The aim of any organisation is to achieve the ‘next level’ of growth, particularly amongst SMEs. More profit, bigger offices, increased headcount etc. are all the usual measures by which we assess how ‘big’ a company is and how far it has reached.
At some point along that journey, SMEs might look to expand their software and improve their processes to facilitate the growth they want, to help them reach the ‘next level’ – whichever level that might be for the company.
At Blue Ocean Systems we are firm believers that the technology an SME adopts needs to not only support this growth, but also propel them even further in their business goals.
Instead of seeing technology as the afterthought to your growth plan, we can attest to the benefits for companies who embed their technology solution into their overall business plan. You can also read some of our latest case studies.
So how can ERP technology help companies to grow?
SAP Business One is designed to support scalability for SMEs so, however you want your business to grow, the technology is there to support you. Financial accounting is just one way in which SAP can support your business, but the limits are endless when you have the vision…
Local growth
You might be in a niche market and enjoying the benefits of being the main provider or vendor. At this stage, you don’t want/need to expand anywhere else but you do want to capitalise on the local market conditions. You could achieve this by improving your available to promise status, negotiating better procurement deals or developing new ways to market with customer insights.
According to a 2012/2013 SME survey, 25% of SMEs will remain focused on their current priorities, meaning they won’t venture into overseas markets just yet.
With SAP Business One, if you are aiming to expand your headcount and presence locally, you simply need to purchase more licenses for your new hires so they can access the system, so the growth only happens when you are ready for it.
International growth
The majority of SMEs will look to overseas markets to maximise their growth potential and with good reason; they know they can leverage a rocky EU marketplace to provide competitive pricing and quality goods. Increasingly Africa is also a target location according to 74% of Singapore-based SME CEOs who plan to expand to the continent in the next 12 months.
Rather than just exporting overseas, SMEs are setting up physical offices and plants as part of their international growth plan, according to almost 50% of SMEs surveyed.
SAP Business One grows alongside your business; when and how you are ready to do it. A single enterprise platform enables you to have complete oversight into your global operations, in real time, and allows you to make quick and accurate business decisions based on fact; often a differentiator in fickle economic times.
New business model or vertical
If you’ve decided to enter into a new product offering or new market segment, you are well placed with SAP Business One to do so with mitigated risk.
If you are looking to invest and enter a new business, we will be able to support you through the help of our industry application partners, ensuring that regardless of which industry you are looking to enter, SAP Business One will always be the solution running in the backend.
You’ll also be able to gain insights into the new business market quickly and adapt with agility. Your risk is minimised when you have the right data at your fingertips.
Grow existing customer base
Many companies enjoy the benefits of leveraging their loyal customer base to expand their business and grow their operations. Often, the insights available with SAP HANA, can be the driving force for SMEs to grow in ways they had never thought of before, because they did not have the accurate insights that SAP HANA can deliver.
Finally, if you are looking to gather deeper customer insight and to have more focused segmenting and targeting, you can scale to SAP Business One on SAP HANA. SAP Business One on SAP HANA runs entirely in memory, and the fast data processing capabilities allow it to simultaneously function as a Business Intelligence system.
This allows the end user to obtain data from the system, analyse it and come up with meaningful conclusions that marketing and sales efforts can be based on.
As the Senior Director for Marketing at SAP explained – “SAP helps SMEs use their size to their advantage, with scalable solutions that make innovation accessible.”
So, instead of thinking that you wouldn’t be able to benefit from SAP Business One and SAP HANA until you are ‘big enough’, consider that the right ERP solution can (and should) be the springboard for you to grow your business, in whichever way you desire.
Note: This story has also been adapted for publication in Steemit.