Maze Digital: Helping small businesses harness the power of Xero

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We’re pleased to announce our app partner of the month for February is Maze Digital. But the catch is they’re not actually an app (although they do build them). You’ll find Maze under the “Custom made integration” section of Xero’s app marketplace.

Based in Malta, Maze Digital specialises in building both apps from scratch that connect with Xero. They also build custom Xero integrations so existing applications can integrate with Xero and join our app marketplace.

We talked to Maze Digital’s founder, Jonathan Mifsud, about how specialising in building Xero integrations is helping small businesses around the world thrive.

The power of Xero’s platform in action

Jonathan had the equivalent of one month’s salary in the bank when he left his job as a web developer to start Maze. He knew he didn’t have long to make it as an entrepreneur, before having to find another job. A few years on and Jonathan has three employees and customers from all over the world. He also has a dream to positively impact one million small businesses through building integrations that connect to Xero’s ecosystem.

According to Jonathan, business was ticking along but things really took off when he started to work with Xero.

“I first came across Xero when I was approached by an accounting practice who was operating from Google spreadsheets. They asked us to build them a custom piece of software, specific to their firm’s needs, that would integrate with Xero.

“By getting these clients off their manual spreadsheets and creating a piece of software that could share data with Xero, they were able to offload a huge amount of admin. We calculated it saved them an equivalent of US$40,000 in salaried time, which could instead be invested in other parts of the business. It also meant the firm’s owners got their weekends back. In just two years, the firm’s staff numbers has doubled and they’re just bought a new office block because they plan to grow even more,” Jonathan said.

Growing with the Xero community

After working with this firm, Jonathan listed Maze Digital on Xero’s app marketplace and the leads started to come in. But it was when Jonathan exhibited at Xerocon that he realised the full potential to help small businesses around the world by building Xero apps and integrations.

“Exhibiting at our first Xerocon in San Diego was a phenomenal experience. There was so much interest in what we were providing for the ecosystem community. We also started investing much more in our relationship with Xero.

“We’re now working with lots of existing SaaS businesses, helping them get on Xero’s app marketplace. We’re adding value for Xero customers by giving them access to more integrations. This means they can choose the right one for their unique requirements. Enabling more integrations on the marketplace is also helping these apps become more successful. Some businesses tend to see integrating with Xero as a cost and a tool for their customers only. But it’s actually a tool to grow their own business. It opens up access to global customers, marketing opportunities, as well as provide credibility – especially for smaller applications,” Jonathan said.

The future for Maze Digital

“It’s a real highlight when a customer tells us they’re able to do their work in a quarter of the time, or they have more peace of mind. Within the next year our goal is to help at least 12 SaaS companies get certified with Xero. Long term, we want to positively impact over a million businesses through the integrations we build. This will help the apps themselves as well as Xero customers using those integrations. Xero has over two million subscribers and Maze Digital continues to grow, so we think it’s possible,” Jonathan concluded.

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