Fintech has attracted a lot of attention in the past few years in the sector of small to medium enterprises. As traditional banks have not focused primarily on these businesses, fintech companies have ventured into this sector by offering products and services which have been specifically tailored to meet the needs of small and medium business enterprises. The solutions are designed, keeping in mind the changes in the business scenario across the globe due to globalization and digitization. Fintech products have adapted to the changing environment to suit the needs or demands of the industry players.
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Automation tools revolutionizing the Fintech industry
Fintech started providing automation tools for basic tasks initially, such as documentation of transactions, financial bookkeeping, etc. The technologies improved the accuracy of these processes, as well as its cost-effectiveness, allowed the SMEs to embrace the fintech solutions. Fintech has further provided solutions to SMEs, which has led to more financial automation as well as financial freedom for their businesses. This has helped the SMEs greatly to save time and money as well as optimize the currently available resources.
Let us now look at some extremely innovative and helpful fintech solutions which have great potential to address the concerns as well as provide interesting solutions to small and medium business enterprises.
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Improving bank lending to the SMEs
Micro entrepreneurs need financial support to expand their operations and services and hence approach banks for loans. Traditionally the bank officials disburse the loan amounts. But the process is not so easy and quick. Many times, the loan is not sanctioned on time, which creates a big problem to be addressed by the entrepreneurs. However, new technologies such as internet banking, P2P lending, etc. provide alternatives to this long process in a cost-effective manner. They aim to provide anytime, anywhere banking services.
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Point of Sale management system
Fintech has brought an innovative and intuitive solution for the SMEs to handle sales, accounting, etc. in an easy and error-free manner. The user interfaces are self-explanatory and aim to simplify these complex operations which were performed manually conventionally. Using the automation software, the SMEs can collect valuable customer data, finances, stock, consumer behavior, employee performance, etc. all at one go. It helps them look at the bigger picture and devise strategies in the future to grow their business further.
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Cash registers in a tablet-based design
Cash registers which being used traditionally are extremely bulky. They are used to scan prices, open the cash drawers post billing, and give the customers their printed bill receipts. These are expensive as well as less efficient machines. Fintech has introduced new tablet-based cash registers for these operations. These new cash registers use cloud technologies and SaaS to save data on the cloud for future reference. SMEs have to pay for these as per their bandwidth usage, which makes them wise and scalable investments.
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Mobile point of sale solutions
Mobile point of sale solutions with inbuilt card readers has benefited many SME processes. Some of them are: –
- They help waiters in restaurants to save time going back and forth with the table bills and card machines
- It helps the eCommerce industry to speed up the entire process if the customer asks to pay through card when choosing the cash on delivery option
- Customers availing taxi or cab services can easily pay the drivers through credit cards which are being facilitated by the mPOS solutions.
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Introducing innovative customer service software
Customer invoicing software has helped the SMEs with a large number of benefits such as safety, low cost, mobility, user-friendly interfaces, editable properties, mobility, etc. Automation has made it possible to facilitate direct payment options from the customer’s account to the employee’s account.
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Encouraging solutions which promote loyalty
Fintech provides new age loyalty solutions through the implementation of technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, gamification, etc. These solutions aim to improving customer retention in the long run. These solutions ensure the complaints are addressed appropriately and have the shortest turnaround time possible. Automated chatbots, AVR, etc. have made all these processes very convenient for the customers and made the whole system more efficient.
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Transferring to the digital space
Today’s generation is comfortable working and operating through online channels. Whether it is banking or shopping, an online presence for an enterprise has become a necessity these days in order to reach out to maximum people possible. SMEs make up to 90% of the world’s businesses worldwide and hence it is especially important for them to make a switch from brick and mortar stores and have an online presence to foster growth and opportunities.
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Omnichannel banking
The technology innovation in the fintech companies has enabled the SMEs to give an omnichannel experience to their clients, and this feature has been added in the list of benefits already. It gives a banking experience combining multiple channels which include mobile, print, and desktop applications. So, users can check and manage their financial aspects of the business as well as access their accounts through a unified channel at one go. Users can use any device to log in to their accounts and access their financial data and access the personalized financial services.
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A shift to digital lending
FinTech companies have embraced change, innovation, and have reinvented their services and offerings. People can now fill online applications and get their credit checks done. They can also assess the benefits they are getting in terms of period, amount, or rate of lending. There is also a growth in independent lenders apart from industrial organizations.
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Data sharing and APIs
APIs are the ones who have disrupted the segmented banking experience. Services are being offered by many Fintech providers which enable sharing of data between the service providers with an aim to provide a good experience to the customers. This practice promotes the concept of open banking ecosystem platforms.
As we move forward, the SMEs are constantly proving their potential for providing personalized services as well as financial management services. SMEs and fintech companies are proving to be a good competition for the traditional banks due to their ability to meet the demands of consumers in this digital age. These are a handful of the impactful solutions provided by fintech companies to SMEs.
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