Following the reports of online accounting software supplier securing a reseller deal with British Telecom, the company shares on New Zealand stock exchange saw an impressive rise.

It was informed by Xero today that the under the deal, it would make its services available to small British businesses, by the means of BT's business applications service portal.

Xero said in a statement, “Xero was selected after an extensive evaluation process to be made available to BT's over 1.7 million small business customers.”

From July onwards Xero's services should be available to BT customers.

Xero chief executive Rod Drury said that the aim behind making the deal with BT was actually the part of Xero's wider marketing strategy to increase exposure and credibility through partnerships with platform providers.

Drury further said that contract was not predictable to make profit straight away however it was expected to increase the Xero brand additional exposure.

Drury added, “We would hope this would lead to lots and lots of customers, but our experience is that this is just the start of the journey, not the end.”

(Via TopNews New Zealand. Contributed by Amiri Halberg)