Asana’s Impact
- Connects high-level company goals to individual work through global and regional tracking
- Enhanced asynchronous collaboration across a globally dispersed team, managing work in one place
- Status meetings transformed into action-oriented decision-making sessions, with all real-time work statuses available in Asana
Before Xero adopted Asana, it was difficult for global teams to stay connected with the more than 4,000 employees spread across all continents. The lineup was far from perfect and there was limited visibility of the diverse work happening across countries and teams:
- Time zones have created communication challenges that have delayed projects;
- Employees could not see how their work was progressing given the goals;
- Different departments worked with different information in various tools, creating funnels;
- People had to spend a lot of time in status meetings to keep synchronization.
Security and for all teams
Xero needed a platform that could centralize communication and bring all teams and work styles together. On top of this, it also had to be easy to use so that employees would make it the basis of their day to day work. Leadership wanted high-level visibility into project status, while teams in the field needed a way to record every detail of the execution of a given project.
Another fundamental requirement was safety. Tony Ward explains that trust is an essential part of Xero’s identity and vision: “We have small business financial data – their crown jewels. Security is number one for us, so any software we use needs to meet really high standards.”
When Asana passed its initial test, its customer-facing team held integration workshops for Xero employees, and leadership teams encouraged adoption by opening Asana portfolios in meetings to review the status of projects. The fact that the leaders had everything allocated in one place meant that there were no mistakes or miscommunication and it was more agile to make decisions more quickly.
Teams have made a habit of using Asana by creating meeting agendas on the platform and assigning tasks during meetings. They also established ground rules, such as making sure people asked questions about a project in the Asana task using comments.
Other initiatives carried out in Asana:
- Integration of Xero’s accounting partners: 70% of business comes from its partner network. Xero runs a 3-month onboarding program for new partners coordinated entirely on Asana.
- Salesforce effectiveness project: Xero is improving your company’s operational efficiency with a global initiative to enhance your Salesforce presence.
- Individual meetings: managers and their teams create their individual meeting agendas by adding tasks to an Asana project. They can add tasks from other projects to their agenda, so that all the context is already there and there is less time needed to update.
“We’ve moved from a culture of meetings to share information to meetings about how to take action, make decisions, and get things done.” -Tony Ward, President, Americas
Betting on new regions with Asana
Asana has become Xero’s information source, putting data and people all on one platform. Employees are clear about what they are responsible for, leaders can make better decisions, and teammates from other countries have significantly improved their collaboration and synchronized work.
Xero’s business is growing, and as it expands into new regions, Asana will help it continue to work efficiently at scale. As Xero gains operational clarity and visibility for itself, it can bring more financial clarity and visibility to the business owners they serve.
This case study provides insight into the importance Asana can have in the organization and growth of companies. Request a free consultation!