90% SMEs in India look to cloud solutions for efficiency

Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are looking to the cloud, analytics and mobile solutions to improve operations and become more efficient, according to a new research report by Circle Research, according to a press release issued by enterprise application software company SAP, which sponsored the research.

The rising ambitions of SMEs and the expectations of the market itself are forcing them to completely reconsider traditional business models and adopt cutting edge technologies like cloud, according to the research study, which is based on interviews with 800 senior decision makers in SMEs with up to 1,000 people.

The research yielded four key findings. First, SMEs recognise the value of cloud and have begun their transition. Ninety per cent of SMEs in India feel cloud adoption is increasingly important for enabling business success. The adoption of cloud is helping them to innovate. Additionally, 87 per cent of very ambitious Indian SMEs believe enterprise applications, analytics and mobile solutions will play an important role in achieving their ambitions.

Second, SMEs in India are ambitious and want to be first adopters of new technologies. The biggest single ambition for SMEs in India is customer success (44 per cent), followed by 34 per cent who are keen on achieving growth and 12 per cent for business improvement.

Third, for Indian SMEs, growth is primarily driven by new products -- 76 per cent of those for whom achieving growth is an ambition give high importance to introducing new products, while 74 per cent focus on increasing revenue.

Finally, Indian SMEs are showing good progress in being market-ready. On average, Indian SMEs are 77 per cent of the way along in their journey to being ready for achieving their growth ambitions.