SMBs want 'Paisa Vasool' from IT

PUNE: SMBs are

increasingly realizing the importance of investing in IT. This came across

clearly at the fourth Cyber India

"Ease of use, adaptability and scalability are the three things that an SMB wants from IT"  Abraham Mathew, President, CIOL

 Online (CIOL) SMB- forum held at Pune. Popularly

known as India’s Detroit, Pune boasts of a large manufacturing belt of

industries that are increasingly turning towards IT for solutions.

The 70 odd SMBs

that participated in the SMB Forum spent fruitful time getting an insight into

deriving the best possible benefits from IT investments, in other words “

Paisa Vasool from IT’.








What do SMBs usually look for when they invest in IT? "Ease of use,
adaptability and scalability are the three things that an SMB wants from IT,

" said CIOL President, Abraham Mathew in his opening remarks.






Elaborating on the SMB Scenario in India, Mathew pointed out that while there
was no doubt that IT implementations improved the business environment, it had

to pay back fast for good RoI, automating difficult processes and ensuring that

maximum people used these applications. He later opened the forum for

presentations by sponsors SAP, Canon and Cisco.

Involve top management in IT projects

"Unless the top cadre is involved, it becomes very difficult to implement ERP in companies"  Rajendra Erande, Corporate Advisor(IT), Thermax Ltd.

At the panel

discussion that followed on the theme ‘Paisa Vasool from IT’, panelists

Rajendra Erande, Corporate Advisor, IT, Thermax Limited, Sanjeev Kumar, CIO,

Kinetic Group and RV Kumthekar, AGM Systems Central Planning, Premier

Automobiles, elaborated their experiences of automating processes in their

respective companies.






Underscoring the need for involvement of the top management in IT projects,
Rajendra Erande made it clear that unless the top cadre was involved, it becomes

very difficult to implement ERP in companies.

He believed it was

important to motivate employees and work towards removing the `resistance to

change’. "Employees should realize that they would benefit from IT in the

long run since it would reduce their routine work," he suggested.






Kumthekar related his experience of installing SAP at Premier Automobiles. The
company opted for SAP in 1998. This was the time when Y2K was a major problem

and the ICM server was not offering the necessary support. After evaluations,

Premier decided to go in for SAP and the installation was completed by the year

2000.

The benefits: The bill of material that was generated over one and half

months was now available the next moment. Moreover,

"If business has to compete, IT should be playing the role of reinforcement" Sanjeev Kumar, CIO, Kinetic Group

 it became easier to change

the inventory. "Earlier it was difficult to re-schedule purchase

orders," he said.

The company also managed to solve the tricky problem of shop scheduling. They

had attempted different kinds of software without success earlier.

IT, an

innovation technology

According to

Sanjeev Kumar, IT was innovation technology. "If business has to compete,

IT should be playing the role of reinforcement. Hype over IT should not drive

companies into making investments for the sake of investing. Rather it is the

value for money that should drive these companies into investing in IT," he

said.

Kumar believed

that the IT projects should find a mention in the vision statement of companies

so that it is taken in all seriousness and derives maximum benefit.

CyberMedia News