Why companies need to harness the power of online platforms

Across South Africa, SMEs are undoubtedly the driving force of the economy. They represent more than 98% of businesses, employ between 50% to 60% of the nation’s workforce and are responsible for a quarter of job growth in the private sector¹. However, many of these organisations continually face the challenge of limited resources, expertise, and technology to operate and grow efficiently. New online platforms, such as BuzzApex, are transforming the way businesses operate in every industry.

Legacy systems, such as spreadsheets, that have previously been offline are now proving to be unreliable, expensive, time-consuming, and far from user-friendly.  The future lies in online platforms that transform productivity and output, positively impacting the day-to-day running of the business, its growth and ultimately the economy. BuzzApex, a free-to-access online platform designed for real-time control of all organisational activities, is firmly positioned to fulfil the needs of any sized organisation. For SME’s, particularly, this is a game-changer. The recently founded company offers a dynamic, simple and, customisable service that puts technology in the hands of business owners and staff, regardless of the scale of the company.  It is an essential tool that proves compliances, tracks assets, promotes sales and market expansion in both sourcing and product saturation by market areas.

“The challenge for SME’s to secure investment, manage corporate governance, attract customers, maintain growth and achieve a competitive advantage are real. BuzzApex is a platform powerful enough to support and strengthen businesses that want to enhance sales, administer financial and management results, through the controls and resources that are offered on the platform,” says  Ivan Radmore, CEO of BuzzApex.

The majority of South African SME’s generate revenue of less than R200,000 annually and nearly half of SMEs employ between two to five employees². Despite their size, the organisational requirements remain the same. BuzzApex provides resources to increase business efficiencies, establish controls in a structured environment, reduce operating costs and increase sales with well-targeted promotional material.

The fact is SMEs are continually highlighting the ongoing struggle to connect with new buyers and are often overly reliant on a few clients. An intelligent online platform such as BuzzApex’s catalogue service empowers companies to innovatively connect with clients to overcome these challenges:

• Businesses can now publish catalogues to their local market and seek distributors.
• Using BuzzApex’s customisable online platform they can create quotes directly from supplier catalogues saving time and fuelling growth effortlessly.
• This encourages distribution networks for producers, manufacturers and even importers.
• It boosts consumption by highlighting the vendor’s support for credit and other promotional tools.
• This is essentially a turnkey solution that also tracks unpaid invoices to ensure cash flow objectives are met.

Ultimately, there is no turning back the clock for businesses. Now is the time to pursue online platforms such as BuzzApex, to have a holistic approach to everything from sales, to finance and asset management even Human Resources. At a time when market conditions are tougher than ever, this is an opportunity that only technology could provide.

References:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/how-south-african-smes-can-survive-and-thrive-post-covid-19
https://www.smallbusinessinstitute.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AssessmentOfSAsSMELandscape.pdf