When Marwan Forzley founded Veem in 2014, his goal was to meet the needs of SMBs everywhere for fast, easy, and secure global payments. As the next developer in our Intuit Developer Spotlight series, Marwan shares how his decision to integrate with QuickBooks Online and being a member of the QuickBooks App Store ecosystem has aided Veem’s efforts to ease the stress of sending and receiving domestic and international payments.
Entering the Global Payments Space
Prior to founding Veem, Marwan created eBillme, which provided online payment solutions to e-commerce merchants. After eBillme was acquired by Western Union (where he worked as general manager of e-commerce and strategic partnerships), he used his years of experience to create an app that serviced SMBs’ global payment needs.
“Technology is driving small businesses to expand and outsource their operations into global markets, but they’re being stifled by outdated and obsolete bank wires that are fundamentally broken,” Marwan says in a Firm of the Future post about Veem.
His app fixes that problem.
“Veem relieves stress and improves the bottom line by helping small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers seamlessly send and receive domestic and international payments,” Marwan says. “Veem replaces bank wires, expensive AP and AR software and cheques to bring down the time spent and confusion around business payments.”
As noted on their QuickBooks App Store page, the key benefits of Veem include:
- International payment options with a click of a button
- Two-way data sync with QuickBooks Online (eliminating manual reconciliation)
- Free, real-time updates
- Wire transfer fees eliminated
- Preferred foreign exchange rates
- No subscription fees and free international payments in local currencies
- Multi-level payment approvals and two-factor authenticated account access
- Network of 100,000 verified businesses
As Marwan and the Veem team continue to improve their global payment offerings, they recognize the importance of customer feedback. One of their fifteen five-out-of-five reviews proves they’re succeeding.
It states:
“We are a global company and pay a number of international invoices. Veem has dramatically reduced our payment transfer cost and we know exactly what the exchange rate is at the time of transaction. The option to have the linkage directly to QuickBooks caused us to upgrade to just get the Veem linkage. The customer service at Veem has been wonderful and very responsive. In the age where you are surprised when things work – Veem was a BIG surprise – it has worked perfectly from the minute we installed it. We are looking forward to see what else they add to this app. The savings in bank fees pays for the QuickBooks upgrade to QBO.”
Veem on Integrating with QuickBooks Online and Partnering with Intuit Developer
Veem chose to integrate with QuickBooks Online for several reasons. The popularity of the QBO platform for accountants, bookkeepers, and SMBs is one of them. The team also felt that Veem’s payment services complemented Intuit’s services, and they had received requests by their users to connect to QuickBooks Online.
For Veem users, connecting their account to QuickBooks Online takes seconds. They can access their QuickBooks data, pay or approve open bills, and review invoices easily, quickly, and seamlessly. And to further that ease-of-use, Veem utilized QuickBooks’ SSO and consolidated payment feature.
Ralf Dagher, Veem Director of Engineering, explains how users benefit from this feature. “Most small to medium businesses yearly send bills with small amounts. We consolidate low amount bills, bringing convenience to the customer. On one hand, we save them money, on the other hand, they can send a payment they wouldn’t normally be able to process through our platform alone.”
Marwan, Ralf, and the rest of the Veem developers are a pragmatic, aligned, and highly collaborative team focused on common goals. Their partnership with Intuit Developer follows along the same lines, and they feel it has been crucial in helping them succeed.
“In the tier 1-3 certification, the QBO technical team has been incredibly supportive,” Marwan says. “Their documentation is thorough and helpful. It’s in their best interest for us to succeed and they made it happen.”
This is also true when it comes to their QuickBooks App store success.
“Intuit Developer has helped fuel our success on the QuickBooks App store by providing qualitative and quantitative feedback on our App Card, taking the time to learn about our app solution and providing their perspective on how we fit into the ecosystem,” Ralf says. “By suggesting initiatives like Marketing Concierge program and writing opportunities with the Intuit Developer blog, they’ve provided many possibilities for us to hone in and spread our message.”
The time and positive feedback supplied by the Intuit Developer team has provided the Veem team with important insights into how they see their integration and how to improve it moving forward.
Where Veem is Headed
As Veem continues to grow, their roadmap will continue to intersect with QuickBooks Online and Intuit Developer.
“[We want to] have the Veem integration for QBO to be available in all countries. We also want the fullest integration there is—there are other things to explore in terms of what can be done,” Marwan says.
And he has some advice for other developers seeking to replicate Veem’s success. “Everyone has ideas on what to develop. Allow different people to vote. When developing a feature, really round table and review the feature by different engineers to make it as perfect as you can.”
He also says, “Don’t be intimidated—just dive in!”
If you’re new to Intuit Developer, then I second Marwan’s advice and hope you’ll dive right in. We have the resources and support you need to succeed. In fact, check out our Intuit Developer Blog for insightful marketing and technical tips or more Intuit Developer Spotlight stories like Veem’s to inspire you on your app journey. Our team is ready to answer questions and get you started right now.
I’ll leave you with one more interesting piece of advice from Marwan regarding a developer tool he thinks developers should be utilizing: QBO webhooks.
“Interesting utility. It reduces the load we have to put on our system and their system to constantly query for information,” he says.
Stay tuned for my next developer in the Intuit Developer Spotlight series coming soon!
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