Marketing of cloud and mobile apps to SMEs

Abstract

Introduction: MSMEs can be called the backbone of Indian GDP. According to Inter-Ministerial Committee report 2013 , MSMEs contributed 8% in overall GDP, 45% in manufacturing output and 40% in exports. The classification of MSMEs under MSME development Act, 2006 has been shown in Exhibit 1. In India, MSME sector is the second largest employment provider after agricultural sector. According to CII , this sector has capability to show double digit growth in coming years. However a huge percentage of the SMEs are unregistered as shown in Exhibit-2. In the last couple of decades, India has proved to be one of the leaders in information technology sector having a significant share in BPO sector. However the adoption of ICT in MSME sector has not been significant. Many type of cloud application currently exist in market which can be used in medium and small businesses. But most of the small and medium businesses are suffering either from low awareness of these applications or lack of funds to adopt these practices in their organization. Indian government realized the need of such technological infrastructure for MSMEs in 11th five year plan and also took several initiatives. Prime Minister Mr. Modi came up with Digital India plan, which can be a game changer for this industry. In addition to this, policies like development of smart cities in India and Make in India is likely to boost the adoption of ICT and cloud apps by SMEs in India. Objective: The internet using population in India in 2014 is 24.3 crores and is growing at a rate of 14%. Having such a huge growth rate; adoption of cloud applications and ICT should not be a problem in India. However the usage of such technologies has not been as par with other industries in India. We can say that cloud apps and ICT solutions are not marketed among the MSME players in a proper way. In our detailed analysis we tried to find out the gaps between the available cloud applications and MSME segment in India. We have also analysed the current scenario of such ICT applications in the Indian MSME sector – the applications which are relevant for small and medium businesses in today’s world, barriers for adoption and methods to overcome these barriers. Finally in this paper we have provided a set of recommendations based on our research.