KOLKATA: The Indian small and medium businesses (SMB) would increase their investment on IT to 24 per cent from last year by spending just over $8 billion.

According to a study conducted by Kolkata-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc., the Internet expenditure is fast increasing owing to the IP-enabled business process services adopted by SMBs, whereas major investments are still made on computing products.

“Indian SMBs view technology adoption as an effective strategy by which to overcome competition. While reigning in costs is still their primary focus, the phenomenal growth of the Indian economy has made SMBs optimistic about future business prospects,” says Neha Jalan, analyst at AMI-Partners.

The study found that 93 per cent of small businesses (1-99 employees) and 86 per cent of medium businesses (100-999 employees) had revenue increases in the past year, with 15 per cent SMBs having an overall increase of over 20 per cent.

About 15 per cent of businesses plan to boost their capital outlay and investing in new technology to tackle increased competition.

The study, however, found that less than a third of India’s SBs own even a single PC. Over 40 per cent SBs considered buying additional hardware and upgrading their existing PCs as an important strategic move.

Businesses with ‘always-on-the-move’ employees have increased by over 20 per cent from last year. SMBs’ preferences for more value-added services like advanced mobile applications and IM are a testament to the increasing need for 24/7 access.

“Greater employee mobility, increased competition and expansion in terms of office locations have prompted Indian SMBs to rely more heavily on the Internet and basic applications,” says Jalan.

Six out of 10 MBs surveyed in the study, increased IT storage capacity and deployment of enhanced storage solutions as a key strategic priority, while over half also listed enhancing enterprise IT security to be a key concern.

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