Microsoft India is eyeing a “huge potential” in the small and medium businesses segment due to an increase in the Internet penetration and low-cost smartphones in the country, a company official said.
“We see huge potential in the SMB (small and medium businesses) market. India is a large market with 40-50 million SMBs. Only at the top, businesses which are around 100-people big are using technology. On the other extreme, there are businesses may be of one or two people who are now coming on board,” said Meetul Patel, Microsoft's General Manager for Small and Mid-market Solutions & Partners. “What is exciting about what is going on right now is as low-cost devices such as convertible laptops and smartphones proliferate, people will start thinking about what to do with them. It is now not uncommon to see a two-people shop having a device that can be used for IT. Now that the devices are available, they use it for tools such as Office which is available on Android phones,” Mr. Patel said in an interview.
Zinnov studyAccording to a study by Zinnov on ‘Digital Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs),’ digital enablement is going to present a $25.8 billion opportunity for technology vendors by 2020.
The report added that there are over 51 million SMBs in the country, of which only 40 per cent are getting the benefits of technology. However, the number is expected to increase to 90 per cent of all SMBs by 2020.
Microsoft, Mr. Patel said, had identified several key areas where SMBs were looking to adopt technology to improve their business efficiency, including CRM, financial management, HR and payroll management, along with online presence-related solutions. While he did not share the exact numbers on Microsoft clients, Mr. Patel said SMB was one of the fastest growing segment for the company and since millions of SMBs were yet to adopt technology, they expected a rapid growth in customer acquisition ‘for many years to come’. The uptake is particularly sharp in the manufacturing and retail space.
“The evolution has been happening for a while. The services-oriented companies were obviously first adopters, such as IT services firms those who fundamentally use information a great deal for their business model.
But now you also see now manufacturers and retailers beginning to understand importance of technology. Even business as simple as a bakery or someone selling vegetable is now able to use technology to be able to manage their customer better,” he said.
Adopt technologyE-commerce was also helping drive smaller business to adopt technology, Mr. Patel said.
“Just look at the size of the merchant network of any e-commerce firm. They have thousands of merchants from across the country on their platform. Merchants now understand how technology can give them reach; help keep track of products, customers and finances. ”
