Taking branding to the cloud for SMEs
AN ENTREPRENEUR is taking her software concept and making it suitable for other small, medium and micro enterprises.
Paula Sartini, the chief executive of BrandQuantum – which she founded three years ago – said she was now moving from servicing a blue-chip client base to enabling smaller companies to use the software.
This is because the branding product will now be hosted in the cloud. Speaking from her office in Rosebank on Monday, Sartini explained the tool was a toolbar that was currently built into the Microsoft Office Suite that allowed branding to be consistent across the organisation.
And, as far as she knows, it’s an offering unique to her company – as no-one else has developed anything similar, in South Africa or globally.
Sartini explained the built-in toolbar had a variety of customised aspects available at the click of a button, such as letterheads, logos, terms and conditions, and PowerPoint presentation templates.
It is installed in such a way that only staff who need access to certain functions can get them, and changes are handled by only those with permission.
This, she explained, negates what was often a common issue in companies: having multiple and different versions of a tool – such as a letterhead – spread across a company’s network.
Sartini also explained the tools can easily be updated if, for example, a company undergoes a brand refresh, that is rolled out across the system overnight, so the change is seamless. This, she explained, negated the chance of someone inadvertently using an old logo.
“How do you change (your brand) when you don’t even know what you have?”
The concept for the business, said Sartini, came from her branding background, when she realised it was ineffective to be micro-managing – or brand-policing. She also didn’t want to be chasing deadlines until she was 65, she quips.
The company, which started in her dining room, now has 15 staff members and is seeking a bigger office, she adds.
Sartini’s pipeline is to roll out the solution to Office 365 – Microsoft’s cloud-based solution – which is currently happening, and then to other software providers, such as Gmail.
This, she said, would make it possible for entrepreneurs to benefit from the offering as they tend to adopt cloud solutions quicker, because they are cheaper. – Business Report Online