Tech Roadmap for SMEs in 2016

“IT usage in pharmaceutical sector is substantial, however there’s always a possibility to increase its integration. Our industry members comprise of SME and large industries. We also have several IT parks in our area. The level of IT usage is quite high. The pharmacy industry serves Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 citizen townships but the development of IT facilities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 is very less due to which we are not able to pass on the benefits to the patients. We have integrated our factory, our head office, and our R&D lab by using IT. It is also useful for MIS systems. We expect IT vendors to provide cost effective solutions so that the industry implementation can be achieved at a faster rate.”

- Bipin Shah, President, Thane Belapur Industries Association

“We are surrounded by IT industry from cell phones to e-shops. Every individual is in touch with IT solutions. Our entire team is in process to implement a paperless office. Learning is a continuous process and every new development is an opportunity to learn. With regards to implementing IT, we are going to launch our e shopping portal--Marathi – e shop. Our e-shop will provide the SSI units and handicraft artisans an opportunity to showcase and sell their products online. Through this initiative MSSIDC and our beneficiaries will be highly benefited. The reports, accounts, analysis and daily status will be just a click away.”

“We want to onboard all the crafts and SSI products on to our portal and want artisans and SSIs to handle their profiles individually. Most importantly, we want to increase awareness of crafts and SSI products, which shall provide a source of livelihood to our beneficiaries.”

- Shivaji R. Daund (IAS), MD, Maharashtra SSIDC

 “We are planning to adopt Mobility, Cloud Computing, and Analytics  in the coming months, but due to lack of finance we are falling short of our targets. Hopefully we will adopt ERP and CRM in our organization before May.”

- Dr. Anant Sardeshmukh, Director-General, Maratha Chambers of Commerce Industries and Agriculture

“The adoption in Pharma is varied, and the big brands are able to spend in IT and take advantage of the integration of various solutions. But most of the small and medium pharmacies still work on island systems unable to leverage its potential. Even with manufacturing companies, not all of them provide bar coded deliveries. This augments the incompetence and work in the complete value chain. There are multiple points of manual entry for batch number, expiry, and manufacturing date, which are very essential for compliance to Acts and regulations. “The unavailability of simple digitization of the prescription system adds to the complex situation. Ordering, re-ordering & expiry management is mostly manual and very costly. All this eats into the profitability of these pharmacies,” he added. Most of the SMBs and IT start-ups are using websites for ordering and this is going to be a prominent trend in future.

- Puneet Kapoor, Director, BigChemist

“Most of the sellers need help with “tech skills” and “operations skills” required to launch and manage an online business. They face challenges due to gaps in capabilities like imaging, creating data feeds as well as for ongoing requirements such as catalog expansion, inventory planning, and pricing analytics which can help them manage and grow their businesses once online.

“To help sellers and brands improve their visibility, for easy discovery by customers and to let them take greater control of their destiny on Amazon.in, we are about to launch Sponsored Products for sellers in the second half of 2016. We launched the Amazon Trained Ecommerce Specialist program to enable SMEs get access to certified professionals who run ecommerce programs for them. As part of our endeavor to take ‘Made in India’ products global by enabling Indian SMEs to get online, we launched the Global Selling Program on Amazon in May this year. We started this program with 200 sellers and currently over 5,000 Indian sellers list their products on Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk. In fact, we also enabled over 5,000 Indian sellers to participate in the US’ biggest shopping season starting with Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales this year.

- Gopal Pillai, Director - Seller Services, Amazon India 

“With focus on creating an ecosystem that enables businesses to sell online, Snapdeal launched Capital Assist last year. This is a Fintech platform, which assists ecommerce merchants in meeting their working capital requirement and scales their businesses. This year, the company has launched an instant loan approval facility on Capital Assist. With this initiative, Snapdeal sellers can avail unsecured loans up to Rs. 1 crore from financers at the click of a button. Under Capital Assist programme, so far 1000 SMBs have availed loans amounting to more than Rs 250+ crores,”

“Snapdeal has committed $200 million towards building a digital ecosystem for small and medium businesses in India and a large part of this investment has already been made towards seller enablement and training.  With this investment and with a network of over 2,00,000 sellers, our company is aiming to create 1 million successful online entrepreneurs by 2017.”

- Vishal Chadha, Senior Vice-President, Market Development, SnapDeal