Blog

Tuesday 23rd April, 2013

The thing about start-ups is that it's impossible to stop the onward march of those coming up behind you. In a move which is likely to make Tradeshift look over their shoulders, the latest "new kid" is Dublin based Senddr - an e-invoicing provider helping businesses with end-to-end connectivity between supplier and customer. OK, so perhaps that bit's not so new and exciting. There are plenty of providers who can claim to offer that. The main difference with Senddr is that it's free to small businesses and supports multiple accounting software - which of course then has the capacity to dramatically reduce the chances of error and fraud, while boosting profits at the same time.

Thursday 11th April, 2013

To some people the term “big data” can be about as off-putting as its stable mate “cloud technology”. Break the terminology down, explain it – and yes, of course – both make perfect sense. But the trouble with buzz words is that when they're frequently reduced to easy shorthand, they can have the effect of leaving things unexplained, complicated. Of course “cloud technology” isn’t new – but that doesn’t mean that some of the confusion – especially amongst less than techie finance professionals has gone away. Start talking about “big data” and watch eyes glaze over, or flame in a “what’s it got to do with me” way.

Thursday 7th March, 2013

Banks – what are they good for? Well, for a large proportion of UK business – “absolutely nothing” would be about right. Despite various initiatives – including the negative inflation recently proposed by Deputy Governor of the Bank of England – banks are still reluctant to lend to SME businesses. The figures, for them, simply do not stack up. So, with suppliers being squeezed by extended payment terms, and banks giving them the “waiter’s eye” – many businesses are faced with an increasingly difficult working capital crunch.

Tuesday 15th January, 2012

So HMV has gone bust. Not much of a surprise. It was already looking like a bit of a dinosaur on the high street with its row upon row of CDs – who buys them? But there’s something sadder about the loss of HMV than simply another corporate going under. Like Woolworth’s, HMV was part of the fabric of our high streets – the place where you could go on a wet Saturday with a few pounds and always walk away with something.