• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

‘Cost, accessibility hinder SME’s from embracing new technologies’

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Azubuike Ojuor, is the vice president, sales at KeyVerticals. In this interview with BEN UZOR JR, he talks about the company’s innovative self-service lead generation platform. Ojuor says Nigerian companies can get more certainty on sales and an assured Return on Investment (RoI) on their marketing budget. 

The company

KeyVerticals is Nigeria’s No 1 Lead Marketplace and the continent’s foremost lead generation partner to established Industries & Market Verticals. We work with the top players in Education, Finance and a host of other well established Verticals as their secret weapon in Niche Lead Generation. We just recently entered the Insurance Vertical of the Nigerian Market. With KeyVerticals, Companies get more certainty on Sales and an assured ROI on their Marketing Budget.

Solution

Organisations can register on the KeyVerticals Platform as Advertisers and can immediately create a campaign, fund their account and set the campaign live. For every campaign, an Advertiser can see their relative standing and an estimate of how many Leads they are likely to generate. KeyVerticals works with Strategic Affiliates/Publishing Partners made up of Media Buyers, Offline Third Party Partners, Insurance Brokers (For the Insurance Vertical) and Online Super Affiliates to generate a Pool of targeted ready to buy Leads. These Leads are Vetted for data accuracy, intent and Urgency of Need. KeyVerticals is cloud based and can be accessed here: http://www.keyverticals.com/ and its optimised for mobile.

SMEs 

We all know how important it is for Businesses to be able to access technological tools that makes work more productive. Its a known fact that business growth and expansion is a lot faster with the right tools. However, problems with flexibility, cost and ease of accessibility usually hinders SME’s embracing new technology and tools. With cloud computing, we can clear all these issues once and for all. Instead of having to buy new software each time technology changes, cloud computing means that programs are instantly, easily and constantly updated.

Similarly, there is no need to invest in new data storage facilities, which might only be used during a busy period and will then become redundant. Also, Businesses would only buy what cloud-based services they use – such as email, customer relationship management (CRM), payroll systems, web hosting and invoicing. For SMEs, managing cash-flow is vital and, since many cloud-computing services offer the option to pay monthly, or ‘as you consume’ (PAYG), smaller businesses can access the latest sophisticated software with no upfront fees with no extensive lock-in periods. The beauty of the cloud and applications is that can grow with the SMEs.

Skepticism about cloud

Cloud based services and technology means they are accessible via a web browser. You do not need an elaborate Broadband infrastructure to access them. All in all, convincing Nigerian Businesses to adopt Cloud Based services would depend on the context of the discussion such as the technology/tool involved and the benefits a Business stands to gain. All these can be summed up in one saying: “If the Cheese is worth the Chase, Go for it”. Most times, it is.

Value proposition

This is precisely the issues our Platform was designed to solve. Designing flexible programs that works and fit your marketing goals and budget is possible only when you have clarity and certainty. You know certainly that you would get a certain number of demands. And you know because the process surrounding this knowledge is clear.

KeyVerticals gives you both. We work with all the sources of demand in established Verticals and aggregate all hot and ready to buy leads and make them ready for Advertisers using a Bid System that guarantees fairness among all Participating Advertisers. It’s a model that works.

Nigerian software market 

We are still in the infant stage. With an increasing number of Software developers, in various levels of expertise, little to no central regulatory system or framework, but a very significant level of adoption by the Business Community, I believe we are in a very young stage but have a lot of potential and promise.

Nigeria’s got a new breed of (and dare I say Home Grown) Human Resource capital. Increasing VC interest and Funding will only take this up. And Businesses in the Nigerian Economy will witness the birth of even more value driven cloud based, mobile optimised Software Solutions.