How important is it to have an online presence for all Small and Medium Enterprises?
Feb
Posted by: JP
Recently Arthur Goldstuck, an analyst spoke about the relevance of SMEs having an online presence.
Goldstruck discussed certain key points, found in the 2012 edition of the annual SME survey:
- One out of every five small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa would not be able to survive if they did not have a website.
- 65% of formal South African SMEs reporting that they have an online presence.
- From those included in the survey, a full 20% of those surveyed, said that their businesses would not have been possible without a website;
- The interim results of the 2012 SME Survey have already indicated that there is a strong link between being online and being competitive, profitable and sustainable. Some 79% of SMEs with a website reported profitability, whereas only 59% of SMEs without a website reported the same;
- SMEs in business for 10 years or longer are far more likely (72%) to have websites than relatively new businesses, indicating that the survey shows that of those operating for less than three years, just 46% are online.
- Many are still put off by the cost and complexity of building and operating a website;
- Interim results of this survey have also shown that a company website, as well as the use of cloud computing, is closely correlated with being highly competitive and strongly profitable.
From these surveys and discussions it shows having an online presence has never been more vital to the long term sustainability of a business, as the general public’s access to the Internet continues to accelerate.
Goldstuck concluded his discussion: “Since it is the older businesses that tend to have the websites, it seems obvious that for a new SME to obtain the same advantages, it is crucial for it to build an online presence as quickly as possible.”
He went on to say “After all, there is little doubt that an effective online presence is the key to a successful business. Such success will, in turn, have a positive impact on the SA economy as a whole.”
There are many opportunities open to you, speak to WebNow sales consultants and let them show you how to start off for a very small charge and grow big! Once you have established yourself then your path is laid and you can decide where to go from there! Healthy profits are very overpowering!
Don’t think twice! Take the plunge and register your domain! Have a one page website to show your presence!
REF: Gauteng Business News 31st Jan 2012
Why it is important to register your own domain name?
Jun
Posted by: Jaco
Have you ever received a business email with a @telkomsa or @absamail email address?
Do you agree that it does not look professional? There is a massive misconception that a domain registration is expensive. I can categorically falsify that fact immediately. A .co.za domain will cost R69 per year. So how can you afford not to have your own domain name?
8 Reasons why you must have your company’s domain name registered:
| 1. | If you are not on the internet, then you are nowhere. |
| 2. | Email addresses, you can have your email address as follows: john@yourcompany.co.za instead of the mundane and rather unprofessional @hotmail, etc…. |
| 3. | Credibility, surely you would consider a company credible if the have their own website and domain name? |
| 4. | Protecting your identity, lets say that in 2 years time, you land a big deal and want to go national or even international, and you realise that someone poached your company’s domain name? ACT now! |
| 5. | Freedom – registering a domain name, means that you have the freedom to host with any provider of your choice. |
| 6. | More Prestige – it looks so great on a business card! |
| 7. | More control – no more advertising on free websites or using free email accounts. You are in complete charge of your name. |
| 8. | Its a sell-able feature. Promote your company and only your company! |
So I will leave you with a final thought, are you serious about your business? Then register your domain name TODAY.
I compiled this list from detailed research and a variety of other blogs.
Using Skype for Business
Mar
Posted by: webnow
Most of you reading this have probably made use of Skype to chat with friends and family. Some of us have become reliant on Skype as an easy and cost effective tool to keep in touch with loved ones. Skype really was a pioneer in bringing Voice over IP (VOIP) services to the masses and over the years the quality of service, reliability and range of features has constantly been improved. Skype can now be used to make calls from your computer to a landline or mobile number, you can make pretty good quality video calls and its even found its way onto a range of mobile devices such as iPhone and Android.
But what about using Skype as a serious business tool?
When Skype started out they made the (some may argue) contentious decision not to use the open SIP protocol but rather their own home brewed but closed environment. This meant that it was virtually impossible to interconnect with Skype. So, if you were an existing VOIP user or had your own PBX you could not really interact with the growing number of Skype users out there. Some third party developers came up with their own solutions to bridge Skype to SIP and so on but these really were inefficient and cumbersome solutions with terrible quality of service.
Then in 2009, Skype had a change of heart and started to consider their position in the market. Google Voice, Apple Facetime and others similar services were all gaining traction had many analysts had even predicted that Skype’s user base had reached a plateau. Skype needed to grow up and offer a VOIP solution that would be able to connect those millions of individual users to businesses. Enter Skype for Business.
Skype now has a range of offerings aimed at the home office, small, medium or enterprise sized business. They have also created a special Skype client for business users and rolled out enhanced business services such as group video calling which allows multiple users to video conference together over the Skype platform. Skype Manager provided business owners with an interface to manage all of their employees Skype accounts, allocate credits and perform a range of other services. The real killer app for me is called Skype Connect.
Skype Connect is what businesses have been waiting for for a very long time. It opens up Skype to other traditional SIP based VOIP services and enables interconnectivity between these platforms. Businesses that have already invested in VOIP technology and have their own PBX (whether on site or in the cloud) can now make and receive calls to any individual Skype user.
Skype Connect is not free but it’s not that expensive either. You pay a flat monthly fee for a channel and any outgoing calls which are terminated to normal landlines or mobile phones. Incoming calls from Skype users are free! Businesses that make use of Skype Connect can now publish their Skype handle, print it on business cards or brochures and best of all place a “Call us on Skype” button on their website. Their customers simply need to click the button and a call will be made direct to their office PBX – apart from bandwidth costs the call is totally free to business owners and customers.
WebNow was looking at ways to improve our interactions with our customers and this service really jumped out for us. It took no more than an hour or so to get it all configured and integrated to our Asterisk servers and now we too have a “Call us via Skype” button displayed prominently on our website.
What about call quality – so far flawless.
If you need advise or assistance in getting this setup for your own business then drop us an email.
New Consumer Protection Act – How it could affect you?
Mar
Posted by: webnow
Love it or hate it, the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) is here next month. The far-reaching legislation could pose serious problems for businesses who do not pay attention to the health of their databases, structure of their contracts or competition mechanisms. WebNow CEO Jean-Pierre Dumont offers his interpretation of the Act, which comes into force on 1 April 2011.
Dumont explains: “The CPA will directly impact almost every business in South Africa. In particular, businesses who are using bulk messaging or direct communications in their marketing programmes will be wise to take careful note of the Act’s provisions.”
In general, the Act has been designed to promote fair trade and protect consumers, especially the poor and the vulnerable. Some of the core focus areas are honesty, consumer consent, prevention of improper business practices, protection of personal information and protection of the consumer’s right to privacy and choice.
The Act covers many aspects, from the treatment of software packaging — consumers must be able to inspect goods before buying, including shrink-wrapped products such as software packages — to the way that contracts and policies are written — contract documents must be written in plain language so they are easy to read and understand, and laid out so that they are easy to navigate.
The Act is also very clear about how businesses may use direct marketing. Direct marketing encompasses any kind of direct communication, whether online using emails, or offline through leaflet drops, telephone calls, brochures, bulk SMS and MMS messaging, and so on. The Act also carries conditions relating to promotions and competitions.
When communicating with a contact database, businesses must make sure that everyone on that list has opted-in to receiving that company’s communication. This means that they must have given explicit permission that the business can contact them.
When new contacts are added, businesses must be able to demonstrate when and where the consumer opted in to the list. When consumers do opt-in to a database, a business may only communicate with them about the subject that the individual originally opted-in for. In other words, if a customer opts-in to a travel database, the business may not contact them about a book sale.
Any marketing communications must include clear instructions for how consumers can opt-out. For electronic communications, this opt-out should ideally be by means of one click. In addition, there is a five-day cooling off period for consumers who bought goods advertised in a direct marketing communication.
There are some circumstances in which consumers do not need to opt-in to receiving a company’s information. These are statutory communications, for example, tax documents, or documents that will legitimately protect the individual or a business, such as travel health warnings. However, the issuing company will still need to show where they found the consumer’s information and exactly when the customer opted-in to that particular database.
Note that this requirement applies to a company’s existing data as well as any future data that business collects. Companies must also be able to show how they are protecting their customers’ information from being stolen or leaked out of the business systems.
If a company is running a competition, it will be required to prepare competition rules before the competition launches.
Dumont concludes: “Aside from the legal requirements, it makes good business sense to always communicate with people who want to hear from them. Aside from maintaining brand goodwill, it will save time and resources and businesses can show their customers that they really do care about who they talk to and what they say.”
If a business does not put these measures in place, it may be exposed to the possibility of being reported to various consumer, trade and legal councils, as well as receiving severe financial penalties.
Please note that this is not formal legal advice. If there is any uncertainty, businesses should consult a suitably qualified legal advisor.
WebNow helps SMEs do business better
Mar
Posted by: webnow
“SMEs are often expected to shoehorn their needs into larger offerings designed to attract the big money corporate markets. Products designed specifically for SMEs mean that small businesses can spend more time doing their job and less time trying to understand the technical jargon.” – WebNow CEO, Jean-Pierre Dumont.
Cape Town-based ISP WebNow has launched a new web-based product range designed to help small to medium enterprises (SMEs) do business online faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.
Emblazoned with the firm’s new strong corporate identity, WebNow’s new website has been designed to help SME owners quickly identify the most suitable solution for their needs. With clear functionality and bright wayfinding colours, the new website is designed to avoid the ‘cellphone effect’, where customers must make sense of hundreds of jargon-laden packages that are irrelevant to their needs. SMEs can access ADSL, domain registration, virtual servers, emarketing consulting and web development services.
WebNow CEO Jean-Pierre Dumont says: “SMEs often feel let down by suppliers who concentrate on capturing the large corporates. SMEs are expected to shoehorn their needs into the larger offering, but very often they end up paying for what they don’t need. Our new approach makes it quicker and easier for customers to get online so they can spend more time doing their job and less time trying to understand the technical jargon. And when they grow, we can quickly scale up their profile to accommodate that growth.”
WebNow also offers packages for the residential and corporate markets. Residential customers can order ADSL, domain registration, web hosting, and website template software. Larger businesses and corporate entities can choose from full hosting packages along with dedicated servers, co-located servers and business solutions such as hosted exchange and mail archiving.
This streamlined approach came from extensive conversations with WebNow customers over the last year. Sales and marketing manager, Jaco Liebenberg, explains the journey: “We wanted to know what our customers were looking for so we could align ourselves more closely with their expectations. It’s crucial to cater for each segment because the needs of these three markets are so fundamentally different. We’re streamlining the process to take the confusion out of getting connected.”
2011 – What does this year hold for WebNow?
Jan
Posted by: webnow
Last year was a tremendous year for us. We achieved so much in terms of improving our infrastructures and expanding our world.
For those of you new to WebNow, let me run through the things completed last year.
The 2 major highlights that stood head and shoulders above the rest; In August 2010 we completed the migration of our Data Centre from MTN Business to Teraco – Teraco is a brand new, state ofthe art facility and the first carrier neutral data centre in South Africa.
Read More
A Day in the Life of WebNow Operations – Part Two
Nov
Posted by: webnow
In my previous post, I reported on our first stage of improving WebNow. In this post, I will uncover more of the fun and cooler things that we are doing.
The first step was to move to a data centre that allowed us to expand (you can read more about this here). Over the months of May to August, we slowly migrated all of our Dedicated and Virtual Server hosting to Teraco DC, before crunch night we moved the last of our Shared Hosting environments. All of it went to plan, and luckily had only a few Support calls to resolve on the Monday morning. Read More
G South Africa
Nov
Posted by: webnow
Google has arrived, again!
I recently attended Google’s G South Africa event at the Bay hotel in Camps Bay.
Google would show us some of their latest products and tools and also announce their plans for the future in Africa. As South Africa is spearheading the technological revolution here in Africa, and since I am a young eager developer boiling to be a part of the revolution of the cradle of man, I could not wait to hear what some of the superstars of Google had to say in its sixth African event in twelve months on the continent. Read More
A Day in the Life of WebNow Operations – Part One
Oct
Posted by: webnow
The System Engineers and Technicians are normally the guys in the background, oiling the wheels to make sure everything works. Most people don’t know we exist, until something goes wrong.
We are still around and have been working very hard in the background to ensure all our services stay up and running, but also build and improve our current services. Read More
WebNow CEO assesses where we are with location-based services
Sep
Posted by: webnow
The evolution of Web 3.0 and associated new technologies has radically changed the way that businesses and individuals interact with each other. With that comes a fine line of perception that businesses ignore at their peril.
With the new openness and accessibility created by Web 2.0 and now evolved into Web 3.0, there is a tacit understanding between companies and their customers. Companies can target their messages more accurately. Google’s advertising methodologies allows a business to talk directly to consumers profiled on the contents of the customer’s inbox. Facebook’s methods are even more directed, with its ability to track not only a customer’s own habits, but the habits of his or her friends too. Read More
