Small manufacturers take to IT

 They are rapidly IT enabling themselves not just by using PCs or even networking them but going in for enterprise solutions in order to face up to competitive challenges which are both domestic and global.

 This is creating considerable traction for various IT segments in India - ERP (enterprise resource planning) solutions and hardware vendors on one hand and service providers who deploy those solutions on the other. The market was always there but a clear strategy for it has emerged only in the last 18 months.

 Among the earliest to enter the field is SAP, the leading global ERP vendor. SMEs have been a