9 Spokes to debut next-generation SME software with Visa
9 Spokes’ capabilities will feature at the Visa conference exhibition stand in Singapore and Los Angeles.
Business insights company 9 Spokes (ASX: 9SP) has announced a supplementary addendum to its existing deal with financial services giant Visa that could see its services offered to Visa’s small business issuing clients and their own SME clients worldwide.
In a statement to the market this morning, 9 Spokes said that a newly signed addendum with Visa would fit into their existing collaboration framework agreement signed in March this year.
The new layer of cooperation is aimed at improving Visa’s own product suite which it offers to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
9 Spokes also revealed that it would showcase the capabilities of its software at the currently ongoing Singapore FinTech Festival, running from 11-15 November.
“The opportunity to explore this potential collaboration with Visa and feature 9 Spokes platform at the upcoming Singapore FinTech Festival and the American Banker Small Biz: Banking Conference is an exciting prospect for 9 Spokes,” said Adrian Grant, co-founder and chief executive officer of 9 Spokes.
Despite the strong ties between the two companies, 9 Spokes’ collaboration agreement “does not infer any commercial benefits or obligations on either party”, according to a regulatory filing made by 9 Spokes back in March.
However, it is hoped that 9 Spokes’ suite of software products will appeal to businesses, especially of the smaller variety that are seeking to establish cost-effective solutions to a sprawling set of requirements as part of early-stage growth.
Some of the features being offered by 9 Spokes include business sales access, marketing support tools, as well as tracking and analytics functionality that facilitates better decision making.
The company’s existing clients include the likes of Bank of America, OCBC Bank Malaysia, OCBC Bank Singapore and Bank of New Zealand.
Next-generation platform
Just last week, 9 Spokes launched its “next-generation” platform that is said to be a “complete ground-up replacement” of its previous iteration.
The new platform will be debuted by Bank of New Zealand as part of its small business service MyBusiness Live. The new version will allow third-party developer access and promises to expedite the roll-out of new apps and updates over time.
Other banks such as OCBC Bank will also utilise the software when assisting their own small business clients.
Some of the key benefits businesses can expect when signing up to the service is greater insights into accounting operations, point of sale and digital marketing projects, as well as, the ability to summarise multiple data points to view trends across core business metrics.
In essence, the platform serves as a single cockpit for business managers to identify core strengths and weaknesses in a top-down fashion without relying on manual reporting.
One other key aspect of the new platform will be a dedicated marketing service called 9 Spokes Engage that promises to “accelerate user adoption and engagement” for small businesses. The Engage component is being backed by renowned CRM provider Salesforce and multinational professional services network Deloitte.
This morning’s news helped 9 Spokes shares to gain 9.5% up to $0.023.