intelligent

020 has without a doubt been the most difficult year for businesses globally . SMEs operating in the B2C space have especially encountered challenges during this pandemic with customer facing services facing strict limitations to keep operations running .

SMEs in the B2C and B2B space , who rely heavily on manually-run back office processes , have seen a strong delay in serving customers or handling suppliers . Most of these backoffice personnel were restricted in travel due to lockdown and / or in a working-from-home model paired with insufficient technology infrastructure to support their activity .

What we are experiencing moving into 2021 is a significant increase in requests from many businesses who want to digitalise their buying or selling processes . This is so that businesses can build resilience and independence from the traditional physical back office / shared service centre .

WHAT WE ARE

EXPERIENCING MOVING INTO 2021 IS A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN REQUESTS FROM MANY BUSINESSES WHO WANT TO DIGITALISE THEIR BUYING OR SELLING PROCESSES .

SMEs should prioritise investing heavily into digitalisation of both their operational and administrative functions , creating virtual global office spaces and establishing , as much as possible , full digital flows when the process does not include a physical movement of goods . These investments will future proof their organisations . They will not be limited by the ongoing confinements and lockdowns but will also create significant efficiencies to their business as they can replace current fixed operational costs and overheads by pay-peruse variable costs .

In this sense , Pagero ’ s teams are working today with both enterprises and SMEs globally to fully digitalise the communication of their trading documents including , but not limited to , customer orders , order confirmations and invoices .

Approximately 50 % of our revenue is generated by SMEs . For them , we offer solutions which are self-service to help them adopt technology in pay-per-use commercial models with almost no upfront investment and without technology knowledge required to set up the service from the customer side .

Finally , SMEs should prioritise looking at expanding their reach geographically through a network of sellers or distributors . In this case , digitalisation and smart business global networks can facilitate access to new markets without the need for physical presence , mitigating the risks associated with compliance requirements and aligning operational cost to real activity without the load of heavy overheads . �

SMES SHOULD PRIORITISE LOOKING AT EXPANDING THEIR REACH GEOGRAPHICALLY THROUGH A NETWORK OF SELLERS OR DISTRIBUTORS .