There is a sense of confidence in the air - at Sage where today we deliver a strong set of H1 results - and amongst our small and medium (SME) customers. With vaccine rollouts underway, SMEs in Sage’s biggest markets – UK, US and France - are showing high levels of optimism for the future.

Three quarters of SMEs in these markets are optimistic about the future of their business and their growth trajectory in the next year. For countries like the UK where SMEs make up 99% of businesses and account for three fifths of employment, this optimism is a significant bellwether. The story SMEs are telling is one of resilience, recovery & recruitment and, as their confidence for the future grows, credit for the turnaround in their fortunes must be placed squarely at their feet.

Adapt and overcome

Our customers made big changes to how their businesses operate over the last year. Many used technology to pivot. Like MemberClicks which, using Sage Intacct, was able to swiftly reforecast the entire business with confidence in just 2.5 weeks. Using Sage Intacct to connect the operational part of the business and the financial impact of those operations, the company has since been able to drive cost efficiencies across departments and eliminate 60% of the finance team’s budget preparation workload.

MemberClicks is not alone, of those who turned to technology many have created efficiencies within the business as a result. In France 67% of SMEs used new technology to sell more and stay connected with customers, or to improve how their business operates. In the UK, the figure was 52%, while 64% of SMEs in the US invested in new technologies, nearly all of whom, said this improved their business.

Having adapted and survived, SME optimism for the future - driven by vaccine rollout programmes (45%), being able to see customers in person again (35%), and projections of increased consumer spending (32%) - is fuelling further investment in the technology that helped sustain their businesses through the hard times, and in new job creation. In fact, Sage research shows that, SMEs - the backbone of our three top markets - are forecast to generate up to 4.6 million more jobs in the US, 2.4 million in France and 1.2 million in the UK.

Deepening customer trust

Even before the pandemic, we’ve been by our customers’ side, supporting and course-correcting our approach to be as useful and proactive as possible. Now, as our customers bounce back from the last year, Sage and our partners will continue to be there, providing the next levels of innovation so they can thrive.

Already this year we have been working hard to enhance the services available through Sage Business Cloud, making the environment more compelling, and in turn increasing the number of users and the frequency with which they rely on Sage products. It’s working; in March, we registered 10m logins to Sage Business Cloud, up nearly 40% during the six months, the number of customers adding Sage Payroll to their Sage Accounting subscription has increased by 50%, and Sage Accounting is winning more customers than ever before.

We are committed to innovation, so we are continually evolving to support our customers to build and run brilliant businesses. That includes working with a growing ecosystem of ISV Partners to help our customers streamline business processes and building strategic partnerships like our recent announcement with Tide and making Sage Intacct available on AWS Marketplace. Focussing on our products, we’ve enhanced our service for bank reconciliations – with over 11,000 banks now connected, our general ledger outlier detection tool has identified over 15,000 incorrect journal entries since February, and our machine learning data set is growing by 500,000 transactions per day.

Knocking down barriers

What drives us to continually innovate is our purpose – we are here to help our customers thrive – and our overarching value – we do the right thing. But our purpose and value do not stop at supporting businesses. Everybody has been hit by the events of the last year, but not everybody has been impacted equally. Recognising this inequality, we are committed to knocking down barriers so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive, both at Sage and in our wider communities. Our colleagues and partners gave nearly 10,000 volunteering days to good causes in H1. We’ve given each of our colleagues three wellbeing days on top of their annual leave and we’re investing our technology and experience in developing digital and business skills in under-represented groups. 

We know that SMEs have been thinking more about their wider role in society too, ranging from employee wellbeing initiatives, to being more environmentally sustainable, and becoming a more diverse employer. We hope that our actions will help us attract and retain a more diverse pool of talent and – just as importantly – that our work in the communities we operate in will be a step towards supporting our SME customers achieve their wellbeing and diversity goals.

So, as I said, the sense of confidence in the air is not just at Sage. As our customers and partners look to the future they are filled with confidence that they can reboot their businesses, optimism that they can be a source of job creation and aspiration that they can play a meaningful role in building a better society. If there was ever a time to buy local and support small businesses, it is now. With our collective support and after a challenging twelve months, it looks like this summer really could be the moment that SMEs have their day in the sun.