Xero Developer (XD HAX) Challenge Winners Announced

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A little over three months ago we kicked off XD HAX 2017 – Xero’s first virtual developer challenge. Sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS), 230 developers accepted our challenge to create innovative apps using cloud technology to benefit small business.

With four different prize categories up for grabs, all of the submissions received were of a high quality and impressed the judges.

Here’s a look at the winners that took out each of the four categories.

For Best New Integration

Winner: Curve (UK)

Curve built an innovative solution for card-spending that’s becoming increasingly popular in the UK.

Curve is mobile-only and the judges thought it was impressive to see such a slick execution using the Xero API. It is easy to use with clear steps for the user to complete the setup process. It also posts transactions straight into Xero and is easy to reconcile against bank feeds. Plus, Curve allows users to make a transaction on a personal bank-card and then reverse this onto a business bank-card, or vice versa. The team has created a hassle-free experience.

Led by Arthur Leung, the team has taken a design-led approach with meticulous UX planning by Matthew Snyman. They’ve been supported by some seriously talented developers Gary Grace and Paulo Caldeira.

For Best Enhancement to an Existing Integration

Winner: Exsalerate (New Zealand)

Exsalerate has been providing CRM functionality to Xero users for several years as an app partner. Exsalerate’s customers prompted them to update their integration because they wanted to manage their own customers better and strengthen those relationships. Linking the data in Xero to account management workflows in Exsalerate ensures account managers are always able to have informed, valuable conversations with their customers.

Exsalerate made some impressive improvements which the judges commended. These included:

An improved account management dashboard
The ability to compare sales data over different periods
The ability to create Xero invoices within Exsalerate
An impressive solution which allows users to email quotes from Xero into Exsalerate

The judges were particularly impressed with the solution to get quotes from Xero into Exsalerate and the creative thinking this showed, providing great developers get things done no matter what the limitations are!

For Most Innovative use of Xero’s API

Winner: Tax Optimiser (UK)

Tax Optimiser provides an easy tool to analyse future tax implications for small businesses. Using Xero data, it shows a user’s tax liability, where adjustments can be made to reduce tax, or where tax relief claims can be made against schemes like R&D tax credits and SEIS in the UK.

We haven’t seen this type of functionality in our ecosystem before, and it’s one that can really help a business optimise their operations. Tax Optimiser is also geared for accountants to use with their clients, giving accountants an opportunity to provide valuable advice and have meaningful conversations to help their clients save money.

For Best Open Source Project with Xero’s API

Winner: Xero Huginn (US)

The Xero Huginn Agent was created by Andrew Cantino. Andrew submitted the first ever Xero plugin for the events connector platform “Huginn”. Huginn is an open source system for building agents that perform automated tasks for users online. Because Huginn is open source, users need to run a personal instance of it on their own server. This gives them control of all of their agents and data streams.

With Andrew’s submission to XD HAX there is now a plugin to the Huginn platform that can connect to your Xero org. The plugin can do things like consume Xero webhooks and create invoices in Xero based on other events you set as triggers. Xero loves open source, and we couldn’t be more excited to see passionate people making Xero APIs accessible on a free and open connector platform.

Finally, we want to thank all of the developers who participated and look forward to working together as we help small businesses thrive. We look forward to seeing you all at XD HAX next year.

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