Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, once said: “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.” No business can stand alone nor wish to operate in a silo. This realisation has been an inherent understanding of business leaders for centuries - but it hasn't been as easy to accomplish as it has been to envision.
Knowing who you are partnering with, marketing to, buying from, selling to, or associating with can be daunting, and one wrong judgement could lead to the downfall of even the most established businesses. Bizinform, a business knowledge solutions provider, goes beyond being a business bureau, by providing you with the one element no business can be without when making critical decisions on who to partner with: peace of mind!
Bizinform is a business information initiative between Compuscan, a leading South African credit bureau, and Lightstone, a widely respected knowledge-based analytics company.
On announcing Bizinform's launch, Remo Lenisa, Managing Director of Compuscan, said: “Bizinform hopes to transform the way in which businesses conduct their dealings and make decisions. By providing quality business intelligence in a simple, easy-to-use format, Bizinform will play a positive role in business development, by providing holistic business tools that support both the marketing and risk aspects of business.”
Trevor Holmes, a founding member of Lightstone, went on to say: “The South African business landscape is changing dramatically, with the number of new business entities being registered at CIPC reaching around 15 000 per month. This reflects a large level of business initiative, both in larger companies, with mergers and acquisitions, and in new initiatives at the start-up end of the spectrum, which sees first-time directors entering the business environment.
“This constant evolution of the business landscape requires that businesses have a holistic view of all the industry role-players. With the tools provided by Bizinform, businesses are able to monitor their customers' behaviour based on a variety of data feeds and the trade data community, which enables us to provide effective knowledge about businesses, and thereby allow our customers to reward positive and negative behaviour proactively.”
One of the most unique features of Bizinform lies in its ability to identify relationships and links between both companies and their principal members. This enlightening insight allows you to adequately consider the risk involved when partnering with a business. It also allows you to determine how companies are linked, or which principal member is the bridge between companies - vital information if you are trying to build a new relationship.
Individual principal information, including detailed credit reports and other business interests, is another feature that makes Bizinform stand out from its competitors. Knowing exactly who is the driving force and decision-maker behind a business, and how they are interlinked with other industry players, is invaluable insight if you are to make an informed decision on who to partner with, or decide how to approach a possible client or partner.
Detailed business identification and registration details, business contact details, account verification information and property information are just some of the many other categories of information that Bizinform offers its customers. Along with this, it includes a business credit score, which immediately classifies a business as either low, medium or high risk, making the decision process simple.
Bizinform also offers marketing services where it can help identify customers that match your desired profile, so that you spend your sales time with more promising leads, and ensures that you are marketing to the correct businesses.
The success of any business frequently depends on who it chooses to partner with. While many of us remember the downfall of Enron, few remember the many victims it took with it. Those who chose to invest and partner with a company, once valued at $90 billion, were oblivious to the partnerships it was forming with its own shell companies. In February 2002, Huntco, a steel processor, and its subsidiaries, filed for bankruptcy, in part because of a deal the company signed with Enron. Hopefully, with Bizinform, today's businesses won't make the same mistake.
For more information on how Bizinform can benefit your company, visit the Web site http://www.bizinform.co.za, or subscribe to Bizinform's e-mail communications by clicking on the following link.
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