Partner Article

Exact develops platform to help entrepreneurs find partners

Exact announces the launch of its new smart platform Exact Connect that helps SMEs find new customers. Exact’s initial focus is on accountants - a target audience it is familiar with - and is looking to expand at a later stage. For instance, towards marketing and HR professionals. Eventually, Exact Connect will be available to all SMEs to help them find new clients.

E-matching tool

Exact Connect works as an e-matching tool that allows entrepreneurs to be connected to the right accountant in a few simple steps. It matches entrepreneurs to a fitting financial sparring partner, allowing them to more easily reach their goals. Matches are made based on personal and business goals. Additionally, it takes into consideration other entrepreneurs’ experience with a particular advisor. The number of clients they have and the sectors their customers work in are important factors that will influence the best match.

Online platform and app

Accountants can use Exact Connect as a mobile app. This allows the accountant to be directly notified of all the details of the opportunity. The app provides an overview of all the current new business opportunities and provides direct messaging with the SMEs. This element of real-time, personalised communication gives the accountant the opportunity to directly prove their value to the entrepreneur they are matched with. Entrepreneurs can use Exact Connect through the web, on an online platform. Through their own profiles, entrepreneurs make real-time contact with matched accountants.

Edgar Wieringa, manager of Exact Connect: ‘We have been working with entrepreneurs and accountants for over thirty years. Our experience and research – such as the SME Barometer – show that year after year, finding new customers is an accountant’s biggest challenge. The personal link between accountants and entrepreneurs is by far the most important basis of a successful partnership. Using Exact Connect, we are looking to create a genuine match between the two parties. The choice is up to the entrepreneur and accountant. By facilitating direct contact, the parties involved can immediately test whether the match was accurate. Which then becomes inputted into the smart platform.“

Ambition

The private beta version was announced at Exact Live. The official launch will take place in the first quarter of 2017 and the platform is already open to accountants. They do not need to be Exact clients to use the new platform.

Wieringa comments: ‘Exact Connect makes the acquisition process more personal and accessible for accountants. The platform uses the entrepreneur’s wishes as a basis to find and facilitate a personal link between parties. Using Exact Connect, participants see what the average response time is per accountant, and what positive reviews someone has on the platform. I believe that the experience will change significantly from what we have now. It’s more personal, focussed on content and plays into entrepreneurs’ demands in their search for growth’.

Exact Connect for matching entrepreneurs and accountants will be active early 2017. Other sectors will be added to the platform at later stages. The focus will always be on the personal match between entrepreneur and service provider. Interested accountants can sign up at Exact Connect.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Exact .