IBM India expects Surat SMEs to step up IT adoption

IBM India, which is nearing the last leg of its regional expansion has revealed that it set up shop in Surat to cater to the increasing demand from Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) who are adopting latest IT solutions in hardware, software, security and communications.

IBM considers the SMB segment to be the fastest growing sector in India. SMBs are believed to make up close to 50 per cent of its total revenues from the country, a figure that is considerably higher than its global SMB revenues of just around 20 per cent.

At Surat, IBM is looking to establish its presence in the financial services, jewellery and diamonds segments, powerlooms, textile machinery as well as dyes, intermediaries and chemicals which are manufactured in nearby Valsad and the Vapi-Ankleshwar industrial belt.

As per a study conducted by IBM in 2006, there are twenty-five tier II cities in India in which SMBs have significant potential to adopt IT solutions.

Of these, the top 14 are Bhopal, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Goa (Panjim), Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Madurai, Ludhiana, Surat and Bhubaneswar.

According to Chetan Naik, Director-VP, Global Mid Market Business IBM India, a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had already signed up with IBM for its SMB operations in the city.

IBM offers its solutions in association with ISPs and works with 600 ISPs in India at present.

"We have had a good number of installations in the systems and technology group of services from Gujarat which is why we decided on Surat. We expect a significant demand from companies with a turnover of around Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore who are moving from ordering basic servers to adopting email security services, special software, and other high technology equipment," Naik said.

He added that since cost was a major constraint for SMBs to invest heavily in technology, IBM has launched a new initiative called the Express Advantage product portfolio which includes offerings from IBM's software, systems, technology and services groups at affordable rates to SMBs.

The company also plans to offer security, business recovery, employee collaborations and energy efficiency products to cater to the SMB market in India.