The Year of the Snake: 365 days of growth, strategy and transformation

Wednesday, 29 January marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, with 2025 representing the Year of the Snake.  

The snake, in Chinese zodiac tradition, is known for growth, strategy and transformation – all things that may be on the agenda for ambitious SMEs as they look ahead. 

A year for continuous transformation and growth 

In the Chinese zodiac race, the snake finishes strong with a clever strategy, using the momentum of the horse to finish the race. For this, the snake is renowned for its wisdom, transformative energy and creativity – all characteristics that might resonate with businesses and their leaders.  

So, what can an ambitious SME do to accelerate its growth and transformation in 2025? Let’s look at some of the ways you can think and act more strategically this year with the aid of technology. 

Greater integration of your business systems 

You might be operating with an enterprise resource planning system (ERP), such as Sage 200 or SAP Business One, which is best practice for having a holistic view of your business performance. ERPs allow your business to work more cohesively, with data from across your operations all stored in one place. 

However, if your organisation has needs that go beyond your ERP, such as warehousing or logistical systems, then you may find that complexity remains a challenge. That’s where systems integration comes in, providing the glue that binds your business together. 

Integrating your ERP with other business systems can be done through purpose-built system integration platforms, offered by BPA Platforms, so you can have one business system also integrated with standalone best-in-practice systems for a particular business function. Knitting all systems together in a way that aligns with your business goals and growth trajectory for the year provides you with the perfect foundations for success. What’s more, you can unlock further potential through business process automation, where automating your existing processes can help to free up resource and reduce costs. 

Such integration minimises duplication and human error, reducing resource and time-consuming tasks; ultimately allowing for smarter working.  

Plan your financials around strategic growth

ERPs such as Sage 200, Sage 300 and SAP Business One have strong capabilities for accurate financial planning based on current and historical financial data. With ERPs, you can plan for uncertainty and forecast for operational growth, benefitting from cross-departmental collaboration made easy by the integration that we covered earlier.  

For slightly bigger organisations, that perhaps require multi-entity transactions, Sage Intacct is considered best in class for financial planning. Its core capabilities include automated features for reporting, streamlining budgets and cash flow management, through customisable dashboards.  

There’s more on this in our insight exploring our blog around starting your planning for the year with Sage Intacct. 

Drive innovation with strategic managed services

Many SMEs will outsource their IT to a managed services provider (MSP) to help deliver key support and services and reduce the strain on internal resource – but a good MSP can go further, acting as your partner to guide your IT strategy. 

This future-focused approach can lead to access to more tailored IT solutions, independent advice and quicker access to cutting-edge technology to power your organisation. Forming more strategic relationships with an MSP leads to a change in relationship from service to strategy, where MSPs can help to guide your future growth. 

If you’re working with a technology partner and aren’t sure whether you’re getting their full care and attention, read our guide to the signs that it’s time to switch. 

Align sustainability with scalability

Just as the snake is celebrated for its transformative energy in the Chinese tradition, businesses that transform sustainably not only meet stakeholder expectations by embedding green practices, but they also actually reduce their costs long-term. And there’s a few ways you can do this. 

Using ERPs to their best ability can lead to paperless financial processes, while working with an MSP to help with storing files on the cloud for instance, can reduce the need for energy-intense on-premise systems. 

We’re increasingly supporting organisations on how technology can be used to reach net zero. and how they can scale with sustainability at the forefront of their journey.  

Interested in learning more? Catch up on our webinar: ‘Scaling Sustainability: Aligning Business Growth with Net Zero Goals’. 

Journey through the year for growth with Thinc

2025 is the perfect year to focus on transformation and growth. We’re finding that, as resources become more limited, more and more organisations are striving for continuous improvement, strategic thinking and creative solutions, much like the snake during the race.  

Should you wish to learn more about any of our offerings to support you with the year ahead, you can speak with an expert today.