The IT Pro Podcast: Solving SMB challenges through tech

Running a small business has always been a demanding task, but recent circumstances - from the coronavirus pandemic to the advent of Brexit - have come together to make it more challenging than ever before. An increasing number of SMBs, however, are turning to technologies such as cloud and AI to help address these issues.

This week, we’re joined by Aaron Harris, CTO for UK-based cloud financial software firm Sage, to talk about the state of the UK’s small-business market, the role technology plays in keeping it as resilient as possible, and how SMBs can make the most effective use of their IT.

Highlights

“There has to be this level of trust between small business owners, finance teams, accounting teams, that as they transition more and more of their work to technology, that technology is going to do the work in the right way. That where AI is being used to make decisions, it's making the right decisions.”

“The technology that we are really investing in right now is what we call the digital network. So the idea behind the digital network is that as business workflows digitally transform, it means that software must be designed now not only for the business that executes those workflows, but also for all of the participants in the workflow.”

“Small businesses are expecting technology providers like Sage to help them to make sense of this and to navigate through these times. So we saw, for example, that 44% of SMBs in the UK expect to invest more in technology over the next 12 months than they have previously. So clearly, small businesses see technology as a big part of the solution to all this change.”

Read the full transcript here.

Footnotes

• Five reasons why digital transformation is essential for business growth
• Are we hurtling towards digital transformation burnout?
• The key pillars of a digital transformation strategy
• Even cutting-edge firms need digital transformation
• What are digital workflow solutions?
• How AI can help – and hinder – the supply chain crisis
• What is ethical AI?
• What does it take to launch a successful Fintech startup?
• The metaverse is a waste of time, effort and processing power
• Into the metaverse: Everything we learned from our virtual tour

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