The cloud has enabled people to start an e-commerce business with very little up-front investment. All you need now is a computer and internet connection along with some spare time and ambition!

"Ever since we launched the business in 2010 we have been driven to help companies become more efficient in a new era of cloud-mobile coupled technology. I think that is a common theme amongst the Xero community, whether it is Xero themselves, add-on partners like us, accountants or integrators. On-premise firms have struggled to adapt or are dying while pure cloud-mobile firms like public-listed Xero and growth firms like Tidy grow fast and get stronger. We don't carry out-dated baggage. The cloud and mobile technology provides a massive opportunity for businesses to be more streamlined and for software to be easier to on-board and use. For individuals, teams and management of SME's it's real time information about their business, accessed anywhere they might be and need that information to work at a more productive pace.

This philosophy drives the evolution of not only our horizontal applications such as TidyWork (job management) and TidyStock (inventory management) but also TidyBuild, a vertical application for the building and construction sector which we launched at Xerocon in New Zealand earlier this year. Even when it comes to developing more functionally rich applications for larger or more complex SME needs, the user experience has to come first as we have shown with TidyWork Enterprise which is being used in firms with over 200 users and leveraging Xero into much larger organisations than even Xero themselves might realise.

At the same time it is essential that we are based in the right locations to support our customers. Cloud has no geographic boundaries. Tidy is used with Xero by some of our customers with many offices in different countries. As we have expanded and have begun to build a customer base in the UK, New York and South Africa we knew we'd need an office to compliment the New Zealand timezone for these customers.

The UK, and specifically Newcastle, soon became the obvious choice to achieve that. We are located at The Core in Newcastle Science Central, which is home to The Cloud Innovation Centre and develops partnerships between researchers, industry and public sector, and is a great source of talent to tap into as we build the team. I hope it also gives UK accountant partners the reassurance that we are in this for the long term and here to help when needed, not just in terms of product development but also customer training and support.

The UK has such a vibrant Xero community and we have begun working with some great integration partners such as Maree Maxfield from Maxama and BlueHub Cloud Consultants, where we work with Matt Flanagan, who was previously with CapGemini. I believe in the essential role of integration partners working together with accountants and bookkeepers to deliver value to the cloud end user. When a Xero Accounting Partner and a Xero Cloud Integration partner join forces to work alongside each other they are massively valuable as a team providing the full range of skills and support necessary during the cloud adoption process and beyond. Quite often inefficient workflows are fixed in the process. The end user benefits in every way, feels well supported, and this makes for a more satisfied and loyal long term client. This has to be a win all round.

One of our UK customers is Crouch Waterfall, a civil and structural consulting engineering business. This is what Lee Kemp, their Business Coordinator had to say about the benefits of a cloud based system, "We were getting tired of our old Sage accounting system and our accountant recommended that we move to Xero. We also needed a project management application and TidyWork came out top. Before this we used one spreadsheet, which people had to log into one by one to record their time and we were also using excel time sheets for time keeping and project coordination, which was not efficient. But with the cloud system anybody can be logged in at anytime. The integration with Xero is excellent, synchronising client details from one application to the other and eliminating double entry. It is as if it is one system.

We also feel part of a community, with the product continually evolving. This is largely driven by collaboration with other customers via a forum in which we can suggest updates. It is great to be able to work with companies which have similar challenges and work to solve these together.

There were some benefits we expected from a cloud system - such as eliminating double entry and improving efficiency. What we did not expect, and has been a major bonus, is the improved collaboration within the business - people are having far better conversations. In the past people were more interested in how their individual projects were performing but now they have greater visibility into other projects and are keen to learn from each other. The system has become a great learning tool and helps with resourcing and planning and to develop more accurate proposals which in turn leads to more satisfied clients. This has been a real value added benefit and one I'd encourage other businesses in the Xero ecosystem to explore, or indeed any business looking into cloud-mobile applications. We now all pull together to the same end rather than our individual goals.”