SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS
NEXT Insurance | September 20, 2023
NEXT Insurance, a renowned digital small business insurer, recently unveiled an innovative new offering that will empower agents to tailor coverage quotes precisely to the unique needs of their small business clientele. NEXT's Coverage Builder represents a significant advancement in granting agents the capability to finely customize small business insurance quotes while still retaining NEXT's hallmark instant bind capabilities. Coverage Builder is designed to be swift, user-friendly, and exclusively tailored for agents before purchase, equipping them with the necessary tools to choose suitable limits and maintain complete control over the coverage they're quoting.
With the introduction of Coverage Builder, agents can set their base policy limits, add or remove specific coverage, or adjust limits post-purchase. This functionality, combined with the convenience of instant underwriting and pricing updates, not only saves agents valuable time but also enables them to make adjustments instantly without the need to pick up the phone, eliminating the need for direct communication with an underwriter.
This represents NEXT's ongoing commitment to supporting its agents, offering them a digitally driven quoting experience that is user-friendly, accessible, and 100% online. Additionally, Coverage Builder will be accessible to all NEXT customers post-purchase, enabling small business owners to tailor their policies with immediate pricing adjustments and seamless policy management.
Cody L Slocum Lammers, Commercial Lines Agent & Broker at Affordable Insurance Solutions, commented,
NEXT's Coverage Builder feature is 100% hassle-free. This new feature sets NEXT Insurance to a new level, above its competitors, as this allows agents the flexibility to customize policies to fit the needs of each individual small business. It's user-friendly and simple to understand- this is truly a game changer for NEXT Insurance agents!
[Source – Cision PR Newswire]
This announcement follows NEXT's recent commercial umbrella/excess liability coverage launch to aid small businesses in their entrepreneurial journey. The digital small business insurer has also made strides by announcing its integration with Ivans Download for General Liability and Workers' Compensation policies and appointing Jack Ramsey as Vice President of Agent Business. These developments underscore NEXT's dedication to its agents and mission to enhance small business clients' insurance purchasing process with a smoother and more intuitive experience.
About NEXT Insurance
NEXT Insurance, a leading digital small business insurer, is spearheading the transformation of small business insurance by offering streamlined, digital, cost-effective, and tailored coverage solutions. With the trust of over 480,000 business proprietors, the company offers policies that are both convenient to purchase and grant uninterrupted access to Live Certificates of Insurance, additional insured, and more. Pioneering an industry historically known for its complexity, NEXT leverages the power of AI and machine learning to simplify the buying process and make affordable coverage accessible. Established in 2016 and headquartered in Palo Alto, the company has garnered a total of $881 million in venture capital funding.
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BUSINESS STRATEGY
Calix | September 18, 2023
Calix, Inc. has announced the launch of Calix SmartBiz in the United Kingdom (UK). This recent development empowers alternative service providers (altnets) to expand their markets with a tailored managed service explicitly designed to cater to the unique requirements of the 5.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating within the UK.
SmartBiz, on the Calix broadband platform, encompasses all the essential elements altnets need to foster SME growth within their communities. This includes managed Wi-Fi services (both indoor and outdoor), top-notch network security, business productivity applications, and high-speed internet access.
Historically, altnets lacked access to a broadband solution designed explicitly for SMEs, leaving them with the choice of repurposing residential products or downsizing complex and costly enterprise-grade solutions to accommodate the SME market. The introduction of SmartBiz provides altnets with a turnkey solution that not only enables the creation of additional revenue streams but also facilitates the expansion of their subscriber base, empowering them to compete more effectively within the fiercely competitive broadband markets.
SmartBiz comprises two main components: SmartBizWorx productivity software and the CommandWorx mobile app. CommandWorx is seamlessly integrated with the award-winning Calix Wi-Fi systems and Calix Support Cloud, allowing for self-service access to SmartBiz and its associated features. Small business owners can conveniently monitor and manage SmartBiz from any location using a user-friendly app tailored to their specific needs. Furthermore, a customizable customer Wi-Fi portal empowers business owners to offer secure and convenient internet access while enhancing brand loyalty.
Eoin Heaney, VP of international at Calix, stated:
SMEs underpin the UK economy. With an annual turnover of £1.4 trillion, they account for more than 30 percent of UK revenue and employ almost half the country's workforce.
[Source: Business Wire]
He also pointed out that small business owners face numerous challenges, including the search for suitable productivity solutions to support their growth. With SmartBiz, altnets can now offer SMEs the essential productivity capabilities they require, eliminating the need for dedicated IT staff or the typically associated hefty price tag.
Furthermore, Heaney highlighted that SmartBiz represents an opportunity for altnets to expand their business or explore new markets. He expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with innovative altnets such as Connexin, who provide distinctive managed services that empower their SME customers to focus on their core competency, which is running their own businesses.
SmartBiz also equips small business owners with:
Dedicated Networks for Enhanced Productivity:With network access control, SmartBiz offers pre-configured, dedicated primary, staff, point-of-sale, and customer networks. This ensures that every user enjoys appropriate access to the network resources they require, significantly improving role efficiency and overall productivity.
Robust Network-Level Security:To safeguard staff, customers, and critical business infrastructure from cyber threats, SmartBiz delivers robust security features alongside network-specific, customizable content restrictions.
Network Resilience:Recognizing that network outages can prove catastrophic for SMEs, SmartBiz provides automatic cellular failover, ensuring that SMEs can continue their operations uninterrupted, maintaining productivity levels, and preventing potential losses, which can be as high as £20,000 per hour of downtime.
About Calix
Calix is a leading global provider of cloud and software platforms, systems, and services essential for the realization of the unified access network and intelligent premises of the future. With a forward-looking perspective, it empowers its customers to forge the networks of tomorrow by adopting a DevOps operating model, enabling them to optimize the subscriber experience through the strategic application of big data analytics. Furthermore, the company simplifies the intricacies of the smart home and business, converting them into lucrative avenues for generating new streams of revenue.
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FINANCE
Nav Technologies, Inc. | September 13, 2023
On September 12, 2023, Nav, a leading fintech company specializing in serving small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), unveiled its latest offerings, Nav Prime, along with the Nav Prime Card for small businesses.
For Nav, the launch of Nav Prime represents a natural evolution of its financial health platform. Nav distinguishes itself by being the only platform that provides small businesses with a transparent overview of their financing options and pre-qualification insights before they apply. By consolidating credit and financial data from SMBs, Nav aligns their financing eligibility with its network, which comprises over 160 diverse financial products and providers. In this year alone, Nav has facilitated access to financing and funding for more than 100,000 small businesses.
Nav Prime emerges as a fully integrated financial management solution tailored for contemporary small businesses. Covering aspects from cash flow monitoring to business credit reporting, banking, deposits, and business card solutions, Nav Prime empowers businesses to streamline both their financial management and enhancement efforts, all within a single platform.
Furthermore, the introduction of Nav Prime includes an industry-first innovation, the Nav Prime Card, a business credit-building charge card specifically designed for the SMB sector. Notably, the Nav Prime Card boasts no annual fees and does not necessitate a personal guarantee, thereby preserving users' personal credit ratings. This innovative card also reports spending activities to all three major commercial credit bureaus, allowing users to potentially boost their business credit scores by simply utilizing the card for everyday expenditures. Another distinctive feature of the Nav Prime Card is its flexibility in linking to any pre-existing business checking account of the user's choice, including Nav's own. This sets it apart from other corporate card and expense management fintech solutions that have previously targeted the SMB market.
With Nav Prime, Nav has established itself as the singular destination where businesses can enhance their financing eligibility, evaluate the impacts of their actions, and seamlessly access their most advantageous financial options—all within a unified platform. Nav provides invaluable data and insights crucial to a business owner's financial well-being, including their borrowing capacity. For the first time, SMBs gain transparency into their best financing choices and rates, facilitating informed decisions about lenders and funding types that align with their specific business needs.
Greg Ott, Chief Executive Officer at Nav, commented,
Small business owners have been left in the dark in terms of knowing how lenders see their business. Nav Prime and the unique Nav Prime charge card gives owners a new tool to improve their business' financial qualifications by making their everyday transactions help build their business credit score, and ultimately lead to better working capital options.
[Source: PR Newswire]
Historically, the fintech industry has often overlooked small businesses, or they have been catered to solely in favorable, low-interest-rate environments. Recent interest rate hikes have prompted several fintech companies to withdraw abruptly from the small business sector, placing the survival of these Main Street businesses at risk. Many of these businesses possess strong creditworthiness with substantial revenue and cash reserves.
Nav addresses this gap by empowering small business borrowers to view the same information that lenders see before they seek financing opportunities. This not only improves the likelihood of loan approvals but also reduces the risk of negatively impacting their business credit ratings with major commercial credit bureaus, such as Experian and Equifax.
About Nav
Nav is a leading fintech company specializing in serving small and medium-sized businesses. It is uniquely positioned as the sole platform that seamlessly integrates financial and credit data to offer small businesses clear insights, expert guidance, and streamlined access to an extensive portfolio of over 100 diverse financing options. The company holds a remarkable track record of assisting over 2 million small businesses in enhancing their financial health and securing vital funding. It leverages authentic business data to precisely align qualifications, empowering small business proprietors to effortlessly identify the most suitable loans, credit cards, banking solutions, and other essential business services tailored to their precise requirements. Nav's exceptional financial health platform provides an integrated view of cash flow and credit insights alongside personalized financing choices, serving as the exclusive destination where small business owners can ascertain their pre-qualification status before initiating the application process.
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BUSINESS STRATEGY
Tarci | September 15, 2023
Tarci, a leading continuous intelligence platform that generates dynamic SMB data, has recently introduced the Tarci for Foodservice data suite. This cutting-edge new series of dynamic data modules is crafted to empower enterprises that cater to SMBs in the food service sector with insights to optimize their sales, marketing, risk management, and client retention strategies.
By integrating precise and up-to-date SMB profiles with industry-specific data-driven insights, Tarci provides invaluable support to food and beverage manufacturers and distributors, enabling them to proactively identify both opportunities and potential risks among their current and prospective clients.
Within the Tarci for Foodservice suite, the following data modules are presently available:
Restaurant with Emerging Needs: New and emerging SMBs engaged in preparing food for immediate consumption.
Food & Beverage Retailers: New and emerging specialty food, grocery, and convenience retailers.
Licensed Establishments: New and growing SMBs that offer alcohol for on-premise consumption.
SMBs with Refreshment Needs: Growing SMBs with 50 or more on-site employees who may be interested in enhancing workplace experiences by offering refreshment perks.
Foodservice Risk Management: Enhanced credit term decisions by augmenting existing SMB profiles with business stability, growth, or decline indicators.
Tarci's continuous intelligence engine draws from a diverse array of external data sources to craft dynamic SMB profiles, which are updated on a weekly basis. What sets Tarci apart is its proactive approach; it not only monitors these profiles for changes but also analyzes them for emerging trends.
This distinctive methodology in parsing and interpreting SMB data accurately mirrors the dynamic nature of the marketplace. With Tarci, clients can seize opportunities and respond to changes in real-time.
Tarci's Co-Founder and CEO, Leetal Gruper, commented,
With the launch of Tarci for Foodservice, we address the churn challenges in the Foodservice industry. Our real-time insights and dynamic data modules empower businesses to adapt, thrive, and build lasting client relationships with the right SMBs, offering stability and growth in an industry where change is constant.
[Source: Cision PR Newswire]
About Tarci
Tarci is a prominent, continuous intelligence platform that generates dynamic SMB data. Employing a cutting-edge continuous intelligence engine, Tarci consistently collects, analyzes, and translates an extensive array of signals sourced from diverse outlets, effectively transforming vast datasets into actionable insights. The company's impact is felt prominently across customer-facing teams within Fortune 200 corporations, spanning leading financial institutions, insurance entities, and enterprises catering to small and mid-size businesses. Tarci garners support from esteemed backers, including Sound Ventures, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and strategic investors.
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