'Just like other industries, SMBs in Rajkot have also started adopting the latest IT technologies to support their business needs'

We spoke to Gurpreet Brar, Director-Commercial Channels, HP, to understand how solutions providers are helping SMB manufacturers in overcoming their challenges.

What sort of trends are you observing on IT usage in the engineering goods manufacturing segment?

Gurpreet Brar, Director-Commercial Channels, HP

Just like other industries, smbs in Rajkot have also started adopting the latest IT technologies to support their business needs. Designing is one of the key areas for them and we are seeing that they have started using graphics workstation, which are helping them not only improve the productivity, but also improve the quality and speed of their work. We have also seen ERP gaining acceptability as data is becoming a critical business need.Use of mobility related technologies is also growing in this vertical.

Lack of awareness of IT is one of the largest challenges faced by Rajkot’s Engineering Goods industry, and perhaps a lot of similar clusters throughout the country. How can technology vendors like HP help?

There are a lot of new products and solutions available from a technology perspective for this kind of vertical, so technology leaders can create awareness not only through media but also by driving end-customer road shows, and aligning them with ISVs to provide the right solutions for their business needs. This will help them adopt more technology.

How can the engineering goods manufacturing industry and solution providers work more closely to understand their requirements and have neutral discussions on technology?

A constant dialogue and idea sharing is important, so we already have a lot of case studies in the market of customers who are using technology and have made a difference in their industry. I feel that solution providers should take their solutions to show the value and business advantages they bring to the table for the manufacturing industry. Even the industry should adopt those solutions and share their views so that solution providers can bring further innovations for them.