Xero and Dropbox - the new power couple

Small businesses are set to become more productive with a new partnership underway between Xero and Dropbox.

The two companies announced they would integrate their services for collaboration across Xero and Dropbox, in a bid to better serve the small business market.

Xero "Business continuity, accounting and collaboration are at the core of any successful business," says Charlie Wood, managing director for Dropbox Australia and New Zealand.

"By partnering with Xero, it is Dropbox's vision to be at the heart of every growing organisation," he says.

"Cloud solutions from Dropbox and Xero provide an opportunity for rapidly growing businesses to accelerate and differentiate their services and offerings.

"Together, we'll be able to offer everything a small business needs to get up and running from day one," adds Wood.

The collaboration between the two companies will include a number of workflow enhancements, such as allowing Xero users to access and share Dropbox files from within Xero.

Additionally, new features will be revealed throughout the year, as well as a special joint offer for small businesses customers that will help them simplify their accounting workflows.

In addition to the planned product integration, Dropbox for Business will be the major sponsor of Xerocon 2015 in Melbourne 13-14 August.

Dropbox says it will engage with accountants and small businesses during the conference, showcasing the product integration.

Representatives from Dropbox and Xero will also be speaking to developers at Xero's Developer Day about how to best leverage Dropbox APIs to enable team-level app management and integration with third-party services.

Chris Ridd, managing director of Xero in Australia, says the partnership with Dropbox is a big step in Xero's efforts to demonstrate continuing innovation and support for small businesses.

"We have seen huge, global growth over the last four years in particular, and earlier this month announced that we now have 500,000 subscribers," he says.

"Combining our efforts with Dropbox will support us in becoming a smarter and even-better connected platform for small businesses," adds Ridd.