{"id":735841,"date":"2023-12-04T14:05:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=735841"},"modified":"2023-12-04T14:05:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:05:38","slug":"building-a-technology-stack-for-your-business-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/735841\/building-a-technology-stack-for-your-business-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a technology stack for your business in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Colin Timmis, Country Manager, Xero South Africa<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The new year provides a good opportunity to review your business and look at what areas you could improve.<\/p>\n<p>South African small businesses are operating in a tough environment, but using technology can help automate manual processes, free up time and drive greater efficiencies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za?utm_source=businesstech&amp;utm_medium=sponsoredcontent&amp;utm_campaign=za-advice-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Visit the Xero App Store to learn more.<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Technology adoption accelerated with the pandemic as small businesses acted quickly to take their business online and connect with customers.<\/p>\n<p>Investing in technology then has helped them withstand the hardships of the pandemic but has also set them up well to handle ongoing challenges.<\/p>\n<p>South African small businesses now depend on digital tools for survival and day-to-day tasks.<\/p>\n<p>Xero\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xero.com\/content\/dam\/xero\/pdfs\/state-of-south-african-small-business-report-2023.pdf?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>State of Small Business report<\/strong><\/a> shows technology was the most significant factor that helped small businesses survive and grow in the past year.<\/p>\n<p>The research also shows nearly three-quarters (74%) of small businesses in South Africa say the importance of technology has increased in their business in the past 12 months, and 56% have increased their investment in tech over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>Many are seeing the benefits, with 39% reporting technology has made a significant positive impact on their business profit and 40% are planning to build on the investment in the coming year.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/collection\/xero-apps?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Xero App Store<\/strong><\/a> has over 1,000 connected apps to help small businesses build a robust tech stack across all areas of their business in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-735845\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1260\" height=\"788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body.png 1260w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Xero-apps-image-to-go-in-body-768x480.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are five apps to consider:<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/search\/app\/hubdoc?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hubdoc<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Hubdoc does the heavy lifting for you by reading key information from bills and receipts and feeding it into Xero, saving time by reducing data entry.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than holding onto a pile of paper, all your bills and receipts are securely stored in the cloud.<\/p>\n<p>When the data is published in Xero, it\u2019s easy to match transactions to your bank feed.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/app\/syft?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Syft<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>A South African business that\u2019s gone global, Syft Analytics is a reporting and analytics tool that helps accountants and businesses understand their financial data.<\/p>\n<p>As well as cash flow and profit and loss forecasting tools, Syft creates beautiful reports that visualise your business data and show trends.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/search\/app\/bridgement?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bridgement<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Bridgment is breaking down the barriers to access finance for businesses across South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Traditional loans from banks and other lenders have a slow application process, require a lot of paperwork, and often have strict criteria.<\/p>\n<p>Bridgement helps businesses get faster access to funding by using cutting-edge technology and data science to offer flexible credit facilities.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/search\/app\/simplepay#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SimplePay<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>For businesses with employees, SimplePay provides payroll software that keeps you compliant.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s suitable for any business size or industry, and includes everything from payslips to reports to filing and allows you to keep track of payroll costs.<\/p>\n<p>You can also allow your employees to use SimplePay self-service to view their payslips and to request and view their leave days.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za\/search\/app\/unleashed-software?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=December+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unleashed<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Unleashed is an inventory management app for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.<\/p>\n<p>It allows you to have better control of your inventory by showing you what\u2019s in stock and where, at any time, and allows you to manage your production.<\/p>\n<p>To discover more apps that can help you with your unique business needs, <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.xero.com\/za?utm_source=businesstech&amp;utm_medium=sponsoredcontent&amp;utm_campaign=za-advice-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>visit the Xero App Store<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new year provides a good opportunity to review your business and look at what areas you could improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":735843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[15424],"class_list":["post-735841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-xero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735851,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735841\/revisions\/735851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}