It’s hard to escape the doomsday predictions relating to inflation and the impending recession at the minute. But one thing that seems to be less discussed is the impact the changing economic environment is having on small businesses and their approach to technology.
To address this, Gabriel MacSweeney, Codat’s Head of Brand and Communications, sat down with Anish Bhatt, VP of Product at Jeeves, and Cameron Murphy, Head of Growth at Calqulate. Read on to discover how the economic downturn is impacting Jeeves and Calqulate’s customers and what they’re doing to help, or watch the full webinar on-demand here.
Insight #1: SMBs need solutions that help them do more with less
Jeeves is on a mission to become a global fintech bank for growing companies, so keeping abreast of the challenges small businesses face on a daily basis is crucial.
“When you’re a small business getting off the ground for the first time, the focus is on survival,” says Anish.
According to Anish, this makes small business owners particularly sensitive to cost when purchasing software. However, that doesn’t mean that small businesses are cutting back on software to save money in this challenging economic environment. After all, “business owners can’t live without ERP, payroll, and bookkeeping.”
Instead, “businesses are consolidating suppliers.” They are “looking for software that helps them do the most with the smallest price” and “picking fintechs that offer banking in a box.”
In particular, the current economic environment has led many of Jeeves’ customers to seek solutions that save them crucial time.
“One of the biggest things we’ve heard is that they need access to their accounting platforms. They have all these transactions coming in from their Jeeves card and need to be able to connect them to their bookkeeping software”.
This need for time-saving solutions is also reflected in Codat’s recent state of small business software report. The research, conducted in partnership with YouGov, found that as many as 40% of SMBs surveyed are making changes to their tech stacks in response to the new economic conditions. But, perhaps surprisingly, this change is driven more by a desire to save time than save money, with many SMBs seeking greater efficiency and connectivity from the tools they rely on to run their business.
Insight #2: Real-time insights are even more important amid challenging economic conditions
SMBs make crucial decisions every day based on the data they have to hand. But this data is often siloed across disparate systems. In times of economic uncertainty like this, it can be almost impossible for SMBs to glean accurate and reliable insights.
As Cameron Murphy puts it, “we’re awash with data, but it’s so hard to make sense of so much of it.”
It’s no real surprise, then, that Calqulate’s customers are increasingly requesting aggregate data in the form of indices metrics and composite calculations of many different KPIs to help minimize manual and time-consuming data aggregation. This has led Calqulate to focus on building “a true growth index for investors to measure a company’s potential, and a financial health index which takes into account cash burn, cash runway, and gross margins percentages.”
Anish also echoed the urgent need for real-time insights among SMBs. “It’s still incredibly difficult for small businesses to manage all their cash flows, especially when they are operating across multiple countries…SMBs want insights into their absolute cash flows. They want to see the money moving in and the money moving out.” This ensures SMBs can make informed decisions and react to new market shifts as they happen.
It’s clear that fintechs will play a crucial role in helping SMBs adapt to the changing macroeconomic environment in the coming months. To discover how Codat can help you create innovative solutions to better support your SMB customers during these challenging times, please complete the contact form below.