Small business information technology business

Although the National Enterprise Informatization Leading Group launched the "Enterprise Informatization" project in 2000, and the former State Economic and Trade Commission issued a "Notice on Promoting Informatization of SMEs" in 2001, it is understood that the deadline is In October last year, the proportion of China's SMEs implementing informatization was less than 10%. At the end of last year, in Wenzhou City, where SMEs and private companies were relatively concentrated, about 80% of 1,800 companies that had established websites did not update the content of their websites. .

Why is the progress of informatization in so many small and medium-sized enterprises being slow or even stagnant? Some people think that the informationization of small and medium-sized enterprises depends on the boss’s consciousness. Only the boss truly realizes that informatization can improve the level of management and management, and the small and medium-sized enterprises that they belong to will Informatization or accelerate the progress of informatization. There is a price issue. Many informatized software costs are too high and many growth-oriented SMEs are overwhelmed. However, in the end, SMEs need not to informatize, what kind of enterprises need informationization, and how informatization is an issue that we need to discuss in depth.

"What benefits does IT bring to our company? It's not really clear in one or two sentences. The most direct benefit is that the cost is reduced. For example, in the past, we would send 8000 yuan per month to the dealer's courier samples for 8,000 yuan a month. Diverse, now 2,000 yuan is enough."

Liang Boqiang, the owner of Zhongshan Stallone Co., Ltd., claimed to be a computer fan. There are 5 computers connected to a single computer at home. The required homework before going to bed every day is to receive and respond to e-mails. It's no wonder that his company’s informatization comes to mind. The business he did was hardware. He only spent more than four years to start sales of 200 million yuan from zero. He believes that information technology has contributed to this.

However, at present, the development of informatization of many SMEs is slow or even stagnant. Liang Boqiang said that with his own experience and observations, he believes that the informatization of SMEs still depends on the boss’s consciousness, as long as the boss truly realizes that informatization can improve With its own management and management level, the small and medium-sized enterprises that they belong to will carry out informatization or accelerate the progress of informatization.

Pass the information completely to the dealer

According to Liang Boqiang's introduction, doing hardware is really a small business. It is very fragmented, has many varieties and many styles, and it needs to be constantly updated. Otherwise it will be difficult to attract dealers. There are twenty to thirty people involved in the product development and design of his hardware jewelry company. There are more than thirty kinds of new jewelry introduced every day. How to transfer these product information to the existing distributors is a headache. problem. In the past, the jewelry company faxed the text description of the new product to the distributor. The distributor chose the product of interest from them, and then returned it by telephone or fax. The jewelry company then sent samples of products of interest to the distributor through express mail. The way to send to dealers, generally takes three days, dealers can receive samples and determine the required variety and quantity.

Since the online order was placed in 2000, there has been a feeling of "bird-for-gun" in terms of improvement of efficiency and reduction of cost. Liang Boqiang established nail clippers and hardware accessories websites. Every day, he used digital cameras to take samples of new products to be put on the market. Then the pictures of these samples were posted on the web page with explanatory texts introducing product features or selling points. . As long as the dealer can access the Internet, they can immediately see these pictures and descriptions, and accordingly determine the type and quantity of the purchase. At the beginning, it was mainly through the telephone or fax to inform the dealers to access the Internet one by one. From last year, they installed mass-produced software. Through mass-produced software, messages of new products already available on the Internet can be sent to the Internet in short messages. Hundreds of distributors across the country are on their mobile phones. One or two words in the short message describe the selling point of each new product, and it is easy to impress dealers to view specific information online.

The Internet not only retains existing customers, but also brings many new and high-quality customers to Liang Boqiang. He told the company’s business staff to collect e-mails from tens of thousands of gift companies nationwide through the Internet, and then often send information about new products to the gift company’s e-mail via the group send system. Liang Boqiang said: “Our broadband Internet access fee is fixed at 600 yuan per month, and you don’t have to use nothing. I’ve sent tens of thousands of e-mails, and even if there’s a 1/10,000 feedback rate and I eventually made business, I think this is It's worth it.” At the beginning of last year, only one or two or a few e-mails were returned every day. This year, it has obviously increased since the beginning of this year. Now almost 30 e-mails requesting cooperation come back every day. Some of the parties expressing their intentions of cooperation eventually become dealers. They have not yet become dealers and are considered as prospective customers. They keep in touch and send greeting cards to these prospective customers for the holiday. There are more than a dozen new distributors this year, and more than 300 new prospects have been added. These are almost all developed through the Internet.

To continue to expand sales, good customer relationship management is a key link. Liang Boqiang's company communicated with distributors through documentary clerks. Although he had previously required them to record the communication with customers, a large number of transactions did not allow him time to review. The record of the work performed by the clerk is also relatively simple. Unless the customer complains, it is difficult to trace which Escalator is incompetent. If a document is withdrawn, it is more difficult for the newly accepted order to adapt to the customer. This is what makes Liang Boqiang a headache. However, after the informationization, the company established a database of customer information, requiring each documentary person to classify and retain their own e-mail correspondence with the responsible customer according to the customer's name, and request that each time they communicate with the customer, In the form of a question and answer, the call is recorded in the guest profile. In this way, superior management personnel can check the performance of documentary personnel at any time, such as how to solve the problems raised by the customers, whether they can properly solve the problems on time, what cannot be solved, and how they are clear, and become the basis for their assessment. At the same time, this is also the basis for the assessment of customers, such as the customer's sales ability, credit status and so on. Because every employee of the company is equipped with computers and requires them to write work records, so it also strengthens the supervision and management of each employee. For example, when the financial staff opens the computer and when they do what, Liang Boqiang can With computer records, it became clear afterwards that employees’ self-management skills naturally increased.

Informatization can start a few thousand dollars, but choosing software requires more than one eye

Enterprise informatization is not as simple as setting up a website and sending and receiving emails. According to relevant experts, enterprise informatization is a modern information technology whose core businesses are using computers, communications and networks. It effectively integrates, improves the efficiency of enterprise operations and resource utilization, and further enhances the company's core competitiveness. The enterprise informationization is reflected in the three levels of enterprise operations, management and management, and realizes the full automation of enterprise operations such as design automation, production automation, office automation, decision-aided automation, and e-commerce. Some experts divide enterprise information into three phases: the management standardization phase, the resource dataization phase, and the comprehensive informationization phase. Step-by-step is more suitable for SMEs.

Liang Boqiang believes that the key to the informatization of SMEs is to take the first step. First is to go online and learn to collect information and publish information through the Internet. Initial investment is only a few thousand dollars. If the owner personally surfs the Internet, the effect will be even better. Only the boss or the general manager personally understands the usefulness of the company, and only then can the company drive the informatization of the company. Currently, St. Arlen has basically realized the electronicization of sales, the networking of offices, and the informatization of production management. Liang Boqiang believes that this is the result of his own efforts.

Liang Boqiang found that for enterprise informatization, the choice of software is more important than the choice of hardware, but it is not easy to choose the right software. He himself paid a lot of tuition in it. As early as 1995, he purchased a set of trading software in Hong Kong for more than HK$300,000. This was developed by an Australian company. At that time, more Hong Kong companies used it, but bought it back and found that it was specifically for retail sales. The software developed by a trading company is not suitable for his own production company and requires the company that installed the software to modify it. The cost is very high. Therefore, he decided that the company developed a software suiting its own needs. In 1998, it invited a computer expert from the former Ministry of Electronics Industry. During the day, the expert wrote a program based on the application requirements he proposed, and at the same time, he adjusted it and used it. Months of time to develop a more suitable application system. The advantage of developing the software itself is that it can be developed and modified at any time according to the application requirements of the company. However, in 2000, the expert chose to become a distributor of St. Arlen, who found that the entire company’s network system was tied to an unknown source. The internal experts who left at the time were very dangerous. At that time, they bought a set of generic software. This modular software is developed for a class of companies and requires companies to implement individual modifications within its framework. In fact, each company's style of management and management is very different. Therefore, Liang Boqiang always feels that there is a need to cut his feet.

By September 2002, after a secondary school graduate obsessed with software development failed to sell itself to many companies, he heard that Liang Boqiang was looking for someone to compile a software that was suitable for his own company. . Now that St. Arnen is using outsourced general-purpose software and self-developed software, the two systems will be used simultaneously. Liang Boqiang hopes to use his own system alone and prepare to find 10 companies in the surrounding enterprises in the case that his own developed system is relatively complete. Software developed by the company, through communication with these companies, constantly improve the software. He believes that the enterprise management software developed by the application company's boss and software developers is definitely the software that can help the company solve the problem.

For SMEs, whether they choose to develop independently or purchase software from the outside, they are facing certain risks. However, some experts suggest that if the company is relatively small, it is more cost-effective to choose outsourcing.

Some business owners may be worried about their own information, but their dealers and suppliers do not want to follow up, so that the effectiveness of information will be greatly reduced. Liang Boqiang said that in fact, through communication, these partners can accept the concept of informationization. The vast majority of St. Arlen's dealerships did not even have a computer, but after field demonstrations by the St. Arlens regional manager, some distributors began to purchase computers and access the Internet. "If other dealers can get information on new products instantly and be able to place orders, how can they wait for more than three days?" This is the idea of ​​every online distributor. Many of the hardware businesses are very traditional businessmen. Some people may be older and regard the Internet as a daredevil. However, after receiving Stella Allen’s online mobile phone message to watch new products, some people will buy computer calls. The staff helped open St. Yarren's website. “Over 130 distributors in more than 250 dealers have already placed orders online. Although they account for half of dealers, sales accounted for 80%.” Liang Boqiang said.