By Bhaskar Ganguli, Director, Marketing and Sales- Mass Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
For decades, large corporations and big businesses have been viewed as agents of change as they’re often credited for accelerating the economic growth of a country. While they indeed make up a significant portion as contributors, the role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) cannot be overlooked. According to the World Bank, SMEs in developing countries are responsible for creating numerous job opportunities, which remain key to gradual financial development. And the situation in India is no different.
In a fast-growing nation like India, SMEs account with regard to a prominent proportion of the country’s GDP. Taking note of the emerging markets, the particular Indian government also introduced several schemes such as ‘Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme’ and ‘Mudra Yojana’ with campaigns such as ‘Vocal regarding Local’ plus ‘Make in India’ in order to promote the growth associated with SMEs. And the budget allocation for SMEs has reached Rs 15700 crores within FY 2022, which is more than double the amount dispensed in FY 2021, which is a testimony to the surge in SMEs in the particular country.
But , like other entities, SMEs also witnessed numerous challenges amid the ever-changing market situations. While the need in order to innovate and adapt to change is imperative for any firm, the SMEs were faced with a new set of challenges during the global pandemic that accelerated the need for reinvigorating the way they carried out business operations.
Challenges confronted by SMEs
Due to their substantial contribution to a country’s economic growth, SMEs have always been the priority of policymakers and governments. Initially, these enterprises worked on a physical model along with manual control over the labour, employees, procedures and marketing. But the particular recent pandemic drained the cash flow of these types of companies with a sudden decline in sales. Many small businesses had to shut down their operations due to a lack associated with contingency plans and emergency funds. Although the authorities implemented swift measures in order to tackle the situation globally, many SMEs still struggled to take a giant leap forward.
Liquidity issues arrived with a lack of talented workforce, leading to a grim situation for the enterprises. Large industries had sufficient CapEx with the particular OpEx to transform plus adapt, but smaller scale enterprises working on the bootstrap investments lost numerous reserves. The pandemic-infused challenges, including the particular impactful lockdowns, proved catastrophic for that SMEs, especially instead of their own archaic physical model that will failed in order to keep the business steady. Adding to that, the needs of the consumers were also under rapid transformation. The particular increasing usage of the internet and demand for a short delivery time made it essential for SMEs to adopt technology and embrace the digital approach.
Digital Transformation: A complete solution
Digital transformation includes adapting to tools and technologies for various business functions to meet desired goals and customer expectations. The primary need for electronic transformation was to support business continuity disrupted throughout the outbreak. Therefore, following in the footsteps associated with industry giants, SMEs underwent a complete digital change that gave them better access to their particular business operations, generated much better leads plus helped within brand recognition sans any lags and interruptions. The World Economic Forum predicts that the particular societal plus industrial digital transformation market will reach 100 trillion USD by 2025. The particular statistics indicate that this transformation is not only the phase yet a crucial company strategy for every SME to incorporate.
With digital modification, companies can improve their management simply by having better access in order to information, appropriate communication along with vendors and faster networking. With digitalization comes automation that can be combined with several operations to do menial plus repetitive tasks, saving time and costs for the organizations. Similarly, procuring financial support and human resources may be more streamlined plus expedited on the back of the digital presence. With the particular digital approach at the forefront, training the workforce can become seamless and a lot more effective. Moreover, SMEs may track and log their own employees’ progress while preparing in advance to tackle future challenges on the back of valuable insights.
To reach their customers significantly, SMEs can opt to go electronic with the particular help of web development for brand introduction plus establishment. Also, with a growing dependency upon smartphones and other mobile devices, SMEs can rope in software firms to create applications with interacting user interfaces (UI) for better customer engagement and customer experience (CX). As bodily documents tend to get damaged, SMEs can furthermore opt for cloud services intended for better data management, security and interoperability.
Future associated with SMEs is Electronic
Whilst large companies continue to run away with the limelight, the SMEs are working silently in order to revolutionize advancement by being a vital cog in the country’s economic wheel. Regardless of the size, modern-day companies have embraced digital alteration to procure long-term benefits. When it comes to SMEs, owing to their small size, they can undergo the change for better process more readily than large-cap enterprises.
On the particular other hand, SMEs may also rope in a credible partner to help them set up their particular IT infrastructure, among some other requirements needed to fulfil their digital transformation. And with the rise of entrepreneurs in India, the digital process will not only find streamlined but also become a lot more manageable. Newer technologies have always paved the way for industries to solve issues that traditional methods could not. It will be precisely to get this reason that, within the coming years, electronic transformation will be integrated into all aspects of a company to meet the requirements associated with industry plus consumers.
Advertisement
