Microsoft, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), and KPMG Australia have announced partnering to deliver a new small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)-focused joint venture, Wiise.
Special Feature
IT Innovation for Small Businesses [1]
Many of today’s small businesses and startups have become leading-edge adopters and innovators in technology because they are not chained to big, legacy systems.
Wiise, a standalone company based out of Stone & Chalk's Sydney fintech hub[3], is touted by the heavyweights as providing SMEs with an "end-to-end, integrated, cloud-based business management solution".
It will start delivering services from July 2018.
"The idea for Wiise was sparked by our acquisition of Microsoft systems implementer, Hands-On Systems. It opened our eyes to a gap in the market between existing cloud accounting software providers to SMEs and enterprise-scale ERP solutions," KPMG Australia national managing partner of Markets & Growth James Hunter said.
The companies believe Wiise will help SMEs digitally manage their business through a cloud-based platform spanning accounting, payroll and banking, and operations including HR, inventory, and manufacturing.
In targeting the SME sector, the companies said 78 percent of Australian SMEs view their business and operations as having either medium or high complexity, citing the "technical nature" of the services they provide, and issues around compliance, tax, and employee payments as the key factors.
"As businesses mature, they experience the inevitable 'growing pains' and complexity that come with growth," Microsoft Australia MD Steven Worrall added.
"The technology solutions that served them well when they first started out are