Business IT Online Expands Services to Help Small Businesses Survive Economic Crisis

As business failures soared 18.2 per cent in 2008, web-based services specialist urges SMEs to ‘get back to basics’ to help firms beat the Credit Crunch 

11 February 2009 – London UK – Business IT Online (www.businessitonline.com), the specialist supplier of Web-based services for small businesses, has expanded its offering to include discounted office supplies via a simple-to-use ecommerce site to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) save costs in the current economic climate. An online ‘one-stop-shop’ for businesses that includes simple-to-use IT software and the sale of more than 20,000 heavily-discounted office supplies would free SMEs up to focus on their core competencies, the firm said.

According to the Federation of Small Business, 80 per cent of SMEs saw their costs increase in the last year and almost half (46 per cent) had suffered a decrease in trade. Across the UK, 2008 clocked up 18.2 per cent more business failures than in 2007, according to Equifax. Job losses and tightened credit flows from their banks mean SMEs must cut costs by any means just to survive, according to David Cruickshank, CEO of Farrellsoft, which owns Business IT Online.

“Small business owners are busy enough without having to worry about major IT deployments or deal with multiple suppliers for their basic needs, which is why Business IT Online makes it simple for firms to reduce their business overheads at a time when they need it most,” he said. “SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy. Today we’ve added a quick and efficient source of stationery and office furniture to our service, with next-day delivery and significant discounts available, which is good news for small businesses where speed and efficiency are paramount to survival.”

Since its launch in 2006, Business IT Online has become a critical business application for SMEs, 40,000 of whom have registered for the service to benefit from the freedom that Internet applications provide. Web-based “Software-as-a-service” (SaaS) applications have become an extremely popular way of connecting an office team to business resources without being bound to one individual computer or network. It includes five integrated software modules critical to support start-up businesses: cashflow management, sales management, invoicing, scheduling and business promotion.

The flexible and affordable model means that small businesses can benefit from remote working, file sharing and team collaboration without being restricted by a clumsy and expensive IT infrastructure and without the risk of losing critical business documents saved on a single PC. Instead of requiring a pricey software license, Business IT Online is supplied for a small, manageable monthly fee.  A limited free version can also help start-ups launch with no initial business software costs. Maintaining important business documents in the cloud rather than on a local computer could prevent up to one-third of all security failures, which experts estimate is the percentage of all business security breaches resulting from computer loss, theft, or accidental data exposure from a single end-user device.