Xavier Ecosystem Feasibility Study

"Recently, an accountancy firm called FD Works and their web development agency client, Hatch Apps, joined forces to build a web product called Xavier Analytics. The product provides technical, time-saving tools and reporting for finance professionals using cloud accounting software. The project has gone well and is now in beta testing.

The team now see an opportunity to investigate the feasibility of producing a much broader suite of products that combines data from a wide-range of sources, to increase the chance of success for small businesses in the UK. The team is excited about the possibility of bringing in academic theory and AI specialists to achieve insights not currently possible with the current tools and data SMEs have access to. The code name for this suite is the Xavier Ecosystem.

The key objectives of the project are to:

1. Identify, clean up and blend a number of data sources, including private data from our users and large public data sets, into an accessible database
2. Build a Proof of Concept analytical engine that employs artificial intelligence and big data techniques to extract accounting insights from the database
3. Provide a web application user interface that presents these insights to businesses and their financial advisors, enabling them to understand their business performance and evaluate and model future business decisions

The focus of this project is around reducing the rate of failure for UK SMEs. The quality and extent of the historical data available to assist with this is unknown at this point, and the team expect it to be challenging to consolidate. The uncertainty around this data and the possibility to combine it leads the team to consider this project a feasibility study.

The project will be innovative in its approach due to the unique combination of data sources, and the broad audience it will be applicable to. The public data available around SMEs at a national level is currently shallow and sparse. The private data held by these SMEs in their cloud accounting ledgers is detailed and extensive.

The success of the project will rely on widespread participation of SMEs, and the data they bring with them. The planned freemium pricing model, along with high-visibility listings on app marketplaces will encourage this adoption. The successful output of this project will result in the first and only offering of deep and wide SME data - which would be truly transformational for the UK economy."