'A million Indian SBs to buy PCs'

KOLKATA: Forty percent of small businesses (SBs) in India plan to invest in computers for the first time in the next 12 months, opening up a huge opportunity for hardware, software and solution vendors. In literal terms that's over a million SBs, out of a total of 2.7 million SBs in India, that don't own any computers, according to the latest study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

"There are still 2.7 million businesses in India, which do not own computers - and a major proportion of them belong to the wholesale and retail sector," says Dev Chakravarty, senior analyst at AMI-Partners. "Almost 50 percent of these SBs say PCs have no relevance to their line of business. But this attitude is beginning to change."

About 15 percent of non-PC owning SBs surveyed by AMI said they would opt to buy laptop PCs, instead of a desktop. "The need for laptops is a direct consequence of the burgeoning mobility needs of India's non-PC SBs," Chakravarty says. "The proportion of overall India SMBs with mobile employees rose to 41 percent in 2006, a rapid rise by nearly twenty percentage points over 2005. At present, more than half of Indian SMBs have employees regularly venturing out of town to interact with business partners and will lug a laptop along."

The most favored channel for PC-purchases is the local retail store. PC-purchase by Indian SBs is similar to consumers that buy white goods or electronic items.

The crux is education, or lack of it. "PC vendors need to make greater efforts to educate SBs about the benefits of PCs and ROI that they may gain due to PC usage," Chakravarty says.."The need to automate business processes and to improve efficiency are the two key drivers that non-PC SBs cited for buying PCs. The urge to keep up with competitors and increase employee productivity are some other factors. Maintaining a basic IT infrastructure is also necessary to manage mushrooming business growth and keep up with demands from business partners.

CIOL Bureau