Sage, a company offering cloud business management solutions, and Standard Chartered announced on 8 November a new partnership to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to tools, knowledge and funding that will simplify SME banking and support them in making more timely and insight-driven financial decisions at critical stages of their business lifecycle.
As the first step in the long-term partnership, they have also announced the launch of Sage CashView™, an industry-leading solution that combines new cash flow reporting tools with a prequalification to apply for business installment loans (BIL) to help SMEs anticipate and address future funding needs.
SMEs often face significant challenges in accessing credit such as overly complex financial documentation and lengthy loan approval procedures. They also commonly highlight the need for better cash flow management to more effectively manage their working capital and maximize growth opportunities.
Sage CashView aims to address these pain points by providing deep, real-time insights into the financial status of a business and reducing the administrative burden and time taken for loan applications.
A key feature includes the Sage CashView digital dashboard, which offers SMEs a pictorial view of the business’ key ratios and results. It also provides a 1-day to 365-days financial forecasting capabilities, which enable SMEs to anticipate possible financial roadblocks.
Additionally, Sage CashView’s cash flow reporting and financial forecasting capabilities can alert SMEs when a potential need for external financing due to cashflow shortfall is detected. Combined with Standard Chartered’s embedded decisioning framework, a message will appear on the dashboard which will inform users that they are prequalified to apply for the Bank’s business installment loan (BIL).
This message can be clicked to initiate the loan application process with Standard Charted, using only the minimum information required. Thus the feature offers SMEs easier access to working capital without compromising on data security and privacy.
Currently, Sage CashView is available to both current and new users of Sage 300 starting with Singapore and Malaysia. Standard Charted and Sage expressed interest in layering additional integration and functionality, with the goal of providing SMEs a similar level of access to the financial tools and solutions that are traditionally only available to larger companies,
Neil Daswani, Global Head of Business Banking and Corporate Partnerships at Standard Chartered, reiterated the bank’s commitment to helping SMEs grow, digitize and connect to marketplaces to contribute to GDP growth and job creation.
“Through our partnership with Sage, we are excited to introduce a different way of banking to SMEs and give them access to financial solutions that can support them in making better and quicker data-driven financial decisions to grow sustainably,” he added.
Kerry Agiasotis, Executive Vice-President, Sage Asia Pacific, noted that Sage already offered digital platforms that make day-to-day operations seamless for their SME customers.
“Our partnership with Standard Chartered was a natural next step in alleviating SMEs’ administrative and cash flow worries and enabling them to focus on growth,” he continued
