cxo voice
  • Home
  • News
  • View Points
  • Leaders Talk
  • Cyber Security
  • AI
  • Blockchain
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • View Points
  • Leaders Talk
  • Cyber Security
  • AI
  • Blockchain
No Result
View All Result
Leaders Interview, IT and Technology News India | CXO VOICE
No Result
View All Result

Home » Entrepreneur » Technology Adoption For Entrepreneurs

Technology Adoption For Entrepreneurs

Deepak Singhal, Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini by Deepak Singhal, Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini
July 16, 2020
Reading Time: 6min read
Technology Adoption For Entrepreneurs

Photo: Deepak Singhal

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare via E-Mail

Over the past few years, Indian businesses have taken massive strides in the adoption of new-age technology innovations. Further, supported by progressive government initiatives like Start-up India, digital India, Make-In-India, and the recent Vocal for Local, and supportive financial framework, the Indian start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem has boomed. This is partly also due to the ease of doing business, supported by technology.

All one requires now is a disruptive idea, the vision to take it ahead, access to the internet, and a few supporting service providers, also available over the internet, and a start-up may be ready to flourish! One no longer needs to put big initial investment in office space, furniture, or machinery to start a company. Take examples of Google which was started in a garage; or Facebook which was started in college, or even Flipkart which was started in an apartment of Bansals!

Speaking of ancillary services, a start-up in the e-commerce space can now have access to third-party service providers like logistics and warehousing companies, which can offer to take care of their inventory. Or even social and digital media platforms that offer ‘design your own campaign’ at home, with the click of the mouse, mapping geographic, demographic, and a social-economic class of your target audience! Or even social and digital media platforms that offer ‘design your own campaign’ at home, with the click of the mouse, mapping geographic, demographic, and a social-economic class of your target audience! Same goes for cloud and data hosting service providers, where one can skip the massive 5-year hosting retainers and get a spot on a cloud server on an hourly basis.

The best part is that you can get hundreds of servers on the click of a button, use them for a few hours (perhaps to run a machine learning model), and pay only for those hours.

 These are my prior experiences with various start-ups where I could host the product on the cloud, do advertising on social media, and my start-up was up and running!

However, despite these technology enablers, the Indian SME/MSME and startup sector still remain one of the slowest sector in adoption of these technology. As a sector that contributes 24% to the national GDP and is one of the largest employers in the country, it also continues to battle challenges like inadequate credit and financial facilities, lack of skilled labor and access to affordable and effective technology solutions, while facing tough competition from domestic and international players. 

While the recent pandemic and the resultant slowdown have impacted business, it has also forced the sector to recognise the urgent need of having an effective technology enabled business infrastructure that could help them survive. As per a survey by Nasscom, only a little over 18% of all Indian start-up’s are leveraging deep technology, as of November 2019*. This is a 40% CAGR from 2014 when it was only 8% of all start-up’s. The Indian SME/ MSME sector, on the other hand, also offers a market opportunity from technology adoption that is set to grow at a CAGR of 25%, from US $ 30 billion in 2019, to US $ 85 billion by 2024**. From efficient cloud computing infrastructure that can allow secure work environments for work-from-home settings to data privacy and cyber security have all become major priorities for businesses to sustain during this period of crisis.

While supportive policies, tax holidays, and financial relief packages are all in the pipeline to help salvage the sector which is the backbone of the Indian economy, the government’s vision of enabling it to raise its GDP share from 29% to 50% in 5 years, seems like an uphill task and will depend on a number of factors, including fastrack digital adoption. Key factors that need to be addressed in order to drive digital adoption among SME/MSME, can be listed as under: 

1. Digital Literacy

One of the key reasons for poor adoption of technology is a lack of knowledge about the potential of a solution and poor understanding of technology processes. This often leads to miscalculated decisions which prevent them from adopting new technology. This is true especially in Tier 2 or rural enterprises, which also face a challenge with English language communication and thus often find technology to intimidating. Structured digital literacy programs coupled with solutions that are accessible to non-English language natives, can go a long way in breaking the barrier and making technology more user friendly and understandable. 

2. Making technology affordable

Apart from gaining an understanding of technology solutions, making them affordable is another key factor that largely impacts the decision-making process. While most players in the sector are already battling economic slowdown, moving from a conventional to digital format of business can be viewed as an additional investment that may not appear as a top of the list priority. Creating solutions that are affordable, add more value and help generate better ROI for SME/MSME’s, would help drive faster technology adoption.

3. Customized solutions

While making technology accessible and affordable is an important step to drive technology adoption, customisation of these solutions is a vital aspect that is often a major roadblock for SME/MSME’s. Creating solutions that offer tailor-made solutions to address the specific needs of small businesses can go a long way in encouraging wider and faster technology adoption. From solutions for operations, CRM, HR to more complex solutions for data analysis and management and integration AI and ML for business, technology as a solution needs to be effective, efficient, and impactful, even when dealing on a smaller scale. 

4. Skilled labour

Apart from affordability, accessibility, and customization, technology solutions for small businesses are also restricted due to the lack of a skilled workforce. Even after adopting the best solutions, setting up a workforce that can operate and leverage the same effect on a daily basis, can be a challenge. Unlike MNC’s and larger corporate businesses, SME/MSME’s employ limited labor and may not have the bandwidth to recruit candidates with specialized expertise to access the technology solutions. A technology infrastructure that is in line with the ROI and business solutions needs to be supported with a trainable workforce that can access the same effortlessly. 

5. Supportive Digital Infrastructure

While all of the above factors impact individual entrepreneurs, the presence of a robust digital infrastructure across the business ecosystem is imperative to not only drive initial adoption but to ensure sustained practices and eventually lead to permanent migration of businesses to digital platforms. From a strong fintech infrastructure to the seamless integration of new-age technology innovations across communications, HR, CRM and Data management, are the new foundation stones for a digitally empowered economy. 

Even as India gears up to become an economic superpower by harnessing the people, technology, and global business opportunities across sectors, it’s SME/MSME and startup sectors continue to grow as the key driving force of the economy. The entrepreneurial spirit, when supported by financial policies and focussed technology solutions, can go a long way in building India as an economic superpower. 

Disclaimer: The author of this article is Deepak Singhal, Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini. Views expressed here are his own.


.

  • Wi-Fi 6: Much Needed Technology To Cater To Future Contingency
  • Significance Of Ethical Entrepreneurship In The Post COVID-19 Economy
  • [Opinion] Key solutions that will become commonplace in the post-COVID-19 business ecosystem

Tags: Digital TransformationDigitizationEntrepreneurSMBsSMEsStartupTechnologyTechnology AdoptionTopview points
Deepak Singhal, Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini

Deepak Singhal, Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini

Enterprise Architect Director for DEMS Business at Capgemini Deepak Singhal is a technocrat with over 20 years of experience across domains like cloud computing, JAVA programing, and other emerging technologies like AI and ML, with a passion for entrepreneurship.

Related Posts

Business productivity
Business

How Technology Can Help Leaders Boost Business Productivity During Pandemic Outbreak

November 27, 2020
Enterprises, and MSMEs IoT
Leaders Talk

IoT is now seen as an essential enabler for the enterprises to be future ready : Joyjeet Bose

November 30, 2020
AI, Blockchain and IOT Together To Bring Real Value to Organizations
AI

AI, Blockchain and IOT Together To Bring Real Value to Organizations

October 1, 2020
Technology in education sector
Technology

The growing role of technology in the education sector

September 30, 2020
Wi-Fi 6 Technology, Marthesh Nagendra
Technology

Wi-Fi 6: India Gears Up for the Next Generation of Wi-Fi Technology

September 15, 2020
protect against insider threats: CyberSecurity practices
Cyber Security

How to protect against insider threats: CyberSecurity practices

August 18, 2020
Net Magic Zerto
News

Netmagic Partners with Zerto to Expand Its Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

August 4, 2020
Protection of Intellectual Property with Data Loss Prevention
Cyber Security

Protection of Intellectual Property with Data Loss Prevention

July 31, 2020
Load More
Next Post
Supply Chain Technology Trends in 2020

Top 8 Supply Chain Technology Trends in 2020: Gartner

Discussion about this post

ADVERTISEMENT

Expert Views

Key Fintech Trends to look out for in 2021
Finance

Key Fintech Trends to look out for in 2021

January 8, 2021
Banking cybersecurity
Cyber Security

Why Banks and NBFCs must exercise extra cybersecurity measures during festival times?

December 11, 2020
impact of Covid-19 on retirement planning
Insurance

The impact of Covid-19 on retirement planning

December 1, 2020
Cyber Security Awareness
Cyber Security

Five Ways To Enhance Cyber Security Awareness

November 18, 2020
Low Code: Transforming Banking, Today and Tomorrow
Banking

Low Code: Transforming Banking, Today and Tomorrow

November 9, 2020

Get Latest Update

Subscribe to our mailing list to receives newsletter direct to your inbox!

ADVERTISEMENT

Leaders Inerviews

Enterprises, and MSMEs IoT
Leaders Talk

IoT is now seen as an essential enabler for the enterprises to be future ready : Joyjeet Bose

-
Security While Working Remotely interview with Filip Coftas
Cyber Security

Security While Working Remotely [Interview]

-
Akita Security Device Help you Protect your Security During COVID-19 [Interview with Zakir Hussain]
COVID-19

Can Akita Security Device Help you Protect your Security During COVID-19 [Interview]

-
digital transformation and customer experience Newgen software
Interview

Digital Transformation Journey helps Newgen Software Improve Customer Experience [Interview]

-

Entrepreneur

Technology Adoption For Entrepreneurs

Volunteering management is the need of the Hour

Significance Of Ethical Entrepreneurship In The Post COVID-19 Economy

Five tips for entrepreneurs to tide over the coronavirus crisis

CXO VOICE is a premier resource for the enterprises, SMBs and Startups CXOs and business leaders, It enables CXOs and business executives gain access key insights, experts views, analysis, business strategy, and leaders interviews on what’s happening in the market and its impact.

Connect with us

Easy Links

  • Cryptocurrency
  • Event
  • Blockchain
  • Press Release
  • Resources & Downloads

Write Us

[email protected]

Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list to receives newsletter direct to your inbox!

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Feedback

© 2018 CXO VOICE

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • View Points
  • Leaders Talk
  • Cyber Security
  • AI
  • Blockchain

© 2018 CXO VOICE