These design principles form the foundation of the logical and operational workflow of Gemma. Visual design principles are being discussed on a separate page

The idea of Gemma is born out of the realities and complications of running and growing a small business. By its nature, a small business grows on the shoulders of either a single person, a supportive family or a cohesive and synergetic group of passionate individuals. As the operation grows, so does the administrative and regulatory overhead of the business. As the business expands, the founders find themselves spending more time managing and coordinating the non-productive components of a business.

If you run a business, you certainly provide a service that you charge for, however, you will never get paid for the amount of time you have to spend on project management, invoicing and accounting, meetings, regulatory obligations or business development. People only pay for your technical and specialised services and no one pays your business more if you spend more time and install a detailed and complex project management system.

Of course if done correctly (which is not very common), improving the operational efficacy of a business with complex systems would ultimately result in more effectiveness and profitability however, this does not contradict the fact that, all of these activities are non-productive and it would be ideal to spend less time on the business administrative and peripheral necessities and allocate more time to technical and income generating activities that the business is known for.

Many of the tools and software packages created for a business operation are specialised, highly feature-rich and advanced. This is great by nature however, when you’re the manager or director of a fast-growing small business, working with numerous software tools with extensive complexity and features starts to drain your mental resources. Many features are not essential by nature and only add to the learning curve and complexity of the software with limited return value.

Gemma’s approach to offer a holistic business management tool is to incorporate the most essential and critical functionality of main business management software packages in main areas of administration, regulatory and finance in one single package. It aims to be simple to learn, natural to use and without introducing unnecessary jargon or terminology. It provides a uniform experience and a familiar interface for all aspects of business management. Gemma allows the business owners to feel confident operating many necessary areas of the business by themselves or relying on a very small operational team to run the business.

Gemma reduces management fatigue by eliminating the need to learn different software packages simultaneously. All of these software packages have their own terminology, various interface design, choice of colours, features and menus and many other complexities. Due to the ever changing landscape of business requirements and technological progress, these software packages are constantly being updated and require a substantial mental load to use effectively. Each specialised software package by nature is more feature-rich and advanced than a holistic and comprehensive system however, for certain business sizes and with limited management human resources a generic and essential system could provide more benefits compared to a collection of specialised and difficult-to-use software.

Business-specific use of artificial intelligence is generally expensive and beyond the technical capabilities of in-house office administrators and managers of small businesses. Not every small business is IT-focused and the vast majority of such businesses cannot collect, synthesise and process the precious data and signals that they generate every day.

At this point, the numerous benefits of this amazing technology are limited to large organisations like banks, government entities and of course, major data collection technology businesses like Google and Microsoft.

Gemma aims to offer an out-of-the-box data collection platform and use business-focused artificial intelligence models to detect and report meaningful signals related to a business operation. It will be able to offer business intelligence information, actionable advice and process optimisation for small to medium-sized businesses that never had the financial resources or technical capacity to benefit from the rewards of this amazing technology.

Regulatory compliance and financial obligations contribute to a substantial portion of the administrative overhead of a business. Up to this point in time, these activities have been primarily the realm of specialists or highly skilled businessmen however, there are emerging technologies that can reduce the human contribution of such necessities.

Fintech and Regtech progress and regulatory advances in most advanced countries allow software packages to interface and automate the legal and financial operations of a business. For a small office with limited resources but with similar obligations, the savings and benefits could be substantial and provide a distinct competitive edge in its field of operation.

Technology moves with accelerating speed and businesses that can utilise the most advanced technological tools always have an advantage. The hunt for the latest and greatest never ends and if the business tools that you’ve embedded in your business are not a forward-thinking package, your business will begin to feel the gap between itself and its leading competition.

Gemma is designed from the ground up with the most flexible code architecture to enable it to absorb and utilise the latest and greatest of technological trends and most recent innovations. Users of Gemma can be confident that they will not be left behind in the technology race and most mature and proven approaches and systems will be incorporated in their choice of business management software.