Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to have a strong impact on economies around the world. In fact, a survey* by the US Small Business Administration puts their contribution to gross domestic product as high as 50%.
Besides their enormous direct economic impact, SMEs also offer considerable indirect benefits to the businesses that supply them and are supplied by them. Therefore, in a time of global economic fallout, it has never been more important to support this sector.
“SMEs need a generally enabling environment and the technologies and resources that will increase their efficiencies and allow them to compete equally, with enterprise-level capabilities, but without the management overhead,” says Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive, Tellumat Telecoms.
• Embrace small suppliers: South Africa’s enterprise development laws favour small businesses, which is a major success factor for SMEs. Small businesses deserve this support, because they generally give good, prompt service, and respond quickly to market opportunities. Often run by first-rate professionals that have been pushed into entrepreneurial endeavour, SMEs allow their corporate customers the benefit of great skills without the fixed cost.
• Enough bandwidth, cheaply: The benefits of cheaper bandwidth are already obvious today, so more of the same is needed. SMEs are migrating en masse to low-priced DSL, 3G and other high-speed connectivity options, and a new generation of bandwidth-dependent technologies, especially in the communications realm, is entering the market. We will see a significant change in the South African broadband landscape in the next two years.
• Grow with them: Today, your SME customer may be a township family with some cellphones. Tomorrow their needs may be entirely different.
• Focus on providing quick ROI: Technologies like converged communications offer huge cost benefits, some measurable (such as a saving on resources and calls), some less so (greater efficiency).
• Empower them with technology: Many great communications technologies exist that allow an SME to punch above its weight. Why not give them call forwarding, voice mail, voice recording, cellular least-cost routing and VOIP, with a choice of wireless and wired handsets and fast access mediums? All of this in one solution from one supplier. The technology is out there and attractively priced.
• Automate the people: SMEs, like their corporate counterparts, need business process automation. Whether their need for an automated customer interface is answered by an Outlook database or something bigger, this needs to be tightly integrated with communications technology. SMEs’ need for CRM, ERP and even SCM is being answered by software giants like Microsoft and SAP. Local solution providers should also heed the call of opportunity.
* http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs218tot.pdf – while published in 2002, the report points out that the figure changed little over four years. In India, SMEs contribute up to 60% of GDP in an enormous emerging market.
