12 October 2011

South Africa’s newest business bureau transforms business decisions

Submitted by: Tina-Louise

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, once said: "Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning." No business can stand alone nor wish to operate in a silo. This realisation has been an inherent understanding of business leaders for centuries – but it hasn’t been as easy to accomplish as it has been to envision.

Knowing who you are partnering with, marketing to, buying from, selling to or associating with can be daunting and one wrong judgment could lead to the downfall of even the most established businesses. Bizinform, a business knowledge solutions provider, goes beyond being a business bureau by providing you with the one element no business can be without when making critical decisions on who to partner with: peace-of mind!

Bizinform is a business information initiative between Compuscan, a leading South African credit bureau, and Lightstone, a widely respected knowledge based analytics company. On announcing Bizinform’s launch Remo Lenisa, Managing Director of Compuscan, said: “Bizinform hopes to transform the way in which businesses conduct their dealings and make decisions. By providing quality business intelligence in a simple easy-to-use format Bizinform will play a positive role in business development by providing holistic business tools that support both the marketing and risk aspects of business.”

Trevor Holmes, a founding member of Lightstone, went on to say that: “The South African business landscape is changing dramatically with the number of new business entities being registered at CIPC reaching around 15 000 per month. This reflects a large level of business initiative, both in larger companies, with mergers and acquisitions, and in new initiatives at the start up end of the spectrum which sees first time directors entering the business environment. This constant evolution of the business landscape requires that businesses have a holistic view of the all industry roleplayers. With the tools provided by Bizinform businesses are able to monitor their customers’ behaviour based on a variety of data feeds and the trade data community, which enables us to provide effective knowledge about businesses, and thereby allow our customers to reward positive and negative behaviour proactively.”

One of the most unique features of Bizinform lies in its ability to identify relationships and links between both companies and their principal members. This enlightening insight allows you to adequately consider the risk involved when partnering with a business. It also allows you to determine how companies are linked or which principal member is the bridge between companies – vital information if you are trying to build a new relationship.

Individual principal information, including detailed credit reports and other business interests, is another feature that makes Bizinform stand out from its competitors. Knowing exactly who is the driving force and decision maker behind a business and how they are interlinked with other industry players is invaluable insight if you are to make an informed decision on who to partner with or decide how to approach a possible client or partner.

Detailed business identification and registration details, business contact details, account verification information and property information are just some of the many other categories of information that Bizinform offers its customers. Along with this it includes a Business Credit Score which immediately classifies a business as either low, medium or high risk making the decision process simple.

Bizinform also offers marketing services where it can help identify customers that match your desired profile so that you spend your sales time with more promising leads and ensure that you are marketing to the correct businesses.

The success of any business frequently depends on who it chooses to partner with. While many of us remember the downfall of Enron, few remember the many victims it took with it. Those who chose to invest and partner with a company, once valued at $90 billion, were oblivious to the partnerships it was forming with its own shell companies. In February 2002, Huntco Inc, a steel processor, and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy, in part because of a deal the company signed with Enron. Hopefully with Bizinform today’s businesses won’t make the same mistake.

Contact:
Bizinform
www.bizinform.co.za

Telephone: 0860 555 457
Fax: +27 (0)21 413 2424
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
3 Neutron Ave
Techno Park
Stellenbosch
South Africa
7600