In today’s competitive business landscape, small businesses face numerous challenges, from resource constraints to maintaining productivity levels on par with larger corporations. This is where automation comes into play as a game-changer. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the productivity of small businesses is only half that of large companies. Elevating this productivity to top-quartile levels can significantly boost the GDP of both advanced and emerging economies. At the forefront of this transformative journey is Green Tape, a new industry partner with the Small Business Association of Australia. Green Tape’s e-procurement platform is designed to streamline and optimize procurement processes, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to cut costs, enhance efficiency, and focus on their core business operations.
Why automate?
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, small business productivity is only half that of large companies, and less in emerging economies. Raising small business productivity to top-quartile levels relative to large companies is equivalent to 5 percent of GDP in advanced economies and 10 percent in emerging economies.
While not front of mind for many SMEs, most companies either struggle with their procurement/purchasing process or do not give it sufficient consideration in relation to optimizing and streamlining this activity. Procurement has been the Cinderella of automation and productivity improvements in business. This is about to change as businesses across the board are now forced to look at aggressive cost reduction.
The Green Tape platform, through automation, provides SMEs the ability to reduce both direct and indirect procurement related costs through efficiency (e.g., eliminating manual processes, work duplication, data entry, etc.) and accuracy.
Using an automated platform can also provide an audit trail of the entire process and in addition, allows companies to do real time budgeting and reporting with insights on procurement spend.
With scarce resources at their disposal, the last thing SMEs need to be burdened with is a complicated process, the requirement for additional technical expertise, or extensive training. Neither do SMEs want to spend money on additional hardware and technical maintenance.
An automated system needs to be easy to use
The Green Tape platform is extremely easy to use as it has an intuitive user interface and requires no procurement or technical knowledge. As it is a Cloud-based platform, Green Tape does not require hardware and software installation, all you need is a web log-in to use the platform. It can be implemented seamlessly within a few weeks making it the perfect solution for SMEs.
While automation always sounds like a good idea, many SMEs just cannot afford the significant investment required to acquire market-based automation tools and solutions. In addition to not having to spend money on IT infrastructure to use the Green Tape platform, the company offers an attractive and innovative fee structure to make the total cost of ownership attractive to SMEs.
Since Green Tape is a platform that creates a marketplace for both buyers and sellers, all SMEs that are keen to sell their products and services to other businesses can register on the platform free of charge.
Optimising the use of scarce resources
For SMEs that prefer to use their valuable resources on their core business and not spend time and effort on important but time-consuming functions like procurement, Green Tape partners with SMEs to design a procurement services package that meets their requirements (augment or outsource).
As small businesses continue to seek ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs, automation becomes an indispensable tool. Green Tape’s partnership with the Small Business Association of Australia marks a significant step towards empowering SMEs with advanced procurement solutions. By leveraging Green Tape’s intuitive, cloud-based e-procurement platform, SMEs can eliminate manual processes, reduce errors, and gain real-time insights into their procurement spend. This not only enhances productivity but also ensures that valuable resources are directed towards core business activities. With Green Tape, small businesses are better equipped to navigate the complexities of procurement, ultimately leading to greater competitiveness and growth in the marketplace.
