Digital information is easier to automate. Regular manual operations are avoided. And you can instruct digital applications to automatically run reports, send newsletters or make complex calculations.Working digitally means lower costs for copying and physical storage.
So less spending on expensive toners and on renting a space to store your supplies
Digital information is easier to find. The search function in digital tools is often so powerful that you forget how you could find that needle in the haystack in the customer files in the past.
Digital information is easier to store in different locations. This ensures that you are less vulnerable to, for example, fire or floods. But it also ensures that employees don’t all have to work in the office if this is not necessary. This in turn saves a lot of accommodation costs.
Working digitally makes a company attractive to (young) employees. It ensures that they can better combine work and private life. It makes them more motivated, more productive and more involved in the company.
Most used digital applications in SMEs
The SME entrepreneurs who subscribe to the importance of digitization mainly use tools for business operations such as an online accounting tool or cybersecurity software (63% of the SME entrepreneurs use this). This is followed by digital applications for online marketing (54%), tools for customer communication (44%), tools for paperless working (together) (35%), tools for process automation (23%), hardware tools (15%) and tools for optimizing the business model (12%).
Big Data, BI and data warehouse automation: also and especially for SMEs
Not only has the use of digital tools helped in the sustainable growth of your SME. “Larger digitization solutions” such as Big Data, Business Intelligence and the automation of your data warehouse also provide SMEs with many benefits.
The use of Big Data seems like a big step to start as an SME
Yet there are several reasons why it offers added value for SMEs in particular. Consider, for example, the improvement of your products (through more and faster information about the use), optimization of your business processes (through an overview of all relevant factors) and responding better and faster to the changing needs in your sales market (through a lot of current information).
Business Intelligence is also very profitable for an SME. You will receive much more and better information on an operational and tactical level which is more clearly displayed than on an Excel sheet. And it is easier to maintain, so that you always have the correct and most up-to-date information about the state of affairs of your company.
Conclusion
The automation of your data warehouse supplies like SME many advantages. For example, less manual work is required. This reduces the chance of errors and increases the quality of the data on which you base your analyzes. In addition, the collection of the data is easier. This allows you to start analyzing the data more quickly and drawing conclusions about the state of your organization. And because the IT department is less burdened, you also save on the expensive IT working hours.
