In India, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the fastest growing sector, generating a significant amount of employment. Despite this, SMEs still face many hurdles, particularly with regards to technology.
Associated costs, technological change and a lack of IT expertise can have huge knock on effects for smaller businesses. In this article, we outline the key ways in which SMEs may struggle when confronted with technological issues, and how they might overcome these burdens.
Technological Change and Costs
Technology changes rapidly, and businesses need to keep up with technological advances to ensure the tools they are using are effective and conducive to productivity. However, at the same time, keeping up with technological advances can be expensive, especially for smaller companies. Downloading inventory software is vital for everyday business functions such as accounting, invoicing, customer relationship management, and data storage, but it can be expensive for a small business. For this reason, SMEs may struggle financially with regard to attaining the most up-to-date software for their business. However, downloading inventory software is a cost that should be regarded as an investment.IT Policies
Governmental policy and regulations around IT technologies can be a challenge for SMEs. These rules and regulations can change rapidly, and it can be difficult for a small business to keep up with these changes.Glitches and Insufficient Back up
SMEs may be confronted with the challenge of glitches in technology, including the loss of important data. SMEs often do not often have an excess in working capital to spend on quality data storage, backup and protection, and therefore may face the risk of losing important data. Although downloading inventory software is essential for managing inventory processes, smaller companies may not have the means to attain this technology. This can have a drastic effect on the inventory control processes of small businesses, leading to reduced efficiency and productivity in general.Lack of IT Skills
Small businesses have a lot of competition when it comes to hiring employees with an adequate skill set required for solving IT issues. Larger companies have the advantage in that they can offer higher salaries and better benefits, so SMEs may have to outsource their IT staff to reduce costs. While nearly half of small businesses outsource most or all of their technology management and support, this is not necessarily an effective way to manage IT issues. Outsourcing can be inefficient, and problems can arise when there is no one qualified in-house performing the function as the firm’s IT expert.Improving IT with Growth
As small businesses start to become medium businesses, and perhaps look toward becoming a larger enterprise in the future, they will likely realise that the limited types of technology they once relied on are no longer adequate. This will call for an update in terms of software, and downloading inventory software may become a necessity. These additional measures will obviously come at a financial cost to the firm, and may be difficult to integrate without expert help. At this stage, SMEs may need to get in touch with a technology services consultant experienced in taking businesses through this transitionary period.