It’s 2024 and with all that new technology and a 24-hour economy, there should still be time to save. But literally, at what price? For this very reason, for a long time, digitisation and automation seem to be mainly reserved for large (accountancy) firms, but now the SME and the self-employed are also on their way.
Mechanical
colleague
At the moment, robotisation is a much-discussed issue. This is certainly a discussion paper at the moment. On the one hand, people are afraid that jobs will increasingly be taken over by a mechanical colleague, but on the other hand, they are happy that the annoying jobs will go a lot faster. Proponents and opponents of further robotisation and digitisation of previously manual work are diametrically opposed to each other. What is interesting is an article from last year in which the VVD and the SP weigh up the economic and human consequences, mainly from their own party point of view.
Digital intentions for SMEs and the self-employed
This is not yet the case for SMEs, and certainly not for self-employed people, but it is a fact that the trend towards digitisation is starting to accelerate there. The SME monitor of the Dutch Network Group (DNG) for the second quarter of 2016 already showed that the (small) entrepreneur wants to focus more on online solutions. Here, too, one can see the convenience of online accounting, which is conquering the entire field of activity. It is expected that 90% of SMEs and freelancers will have switched over by the end of the year.
Simpler, less = smaller
The great rise of the use of a mobile app as a means of delivering documents. An article by Accountancy This morning elaborates on this. The article states that the app is more popular with the self-employed than with SMEs. SMEs are looking for more functionalities, but the freelancer wants it simple and easy. In this work situation, where there is even less need for unnecessary costs, the most important thing is to opt for much-needed functionality. As a company grows, more attention will automatically be paid to the expansion of banking, and the conclusion is that currency is.
Social digital
They are also moving along with another trend in small and medium-sized enterprises, globalisation. It is easier for companies to do business with each other, but this also imposes greater demands on the reports. In that case, an app is a handy tool, but people do opt for the whole picture in terms of digitisation. A picture in which the contact with the customer continues to play an important role, more communication via social media and improving the online findability are, after all, besides automation, the biggest trends in the SME monitor. Robotisation of communication says one thing, reducing costs and increasing convenience, says the other. Human aspect vs. economic aspect, in any case, is a discussion that is not trend-sensitive and will always come back.