Xero’s WorkflowMax to reincarnate under BlueRock’s wings
Hot on the heels of Xero’s surprise announcement that it will retire its WorkflowMax solution in the summer of 2024, professional services firm BlueRock has confirmed it has acquired the WorkflowMax brand and will re-launch the solution in a new and improved form.
Acquired over a decade, WorkflowMax is a project management solution that helps small businesses and accountants run their operations in the cloud. key functionalities include customer relationship management, time tracking, planning, and invoicing.
Despite being used by more than 10,000 businesses, in mid-March Xero announced that WorkflowMax will no longer be available from 26 June 2024. “This isn’t a decision that has been made lightly,” said Xero’s chief customer officer Rachael Powell.
The software provider said that to remain competitive, WorkflowMax would need “significant investment to meet the evolving expectations of our customers”. Instead, the firm has decided to focus its efforts towards the further development Xero Practice Manager.
Powell: “As much as we’d love to focus all our efforts on WorkflowMax, and add all the new features and functionality our customers are seeking, the reality is we can’t do everything and sometimes we need to make difficult decisions like this as we prioritise our efforts as a business to help us meet customer expectations.”
A BlueRock powered reincarnation
While the WorkflowMax product is being ushered to the great recycle bin the in sky, the name will live on. BlueRock, a business advisory firm, will take on the brand and has begun to build a product offering similar functionality to the previous incarnation.
BlueRock’s newly developed solution, dubbed WorkflowMax by BlueRock, will be available by early 2024, allowing existing customers of Xero’s WorkflowMax product to sign up for the new solution before the Xero product is sunsetted.
“WorkflowMax by BlueRock will offer many of the same features and functions of Xero’s trusted WorkflowMax product, but with the addition of new features and an improved user experience – a reflection of market feedback and a sign of our intention to invest in the product,” said Peter Lalor, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at BlueRock.
“We’ll be including the same features customers know and love, particularly when it comes to managing jobs, billing time, and managing invoices. The experience may be slightly different to what it was – but we will ensure users feel right at home, saving time with an improved and more intuitive layout”, Lalor continued.
As part of the brand acquisition, Xero will continue to use the WorkflowMax brand and manage existing WorkflowMax customer subscriptions until the product is retired in June 2024. Once WorkflowMax by BlueRock is launched and made available to customers, Xero will have an ongoing revenue share agreement with BlueRock in connection with WorkflowMax by BlueRock.
