Mobile workforce among Indian SMBs rising fast

KOLKATA, INDIA: As high as 43 percent of PC-owning small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) in India now have a mobile workforce, or employees who need to regularly travel on business for a minimum of four or five days in a month. This is compared to 22 percent about two years ago, according to a recent study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

"The need to constantly be on the move has increased recently, as India's SMBs have become more aware of the importance of improving relationships with their business partners, customers and suppliers," says Manashi Dey, analyst at AMI-Partners. "The Indian economy is rapidly changing. This will create new challenges for youth entering the workforce with newer, varied and ever changing job options. The need for a more flexible and mobile workforce requires newer skills and greater adaptability among the youth."

Small businesses (SBs, or companies with up to 99 employees) in India, comprise the bulk of the SMB universe. Medium Businesses (MBs, or companies with 100 to 999 employees), though, require employees to be more mobile than their SB counterparts since they are more advanced than SBs and have many more business partners and business transactions.

"As a result, mobile workforce penetration among MBs has reached 72 percent. The traveling is mostly limited within the same city or state especially for SBs," Dey says. However, MBs regularly travel to other states - a few of them also travel overseas on

business."

The most vital mobility tool for SMBs is the mobile phone - which allow employees to keep in touch with their headquarters, back offices and also their other mobile and remotely-located employees. Cellular phone usage has reached near-saturation among India's PC-owning SMBs. Some of the commonly used mobile applications among India SMBs are instant messaging, e-mail and mobile calendar and contact information.

Notebook PCs are another important mobility tool for SMBs. Laptop penetration is increasing fast, especially among Indian MBs. Notebook PC usage is higher among MBs at 70 percent. Notebook PC spending is set to rise by 32 percent this year among SMBs.

SBs are realizing the role of notebooks as important mobility devices, and 37 percent indicated mobility as a key purchase-driver of notebook PCs, while another 43 percent said they prefer buying notebook PCs due to their in-built WiFi capabilities.

"Some of the key factors influencing notebook PC growth are the rapidly decreasing price gap between notebooks and desktops and introduction of newer and attractive features in notebooks," says. Dey. "Notebook PC vendors are now bundling in wireless LAN capabilities with all newer models."

Due to the increased usage of mobility among Indian SMBs, wireless penetration is also set to go up. Currently, its usage is rather embryonic. About one-tenth of SMBs deploy WLAN. This will no doubt rise, especially among MBs, to about one-fourth this year.