By Jesintha Louis, Director, Cloud Solutions, G7 CR Technologies India Pvt Ltd
The song of digital transformation for MSMEs has been sung for years now. But, the pandemic has unveiled that, MSMEs pick up what is needed for the business when it is needed!
MSMEs have adopted technology so quick to keep their business going, starting from adoption of online meeting platform to moving their Desktops to Cloud. There has been a huge surge in requests to move ERP application to Cloud.
There are 3 key business challenges the MSMEs need technology to address- Speed, Security and Cost of the digital transformation
Here is what, a 40-year-old Chartered Accountant Firm did as a part of their digital journey in less than 10 days.
During the lockdown the 15-member team responsible for their client’s accounts did not have access to their ERP. Because the server hosting the ERP was at office and not available over the internet. Staff could connect to it only from the office network. The company had to quickly sort for alternatives, the Founding partner took to Cloud, move their ERP to Cloud over night and got each of the team member to connect securely to their ERP server from WVD (Virtual desktop solution) on Cloud. Costing him as less at INR 1200 per month. Today, the business is exploring advanced end point security solution to ensure all office devices are protected.
While, I have been a part of helping MSMEs through their digital transformation journey, there are 3 key considerations for MSMEs digital journey.
1) Choice of products & implementation partner
2) Security
3) Cost
80% of the digital transformation success is driven by the implementation partner and not the product itself, MSMEs don’t have the time or resources to dedicate towards these implementations. They need to choose the right partner based on their experience, cost of implementation & post sales support to really succeed in the journey.
Security is very critical; we don’t want to be the victims of security attacks in the process of embracing technology. Again, this does not mean we burn holes in our pocket to implement security, the right implementation partner should be able to recommend security solutions that are effective and can be bought on subscription-based model.
The last consideration, but the key to embracing technology is the cost of doing it. Thanks to easily consumable SaaS (Software as a service) products & PaaS (Platform as a Service) products, MSMEs can now embrace technology with pocket friendly products that don’t need any upfront investment and can be purchased on monthly user based or Pay as you go model.
Cloud is the enabler!
Imagine having to procure hardware during the pandemic and scaling them? Thanks to Cloud providers, we don’t have to! Be it SaaS provider or MSMEs wanting to host their ERPs, the scale and reliability of Cloud has made all this possible. Some of the application that has seen a sudden spike in traffic during pandemic, like the entertainment apps or the education initiative apps have been able to manage the traffic because they are hosted on Cloud. The Cloud market will continue to take preference and will continue to grow allowing MSMEs to embrace technology.
Some of the key benefits of Cloud (especially for MSMEs are):
1) Availability & Scale (Data centers in different region with unlimited scale)
2) Connectivity – Cloud providers offer network connectivity from end point that are closest to the user and the user is taken to the destination service via the Cloud provider’s fast backbone network
3) Audit & Compliance – Cloud providers invest in certification and compliance of the Data center (ISO, PCIDSS, MeiTY, HIPAA and many more)
4) Latest Hardware – Get access to latest hardware all the time, from basic machines to GPU machines for gaming to HPC machines.
5) Cost – Pay as you go, heavy discounts on commitments and zero capital investments.
6) Ease – Gives you the option to spend your time and energy growing your business, and not worry about managing hardware or associated overheads