Creating an Innovative XERO Integrated Product: The Story of Buddy

Creating a new software or app to destabilise an existing market is not easy. Our team alongside that of Buddy - a cloud-based payroll software; were tasked with just that. Below is the journey of how we took the concept presented by the team and transformed it into a formidable product.

The story goes back a few years; back to the summer of 2017; where I was pulled into a meeting by one of our existing clients. This client was alongside a local XERO reseller - David Seisun from Sixteen Limited.

David was lamenting how he could not get any of the local payroll providers to support a native XERO integration; and how this was stopping him and his team in offering an all-round solution to his clients. As the conversation went he outlined how given that the market players were not open for collaboration, himself alongside other partners were ready to take this on.

Over a number of meetings, we outlined the key elements and concepts that the minimum viable product needed to get to market. This essentially boiled down to the following;

1. The brand needed to be friendly; as we were told many are afraid of payroll
2. The product needed to be really easy to use
3. We needed to make sure all the numbers were correct, and it was compliant with legislation
4. Employee portal, so employees can update their information
5. Able to scale into international markets

On that brief our team got to work; our efforts were split into two. Our designer took charge of the branding process; whilst our technical team started looking into more depth into what would be required from a legislative perspective to ensure the software contained everything it needed to get the job done, and done right.

The First Design Concepts

Following some thorough research on products both on the local and international scene as well as the most popular friendly brand names, a red panda was presented as the face of the product. The Red Panda’s name? Buddy.

Our team was also bold enough to call it a revolutionary payroll companion; because we were confident that our product was not only going to fill the gap, David requested but it was also going to shake the market. Additionally, Buddy is friendly and he’s going to make people’s lives easier.

Those initial concepts then evolved into the final brand as presented below.

Researching the Payroll Software Market Given the new product our team was tasked to build was intended from Malta, we got started by understanding the local landscape. We did this by setting up a meeting with a payroll provider who gave us a run-through of what he needs and does within his current solution.

This was a valuable lesson, and the following is what we learnt.

1. The existing solution this guy was using was marginally better than using a calculator
2. The process was largely in-efficient and used the same methodology someone who did payroll 20/30 years ago did.
3. There were too many clicks required to give someone a bonus; going through as many as 5 or 6 screens per person to get this done.
4. Each payroll file required annual payroll rules to be copied from one client to another.
5. The software was not portable; only used on a singular device
6. Hence, Collaboration was not an option
7. Leave management didn’t exist or wasn’t being provided

Armed with this information our team went into researching top of the range payroll software from around the world. We wanted to see who was doing things right, and how we could do an even better job than the best in class solutions. This meant looking through a number of video tutorials of the best-rated products and reading reviews of why one solution was indeed better than the other.

The new & improved Payroll Process

Once we had collected this information, our team went back to the drawing board and started working on user stories. That is, how will the user interact with the system when they have a specific goal in mind.

The two key journeys we came up with were the following:

1. The user wants to add/update employee or salary details
2. he user is looking to compute end of month payroll

The focus here is on the latter; since that is where the majority of user time will likely be spent. We boiled down what used to be a 6 screen experience per person into a 3 step process.

How did we do that?

• We got the essentials and placed them within the initial page.
  • Simplified the addition of allowances and bonuses, so that the user doesn’t need a different view. Just hit a plus icon and you’ve just got a new addition!
  • Totals add up within the same page
• The second page; is simply a tax-summary of the first
• The third page is simply a confirmation and gives access to all the required reports on the pay run computed.

Testing & Obtaining Market Traction

This was possibly the hardest part; the first working minimum viable product was ready by the end of 2017. Obviously, that was a bit too late for the Buddy team to attract clients for their first year. The product was also pretty much untested. Although we did walk through it with a payroll provider.

To kick-off testing, we did our own payroll back-dated for 2017 to compare, and the same did David for his team at Sixteen. Then it was time to start roping in some early Beta clients. The product was by now largely still under wraps; however from March through to September a handful of Beta users / clients were being added to test the platform.

Throughout the latter Months of 2018, the Buddy team felt it was time to start marketing. The product was proving much more stable, and the feedback of clients to date was taken on-board with minor alterations and additional reports added.

The growth was hampered by scheduling/availability problems meant that the campaign was out too late. However, it did create a certain level of Buzz.

Indeed adverts from competing firms on payroll services have since increased. Getting companies which have been in the market for over 30 years, up their marketing game certainly shows that the team did something right when creating the product.

Regardless of the challenge, efforts from shareholders and partners did lead to starting the year with a solid number of clients. The lesson learnt most certainly was to not leave marketing towards that late, especially when the product is time sensitive. Find the Right People

The on-boarding of a full-time member to the Buddy team in January 2019 gave things a different spin. A payroll expert with over 18 years experience, Lynn McCormick came in with a new set of product requests which the original team was somewhat oblivious to.

The product was now being geared towards the next level; attacking larger firms no longer the micro enterprises under 10 people. The difference was subtle, the number of reports and details required.

Since these updates, Buddy has been attracting the interest of some big names. We’ve recently been told that following a demonstration with one of the biggest 10 accounting firms on the island; that Buddy was indeed too simple to use.

Essentially this person was so impressed with the product that he was worried that his firm, would no longer be able to retain clients on payroll should they move to Buddy, because it was really too simple.

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As Buddy’s journey of growth continues, your idea may still be in its infancy. If you’re thinking about building an application to help grow your business, reach out and set-up a call with our team. We’re ready to bring our A game to the table, are you?