Masks in production

June 27, 2023


Why doing business with SMEs can be invaluable

I love working with SMEs. I appreciate the fact that when we are sourcing materials and services, I can speak directly with the business owner. I value that their teams are connected to their business and that everyone cares and has a stake in what they do.

I value this partnership approach immensely.

And it turns out our own customers of Eumar Technology and Ubersorb like that about working with us too. This was really evident to me last week as I was speaking with one of our clients about a particular need they had.

They told me that larger organisations were too big to be agile like we are and so they were not able to make the adjustments our client needed. Because we manufacture ourselves and can source exactly what the client requires on the appropriate scale, we were able to create what they needed really easily.

SMEs are bigger than you might think. They’re defined in the UK as businesses with less than 250 employees and in the EU as businesses with less than 500 employees.

At Eumar Technology and Ubersorb, we are big enough to deliver exactly what our clients need, yet small enough to be fleet of foot and a true partner in our clients’ own businesses.

In many cases, it feels like we are part of our clients’ teams, and it was lovely to get the feedback that our clients feel the same way about us.

I got thinking about this in the car, as I do, in a little more depth. And I came up with a few headings that to me describe the benefits I see of working with an SME and decided to write them down.

Direct connectivity and personal engagement

I appreciate being able to speak directly with my SME suppliers and I know our clients feel the same way. People like working with people, at the end of the day. It’s important to us that we trust our suppliers and that our clients trust us. There is a reassurance of greater personal accountability if you know exactly who you are doing business with.

Strong partnerships based on understanding

All the Eumar Technology team share an understanding of our clients’ goals with them. Because of this, we are able to put ourselves into the minds of our clients and become a true partner in helping them innovate and develop their own businesses. We have benefited from this ourselves, as understanding our clients makes us better at what we do.

Flexibility and responsiveness

Because we are small we can be really agile. We can often work on our feet and make decisions that don’t need to go through oodles of different corporate committee approval processes when the need arises. This means that if our clients have an urgent deadline or requires us to collaborate on a proposal they themselves are putting together, we can quickly divert our attention and resources to them.

An instant expansion to your team

It’s going to sound cliched, but I make no apology when I say that the Eumar Technology and Ubersorb teams really can be an extension of your own team. We help with design and process flow, with procurement and supply chain and with sourcing. Our product development colleagues are really enthusiastic about working as part of our clients’ extended teams and take an immense amount of personal pride on a collective ‘win’.

Add our performance to your own accreditation evidence and business values

I know our clients appreciate that we have policies and stick to procedures on important areas like modern slavery and equality. In our production, clients value our ISO13485:2016 accreditation and that we have a sustainable approach to the manufacture of quality wound care and medical devices. This may be a point of value but most importantly, it’s the right and responsible thing to do.

I found five themes and I’d be really interested to hear yours. Get in touch.