Purple Crane Blog - Purple Crane: Building New Beginnings

While 2021 hasn’t been kind to the SME, opportunities for growth exist if you get the footings right. Andy Rix, Purple Crane’s co-Director, looks at how IT supports new builds in the SME market.

The last 12 months will not feature in many ‘favourite year, ever’ lists. Mainly because a life in lockdown makes doing anything constructive difficult, and with a global pandemic raging, most things that did happen in 2020/21 were bad.

It’s all gloom, right?

Large and small businesses alike struggled in dreadful trading conditions. An Accountancy Daily article believes as many as 250,000 small businesses are vulnerable, while the London School of Economics think the figure is much, much higher. As many as 2.6 million of us could suddenly be looking for something else to do all day.

Purple Crane see the flipside of challenge as opportunity, and many agree.

One survey estimates that nearly half a million UK businesses got going last year alone.

While analysts such as Gartner focus on the IT challenge for the enterprise, who helps the smaller, more entrepreneurial spirit?

IT: Nurturing green shoots

Well, the UK Government, for one. No doubt keen to redress a shrinking economy, the gov.uk site offers tips and steps for setting up a new business. There are a multitude of self-help sites out there, but many agree that IT is one of the foundational elements of any fresh venture. Get that bit right, and you are – in every sense – in business.

A quick glance at the profile of these start-ups by TechDonut reveals both diversity, and a common denominator: Real estate (16,747), freight transport (10,848), building development (9,217) and IT consultancy (9,064). All these businesses will have a core application, bespoke software that helps them do what they do.

Purple Crane: A long reach

Purple Crane has clients in the transport, automotive, IT and local government sectors, among many others. While our customer base is diverse, everyone enjoys the same service and dedication. Our clients know we don’t do ‘off the shelf’. Instead, Purple Crane have a process that works from brief through to design and development, and beyond to the delivery of core software that helps SMEs thrive.

And while those in Gartner’s constituency fret about digital transformation, preparing decades-old applications for those yet to come, our customers already have something new, future-proofed and business-ready from the day you press ‘go’ on your new IT enterprise.

Another tip from UKGov site is to choose the right partner. And if your business plans include IT, we know just the people to help make this year, your year. Click here.