Amazon Extends Payroll and Cybersecurity Help to Small Businesses

Amazon Business is offering new benefits to members of its Business Prime program.

The tech giant announced Thursday (Dec. 18) that these small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can now access benefits from Intuit Quickbooks, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and human resources and payroll platform Gusto.

“Small business owners wear a lot of hats — accountant, HR manager, IT lead — sometimes all before lunch,” Todd Heimes, vice president at Amazon Business, said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to introduce new Business Prime benefits that help them work smarter, save money, and get back to what they love most — running their business.”

With the QuickBooks offering, Business Prime members will get discounted rates on financial tools. Starting next year, the benefit offers members access to QuickBooks Online Simple Start for just $180 each year, or a 60% discount, the release said.

Business Prime members on the Essentials plan and above can now also get access to CrowdStrike Falcon Go at no added cost. This service is designed to help businesses stop breaches and get protection from ransomware, malware, and modern cyberattacks “for organizations that often lack dedicated security teams,” Amazon said.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown the cybersecurity vulnerabilities facing mid-sized companies. In many cases, these originate outside their doors. For example, 38% of fake invoice scams stemmed from vendor or supplier compromise, while 43% of phishing incidents were connected back to third-party breaches.

“What makes these attacks effective isn’t sophisticated code but basic psychology,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year. “Cybercriminals exploit trust, urgency and authority to trick employees into authorizing payments or disclosing credentials. As artificial intelligence tools make phishing emails more convincing and deepfake audio more accessible, the manipulation is becoming harder to detect.”

Meanwhile, Amazon Business members in the U.S. can now get 70% off their first year with Gusto’s payroll and human resources platform, which offers things like automated payroll runs, built-in tax filing and benefits management tools.

Additional PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that many SMBs are ready for a change when it comes to managing things like payroll, with 90% of businesses surveyed saying access to embedded financial products and services is critical to daily operations.

This research “underscores that software is no longer just a cost-cutting utility,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year. “It is, increasingly, the engine that drives growth, customer engagement and strategic decision-making.”

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