Much more than Twitter

I'VE SAID before in this column that technology is a fantastic enabler for small business - and yet very often it's an area whose offerings entrepreneurs don't rush to investigate.

I've touched previously on technology such as Yola, which gives entrepreneurs a low-cost web presence as well as some other marketing tools. One area I haven't looked at, though, is that of payment processing and the financial function of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME).

On Tuesday I was given a tour of Bankserv, the electronic payment and switching service between the various banking groups.

They have a lot of really nice products there for financial services business and technology suppliers looking to integrate with the banks. Call me ignorant - I'm just a lowly journalist - but they have a service for immediate clearing of funds within business owners' bank accounts for electronic banking transfers.

This doesn't come cheap, but I know from my own SME experience that there are times when the importance of cash and its availability comes down to vital hours - especially when you want to placate that supplier which has been hounding you for the last three weeks.

Great business account freebie

Have you gone to the shops recently and sourced prices for a basic bookkeeping or accounting package for your business? These aren't inexpensive either.

Did you know that FNB offers its Instant Accounting package free to all business account holders? This takes care of everything including trial balance, income statements and cash flow forecasts.

I spoke to John Botha from FNB who heads up the Instant Accounting business unit, who said over the last 12 months the bank had been experimenting with pay-per-transaction and pay-per-turnover models. But ultimately, it decided to make its package free to business owners, thereby empowering them to produce better quality financial data for the benefit of both the bank and the client.

Botha says the bank is pushing and improving on this technology all the time to improve functionality, so that small business owners can get on with doing the things they know best.

Other South African companies which spring to mind with really neat solutions for the SME market include Netcash and MarisIT, and their various web services. These are tools which can give you the infrastructure to be an empowered and competitive business against far bigger rivals.

Go global with PayPal

How often have you bemoaned the fact that you haven't assessed a particular client's creditworthiness? Are you even aware that there are cost-effective solutions aimed at informing this segment of the market? Use them so that you have less chance of being burnt.

I think it is fantastic to see the debate which is now raging in the South African market around getting approval for the PayPal technology to be used here. This is something which will empower local businesses with limited infrastructure to look at going into and transacting in international markets.

When I chat to small business owners, they often dismiss technology as an expense without necessarily investigating how it can boost their business.

I get the sense that people are very happy to embrace technologies that allow them to market themselves at the lowest possible cost, and joyfully teach themselves about Twitter or social media or building their online presence.

But they are less keen to investigate technologies which can bolster a very real expense - managing the financial function.

- Fin24.com