QB Connect 2016 – The review no-one else will write

In mid September I published an article: “XeroConSouth2016 – The review no-one else will write“. With the help of a response and tweet from Rod Drury, the article “went viral” (well relative my usual readership) and I managed to get a few extra views and likes than usual. A similar article on the biggest player in world SMB accounting tech, is a logical formula for me to follow. My mantra, go beyond the platitudes and compliments and critique the elements of the conference and strategy that warrant more in depth consideration – something I feel no-one else will do.

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August Cloud Accounting Industry Update

The accounting software conference season is upon us, with Xerocon, QB Connect, MYOB Partner Conference all hot on the heels of Sage Summit. Apart from the likes of Clayton and Wayne racking up even more frequent flyer miles and social media posts, what can we expect from these events? Much of the same I expect. I don’t see any major announcements being likely.
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MYOB Acquisition spree – who’s next?

Yesterday’s announcement of MYOB’s acquisition of ERP provider Greentree, won’t be the end of MYOB’s buying spree, according to their CFO Richard Moore. Moore, courtesy of Yolanda Redrup’s AFR article, states:

we do have a list of potential acquisition targets and we’ll keep reviewing that list in the coming months

This got me thinking, who else might be on that list? Based on what we know in the public arena, throw in some gut-feel and some muck-raking, here’s my guess at the MYOB shopping list:
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My titbits from Xero’s AGM

I had the pleasure of attending my first Xero AGM this morning. With the share price up 6.5% today, I wasn’t the only one who got swept up in the positive vision, confidence and passion that was presented!

Whilst there wasn’t a lot of new information above and beyond the already released Annual Results (which I wrote about in my subsequent article), I took a few tasty titbits away that I thought were interesting:
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Intuit Q3 Results – QBo in focus

This morning (Aussie time), Wednesday May 25, Intuit released their Q3 update to the NASDAQ. Acknowledging its a quarterly update, rather than full year results, it doesn’t say much, but there is some interesting commentary particularly in the conference call, rather than the Fact Sheet, that clearly lays out Intuit’s strategy for QBo into the future.

Just a note upfront: Intuit is a much bigger company than QuickBooks Online (QBo currently accounted for only 3% of revenue in the quarter OR $78m of the total quarterly revenue of $2,304m), but when looking at industry trends and for a comparison with Xero, this is my focus.
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Xero FY 2016 – my unfettered opinion

Building a global business $30 at a time

I jumped off a plane last Thursday morning after an overnight flight back from Asia, turned on my phone and had throughout the day a flood of SMS; Emails; LinkedIn Inmails; Facebook Messenger messages; Tweets and voicemail messages all asking my opinion on Xero’s full year results.

At first it was – how awesome, some people want to know what I think – they’ve actually been reading my blog. 🙂

Then, wow, how awesome is the Xero brand?! People have so bought into the company and what they are doing that they care about stock market announcements – something most don’t concern themselves with in their day-to-day lives.
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