Meetul Patel,
General Manager, Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners,
Microsoft India
According to reports, Indian SMEs are behind their counterparts in other countries in technology adoption. However, experts believe that if SMEs in the country adopt IT services for their business needs, they are likely to witness a much higher growth. During a conversation Meetul Patel, General Manager, Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners, Microsoft India talks about technology adoption for SMEs and the challenges they face in IT adoption.
Excerpts from the Interview
CT: Can you tell us something about the Small and Mid-Market Solution and Partners unit?
Patel: Our business unit ‘Small and Mid-Market Solution and Partners’ in Microsoft is focused on targeting all small and mid-sized business in India and partnering with ecosystem that manage the services in this group. We make sure that we reach customers, build partner networks to support entrepreneurs and make sure we reach to as many entrepreneurs in India.
CT: What your company offers for SMEs in India?
Patel: From the product perspective, most of our products are useful for SMEs as it helps entrepreneurs to grow and build networks at every level. Starting from the very basic product we offer, Windows operating system to these businesses, which enhances their online visibility and allow them a smooth access to network and internet which increasing their reach in the market. Secondly, the Microsoft Office Suite which helps entrepreneurs to keep records on excel file and analysis, create presentation for market etc and it is very much used by SMEs and many more tools. Microsoft Lync communication platform helps SMEs in connecting to more and more people for business expansion and business growth. The most important offering for SMEs is what we call Microsoft office 365, which is a very easy package that they can buy and allows SMEs to access all of these technologies without need of deep IT infrastructure.
CT: What is so unique about your services when compared to other players in market like Libra office and Google Docs?
Patel: First of all the products and its quality speak about the product and its uniqueness in the market. Our product has very rich features and functionalities. We offer seamless connectivity between our applications. People can move between our products much easier than others. Most important things is that our products describes about features easily and it helps them understand technology and services that technology that is a very unique attributes about our offering. Adoptions of our Cloud services help them to improve employee mobility, scalability and agility.
CT: What challenges are the SMEs facing in India in using IT services?
Patel :The biggest challenge SMEs face is that they are yet to understand the features and powers of IT and its adoption. I still feel that why there are not able to understand the value of IT and how to use it. I think that’s why our ecosystem helps them understand what can be done with it.
Do you think old generation’s reluctance to technology adaptation is hampering the growth of businesses in India?
Patel: Yes, I think the next generation manager and SMEs are adopting technology faster in the market. New SMEs are coming in our contact more for new needs of technologies. Our job right now is to make all the SMEs, which include new as well as old, understand the need of technology as they are also more important in the market.
CT: Do you think Indian SMEs are now ready to spend on technologies?
Patel: Yes absolutely, If SMEs see the value of these services; it is the best time to adopt the technologies. We are working on making more and easier services like office 365 that are helping SMEs in technology adoption. Instead of setting up a heavy infrastructure for IT, they can easily take our one service and use all of its features.
CT :How much has been the difference in growth of IT enabled SMEs that non IT enabled SMEs?
Patel:As IT helps in reaching more and more customers as well as gives them information about the new products, IT enabled revenue show a 15% more growth than the non-IT enabled SMEs.
CT :Do you work with government in giving SMEs information about IT?
Patel: Yes we are working with Indian government to set up a program on giving information about to SMEs in tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. We tell them about the best use of the services. We work with industry association and more and more partners to help them reach us.
CT: How many partners do you have for educating SMEs?
Patel: We have about 10,000 partners and they have expanded into 250 cities to tell SMEs the value of technology we will continue to grow our partnerships and go into more and more cities. Before going to tier-II and III cities, we have lot of work to do in metro cities as well, in terms of getting everyone to understand what we are doing.