Ambika Prakash
 
BANGALORE, INDIA: Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India are set to spend $9.7 billion on IT this year, up 22 percent over 2007, says AMI Partners. This clearly states that more and more SMBs are turning to deploy IT in an aggressive way.

While a majority of SMBs are embracing IT in a big way, it is also viewed as one of the pain points by many. Various reasons like cost, frequent updation and licensing of the product are forcing SMBs to refrain from IT deployment.

Sanjay Singh, director (SMB), Nortel Networks, India tells how Nortel products help SMBs overcome the pain points.

Excerpts:
 
CIOL: How well have SMBs geared up to deploy IT?  What exactly is refraining CIOs/CXOs from deploying IT as an enabler?

Sanjay Singh: Domestic demand for IT in India is witnessing a gradual transformation from hardware to solution-oriented. As the level of IT investment increases, there is a change in the perceived role of IT from a support function to an enabler of competitive advantage. SMBs have started maturing in terms of IT infrastructure.

While a significant number of them are still at a basic hardware usage level, there is an increased expectation regarding IT by SMBs as CIOs are facing challenges in justifying the value derived from IT investments.

Improving Internet, networking, bandwidth/connection speed, and helping the staff to collaborate more effectively are the two major issues for Indian SMBs this year. They are adopting the latest Internet-related technologies and 63 percent of Internet-owning SMBs are broadband-enabled. Comparatively, Internet penetration among all SMBs now stands at over 60 percent.

CIOL: Has Nortel's products addressed any of these pain points in particular?

SS: Nortel's new product range includes switches, routers and access points, and will feature the SMB-specific Business Communications Manager (BCM50) and a digital hybrid PBX supplied by Nortel's Korean JV, LG-Nortel.

SMB customers will benefit from both voice and data enabled solutions backed by Nortel's carrier-grade industry standards. The specially designed offering will provide customers simple, scalable and easy to use products at a very affordable price.

With Nortel's focus on the SMB segment, we expect the channel to grow by 50 percent. We are planning to further develop the partner's expertise areas, who number around 800.

The basic quality Nortel looks for in a partner is technology system integration capability. As important is the partner's hunger for growth, which should, to a certain extent, be aligned with Nortel's own objectives.

CIOL: Are Indian SMBs specifically looking for one time investment and customized products to address the challenges?

SS:  The Indian SMB segment is going through a process of evolution and businesses are looking at technology to enable them to grow.
 
Backed by the buoyant Indian economy and the large SMB market, Nortel has established a long-term strategy to cater to specific needs and challenges of SMB customers. Today, the SMB segment needs enterprise technologies like wireless, high end voice features, IP etc at an affordable price from a single vendor/ channel partner, with the ability to scale when needed.

That is the USP of Nortel where we have introduced both voice and data, converged products and solutions precisely meeting SMB customer needs.

The SMB customer while looking at value for money, purchases multi products that frequently scales down versions of existing enterprise products. This segment is looking at something designed for them; a consolidated voice and data solution from a single vendor.

CIOL: What priority does IT investment has among SMBs?

SS: It was true that SMBs were once constrained by the limited technologies and communications tools available to them, and this impacted their ability to grow and succeed. But things are changing as companies like Nortel arm SMBs with customized technologies such as Internet access, contact center integration and remote working.

On one hand it is evident that small businesses with up to 99 employees are aggressively investing in basic computing infrastructure. On the other hand medium-sized businesses employing 100 to 999 employees are looking at boosting IT infrastructure for increased revenue growth and customer convenience.

Besides securing the means to better business management, communications and networking infrastructure, many existing and new SMBs were looking at augmenting Internet facilities and adopting enhanced security measures.