Barclays launches data analysis system for small businesses

Barclays has launched its new data analysis system for small and medium-sized businesses. The service, called SmartBusiness, will enable small business owners to keep track of performance trends and their customers.

SmartBusiness is now available to over 500,000 of Barclays small and medium-sized business customers for £4.95 a month plus VAT.

Priorities

The service will provide many advantages for different types of companies, such as allowing them to see which customers visit their store the most often, and how much they spend on average.

Companies that use the service will be able to analyse their banking and card transactions and be provided with insights that will enable them to manage and grow their business.

The tool will also enable businesses to keep track of other similar small businesses in their local area to see how they are performing and make comparisons.

The service comes after research showed that over 50 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses rarely check company data. Whilst 44 per cent said that they do keep track of their data, the rest said that it has never occurred to them to check, or they do not have enough time, or they feel that they have higher priorities.

Affordable

Discussing the benefits of SmartBusiness, Barclays Business Chief Executive Ian Rand stated that it will help aspiring entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses to both run their business by “understanding their cash flow better; and to grow their business by understanding more about their customers.”

“We want to give small businesses access to affordable market insights that traditionally would be the preserve of larger companies,” he added.