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by Rajen Kumar

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Focus

SME Market in India is too big to be ignored

SME WORLD Bureau
Oct 2011

TaskTrek is one such proposition to help management, managers and executives of any SME manage their day-to-day work related communication and information in a streamlined, consistent and organised manner. It's basically a one stop solution or a complete communication suite that helps in bringing together the team of any organisation to interact, share, discuss, manage and track from one common place, thereby cutting email clutter. lapses or chaos related to business communication.

SMEs occupy an important and strategic place in the economic growth and equitable development of our country. Looking into the challenges SMEs are facing today and finding solutions that fit them best is really something to think about.

Technology has changed a lot over the past decade. Even then, when we look at how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use technology, there has been only a limited, ad hoc adoption of it. Accessing technology and maintaining competitiveness is indeed one of the most formidable problems faced by the SMEs today.

Besides these, the reasons for the inability of SMEs to identify their technology needs are: Low funds, poor adaptability to changing trends, avoid risk, non-availability of technically trained resources (in some places), lack of management skills, and lack of access to technological information.

In one of the blogs, it spoke of the challenges that SMEs face today, where it said to be primarily in the area of ICT and to quote specifically, ERP. The SMEs lament that whenever they approached the usual ERP firms, the first question they were faced with was that of their turn-over (they are quoted ERP package rates based on their turnover!). Further, most do not even qualify to be served by these firms since they don't measure up in terms of turn-over. It is quite an eye-opener and a revelation to the fact that SME's spending on IT is only 30 percent of India's overall IT spending.

If we make available to SMEs customized solutions that they can use easily, that fits into their business their way and is available to them at a cost they can afford so that, they can focus on more productive tasks. Then, it will certainly be a game changing proposition.

Though communication has become lot easier with the advent of technology, opening many channels to communicate, but on the hindsight it has also led to problems related to email clutter, scattered information and spam mails.

Say, a public relations specialist can send tens or thousands of press releases to a targeted group of journalists with a simple click. This practice, however, has given rise to press release spam, meaning that journalists are more likely to press the delete key before even opening the message. It is very common problem.

It's time that we start using one collaborative platform instead of relying on multiple softwares to communicate; create project or task folders to group all related communications and information; be more human, responsive in our engagements with our key stakeholders instead of mass mail; making heavy file sharing lot easier through generating link & password to avoid clogging recipients inbox are some really simple and very useful features in TaskTrek to help you communicate better and expect more positive outcome.

The sad reality is that most of us have no clue of the cutting edge technology available to us.

Using what technology for business communication and information management, or customized ERP like solution should ideally not rest upon on IT department and business managers alone. Infact, the end users should be proactively engaged in the discussions to understand the implications of adopting a new technological solution.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) models, meaning the end user is free to use the service from anywhere. SaaS provider such as TaskTrek, can be accessed via a web browser (even on mobile) and is a paid on subscription basis (Quarterly or yearly). The truth is that there has been a considerable shift across the globe from traditional software models. Without internet, no business is possible these days. So basically, adopting a solution like this will not only be faster and cost effective way to getting implemented but eliminate those headaches to do with managing hardware and software, hiring IT team and upfront investment in servers or software licensing. Since the software application is delivered as a service, there is better quality and personalized customer service and experience.

The bottom line is every key stakeholder of the organization should have the basic understanding of new technology before being adopted and what it means to the organization. Moving to SaaS model is really no longer an option but has become an accepted standard of doing things.

One of the main reason why there is lack of awareness about technologies for SMEs is because the target market that comprises of small businesses is extremely difficult to reach to and to market to. This gets even more difficult when the company trying to market is a young start-up and the customers are "S" in SMB. These customers have very different kind of requirements. They look for simple solutions that are not very expensive and easy to use with local support model and not the ones that come with enterprise grade features such as Gantt charts and milestone reports, etc.

The SME can be a service provider like a PR agency, an ad agency, a media agency, a law firm, a firm of a chartered accountants or an event management agency. It can also be a manufacturing or distribution company for metals, plastics, food material; a sales or direct selling agency or real estate owner / builder or corporation. Irrespective, which industry, every SME does require a solution to have more seamless communication within the organizational hierarchies, a more transparent system of working and a focused team. This demand is inevitable when the industry or segment is highly driven by communications, more so in service industry.

It is easier for service providers to reach out to the SMEs in service industry as the target audience is mostly B2C and high on communications. Where it is important to keep all communication docked in a single place for later reference.

SME Market in India is too big to be ignored for any B2B service provider today. One has to find unique ways to reach them, and cater to their unique demands.

Special discount for SME WORLD Readers; visit www.tasktrek.in

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