Accounting software company, Xero, has partnered with Telstra to push Cloud and promote its products to the telco's mobile business customers.
The partnership is one of several announced at the company's annual partner conference Xerocon.
From September, Telstra will be giving its business mobile customers the opportunity to experience the benefits of Cloud computing, by offering eligible customers a six-month free trial of Xero.
Telstra, group managing director, Telstra business, Will Irving, said the company wanted to help businesses be the best that they could be.
"Moving to Cloud services gives them greater flexibility, enhancing the ability to work on the move and reducing administration, leaving them more time to work on what matters most – their core business,” she said.
“Combining our focus on mobile and Cloud solutions for the small business sector and working with innovative providers such as Xero means our customers will find it easier to make the most of Cloud computing options," he said.
Xero has also formed a new partnership with CGU, part of the IAG group which is Australia’s largest general insurer.
CGU approached the Australian Xero team in early 2014 to understand how joint customers could use financial data in Xero to simplify the task of calculating insurance premiums for Workers’ Compensation.
By integrating with Xero’s open API, and with consent from the customer, CGU can seamlessly assess a business’ risk and calculate appropriate coverage by interrogating financial data in Xero.
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According to a company statement, workers compensation is just the first in a series of product developments planned by CGU and Xero to simplify and streamline the important task of providing insurance cover for small businesses in Australia.
Xero has also experienced significant growth over the past 12 months, with more than 147,000 Australian businesses now using Xero’s software.
The number of customers has increased from 109,000 as of 31 March 2014.
At Xerocon in Sydney in August 2013, Xero announced that it had 75,000 paying customers in Australia.
Xero managing director, Chris Ridd, said the numbers demonstrated the company's leadership position in the industry, which is enabling us to influence banks, technology partners, and government.
"Working in partnership with such organisations is allowing Xero to evolve into a smarter and better connected financial services platform for small business which is providing enormous value to our customers and their advisors,” he said.
The company has transacted over one billion Australian dollars of monthly payroll for over 370,000 employees in the last financial year.
Xero is also engaged with Australian government agencies such as the ATO to allow businesses to complete compliance activities online, developing an innovative online tax platform with teams in both Canberra and Melbourne.
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It has now processed nearly 200,000 tax lodgements directly to the ATO via Standard Business Reporting (SBR).
