CME Limited, the Somerset-based automation and packaging machinery specialists, has secured a significant commercial mortgage from business finance specialists Allica Bank. It says the funding will play a crucial role in its rapid expansion plans, having grown at an average rate of 20% in recent years due to securing significant new contracts within the pharmaceutical, food and beverage and legal cannabis sectors in more than 130 countries. The funding will allow CME – which employs 120 people, primarily based in its Somerset headquarters – to further continue its ambitious product development strategy and boost employment in the local area. The…
Author: sme-admin
Filippo Gramigna CEO at Audiencerate looks at the challenges Digital transformation holds for SME’s and the benefits of CDPs. There is a reason why the European Commission considers SMEs “the backbone of Europe’s economy”. Accounting for half of GDP and employing over 100 million people across the continent, SMEs do not only form a large part of Europe’s economic foundation, they are also integral to sociocultural functioning of European structures. Furthermore, local and regional businesses drive technological innovation, as they did in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the digital advertising they rely on facilitates one of Europe’s core values: free media. In…
Helloprint conducted a survey for 1000 office workers to determine whether business cards and face-to-face networking are still relevant in a more digital and remote-led office workforce. This is what the survey revealed: 70% of office workers are keen to begin face-to-face networking again post-covid 55% of people think it’s a good idea to have your pronouns on your business card 48% of people think printing a phonetic pronunciation of your name onto a business card is professional 40% of people think its professional to begin putting your vaccination status on a business card Our survey found out that 70%…
There’s nothing Brits love more than finding a bargain and with Black Friday around the corner many are already on the lookout for a great deal. Having so many consumers eyeing discounted items provides businesses with a great opportunity to attract new customers as well as grabbing the attention of existing ones. Despite this, many businesses struggle to cut through the noise and effectively reach their target audience in the build-up to Black Friday. In order to lend companies a helping hand, business communication specialist Esendex has analysed more than 400,000 online searches relating to Black Friday deals to reveal the areas…
Paysend, the card-to-card pioneer and international payments platform, announces that it has reached five million customers, with one and a half million customers joining in the last six months alone. Founded less than five years ago, this makes Paysend one of the world’s fastest growing FinTechs. Paysend’s platform is unique, owning the entire payment value chain. It removes the need for third-party acquirers or processors which increase cost and complexity, delivering savings and efficiency for consumers and SMEs. Accessible from any mobile device, customers can reach over 135 countries around the world for as little as 1 USD. Paysend is…
Downtime is a money drain. And now it’s more expensive than ever, with a recent ITIC study indicating that hourly downtime costs exceed around £730,000 to more than £3.5 million. That doesn’t include any legal fees, fines, or penalties, either. In the same study, 91 percent of organizations said that a single hour of downtime that takes mission-critical server hardware and applications offline costs more than $300,000 due to lost business, productivity, and remediation efforts alone. Compromised credentials caused the most breaches—20 percent—at an average approximate cost of more than £3 million per breach. These downtime costs make a clear…
The surge in cybercrime during the pandemic should have been a wake-up call for any business who couldn’t confidently say whether their devices and data were adequately protected. Displacement from the traditional office space made everyone more vulnerable – 30bn data records stolen in 2020, more than the previous 15 years combined. While these sorts of headlines should have pushed SMEs to review their security capabilities, many are still under the misconception that they’re either too small or not interesting enough to be targeted. The problem with this thinking is that it assumes every type of attack is like a…
Sage, the market leader for cloud business management solutions, today announces the availability of Zapier, the workflow automation platform for business, on the Sage Marketplace in the UK, Ireland, US and Canada. This partnership enables small businesses and accountants across all four countries to elevate their work and automate workflows by seamlessly connecting Sage Accounting with 4,000 apps. In today’s digital-first world, small businesses use an average of 72 different apps to streamline processes, eliminate errors and gain real-time insights on their business performance. These apps help SMBs to leverage technologies that were once only available to large organisations, but storing data…
Businesses across all sectors face uncertainty and challenges. Business resilience is all about being adaptable and showing the ability to maintain the status quo. It enables the company to continue moving in the right direction during uncertain times when events can move quickly and challenges can be make or break. Alison Watson, Head of School of Leadership and Management at Arden University, provides some insights on the importance of business resilience and how businesses can work towards this in the current times, she looks some of the challenges businesses face and shares advice on useful strategies and actions. In this…
A new specialist advisory company has been launched in a bid to help develop, improve, and grow manufacturing within Yorkshire. Dubbed the Manufacturing Advisory Directorate (MAD) Yorkshire, its focus is on providing manufacturers with a single point of contact for a multitude of business services which can help drive growth, increase profitability, and prioritise efficiency. Its team of experts will be able to help manufacturers identify the core areas to strengthen in relations to business compliance, finance and legal, sales and marketing, growth and business strategy, Logistics, IT, and Energy. MAD is made up of a board of highly experienced…