Are Acche Din Around the Corner for the SME?

Dear Technology Provider,

SME companies, like ours, are looking positively to the year 2015. With a renewed push from the new government at the center and the price of crude oil continuing its downward journey, many SMEs are finally looking to come out of the ‘recession loop’ that they were caught in, for the last year or so.

Most of the SMEs are fully aware of the importance of using technology in their growth plan and with positive market sentiments, SMEs are now looking up to technology companies to guide them through the ‘revival period’. Other SMEs have been in talks with multiple technology vendors for automation of their business processes and some have also implemented their solutions.

We would like to highlight some areas that need improvements.

The SME community still complains about almost complete lack of ownership by the technology provider community. Most of the tech providers still do not fully understand and appreciate SME concerns and the ‘Actual Business Pain’ areas.

We worry about project delays, implementation hassles, huge gaps in the scope of work defined and almost total lack of return on investment. The Technology provider should consider the parameters in perspective at the discussion stage and not blame the SME management later.

SMEs' Wish List (Expectations from the Technology Service Providers)

- We would simply like to use technology as a business tool for our growth. (We are not a technology company nor would we like to become one.) Therefore, when pitching your solution to the SME, please spare us the technology jargon. Terms like virtualization, cloud computing, DR, managed services etc have no meaning for us, unless someone makes a business case for us.

- Clearly define the precise business benefits. Since we are going to be implementing technology, at this scale for the first time, where an organization wide change is required, please guide us through this process.

- Even if the above is NOT in your scope, we cannot successfully implement the business app without any guidance.

- Also educate us on the various implementation bottlenecks which can delay the project.

- Don’t highlight issues such as non seriousness of the middle management, reluctance on sharing data, fear of losing control are some factors which result in failure of projects. We outsource our services to mainly take care of these only.

- We expect hand holding from you (our technology provider) based on your experience with other companies. Please help us create a Business case which can be used to educate and convince people at all levels in the company.

- We would also like technology service providers to hire domain experts of their respective business areas. We have had sales people trying to sell us HRMS services having almost no experience of the various best practices prevalent in the industry

- We are very confused on services such as website hosting, application hosting, cloud hosting, on premise hosting, connectivity, business application, managed services, outsourcing, in sourcing etc. But we need your guidance on this.

- Don’t push us into cloud just because of low opex. While low opex is a big attraction for us, what if it doesn’t result into a visible business gain? Mine is not the only company which is in a quandary on this.

One of my friends, who is the Business head of one of the largest Indian market place company, rues the fact that they have been scouting around for a CRM app for years but have not been able to zero down on any product. They cite either lack of experience of the start ups or lack of features suited to them for this delay. Most of the vendors who have approached them have promised to come back with “Just the right solution for your needs,” but hardly came back.

Another head of a SME forum cited inordinate delays, running into months, in the delivery and implementation of the business app that they ordered from an established vendor.

We understand that there is a major movement in the app development market with many start ups as well as existing companies reporting a steady rise in investor interest. While many of these investments have taken place for the messenger, chat based apps, there seems to be a visible movement in the Business apps segment too.

While this is of course great news for the developer community, these companies also need to look at the value they are offering to the SME customer.

Will you guide us to bring ‘Acche Din’ for the SMEs in the New Year, 2015?

Yours sincerely,

A harried but hopeful SME owner.