Software solutions can be your best friends

SMEs: a completely different organisational animal. With technology and software solutions contributing to productivity and improving competitiveness, many small business owners often avoid investing in technology when faced with the many choices available to them. Instead of seeing these as a means of laying a solid foundation on which their company can grow, owners often leave these purchases to the last minute and don't realise the long-term value a comprehensive solution can add to their business.

What many entrepreneurs don't often realise is that software solutions can be their best friends. This is usually because of the inherent qualities of entrepreneurs. People who choose to start their own companies are typically visionaries - bigger picture thinkers. They have an incredible idea and are committed to turn this into a reality. It is in transforming this entrepreneurial idea into a physical business entity that many SME owners get "bogged down" in semantics - aspects like payroll and accounting. Very few SME owners are accountants by profession. This means they're now adding a critical - but completely unfamiliar - responsibility to their "to do" list, especially initially when they can't afford to hire a professional to do this on their behalf. This often results in the SME's accounts being neglected or abandoned completely by the entrepreneur him/herself and given to a friend or family member to "deal with".

Remember, there are no "stupid" questions when it comes to finding the right software for your business.

Ivan Epstein is the co-founder and CEO of the Softline group, including Sage Australia.

By investing in accounting, payroll and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, however, SME owners can give themselves a definite edge in the market. This is because accounting, payroll and CRM solutions enable SMEs to "think big" and act like large businesses while they are still comparatively small. They add strategic advantage by giving owners both a holistic and detailed overview of their business, empowering them to plan well into the future.

CRM is the perfect example of this. It creates a single view of the customer across an organisation, enabling it to offer consistent and profitable service - something that a SME cannot do without. What we see time and time again is a SME growing to the extent that it can't sustain the regular and highly personal interaction that it relied upon to differentiate itself. By using a CRM tool in this situation, the business can replicate and maintain that level of service and both retain current customers and acquire new ones as the business grows.

While SMEs have a lower turnover and smaller workforce than their larger competitors, they often have the same business processes and are just as complex as their larger counterparts. SMEs thus need to embrace the solutions available to them with this larger corporate mindset, looking at the advantage an application will offer them well into the future. They also need to do away with their "island" mentality when purchasing solutions - as opposed to buying a product merely to fulfil a single function like inventory for example, they should rather look at how this system links to other operations and processes and buy an application that addresses these holistically. In this way a SME can leverage its software applications and turn these into strategic investments that enable their businesses.

Beyond adding strategic value, a comprehensive solution will enable a SME to comply with legal and reporting requirements that much more easily. These are often areas of great concern for owners as while they are aware that these exist, they are often unsure as to how and when they affect them. A reliable solution will provide them with the regular updates and reminders they need for complete peace of mind.

Perhaps the most important thing that a good software solution will make possible, however, is the fact that it will keep "non-core" functions like accounts and payroll "non-core". Having an effective solution in place will give your entrepreneur the chance to remain an entrepreneur - driving the business. It will simultaneously give them the strategic information they need to keep doing this even more efficiently and effectively, while fulfilling their more mundane non-core needs.

Just because you are relatively small, don't assume that the software solutions you associate with larger businesses cannot be harnessed by your organisation. Do a bit of research and call in a reliable vendor to discuss your needs and where you want your software to take you. Remember, there are no "stupid" questions when it comes to finding the right software for your business. Ask how it will impact on your other applications and how it will integrate with them. Instead of sweating your assets then, look to your software as a strategic investment that extends well beyond sending emails and printing invoices - and start to use it accordingly.

* Ivan Epstein is the co-founder and CEO of the Softline group, including Sage Australia. In 1999 he won the Ernst & Young "South Africa's Best Entrepreneur Award".