Digitally engaged SMBs reaping more dividends: Report

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India that use cloud and mobile tools are reaping huge dividends, according to a report released by Deloitte and Google.

The report states that moving from offline to an advanced digital engagement could mean revenue growth of up to 27 percent more than those who have not begun their digital adoption strategy.

Based on a national survey of 500 businesses, the report states that digitally advanced SMBs can help India achieve its national objectives of higher economic growth, creating jobs and aiding in more exports.

Compared with SMBs without a digital footprint, those with higher digital engagement are more likely to increase employment by up to 84 percent, increase access to international markets by up to 65 percent, and are likely to offer new products up to 4.5 times, the report said on Wednesday.

"India has huge potential to become one of the biggest economies in the world and digitisation is one of the important factors that can make a significant difference," said Prakash C. Prabhakar, director, Deloitte India.

"While conducting this study, we realised that two-thirds of Indian SMBs are missing out on a huge digital opportunity. In today's time, technology is a critical success factor and can be the differentiator between success and failure," he said.

Interestingly, the report states that one-third of Indian SMBs operate totally offline -- with no devices and having no online presence.

"These businesses see their revenues declining eight percent annually. However, those businesses that are digitally advanced are growing 19 percent annually," Prabhakar said.

As per the report, digitising the SMBs can help in the creation of 50 million new non-agricultural jobs.

Mohit Pande, country head Google for Work, Google India, said: "This report puts some numbers to the great stories that I hear from our Google for Work customers every day."

"From helping them grow, to going global, or connecting and collaborating with employees more easily, cloud and mobile tools can supercharge small businesses, and we look forward to helping more of them unlock their digital potential," he said.