Spark has partnered with business growth centre Icehouse to address the challenges stopping SMEs from translating their tech investment plans into action.

The partnership will deliver free nationwide workshops for SMEs across seven locations, in response New Zealand’s national challenge with productivity and Spark research* highlighting several emerging pressure points for SMEs.

Although 71% of SMEs (10-49 FTE) agree that applying new technologies could deliver significant productivity gains for their business, this isn’t always showing up in their priorities.

Over half of SMEs (60%) say the most important area to improve efficiency is staff development/skills recruitment, while only 25% say technology is most important.

More than half of all NZ businesses face barriers in implementing new technology to streamline processes, with barriers being particularly high for start-up businesses (74%).

The biggest barriers to smaller organisations include cost (40%) and lack of knowledge (42%).

Know where to start

Spark chief customer officer Greg Clark says there’s a ‘disconnect’ between small business owners being aware of the need to invest in tech for productivity, and actually treating it as a priority.

“I think a big part of it is access and knowing where to start. We’re going to educate from a process and leadership perspective about becoming more efficient, and then start to introduce some of the things around digital tools that can be adopted,” he says.

Times are still tough for SMEs, with many rating this financial year as being more stressful than past years, according to a new survey by Xero. Clark acknowledges many small businesses aren’t in a position to make big investments.

“Lots of people aren’t running around going, ‘Hey, I want to spend money on something.’ But it’s helping them understand where to start and have access to that expertise and think about how they can become more efficient and save time and cost.”

A chance to connect

The Xero research also highlighted the emotional toll running a small business can have on owners. Clark says making SMEs more efficient can not only improve profitability, but give time back by reducing waste.  

“When you talk to customers, you hear there’s a lot of focus on the top line and revenue and how they turn up for their customers, but in SME businesses, there’s potentially less focus on where they are spending their time and money and effort from a process perspective.

“How do they map where the waste is? And then what role can technology play in driving some improvements to make them more efficient?”

Clark says the workshops will also give SME owners the chance to meet their peers and share some of the common challenges they’re facing, and hear from some of the people that have been through Icehouse business accelerator programmes.

“We’re really privileged to work with over 120,000 SMEs at Spark, and one of the things that you hear when you talk to them is it’s often quite a lonely existence being a business owner,” Clark says.

“They’re the CEO, HR director, CFO, CTO, marketing manager… they’re the jack of all trades, and they just don’t have a network and know who else to talk to.”

*Lifting productivity: Moving New Zealand from getting by to getting ahead’