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  • Xero Hits Escape Velocity With 100000 Customers Count

    July 29, 2012

    Business
    Craig Winkler, Drury, FreeAgent Central, kashflow, MYOB, New Zealand, Public company, rod drury, sage, trademe, Xero
     

    Xero held its annual meeting last week and detailed its current performance. Xero annual meetings are always an interesting event, Xero has an incredibly supportive shareholder base, while most publicly listed company AGMs include a fair dose of critique…

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  • Responding to Competition–In the Cloud World–It’s All About Raising the Tide

    April 4, 2012

    Business
    cloud computing, Enterprise resource planning, kashflow, sage, Xero
     

    I’m involved in a bunch of different cloud startups – either as a founder, an investor or an adviser. Many of these startups are actively working on disrupting more traditional incumbent players, while many face competition from other entrants…

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  • Easing the On Ramp–Xero Makes a Logical Move, Three Years On

    November 4, 2011

    Business
    accounting, MYOB, rod drury, sage, Sage Group, Xero, XML
     

    Around three years ago, before some “heated” discussions made communication between us a little strained, I spent a fair amount of time talking with Xero CEO Rod Drury around the Cloud/SaaS market generally. Those conversations started well before the…

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  • Private Equity Firm Bain Acquires MYOB–Looking for Increasing Value

    August 20, 2011

    Business
    Archer Capital, Bain, MYOB, Private equity firm, sage, Sage Group, Xero
     

    News just in that, despite UK accounting vendor Sage trying their hardest to purchase MYOB, another private equity firm has scooped the Australasian accounting vendor that has been on the market for a little while. Interestingly enough, the markets…

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  • Sage bids for MYOB. An Uber Alliance in the Making?

    August 16, 2011

    Business
    accounting, Business, MYOB, sage, Sage Group, Vendors, Xero
     

    Breaking news just to hand that UK accounting vendor Sage is considering making a bid for Australasian vendor MYOB. Sage has long had a strategy of growth by acquisition and tends to let the acquired company continue to run…

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  • Some Xero Analysis

    July 4, 2011

    Business
    FreeAgent Central, intuit, Intuit Partner Platform, kashflow, MYOB, quickbooks, rod drury, sage, SMB, sme, Software as a Service, Xero
     

    A month or so ago I was asked to provide some comment for the Natonal Business Review to go with Xero’s full year financial report. I was positive but with reservations and comments. In response to my comments, Xero…

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  • Xero Annual Report – Quick Analysis

    July 22, 2010

    Business
    acumatica, iacez, intacct, intuit, kashflow, MYOB, netsuite, sage, Xero
     

    At the Xero AGM today both CEO Rod Drury and Chairman Phil Norman addressed the audience and gave  roundup of annual performance. Some quick points to note: Customer count now over 22000 (see graph below). Note the steepness of…

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  • A Tale of Two Generations – Sage Languishes while Financial Force Innovates

    May 27, 2010

    Small business, Strategy
    Business, cloud computing, Dennis, Denver, Eddie Castro (speedway rider), FinancialForce.com, sage, SAP AG
     

    Software is undergoing a generational change – I thought I’d pull out an example to show what the old generation is doiing and contrast that to what the “cool kids” are doing. I was interested to read Dennis Howlett’s…

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  • Media Relations is an Ongoing Process. Sage Seems to Forget That.

    May 10, 2010

    marketing, Strategy
    cloud computing, Duane Jackson, kashflow, Paul Walker, Phil Wainewright, sage, Sage Group, service
     

    A year ago I wrote a post congratulating Sage on an increase in communications they’d had with me. As I said at the time: So I give Sage significant kudos for reaching out and contacting some of us, but…

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  • SaaS, Accounting, Microsoft Money and Hyperbole.

    November 30, 2009

    Uncategorized
    freshbooks, intuit, Intuit Partner Platform, kashflow, Microsoft, sage, service, Web application
     

    Over on Accounting Web, a right royal stoush was started when Aqilla’s Hugh Scantlebury wrote an op ed piece opining what the withdrawal of Microsoft’s Office Accounting product means and, more importantly, what is behind the move. For those…

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About Me

Ben Kepes is a business leader, a technology evangelist, an entrepreneur, and a commentator. Ben covers the convergence of business and technology.

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