Startups and SMEs constitute seventy percent of businesses in the world and eighty percent of them encounter a wide range of challenges in business management owing to various factors like manual processes, lack of domain knowledge, weak delegation and centralization, inability to stay on the top of understanding customer behaviour, non-integration of business processes etc.
This gives rise to the need for the startups and SMEs to recognize the potential challenges which their businesses are likely to encounter and find solutions to prevent or overcome those challenges.
Few Typical Problems and Challenges Faced by Startups and SMEs
We can take the example of manual processes. There’s nothing wrong with a manual process as long as it is more effective and more efficient than doing it in any other way (say with the aid of technology like a smart device or a computer) and it stands synchronized with the rest of the organization. However, one area of concern with manual processes is non-standardization. In the absence of a definite procedural roadmap for executing the operational activities, employees are more prone to make errors and mistakes.
In a manual process, decision-making is more likely to suffer from burnout, hastiness and lack of expertise and domain knowledge which in turn may affect the prospects of an organization achieving business process excellence.
Another problem area with extreme people-dependency in a business enterprise is managing employee motivation and morale which has a strong bearing on employee turnover and attrition.
Concentration (of authority-responsibility and information) at the top level is yet another commonly observed phenomenon with startups and SMEs. While retaining decision-making rights in certain critical areas of business is essential but unnecessary centralization carries an adverse impact on the flow of work in an organization. With decentralization arises the need for delegation of authority and transparency in terms of business process information-sharing with the concerned employees/process owners. Even external stakeholders like the potential investors expect a certain degree of transparency from an organization to assess the prospects of investment. Building the desired foundation of a decentralized organization structure and creating the appropriate platform for controlled information-sharing is a huge technological challenge for startups and SMEs.
How Obizcoin Smart Process BOT Seeks to Address these Challenges
Obizcoin is developing a Smart Process BOT backed up with two cutting-edge technologies — Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technology.
With Artificial Intelligence, the BOT will be endowed with the capability to develop and improvise business processes in tune with the strategic and operational goals of a business enterprise.
The BOT shall be capable of preparing and executing smart contracts within and beyond the organization with its various stakeholders. Blockchain technology shall make this platform secure and transparent.
Business Process Management
The BOT will have inbuilt processes designed for different departments like Sales, HR, Accounts, marketing etc for different categories of organizations (startup, small scale or medium scale) for different industries like e-commerce, apparel, education, healthcare etc.
The BOT will not only help in process design and SOP development but also in its implementation which includes team allocation, task allocation, progress monitoring, team rewarding and process improvisation.
These processes can be customized by the businesses to suit their strategic and operational requirements.
Access to Domain Expertise
The BOT will be equipped with the domain knowledge of specific businesses.
Access to domain expertise will help clients to improve their decision-making, to devise operational roadmaps and to detect shortcomings.
Addition of new business domain knowledge will further widen the knowledge pool of the BOT.
API Integration
The BOT will also have the feature of API integration with ERPs like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Tally, Zoho, Oracle etc. Building a strong integration with the existing legacy systems is essential for a business enterprise in incorporating a new technology.
Another advantage with BOTs is that, under normal circumstances, they can work 24by7 without experiencing any burnouts or Monday blues except maybe for some time-outs for repair and maintenance.
Smart Contracts and Reward System
Every business enterprise establishes the working relationship with different entities through contracts where the terms and conditions of performance and consideration are predefined. These entities may include employees, customers, suppliers, vendors etc.
The BOT shall be capable of preparing and executing smart contracts. This will enable organizations to automate the definite and repetitive tasks with predefined terms and conditions.
Use of smart contracts will also be helpful to organizations in lending transparency and security to the transactions and processes. Automation in performance rating and rewarding of the employees will add transparency to HR and will also serve as a morale booster for the employees.
Even with the plethora of business management software applications available in the market, startups and SMEs often run into certain standard problems and challenges in streamlining business processes, monitoring employee performance and getting an insight into the operational health of their business.
Obizcoin Smart Process BOT (currently in development stage) will aim to address these burning challenges faced by the startups and the SMEs with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technology.
Visit : Obizcoin.io
