software packages but after the introduction of Xero in the year of 2006, it has become the biggest competition to QuickBooks (Qureshi et al. 2013). Mostly in Australia and New Zealand, the accounting software is used by small to medium enterprises. In terms of functionalities it was very difficult to compete, QuickBooks but Xero has even named the Forbes number 1 innovative Growth Company (Erturk and Fail 2015). The payroll management or the payroll coverage served by Xero is very efficient and it supports over 50 states.

The system is still undergoing certain regular development processes in every changing year. The development of Xero is showing in the table below:

Year	Developing features
2008	First direct bank feed become available from Australian banking sectors (Chang et al. 2013).   Paypal payment system was introduced to the existing system.
2011	Overpayment and prepayment was availed with high rise integration support system
2013	Received the first new GTS support and direct feed from US banking sectors (Mas et al. 2014). Additionally inbuilt calculator was also implemented.
2014	New balance sheet was innovated that supports the touch ID. New dashboard was also designed with attractive help center.
2015	The inventory item list was reported and the Xero also redesigned the android applications. For apple watches Xero software becomes available (Ludwig et al. 2015).
2016	It manages the stripe transaction free process completely automatically. On the ios devices it provided special invoice applications. Implemented me mobile application for the employees and updated the service system.

While analyzing the adaptation of Xero accounting software package it is found that, Xero allows the users to access over, five scalable pricing plans that begins from the range of $9.4/mo (Ramasubbu and Kemerer 2014). In order to adopt these packages the users need not to maintain any contract. Each of the plans possesses by Xero, gives services to numerous numbers of users but it can provide only 1 GB storage (Lim 2013). However, according to the increasing requirements the storage can be increased, though the speed of the service will decrease. A free thirty days of trail session is also provided Xero accounting software system.

The Current market size of Xero

Components	2015	2014	2013
1.      Revenue in subscription 2.      Operating revenues 3.      Entire operating revenue 4.      Monthly revenue committed 5.      Cash flow 6.      Operational and investment related cash flow	1.      120,929 2.      2,923 3.      123,852 4.      159,339 5.      268,867 6.      88,383	1.      66,856 2.      3,248 3.      70,092 4.      94,000 5.      209,887 6.      48,397	1.      36,089 2.      2,267 3.      38,357 4.      51,530 5.      78,244 6.      20,805

After the financial structure assessment of Xero, is has been found that Xero delivers one of the strongest revenue among the Australian accounting software.  In the year of 2015, the financial growth of Xero was at the pick (Kanellou and Spathis 2013). The revenue in the subscription structure, was enhanced up to 82 percent, which was initially NZ$122.70 million.   On the other hand, the revenue in the constant currency subscription was of NZ$122.70 million. In this segment the growth rate enhanced up to 84 percent from the previous one.  

Though, the organization faced economical loss of NZ$68 million that hampered the overall strategic growth of the online accounting software package but in the beginning of the 2016, it strongly focused that they will serve the annualized commitment of  monthly revenues structure of NZ$159.34 million (Chen and Hamdan 2014). At the end of 2015, Xero gain a high amount of competitive advantages from the market. The leadership team of the organization serves global leaders and the world class experts working for Xero, helps the organization to, provide sustainable growth and high scale innovative ideas.

Development and Adaptation of Accounting Software Package Xero

Xero is one of the true global players that help the entire business process. It also provides over 56 million of feedback around the world (Taipaleenmäki and Ikäheimo 2013). The number of passionate staffs involved in the working domain of online accounting software is round 1,162 and t has over 20 offices all over the world. Apart from this, it also has a global management team (Martínez-Fernández, Chuvieco and Koutsias 2013). In the year of 2014, Xero announced that they are establishing a partnership management along with KPMG, UK, NZ and BDO (South Africa) also.

During analysis of different online accounting software packages certain features are identified. Based on that features the software packages are compared (Artho et al. 2012). In order to select the most suitable software packages among Xero, MYOB, Saasu, QuickBooks and Reckon the features an their comparative features are identified.  

Xero costs $25 per month and the investment made by the organization is lesser than the others. It allows multiple users to access the system at a time. It provides a cloud based solution and the users are capable to share their views with others on a single platform (Mas et al. 2014).  The development of the system is very costly and the online payment process is also available with bank feed operation.  The payroll management served by Xero can add more features to the existing system. Calculation and tracking of the GTS is also possible for Xero.  Still, the market status states that though Xero possesses many features but MYOB and QuickBooks are getting most of the competitive advantages from the competitive marketplace.

During analysis of the current gap or challenges faced by the users of Xero online accounting software packages the identified challenges are as follows:

Ongoing monthly fees: The users of Xero are bound to make deal on a monthly basis (Qureshi et al. 2013). Rather than direct buying of the product the users are allowed to access the Xero files on a subscription package system.

The speed and the quality of the internet connection: In order to establish access to Xero, internet connection is needed (Artho et al. 2012). The application served by Xero, is quite time saving and the users those who have a weak internet connection cannot use the service.      

Security: It is another major challenge faces by Xero. If the user does not possess a string password then the details of can get hijacked and misused.

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that Xero is one of the most well known online accounting software, served in Australia and New Zealand. The literature review has mentioned the history, development and adaptation of online accounting software packages. The current market size of Xero is also beating the other services in terms of revenue structure. Though, Xero possesses many technical features similarly it also has many drawbacks oriented to the system. Many small to medium businesses have adopted the online accounting software packages to mitigate the challenges that used to occur during the management of traditional payroll system. However, the users have encountered certain challenges that they faces during their daily applications. In order to overcome those challenges some technology  based  recommendations are provided at the end of the literature review.  

Selection of invoice:  Xero has limited invoice section processes. Thus the users of the accounting software were unable to share their views whenever required. In order to mitigate this issue they should adopt proper invoice or feedback system so that the users can share their personal experiences with others on a same platform.

Job costing feature adaptation: Die to lack of job costing features Xero is facing major challenges all over the world. In order to overcome this drawback the organization is needed to adopt other technology based features.  

Mobile application: The mobile application used by Xero is not enough secured and advanced. On the other hand, the mobile applications served by other accounting software packages are very advanced. In order to give tough competition to other online software packages, the development team should improve their mobile application. 

Semi steep learning curve: The semi steep learning curve is required to be developed so that the market growth could analyze well.

References

Artho, C., Suzaki, K., Di Cosmo, R., Treinen, R. and Zacchiroli, S., 2012, June. Why do software packages conflict?. In Proceedings of the 9th IEEE Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (pp. 141-150). IEEE Press.

Chang, B.R., Tsai, H.F., Chen, C.Y. and Tsai, Y.C., 2015. Assessment of In-Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning System Performed in a Virtual Cluster. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.

Chen, C.K. and Hamdan, M., 2014. An Exploratory Study of Information Technology Adoption by SMEs in Brunei Darussalam. World, 4(2).

Erturk, E. and Fail, D., 2015. Information technology in New Zealand: Review of emerging social trends, current issues, and policies. arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.07012.

Kanellou, A. and Spathis, C., 2013. Accounting benefits and satisfaction in an ERP environment. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 14(3), pp.209-234.

Lim, F.P.C., 2013. Impact of Information Technology on Accounting Systems. Asia-PasificJornal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities and Socialgy, 3(2), pp.93-106.

Ludwig, B., Sawallisch, A., Heinze, S., Joergensen, R.G. and Vohland, M., 2015. Usefulness of middle infrared spectroscopy for an estimation of chemical and biological soil properties–Underlying principles and comparison of different software packages. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 86, pp.116-125.

Martínez-Fernández, J., Chuvieco, E. and Koutsias, N., 2013. Modelling long-term fire occurrence factors in Spain by accounting for local variations with geographically weighted regression. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 13(2), pp.311-327.

Mas, J.F., Kolb, M., Paegelow, M., Olmedo, M.T.C. and Houet, T., 2014. Inductive pattern-based land use/cover change models: A comparison of four software packages. Environmental Modelling & Software, 51, pp.94-111.

Qureshi, M.E., Whitten, S.M., Mainuddin, M., Marvanek, S. and Elmahdi, A., 2013. A biophysical and economic model of agriculture and water in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Environmental Modelling & Software, 41, pp.98-106.

Ramasubbu, N. and Kemerer, C.F., 2014. Managing technical debt in enterprise software packages. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 40(8), pp.758-772.

Taipaleenmäki, J. and Ikäheimo, S., 2013. On the convergence of management accounting and financial accounting–the role of information technology in accounting change. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 14(4), pp.321-348.