India’s SMBs spends on IT infrastructure is likely to grow: Ac Nielsen survey

Company News, June 16

MUMBAI

ACNielsen along with Avaya, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard India, Computer Associates organized an eight city technological roadmap conference for the SMB industry.

ACNielsen CIO Jury Award for Innovation using Technology will be awarded at the conferences.

India’s SMBs are focusing in upgrading their IT infrastructure where the over all spends is likely to increase(refer chart 1). The main focus areas for Indian SMBs in the technology arena are IT staff training and data protection and security. SMBs operating in IT/ITES (24%) sector are likely to increase their IT budget the most in the next two years with SMBs operating in Pharma sector (18%) follows closely. The most common barriers to IT adoption according to the SMBs are inadequate budget and lack of alignment between business goals and IT efforts to name a few.

The ACNielsen study in association with Computer Society of India (CSI) on Technology Roadmap for SMB captures the trends in technology adoption by SMBs in 8 distinct cities.

The study polled over SMBs across different sectors: Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, parmaceuticals, Hospitality and Travel and IT-ITES to name a few. This study identifies the issues; both business and technology, faced by SMBs and the many ways in which technology is helping them overcome their business issues.

“We have been doing considerable amount of research work in the Information Technology sector with various leading players in the country. We are now consolidating our focus and intend to launch various syndicated research in this arena. SMBs are now the buzz word for every business to business solutions or service provider and it is now the question of who can take the first mover advantage. The ACNielsen study with association with CSI on Technology Roadmap for SMB will certainly be beneficial for the technology solution provider to address the technological needs of the fast growing SMB sectors in India, which is otherwise a challenge, looking at their dispersed presence across the various geographical areas within the country” commented Partha Rakshit, Managing Director, ACNielsen South Asia.

SMB Revolution: An Eight City Conference

A cornucopia of possibilities has opened up for SMBs, to deploy technology in an optimal manner. To understand what this set of possibilities are, there is a compelling need for SMBs to engage in a proactive analysis to understand what emerging technology solutions in the market have to offer. To lead this exercise, ACNielsen in partnership with Computer Society of India and leading IT companies like Avaya, Microsoft, HP, Computer Associates has convened an Eight-city conference on the Technology Roadmap for Small and medium Businesses in India. The conference will start at Mumbai on June 13, 2006 and there after it will be held in cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. This conference will serve as a platform for SMBs to learn about the latest offerings and innovations in the technology field directly from global leaders like Avaya, Microsoft, HP and CA under one common roof.

Speaking on the conference Ms. Monica Deveshwar, Director Technology Research ACNielsen India said, “We are certain that this conference will provide relevant information that can be put to immediate use by the SMB sector on how to bring their enterprise to the next level of ‘IT readiness’. The conference aims at bringing the leading companies in the country together at a common platform for small and medium businesses to convey their commitment and focus towards providing superior and integrated technology solutions. We are extremely happy to have Avaya, Microsoft, HP and CA partnering with us for this conference, with their specialized focus and customized products for the SMB sector will help all CIOs/ IT Heads of the participating companies to obtain a better understanding of the technology adoption that they need to undertake to maintain their competitive advantage”.

The platinum sponsor of the eight-city conference Avaya GlobalConnect, a leading provider of Enterprise Communications and IP Telephony has increased its focus for the SMB sector. The company has entered the SMB sector with unique solutions in Communications and IP Telephony solutions that are customized to suit the specific requirements of the SMB sector. In this conference, Avaya will talk about how the communication needs of SMB can be addressed via IP telephony, communications, network securities and other customized solutions.

The company's national marketing manager and head of SME Business, Sanjay Singh said, "The SME market is growing in India with a number of these companies making their mark in the global arena. Avaya GlobalConnect being India’s leading Enterprise Communication Solutions provider, is already undertaking many initiatives to capture a significant share of this burgeoning market. As a step in this direction, our IP based products have been designed to offer a complete conferencing, messaging and contact centre suite of solutions for the SMEs."

Microsoft India is committed to the success of SMBs and enterprises worldwide and in India. Having identified the SMB community as a key audience, Microsoft offers comprehensive and integrated set of servers, end to end business applications and services that help SMBs manage their business and build success. In the session named Mastering Business Dynamics, Microsoft will touch upon Microsoft Dynamics - a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables people to make important business decisions with greater confidence. These solutions automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes in a way that helps drive business success. With these tools in hand, people in every key position in the organization—Leadership, finance, sales and marketing, customer service , operations , forecasters and planners —can contribute to the success of the company.

“Small and medium businesses today are facing increasing pressures to improve efficiency and quickly respond to changing demands. Given this, they need to adopt technology to create compelling competitive differentiators and drive business success.

When evaluating a technology solution, SMBs look for a solution that addresses their business need, is easy to implement, use and support, and finally is cost effective. Our Dynamics solutions are built ground up to meet these needs and have readily available support opions with a countrywide network of 3500 partners. We look forward to introducing these tailor made solutions to a large SMB audience through the eight city conference” said Rajiv Mittal, Director Small and Medium Solutions and Partner Microsoft.

With the widest range of products, quality support availability across India, robust business partner network and alliance with the best in class global and national ISVs, Hewlett Packard has been providing IT innovation and reliability to SMB organizations across India. HP offers competitively priced products built with proven innovative technologies that provide SMB’s the best value for money through HP’s SMB Solution Partners. HP understands that challenging goals of increasing productivity while reducing risk and cost have put a lot of pressure on SMBs and keeping in mind the specific needs of SMBs, HP delivers a range of products and services for manageable, cost effective infrastructure.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Subhodeep Bhattacharya, National Manager - SMB Marketing, HP India said, “SMBs have long been a key focus area for HP India and continue to be a strong growth area The growing competitiveness in the global and local markets demand IT driven environment and HP India is best geared in empowering SMB segment with its technological expertise and business solution alliances.”

CA, One of the world’s largest information technology (IT) management software companies continues to target the SMB market by providing a complete solution, which is easy to buy easy to use and easy to own.CA’s offering to the SMBs include CA’s Protection Suites which will help protect its SMB customer against a full range of diverse data-loss and business-interruption threats, while enabling them to streamline their desktop and server protection processes.

CA will focus on the core Management Challenges that require an ability to adapt quickly to change, respond effectively to customers, increase operating efficiencies and grow business – all with less time, budget, staff and resources while keeping critical IT assets as secure as possible, even as they are made readily available to users who can maximize their value.

“SMBs like large enterprises need to secure their data, optimize the efficiency of their It operation and minimize the total cost of technology ownership.” Said Rajendar Dhavale, Consulting Director, CA India and SAARC.

ACNielsen CIO Jury Awards for Technology Innovation

ACNielsen CIO Jury Awards for Technology Innovation awards was conceptualized to recognize Indian SMBs who have innovatively used IT to address business challenges. The award process is designed and measured by the Technology Practice of ACNielsen and Computer Society of India.

The esteemed CIO Jury comprises of Mr. M.D. Agarwal, Chief Manager IS Refinery System– Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Rajeev Batra Corporate Sponsor - Group IT & Technology

Reliance ADA Group - Chairman Office and Mr. Anantha Sayana Head- Corporate IT – L&T Ltd They have selected the winners based on metrics like scale of impact measured by business gains, scale of project implemented and financial impact assessment of the project.