Smaller firms can reduce time and money spent on administrative work by around half with a new cloud-based solution from United Overseas Bank (UOB).
BizSmart, as it is called, includes inventory management, employee scheduling and leave, payroll automation, accounting, and security for data protection.
The system enables companies to access their operating accounts with UOB, allowing them to track and reconcile transactions such as purchase orders to suppliers and daily takings.
UOB said it can deliver cost savings of up to 60 per cent compared with the use of multiple software programmes.
A survey of 162 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) conducted this year by UOB found that 70 per cent used multiple software programmes to manage business processes. The firms, each with an annual turnover of up to $40 million, said they found the process time-consuming and unproductive.
UOB believes BizSmart, which costs $12,850, will reduce time spent on administrative work to 21/2 days a month from an average of four days.
Mr Mervyn Koh, UOB Singapore's managing director and country head of business banking, said BizSmart will be useful for its business banking customers where one in four is in retail.
"Many customers, especially those in the retail industry, do not have an integrated solution in place to manage their day-to-day business processes. This results in higher costs and inefficiencies," he said.
"BizSmart is a simple and cost-effective way to help small businesses spend less time managing their business processes. It also helps to reduce error rates and costs such as hiring extra manpower to do data entry."
Ms Pinko Chua, general manager of cosmetics retailer Apexhub, said BizSmart has helped her administrative team to cut down a lot of paperwork and manual work.
"The interface is user-friendly, as my point-of-sales application through inventory management can be integrated with employee scheduling and leave across our five outlets in Singapore," said Ms Chua, whose company has been using the system on a six-week trial.
"Previously, our accounts were backdated by 45 days, and we would be able to know about our July sales only six weeks later. But with BizSmart, we can have information almost instantly... This enables us to forecast and plan ahead for our business."
Ms Chua added that apart from reduced operational costs and better productivity, her company can also benefit from Spring Singapore's Capability Development Grant.
The grant offers SMEs up to 70 per cent of funding to build business capabilities in areas such as financial management, productivity improvement and business excellence. Ms Chua expects her firm to obtain government funding for the purchase of BizSmart.
