Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will today wake up to a whole new way of conducting their businesses thanks to a partnership between listed ICT Company AccessKenya and Barclays Bank. The partnership will boost information in a move aimed at aggressive expansion of the partners services to a broader customer base. The alliance which has given birth to “Smart Access”, a product that has been designed and built specifically for SMEs will also aim at improving IT usage among the SME customers as they will start to enjoy support from the AccessKenya Group as well as strategic partners from leading ICT companies like Oracle, Cisco, NetApp and IBM.
Barclays Bank of Kenya Commercial Banking Director Nick Mbuvi said the strategic alliance was a clear demonstration of pushing SME proposition to the next level. He said the new offering will create value for both Barclays and Access customers in running of their business whether big or small much easier and anchored on the unique potential of the SME sector in spurring economic growth and Job creation. Speaking during the launch, AccessKenya Group Managing Director Kris Senanu said SMEs not only wanted reliable and affordable Internet connectivity but also a reliable network infrastructure within their offices to enable their IT functions properly at all times.
“Smart Access is the only product in the market that offers a complete solution of Internet connectivity together with a full network support” Said Senanu. He said Access will standardize their network for easy management, monitor and manage network and antivirus software and in the event of problems provide telephone support as well as remote login to the clients’ network to fix any problems remotely. Senanu said at the moment the world had over 10 billion handsets which have access to mobile Internet making the Internet the easiest choice of going global.

On the issue of Internet banking, Mbuvi said it was the best in conducting financial transactions and hoped communities were going to be empowered. He said the customers need to go beyond banking because many were facing challenges in business management and access to information and capital to grow their businesses.

“ We have partnered with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), DHL for transport services at good rates, Strathmore University for research and seminar building, PhoneExpress for handsets and AccessKenya for Internet services”, Said Mbuvi.

Under the partnership, SMEs Barclays customers will be advised on Information Technology by AccessKenya, which has a corporate market share of 42 percent has a total of 6500 clients who enjoy services including Access@Home, SmartAccess, Corporate Internet and AccessIT.