SMB YATRA: Sun Rises in the East. Do SMBs too?

• SMB Yatra reaches to Guwahati, Kolkata & Bhubaneswar
• Commutation, Payment Delay, GST Compliance are the
major issues faced by SMBs
• Government is extending help through local SMB associations
• SMBs should work with technology vendors to remain in the game

With goals to provide SMBs an opportunity to gain business productivity, better geographical reach and to provide deployment of best technology; Canon and Panasonic in collaboration with SMB focused publication PC Quest; a division of CyberMedia Publications reaches East zone to organize SMB Yatra.

Guwahati was the first city to witness the gathering of SMBs and technology vendors on 10th October at Hotel Contour. Whereas, Kolkata’s Hotel Park Plaza witnessed second conference on 13th October. The third gathering happened in Bhubaneswar on 17th October which held at Hotel HHI. The event was intended as the first step towards finding more effective answers for deploying right technology by gathering a select group of Business owners and Entrepreneurs.

The business events were focused to establishing a rapport with business owners and technology end users. To support small businesses with high growth potential, Canon India showcased printer solutions at the Guwahati event which can find effective answers for their needs. Canon India Representative Sagnic Kar was
present there to give demos to the audience. Canon’s laser and production printers provide an excellent answer to the printing needs of ever growing SMB sector.

One of the biggest problems in cities like Guwahati is commutation, where efficiency of railways and other transport is a question because of geographical adversities. But to answer such questions Panasonic gave insights about their best video solutions HDVC for
small business owners. Nanda Ghosh and Animesh were present in Guwahati and Kolkata respectively to give overview and demonstration of their various solutions.

These video conference systems come with high image quality, high sound quality. Video solutions works with stable connection achieved both with intranets and the Internet, enabling easy, comfortable communication between remote locations.

Business conference in all the cities witnessed large number of audience which consists of business owners from various verticals. Guwahati audience shared their challenges and experience of doing business in Guwahati.

They also shared their expectations from technology vendors. One of the attendees shares that, “The development speed is real slow. Ground reality is very different of what we have always been told. The biggest problem in this area is servicing. The products are sold but after that servicing part is very poor. In this zone one person is representative will be accountable for number of jobs. And this confuses us getting the right treatment.”

Kolkata SMB Yatra also witnessed association with Federation of Small Medium Industries; an association for SMBs. Ex-President DK Mohta gave keynote on challenges and expectations of SMBs. He said, “Role of technology plays an important part in the growth of SMBs. It gives us new and better approach to do businesses. What we expect from technology vendors is newer technologies, guidance and good quality services for better productivity”. Whereas, Kolkata audience also got benefited with GST openhouse session. This session was conducted by Biswarup Das, Deputy Commissioner of CGST; Prasenjit Sarkar, Mridul Naskar and Soumitra Biswas (Superintendent of CGST).

Talking about the third gathering, Technology vendors Numeric was partners in the SMB Yatra in Bhubaneswar. Mukhtar Ahmed, Channel Head – East represented Numeric Power Systems where he talked about the UPS solutions for the end users and how they can power their business for profitability. Numeric’s compact new KEOR Series of ‘Three Phase UPS’ - Keor HP and Keor HPE devices allows users flexible operating modes for large facilities, data-centers and business-critical applications with the flexibility of extending its range from 60 kVA to 4.8 MVA. These intend to satisfy both user and installers by providing ease of maintenance and safety; capital preservation and reducing operating expenses. To attract customers Numeric also gave interactive demo to the audience present there.
While, IT Association of Orissa (ITAO) was the association partner in the event. Soubhagya Routray, President of the IT association gave brief overview of their cluster and its deeds in the Odisha region.

Another highlight of the event was the GST openhouse session which was conducted by CA Mihir Sahu, where the attendees discussed the issues that needed to be tackled.