Johannesburg, 06 Mar 2014
While technology has long been regarded as the great leveller of the business playing field by enabling small and medium-sized businesses to compete more effectively with corporate giants, there is a widespread belief that much of the most advanced business solutions have been beyond the reach of budget-strapped enterprises.
However, Debbie Pretorius, GM of MWEB Business, maintains that while this might have been true 10, or even five years ago, the internet - and more particularly the Cloud - is changing that.
"Look at ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions. Traditionally this business management software has been clunky, expensive and far too complex for smaller businesses to purchase, implement and maintain," she says.
ERP solutions usually consist of a suite of integrated applications that enable companies to store and manage data from every stage of business from planning and production to logistics, accounting and marketing.
Properly implemented - which traditionally required deep pockets and a large, highly skilled team of IT specialists - ERP can enable businesses to improve customer service, respond to market needs faster, improve profits and margins, and focus on what's really important.
Now, however, many small businesses are successfully implementing ERP solutions. Indeed, the Aberdeen Group's 2012 ERP Benchmark survey found that 75% of "Best-in-Class" small and medium businesses had implemented ERP.
An earlier Aberdeen survey found that even organisations with the least effective ERP implementations outperform those without it in terms of process, organisational and knowledge management capabilities.
One of the key reasons for the increasing adoption of sophisticated ERP solutions by smaller businesses is the fact that there are solutions that cater perfectly to their needs.
Small business ERP solutions are designed to eliminate inefficient processes - particularly the tedious manual processes, or the disparate standalone computer applications, still widely used by smaller businesses.
They also address the challenges many smaller businesses face when trying to grow their operations - challenges like maintaining high standards of customer service and ensuring internal processes, such as debtors and creditors, continue to operate efficiently.
"These solutions generally require a lower upfront investment; but many of the issues associated with traditional ERP systems remain: the need for IT skills to implement and maintain the system; as well as the problems associated with security, disaster recovery and updating of the software.
"The introduction of Cloud-based versions of leading SME ERP solutions will resolve those issues too. As a result, MWEB Business believes that the uptake of ERP by smaller businesses will accelerate," Pretorius concludes.
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