Today’s world is digital, data is king, and for many long-established SMEs, who have successfully operated for 20 or more years, digital transformation is no easy feat – especially given the rate of technological development and changes in customer behaviour (and society in general) due to the pandemic. It can however, mean the very difference between growth and decline, which is why we set out on a simple but crucial transformation journey of our own: building a one-stop shop solution and portal for all of our services, in house. SMEToday spoke to Steve Hoban, CEO of Suresite around the topic…
Author: sme-admin
Cloud firm bridges the chasm between ecommerce platforms and accounting OVERWHELMED ecommerce web developers who are struggling to cope with a pandemic boom in demand have been offered a lifeline, by UK fintech experts who help beat integration headaches. Devs who specialise in ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce – as well as those who offer bespoke systems – are in greater demand than ever as Covid accelerates the retail exodus to online. However, they are also coping with increased pushback from demanding clients, who expect their new ecommerce sites to integrate with accounting software like Sage or Xero, or…
Louise Lawrence, an employment lawyer at Winckworth Sherwood LLP, shares her ten top tips for employees to look out for in their new contract of employment when they are changing jobs: Probationary period A probationary period can have benefits for both parties as if you end up not liking your new role you can move on quickly. However it can also be disenchanting to see that your employment can be terminated on very short notice e.g. one week during the probationary period after it has taken a number of rounds of interviews for you to secure your new role and…
For the first time ever, it’s been reported there are more job vacancies in the UK than there are people to fill them. Thanks to the rise in home working brought about by Covid-19, the candidate pool from which employers are competing to fill them is bigger than ever too. For SMEs operating on a regional or national basis, or within niche sectors this is good news, as the often specialist skill sets they require to continue thriving are within closer reach than ever before. On the flip side, employers of all sizes are more exposed to the possibility of…
The University of Warwick, Advanced Propulsion Centre, and Zenzic have joined the Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme, which launches today with a kick-off event at Jaguar Land Rover’s research collaboration hub at the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). The University of Warwick becomes the programme’s founding academic partner. Recently created by global innovation platform and prolific early-stage investor Plug and Play, alongside founding partner Jaguar Land Rover, Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme will create an innovation hub that is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme will build an ecosystem of startups and scaleups, corporates,…
PAUL DAY, expert on secure software & GDPR, who is technical director of document management specialist Filestream, will be a guest speaker at this week’s Midlands Business Expo in Birmingham. Paul, who has worked with the UK-based company for more than 25 years, will be talking about cyber security, document management and GDPR at the show which takes place at the Aston Villa stadium on Thursday June 23. “Many companies, even smaller ones, have a mountain of documents online which are scattered and can be hard to find at a moment’s notice. This also can mean that a company’s most…
Rapidly becoming one of the most common and difficult scams to detect, invoice fraud targets businesses and their customers alike. It is estimated that, in 2020, the total value of these scams was around £82 million*, with less than half that amount being recovered and reimbursed. Business owners are advised to take as many steps and precautions as possible to protect themselves by minimising the risk of fraud, as well as the risk of liability for negligence. Commonly, invoice (or mandate) scams target payments between an organisation and a legitimate payee. Invoices or instructions for payment sent by email, are…
Follows exceptional first two years of performance, with the bank rapidly becoming the fintech challenger bank of choice for established SME businesses Allica Bank – the fintech challenger bank that seeks to empower Britain’s small and medium sized businesses – has today announced it has secured £55m in additional funding as it continues to make significant gains in the SME banking market. The latest funding builds on Allica’s successful £110 million Series B funding round in November 2021 – and increases the total funding raised by Allica Bank to £285 million, providing a strong basis on which the bank can continue…
Research among more than 1,000 SME owners, undertaken by GoDaddy, reveals that relationships among those who either currently run, or have run, a small company with their partner last 5 times longer than the national average. This equates to 11 years, 4 months for those who run a business together, compared with the national average of 2 years, 9 months*. The study found that almost four in five (79%) said their relationship is stronger because of running a business together, and a similar number (78%) think the character traits needed to run a business with a partner are the same as those…
Entrepreneurs are pressing ahead with their ventures despite all the challenges being thrown at new businesses. In fact, more than 5.4 million businesses were launched in 2021. Whilst software projects remain popular for many, product development is equally popular amongst budding entrepreneurs. 30,000 new consumer products are launched every year, yet 95% of these projects fail, according to experts at Harvard Business School. Faced with this statistic, taking the leap and setting up your own business may seem daunting, but it is also incredibly exciting. For many entrepreneurs, the design and product development stages are the most exhilarating. However, while…