UNDP Belarus has released a Digital Solutions Guide for Small and Medium Enterprises. The guide was developed as part of the UNDP’s Rapid Response to COVID-19 (RRF) and now is available for  free downloading.

You can download the manual here (in Russian). 

COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated digital transformation and today the survival of small and medium-sized businesses often depends on whether entrepreneurs are able to reconsider their relationships with customers, find the necessary digital solutions and automate business processes.

In 2020 UNDP conducted a study "Digital solutions for business", which showed that there is a close relationship between the entrepreneurs' personal digital literacy and the level of business digitalization. Answering the question: "Do you think digital solutions would help your business to survive the pandemic more easily?" the respondents most often chose the answer "Yes", but also noted that there is not enough time for education and budget to do it.

UNDP has created a simple and understandable "Practical guidelines for Small and Medium Enterprises on using digital solutions". It will help entrepreneurs who don't have sufficient knowledge and experience in digitalization to improve and optimize business objectives with digital solutions.  

The practical guidelines contains materials in the form of situational tasks that entrepreneurs face during the automation of business processes and instructions of using specific digital products. 31 situational tasks were developed based on the analysis of the needs of small and medium-sized businesses which was carried out as part of the study "Digital solutions for business."

The digital solutions presented in the guidelines allow business owners to enter new markets with no or minimal investment and find customers using online tools, to create a website, to improve their social media. The guide will also help to implement an electronic registration and a customer loyalty program, to switch to remote work and continue to work effectively with the whole team, master new online platforms for training and monitoring employees.

The practical guidelines is aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs who are just starting to use online services and programs to support their business.