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IT & SME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY

SMEs looking to enhance their growth will often turn to IT to help boost their efforts. In addition to helping companies wishing to grow, IT provides extensive support for SME business fundamentals. This executive summary covers, in abbreviated format, a variety of ways that SMEs can utilise IT to enhance the performance of their business. The four core business functions covered in the guide include:

• Strategic Planning• Communication• Marketing• Employee Empowerment

Strategic Planning

Especially for SMEs, strategic planning is fundamental to business success. Accessing and analysing information, in whatever form, is a crucial component of successful strategic planning. A well-designed IT system can help a small company compete with much larger firms by providing a variety of forms of analytical data, including:

Metrics for strategic analysis: The number and variety of data points that can be tracked and displayed by modern information technology to help a company make strategic decisions is truly impressive.

Some considerations when determining which metrics to use are as follows:• Include metrics that indicate whether the company is making progress towards its goals.• Performance metrics should be developed to measure long-term as well as short-term

company objectives.• Solicit opinions and aim for consensus across all company departments. • Metrics used may need to change over time.

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• Whilst general performance metrics, for instance operating profit percentage, can provide valuable insight, there is no single “magic” metric which applies across all companies in all industries or operating environments. Thus, a group of metrics should be used to provide as complete a picture as possible of company performance.

Some metrics you may want to measure using IT functionality include:

• % decrease • Number of staff trained• % of achieved deliveries to planned • Number of hours billed• Availability of materials • Number of projects held up• Benchmarking data obtained • Number of quality customers• Completion date • Number of repeat calls• Cost of rework • Number of training hours • Cost reductions achieved • Percentage IRR (internal rate of return)• Cost savings achieved • Percentage of on time delivery• Deliveries on time as ordered • Percentage of supplier rejects • Finished goods turnover • Projects on time• Help desk hours • Projects on target• Hours of education • Raw materials dollars• Hours of skills training • Raw materials turnover• Internet up-time • Revenue growth

(% increased year over year)• Lost staff hours • Revenue growth – monthly• Materials availability • Staff feedback sessions per month• Monthly growth of revenue • Survey response from customers• Number of staff trained • Waiting time for a call-back

(minutes decreased)

Graphs, charts, and other decision-friendly displays: Modern IT systems offer user-friendly data delivery in the form of charts, graphs, infographics, and other methods designed to provide visual representations of relevant data.

Communication

The development of a variety of methods for rapid, inexpensive communications allows modern IT systems to facilitate communication between your employees as well as between your company and third parties. This creates opportunities for increased collaboration inside and outside your company via a variety of methods, including:

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• Business productivity software: One example of this is the latest release of Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud-based bundle, which includes the ability to use the Skype VOIP communications software within applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Videoconferencing: The expense and time involved in traveling to meet with outside partners or distant coworkers can be reduced dramatically via the use of modern communication technologies such as videoconferencing.

• Work-from-anywhere: The ability of modern communication systems to allow for communication anywhere an internet connection can be accessed enables increased productivity from a company’s staff.

• Unified Communications: The ability of modern communications tools to unify vast amounts of communication data in the form of easy-to-access streams or summaries enables workers to more efficiently source and access data.

• Instant Messaging: These systems are helpful in a business setting as they allow managers to see who is logged in to the system as well as facilitating rapid sending and receiving of messages among company personnel.

• Smartphones: Sometimes described as computers masquerading as phones, these communication devices enable increased productivity by allowing employees to perform a variety of work functions even when they are away from a computer.

Marketing

Marketing comprises a fundamental activity for most SMEs. Even the best product in the world won’t sell itself, so reaching out to potential customers is a mission critical function for many companies. The following technology-enhanced functions can be used to improve your marketing efforts:• Data management and analytics• Insight-driven marketing• Marketing automation• Self-service optimisation• Workforce effectiveness

Contact your Bright representive today for more information:

333 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RA | 020 3031 9500 | sales@bright.co

Types of solutions that allow you to improve your company’s marketing efforts include:

Customer nurturing software: These programs track the customer journey from first contact all the way to an initial purchase. They aid the process by enabling you to provide information and encouragement to your prospects that is aligned with their location on the sales funnel.

Affinity enhancement tools: Your marketing efforts can be enhanced by software that allows for detailed data to be kept on your customers and prospects.

Location-based solutions: Geo-marketing now allows companies with a retail presence to offer visitors special offers and services based upon their nearness to the company’s location. Some specific software solutions that can be used for marketing purposes include:• HitTail: For SEO (search engine optimisation) marketing purposes.• Buzzsumo and Feedly: These tools help your content marketing efforts by helping you find

new topics to cover.• SEMrush: A helpful competitor analysis tool.

Employee Empowerment

To improve their chances of success, it is crucial for SMEs to empower and engage their employees to enable them to represent the company to the best of their ability. A fully functioning IT system provides employees with a wealth of options to help them perform to their full potential.

Some tips for using your IT resources to increase employee buy-in and engagement include:• Use visual communication tools when possible• Deliver custom messages for different employee groups• Establish internal social media channels• Solicit employee feedback across a variety of formats