We are living in a digital world, and today’s SMMEs have to make the transition rapidly if they wish to prosper and grow. Corporates must play their role in helping them to do so.By Keneilwe Gwabeni

The lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had many unexpected consequences, introducing new trends of what we call ‘normal’, the most important being a massive push to drive businesses online. This massive push has encouraged many small and medium businesses to navigate these trends by transitioning to selling online. However, we must acknowledge the fact that moving a brick-and-mortar business to the digital world can be challenging. Small and medium business entrepreneurs are required to be more strategic with their business plans, have a detailed analysis of their customers’ needs, and have a holistic long-term vision of their business(es).

Today’s entrepreneurs must have a comprehensive plan that enables them to adapt to online business operation solutions. There are several advantages, both short-term and long-term, for small and medium businesses to move their businesses online. One of the most visible short-term advantages for entrepreneurs to move their businesses online is that they will still be able to increase and diversify their sales. Another advantage is that small and medium business entrepreneurs will be able to enhance the overall shopping experience for their customers through their physical and online business presence, providing business solutions such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) to offering curbside delivery, and more.

That is why it is crucial for big businesses to develop business solutions that are inclusive, and Yep! is one of those business solutions that is developed to advance small and medium entrepreneurs’ business ecosystems through digitalisation.

The shift online brings South Africa’s SMMEs to a crossroads. While many of them had already begun to move online, a large contingent of them remain stuck in the analogue era and find the idea of shifting onto digital platforms frankly daunting. It is necessary to view the imperative for SMMEs to shift to digital platforms within the bigger context—one in which our SMMEs have been underperforming for many years.

South Africa’s SMMEs make up 98.5% of our economy but, disastrously, only create 28% of the jobs. These figuresfrom the Small Business Institute show that South Africa is lagging international benchmarks – in successful economies, the same high proportion of SMMEs employ somewhere between 60% and 70% of the workforce and contribute as much as 60% to GDP. In addition, a high proportion of our SMMEs are designated as survivalist, that is just focused on providing an income for a single individual. The Small Business Institute estimates that 3.3 million of our 5.6 million SMMEs fall into this category.

Bearing this in mind, it’s unsurprising that the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for 2021-2 found that South African entrepreneurs are less likely to adjust their business plans to new business realities. Those realities include a highly competitive environment, a depressed economy and a growing need to adopt digital platforms. Digital platforms are key because they allow SMMEs to compete on more equal terms with larger businesses by refining their business processes to deliver better service, and to reach new customers.

Digital platforms also enable SMMEs to accept digital payments. The latter is an important point not only from a security point of view but also because digital payments automatically create the basis for a set of accounts that can be used to demonstrate a business’s health and potential when applying for financing from banks. The typical, cash-based SMME finds it virtually impossible to qualify for finance, thus preventing it from expanding.

In short, one can make a good argument that one of the major reasons behind the dire performance of South Africa’s SMME sector as an engine of growth and job creation is attributable to its relative lack of digitalisation, and its continuing addiction to cash.

Why it’s important to facilitate the digitalisation of SMMEs

There are good reasons for companies like Telkom Business to put a lot of energy and capital into developing solutions to assist SMMEs to make the digital transition. For one, it’s a large market with a huge potential for growth; it’s also vital that SMMEs are empowered to grow and become sustainable in order to create the inclusive, job-creating economy we need as a country.

That’s the thinking behind the Yep! portal created by Telkom Business. Yep! was born out of the Yellow Pages print directory which, like the SMMEs we have just been discussing, also had to make a transition into the Digital Age. Yep! is essentially a reinvention of the venerable Yellow Pages as a digital marketplace where customers (individuals or other SMMEs) can find SMME service providers.

Essentially, then, Yep! aims to create a digital ecosystem for SMMEs. We believe this approach is vital in enabling the digital transition I outlined above. To grow, our SMMEs need to be positioned to acquire new customers. Coming from an analogue environment, their current reach is typically very limited.

The feedback is good, with many SMEs reporting that they are experiencing significant growth. A good example is a computer company that is benefitting from help with refining its Google marketing campaign over time, with escalating returns.

A digital platform immediately gives them a national showcase for their businesses, something it would ordinarily take a conventional business years to achieve. And because it’s digital, payment can easily be effected.

Another important component of any attempt to help SMMEs make the big digital leap forward is help in creating the website or digital storefront they will need. The smaller SMMEs will also need training of various levels in order to begin optimising their business practices. Assistance in creating and building a brand, as well as marketing of products and services, is another important area.

The National Development Plan envisages that, as in the rest of the world, our SMME sector will be the engine of inclusive, job-creating economic growth. Digitalising this sector is our best hope of enabling the sector to fulfil its promise, and corporate South Africa has a duty to assist.

Nashua, part of the Reunert group of companies, celebrates the 50^th anniversary of its founding, marking five decades of adapting to new technology trends as they emerge, putting customers first and remaining true to a constant purpose and set of values.

Nashua was established in 1973 as a specialist in the sale and service of liquid toner copiers. Over the years, the company evolved from a leader in office automation into a major player in the ICT industry.

When Nashua was founded, faxes were rare and expensive, only the biggest companies had mainframes, and copiers were cutting edge technology. The company’s business has evolved alongside franchisees and clients through to the birth of personal computing in the 1980s, the rise of the web in the 1990s, and more recently, the advent of the cloud.

Today, Nashua is still going strong with 42 franchises across Southern Africa, a presence in 5 countries, and a total of 493 sales staff, and 593 field technicians.

A tale of transformations

Reaching a 50^th anniversary is a major milestone for any company, but it’s even more remarkable in an industry that moves as quickly as ICT. Over the years, Nashua has transformed from an analogue copier company into a business technology specialist. The past decade has seen Nashua make bold changes to its solutions and product portfolio, repositioning itself as a Total Workspace Solutions provider.

The company adjusted its strategy in 2013 to include all elements of workspace management. Nashua started to build a complete workspace management solutions portfolio, including voice, connectivity, surveillance and access control, computer hardware and software, currency management and smart solutions.

Nashua continues to invest in new solutions, with the aim of helping customers future-proof their businesses. Most recently, Nashua added energy solutions to its portfolio two years ago, recognising that backup and alternative power solutions are key to its customers’ business sustainability. This division has experienced exponential growth.

Says Barry Venter, CEO of Nashua: “Our business has grown along with the technology industry as it evolved from analogue to digital. But the core of our success has also been the way that our franchisees help their clients to navigate change and solve their business problems.

“The larger purpose, from our perspective, is to work with franchisees to help create sustainable businesses in prosperous communities. Through our sports sponsorships, corporate social investments and franchise networks, we have created ecosystems that help communities to thrive.”

Creating an ecosystem

Venter says that it is Nashua’s closeness to customers and the community that have inspired its progress over the years. The company has, for example, stepped in to help small and medium businesses to thrive through crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the floods and riots in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Nashua is also a proud investor in South African sporting talent, from school-level to the national and international arenas. This dates back to the 1980s when it subsidised Northern Transvaal Rugby. The brand has been associated with sporting greats like WBA Super Featherweight champ, Brian Mitchell, Boxing legend Baby Jake Matlala and golfer, Ernie Els.

Nashua is the tech partner for the SuperSport Schools Programme, which profiles the next generation of sporting superstars at high school level. SuperSport Schools records and livestreams school sports automatically so that interested parties can watch from anywhere live or on-demand, for free. Nashua provides and implements the tech for the programme, including artificial intelligence cameras. In the first quarter of 2023, SuperSport Schools reached a unique audience of more than 7.3 million across 11,352 hours of live streaming on its app.  SuperSport Schools has also created a broadcast television station in response to public demand.

Some other important Nashua milestones over the years include:

• In 1983, Nashua became the market leader in the South African photocopier market with a 35% market share.
• In 1993, Reunert acquired Nashua in the unbundling of the Barlows Group.
• In 1998, Nashua eclipsed more than R 1 billion in annual revenues for the first time.
• In 2006, the Nashua Children’s Charity Foundation (NCCF) launched. The programme has provided aid to over 17 600 children across 54 children’s charities and serves 500 000 school meals a month.
• In January 2023, Nashua was certified by the Top Employers Institute as one of South Africa’s Top ICT Employers.

Positioning for the next phase of growth

Nashua continues to evolve as trends such as the move towards hybrid work and self-healing infrastructure come to the fore, says Venter. “We’re integrating the strands of our business to offer seamless workspace solutions,” he adds. “We’re investing in new solutions such as the Internet of Things to deliver higher uptime and remote service.”

Nashua has certainly come a long way since 1979, when it first flighted an iconic television ad featuring legendary American Actor, Director, Writer and Producer Orson Welles. But the pay-off line Welles delivered in that ad remains core to Nashua’s Ethos all these years later: ‘Saving you time. Saving you money. Putting you first’.