Empowering small businesses with technology
INFORMATION, as they say, is power. More accurately, information at your fingertips when you need it is a great advantage in making decisions. This holds especially true when you are a small business owner with limited resources to make efficient decisions and expand your market reach.
Technology is somewhat opening new grounds to small businesses everywhere, allowing access to markets and real-time business information that were once only for large companies.
Business information allows entrepreneurs to make the best decisions at the correct time, improving efficiency and productivity. Setting up an effective business information platform can be a daunting task for SMES where technology is perceived to be expensive and risky. Moreover, most small businesses have legacy systems that are not connected.
Cloud technology is changing this landscape for small businesses especially in the area of banking and business operating platforms. The disconnection results in many SMES navigating through manual complexities between their bank and business tools.
Customised enterprise systems are often too complex and costly, leaving SMES without a good and reliable solution.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that as many as 79% of RHB survey respondents indicated that managing their cash flow today is a complex and daunting task.
SMES today are demanding more than ever before, digital solutions that can bridge:
– Cashflow and financing requirements
– Overcoming poor management of finances
– Marketing complexity – Reducing administrative task of running a business.
“These challenges have led to a new model of collaboration between RHB and business solution providers, with the ultimate aim of delivering an enhanced endto-end business experience. One of the steps taken by RHB is to adopt cloud technology from various platform providers in enabling seamless access through banking and business tools for its customers,” said RHB Banking Group, Group Business and Transaction Banking head Jeffrey Ng Eow Oo.
The value cloud solutions add to SMES can be significant – the advantages can be overwhelming in the following areas:
– Reduction costs through automation of administrative tasks.
– Real-time access to financial and business information.
– Low entry cost which is scalable with volumes.
– Reliability, where solution providers take care of security and availability.
RHB is the first bank in Malaysia to introduce Application Programming Interface (API) banking to SMES where it seamlessly links the bank with cloud solutions in the market to automate small businesses in Malaysia. RHB’S SME e-solution is powered by APIS and delivers banking functions within the third-party software providers.
“RHB will continue to expand its
SME ecosystem to promote digital transformation of SMES in Malaysia. Today our cloud partners cover accounting system, electronic point of sale and human resource and payroll management. Imagine having real-time access to business information and automating all tasks between the bank and your business platform,” added Ng.
How small businesses would change if they could facilitate payment directly from the accounting and HR solutions, automate reconciliations via RHB’S direct bank feeds, request for bank account statements from the accounting software and view a combined financial business dashboard within RHB Reflex. Today, this has become reality for customers.
Additionally, customers can now enjoy the real-time accounting and business dashboard delivered in RHB Reflex. As an added convenience, RHB Reflex Mobile allows SMES to obtain real-time account information and approve transactions anywhere anytime. Overall, the SME e-solution promises SMES value-added features that will drive greater efficiency for their business from start to end.
It is the objective at RHB to simplify solutions beyond just financing. It is the goal to promote awareness and adoption of technology among SMES. It is RHB’S belief that SMES in Malaysia can only progress though automation and better information management though use of technology.
This is very much in line with the government’s budget 2020 to move businesses, especially SMES, into the digital sphere.