SME IT market sees 100% year-on-year growth

Global information technology (IT) giants are looking at a 100 per cent year-on-year growth in their small and medium businesses (SMBs) market in India on the back of increased purchasing power and rapid business expansion of the Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Oracle is expecting over 100 per cent growth in India for its CRM business on the back of increased technology awareness and need for cost-effective customer servicing.

According to Simon Banks, general manager of CRM on Demand "" Asia Pacific, Oracle Corporation, over the next 12 to 18 months, the company is expecting a bulk of its business to come from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

"A lot of SMEs in India are expanding business rapidly. A lot of bigger companies are outsourcing client servicing to SMEs, which will push up sales of CRM," Banks said.

CRM is dominantly used in call-centres and at customer help-desks.

With the growing economy, Oracle expects sectors like hi-tech manufacturing companies, life-sciences, financial services, in addition to call-centres, to contribute to the bulk of its CRM sales.

Oracle's CRM costs $70 per user per month.

Likewise, Cisco posted over 100 per cent year-on-year growth in its SME business in India.

According to official sources, Cisco plans to roll out around 30 variants of its SME products in various segments like switching, routing, wireless and Internet telephony services this year.

The new variants are expected to be superior to the existing products as these will be cost competitive, more user friendly and have a higher operational efficiency.

Some of the variants that Cisco proposes to launch include low-end switches and wireless solutions. Cisco will also come up with new vertical-based solutions which are expected to help SMEs in segments like healthcare, stock markets and manufacturing.

Cisco invested over $3 billion worldwide last year on new products.

Cisco already has in place the 'Network on Wheels' scheme in which a mobile van creates awareness among the SMEs.

The 'Network on Wheels' initiative has already started in the northern, western and southern regions of India and Cisco expects to bring it to the eastern region within the next six months.