Big business has had many advantages over SMEs for decades when it comes to leveraging information and benchmarking. Cloud has levelled the playing field and now allows SMEs to access data and analytics in a way that delivers a benefit both in cost-effectiveness and time-relevance of data available.
In a rapidly changing and challenging competitive landscape, we know that those who are benchmarking with current information can increase their financial performance long before issues become critical and before valuable time and resources are wasted. Organisations completely transform their position by taking the data and insights provided to improve the understanding of their position and that of their place in a wider context.
Whilst businesses are as unique and individual as people, once you have worked alongside SMEs for long enough, patterns emerge both in how an organisation evolves in its own environment and how it demonstrates similarities in similar industries.
Benchmarking is not new but the benefits of working with Cloud-based real-time comparisons are clear:
Cost – collating and analysing large groups of data in the pre-Cloud days was prohibitively expensive and so became the domain of big business. Ironically it is SMEs who need it most in the current climate
Relevance – basing comparisons on ABS or ATO data that is years old is dangerous. Whilst it’s a starting point, the speed of change in most industries make this information out-of-date and potentially misleading
Time – the time it now takes to gather, compare and present information by integrating software means it is now possible to have a continual and evolving KPI framework rather than a once-a-year event. This impacts the bottom-line faster
Real-time Benchmarking will play a critical role in shaping how SMEs make key decisions in the future. The organisations that look over the fence to see what others are doing, marry this with key economic drivers and use this to shape their decisions, will have a key advantage over their competitors.
BBB is in a unique position to collate and present key SME indicators. As industry leader in providing SMEs with services such as bookkeeping, management reporting, system process improvement and integration of business systems and accounting software to SMEs for the last eight years, BBB work on the front-line in correlating key data into meaningful reports and graphs that are easy to understand.
BBBenchmark is a subscriber-only service available to SMEs, their advisors, industry associations and SME service providers to assist in providing accurate and relevant information in real-time.
For further information on this forward-thinking initiative, contact us.
