Tag: Small and medium businesses (SMBs)

Categories
Technology

SMBs in India Get Major Boost As AWS Launches ‘Amazon Digital Suite’ To Help Businesses Overcome Challenges of Technology Adoption

onlline business

New Delhi, April 19: With an aim to boost the startup ecosystem in India, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Cloud arm of Amazon has launched a curated set of software solutions aimed at empowering the SMBs in the country. The initiative will help to digitise 10 million Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) by 2025. Touted as ‘Amazon Digital Suite’, it provides a broad selection of business software focused on SMBs from seven AWS Partner Network (APN) Technology Partners in areas such as accounting, customer support, and human resources.

It must be noted that all Amazon Digital Suite software can be purchased individually with discounts of up to 75 per cent from the suggested retail prices, the AWS said in a statement. As per details by the company, the ‘Amazon Digital Suite’ is now available for purchase on amazon.in. Prices of the products that are part of the Amazon Digital Suite begin at as low as Rs 20.

Here’s how the ‘Amazon Digital Suite’ will help Indian SMBs:

  1. Puneet Chandok, President-Commercial Sales, AISPL, AWS India and South Asia said the Amazon Digital Suite brings the best of what AWS and Amazon offer as an affordable, simple-to-use, and value-driven package
  2. Customers purchasing the Amazon Digital Suite during the ‘Amazon Smbhav 2021′ event from April 15-23 will be eligible for discounts of up to 30 percent in the Amazon Digital Suite store.
  3. With the Amazon Digital Suite, SMBs can overcome the challenges of technology adoption, digitise their operations, innovate in their business, accelerate their growth, and help India prosper.
  4. The Amazon Digital Suite comprises various solutions from Razorpay, Freshworks, greytHR, ClearTax, Zoho, Vinculum and OkCredit.

Vedanarayanan Vedantham, Head – SME Business, Razorpay said that the launch of the Amazon Digital Suite will be a game changer; it will empower millions of SMBs of any size, and make it possible for them to reach new customers around the world.

Categories
Startup

SMBs in India To Get Major Boost As Microsoft and Intel Help Empower SMBs With New Range of Modern Devices

Businesses in India (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, April 3: With an aim to empower small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India with modern devices, Microsoft and Intel has announced the availability of a range of Windows 10 Pro devices powered by the Intel vPro platform. The new range of modern devices aims to provide SMBs the agility for adapting to a constantly changing world. Microsoft and Intel understood the significant challenges that SMBs face with computer systems, which are more than four years old, in terms of performance, productivity, security and manageability, and inked a pact to help them.

Farhana Haque, Group Director – Devices, Microsoft India, said that the new modern Windows 10 Pro devices powered by the Intel vPro platform will give employees the tools to work confidently. “The new line of modern Windows 10 Pro devices powered by the Intel vPro platform will give employees the tools to work confidently and securely and help them rise to any challenge. Improving workforce productivity, enhancing security and reducing overall costs are top of mind for SMBs and refreshing older devices periodically can truly help them do more,” Haque said.

Here’s how the collaboration aims to help Indian SMBs:

  1. Windows 10 Pro devices powered by the Intel vPro platform would help seamless multitasking across apps by up to 35 percent faster.
  2. It would help in using applications remotely without issues and also increases overall performance by up to 40 percent.
  3. New Windows 10 PCs are a highly strategic investment for SMBs to succeed in the modern workplace.
  4. “Intel’s vPro platform brings unmatched performance, comprehensive hardware-based security, connectivity, and remote manageability, solving for critical IT pain points and to meet the evolving needs of employees,” Roshni Das, Director – Marketing, Intel India, added.
  5. Some of the latest features in the new devices include hardware-to-OS security reporting for enhanced security of devices, identities and long-lasting battery life that can help power through the day.

In a bid to protect the safety and health of every person and honouring its commitment to environmental sustainability, Microsoft partners with recycling organisations, joins forces with collection schemes, and works with supply chain partners to facilitate the return and end-of-life management process of devices, batteries, and packaging.

Categories
Finance

SMBs in India To Benefit As Google Announces Rs 109 Crore for Small and Micro Enterprises in the Country

Google (Photo Credits: Unsplash)

New Delhi, February 18: With an aim to support small and micro enterprises (SMBs) in India amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tech giant Google on Wednesday said it would give $15 million to Indian SMBs. The amount that has been announced by Google for businesses in India is nearly Rs 109 crore. Reports inform that the investment is part of the $75 million commitment from Google to help small businesses outside of the US. “In India, we will invest $15 million to support small and micro enterprises across the country and are in discussions with local partners,” the company said in a statement.

Google said it is working with non-government partners who have a long track record of providing resources to businesses that are generally overlooked by traditional lenders. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Google had announced a $200 million investment fund as part of its more than $800 million commitment to support small businesses. In a statement, Google said it has had a special relationship with small businesses around the world – helping them scale, innovate and reach new customers. “With today’s announcement, we’re proud to help them meet a new challenge — accessing capital needed to recover and build resiliency for the future,” the tech giant said.

In July 2020, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, had announced a ‘Google for India’ digitisation fund through which, the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore or approximately $10 billion over the next five to seven years to help India go digital. During the ‘Google for India’ virtual conference, Pichai had said, “We will do this through a mix of equity investment, partnerships, and an operational infrastructure ecosystem in India. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy”.

 

Categories
Technology

‘Nayi Shuruaat’, a Campaign Launched by Facebook to Celebrate the Success of Small Businesses in India Amid Crisis; All You Need to Know

Facebook (Photo Credits: Pexels)

In a bid to spread the success of the small business and their growth in India, social media giant Facebook on Tuesday launched ‘Nayi Shuruaat’. The newly launched campaign celebrates the small businesses of across the country. The campaign will help these businesses crawl back to normalcy and make a new start or a ‘Nayi Shuruaat’ amidst the deepest crisis the world has seen in recent times. The campaign by Facebook celebrates many such real stories of optimism, strength, and economic recovery from across the country. Facebook on Tuesday said that it is committed to help India quickly recover economically and socially in 2021 from the pandemic-hit year, by deepening support for small businesses and test and roll its new features from the country to the rest of the world.

About ‘Nayi Shuruaat’ campaign:

  1. The ‘Nayi Shuruaat’ campaign was launched during Facebook’s ‘Fuel for India’ event. It is an ode to the resilience of small businesses amid crisis.
  2. Nayi Shuruaat celebrates many such real stories of optimism, strength, and economic recovery from across the country
  3. Several such stories were also be unveiled during the upcoming Facebook Fuel for India virtual event on December 15 and December 16.
  4. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg via a virtual address during the event said that India’s building local capabilities and tech capacity to power innovative new business models and provide the citizens access to digital financial inclusion.

Facebook said it will continue to work closely with key partners to build a stronger ecosystem for small business growth in the country by investing in skilling programmes such as Boost with Facebook, entering in key partnerships such as with venture capital funds for the VC Brand Incubator program, and by giving people new ways to support small businesses such as the Instagram Food Stickers.

Zuckerberg on Tuesday said its partnership with Jio Platforms will help support millions of small businesses in India. Zuckerberg made the remark during a conversation with Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries at the first Facebook Fuel for India 2020 event.

Categories
MSME

Small and Medium Businesses Disclosing Data Breach ‘Quickly’ Incur 40% Less Financial Loss: Report

SMBs which report data breach incur 40% less financial loss| Representation Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
SMBs which report data breach incur 40% less financial loss| Representation Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

A new report by the cyber-security firm Kaspersky has highlighted the direct relationship between the disclosure about data breach and financial losses suffered by the organisations. The report said that the small and medium businesses (SMBs) who decide to voluntarily inform about a data breach, on average, are likely to lose 40 per cent less financial damage than their peers that saw the incident leaked to the media. For SBMs who disclosed their breach to the public within due time reported an estimated loss of $93,000, while those who did not disclose themselves suffered $155,000 when the incident was leaked in the media.

The failure to suitably inform the public about a data breach in a timely manner can make the financial and reputation consequences of a data breach more severe, concluded the report. The same tendency has also been found to be the case in enterprises. The firms who voluntarily disclosed about the data breach in public incurred a loss of $1.134 Million, while where the information was leaked the firms suffered a loss of $1.583 Million, a 28 per cent more than the former. “Proactive disclosure can help turn things around in a company’s favour – and it goes beyond just the financial impact. If customers know what happened firsthand, they are likely to maintain their trust in the brand,” said Yana Shevchenko, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Kaspersky.

One of the real life examples is of Yahoo! The firm was fined and criticised for not notifying their investors about the data breach it experienced. Uber was also fine for covering up an incident of data breach. The firm surveyed more than 5,200 IT and cyber-security practitioners globally. The survey showed that organisations that take ownership of the situation usually mitigate the damage. Around 46 per cent of businesses disclosed a breach proactively. However 30 per cent of organisations that had experienced a data breach preferred not to disclose it. Almost 24 per cent of firms tried to hide the incident initially, but it was leaked to media eventually.

“Although minimal losses were reported by businesses that managed not to disclose the incident, this approach is far from ideal. Such companies are at risk of losing even more if — or more likely when a cyber-security incident is revealed to the public against their intentions,” said the report. It added that the risks are especially high for those companies that couldn’t immediately detect an attack. Nearly 29 per cent of SMBs that took more than a week to identify that they had been breached found the news in the press, which is double those that detected it almost immediately.

 

 

Categories
Technology

Facebook Rolls Out ‘SMB Guide’ to Help 9 Million Indian SMBs in Building Digital Presence and Reaching Potential Customers Online

Facebook (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, November 4: With an aim to help the micro and small businesses in India to limp back to normalcy, social media giant Facebook on Wednesday rolled out a dedicated offline to online ‘SMB Guide’. In order to help these businesses recover from the pandemic-induced crisis, Facebook has come up with new resources to help make this journey frictionless for them. Reports inform that this offline to online SMB Guide for India is free and publicly available. However, the social networking giant is also proactively reaching out to nine million small businesses across the country to ensure it reaches the businesses who need it the most.

The SMB Guide is available in Hindi as well as in English in order to support a large number of businesses across distinct geographies. Archana Vohra, Director Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India, said in a statement said that the new resources are geared to helping the smallest of businesses across geographies to move from offline to online with minimum effort. “”While the offline to online SMB Guide is publicly available, we are proactively reaching out to 9 million small businesses across India to ensure timely support”, she said.

The SMB Guide:

According to a report by IANS, the SMB Guide has been designed to provide a step-by-step direction on how the smallest of businesses can build a digital presence quickly, and reach potential customers online. The guide covers Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and key themes such as building an online presence, mobile storytelling, social media advertising, and creative and performance strategies.

The social networking giant said it is also rolling out the next leg of ‘Boost with Facebook’, a skilling and learning programme for scaling young businesses. The programme went virtual earlier this year, and is now going vernacular, and will be delivered primarily in Hindi through Facebook Live sessions. One of the key themes discussed during Boost with Facebook will be how small businesses can build for Diwali and the festive season beyond it, the company said.

Categories
Startup

WE Hub Selects 89 Indian Startups for Second Cohort of ‘Her&Now’ Programme

Startup
Startup

Hyderabad, October 23: As many as 89 startups have been selected for the second cohort of the ‘Her&Now’ programme by WE Hub, which is India’s first state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship. The selected startups that have been shortlisted out of 600 applications  include Envi Robotics, Nuture Fields, Ladoo Box, Venica Herbals, ASARA Products, Verma Foods, Lesperanzau and SR Silks. According to a report by IANS, the pitching process had close to 150 women entrepreneurs out of 600 applicants, and each pitch was evaluated across 14 selection criteria like domain knowledge, digital literacy, potential to scale, impact, innovation, business feasibility etc., with external jury members in the panel, WE Hub said.

The acceleration programme is a six-month programme to help formally registered, women-led, for-profit enterprises from tier2 and 3 cities of Telangana to scale up. Reports inform that each entrepreneur was allowed for pitching followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. The programme will have an incubation program for seven months to help women entrepreneurs who have been running an informal enterprise or are a part of a group enterprise and now want to start up on their own and establish their enterprises.

About the Project:

  1. Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women (Her&Now)’ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
  2. The programme is in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE).
  3. It aims to support aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India.
  4. For over 60 years, GIZ GmbH has been working with partners in India for sustainable economic, ecological, and social development.

Background:

The first cohort of 30 start-ups from Telangana graduated in August by formally registering their enterprises and raising finances through credit linkages and equity investments. “We are happy to witness an escalated participation of women entrepreneurs from 28 to 89 into our innovation ecosystem. With WE Hub, we look forward to foster and supporting many more entrepreneurs in the future,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (ITE &C), Government of Telangana.

Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE Hub, was quoted in reports saying that the journey from a minimal viable product or solution to a successful start-up is a not an easy one. “We are deeply committed to supporting the women entrepreneurs as they prepare to launch and grow their ventures. Our partnership with GIZ enables us to invest in entrepreneurship in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where innovation is booming. We are looking forward to helping these select enterprises thrive,” she said.

Julia Karst, Head of Project Her&Now at GIZ, after a successful round of programmes with the first cohort of women entrepreneurs from Telangana, we are looking forward to welcoming 89 women entrepreneurs into the second round of our incubation and acceleration programme. Her&Now through WE Hub offers support customized to each entrepreneur and her business, and we hope this will prove especially useful in these challenging times of the pandemic,” she said.

Categories
Marketing Sales

COVID-19 Impact: Meeting Customer Expectations Top Challenge for Indian SMBs Amid Pandemic

New Delhi, October 15: Amid the coronavirus pandemic in India, the small and medium businesses (SMBs) have been finding it challenging to bring innovative offerings to market, personalise customer engagements and keep up with demand when meeting customer expectations. A new report revealed that financial management is the top challenge SMB leader respondents personally face when growing their business. According to a study conducted by leading Cloud software company Salesforce, maintaining financial growth is the top challenge constraining future business growth. It added saying that meeting customer expectations is the top constraint on operations for SMB respondents in India.

The survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Salesforce. Sunil Jose, Senior Vice President, Salesforce India, said that while reduced customer demand is the top constraint on future growth, applying for financial assistance is the top consideration for the future of the business for the SMBs in the country. “Amid a challenging business environment, SMB leaders have displayed remarkable strength and resilience with only 16 per cent of SMB respondents in India expecting an entirely new structure post the pandemic,” the study said. “This demonstrates that SMBs’ in India are resilient and positive of business continuity ensuring they get back on track”, the study added.

A report by IANS said that while 30 percent of the SMB leader respondents in India expect business to be as usual, 48 percent believe it would be slightly modified. In addition to pre-pandemic challenges, the SMB leaders in India are now faced with operational restrictions, compliance mandates, and shifting customer expectations. However, SMB leaders remain optimistic about the future of their businesses globally, the report added.

It added further that even during the pandemic, SMBs are continuing to adopt new technology, with at least one in five SMB respondents reporting they’ve implemented at least one of the following technology solutions in the last six months, including email marketing software, customer service software, project task collaboration tools, or e-commerce software. “Globally, SMBs’ are at a critical juncture. The key to accelerating consumer demand and solving problems for scale, come down to how they leverage technology to deliver the best customer experiences,” Jose explained.

Categories
Technology

Microsoft to End Its 20-Year-Old Open License Programme for SMBs From January 1, 2022

Microsoft (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

New Delhi, October 2: In a bid to help small and medium-sized  businesses (SMBs), Microsoft has announced to end its 20-year-old Open License programme from January 1, 2022. The SMBs organisations can continue to renew and purchase new software licenses, software assurance and online services through the Open License programme until December 31, 2021. In an update on Friday, the tech giant said, “As of January 1, 2022, commercial customers won’t be able to buy new or renew software licenses or online services through the Microsoft Open License programme”.

Microsoft added that new license-only purchases should be transacted through partners in the Cloud Solution Provider programme. The Microsoft Open License programme was created over 20 years ago for small and midsized customers to buy multiple perpetual software licenses at a volume price. According to a report by IANS, Microsoft said it is taking a significant step to simplify licensing by introducing perpetual software license purchases through the new commerce experience, as part of its Cloud Solution Provider programme for partners, with a target availability date of January 2021.

“Small and midsize customers will benefit from a simplified approach and greater flexibility in how you purchase software licenses in a way that’s easy to understand, that directly improves licensing asset management, and with predictable costs,” the company said. Some companies may have purchased “tokens” to use Microsoft’s online services. Those tokens will remain “active for five years from the purchase date,” Microsoft said. The firm added that it is committed to support every organisation wherever they are in their digital transformation journey.

Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners will offer perpetual licenses after the end of the Open License programme. Perpetual licenses are pay-once, non-subscription licenses that don’t expire.

Categories
Technology

Google India to Launch ‘Namaste Digital’ Show on Doordarshan to Empower SMBs by Helping Them to Use Internet to Grow Their Business

Google (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, October 1: As a part of its new multi-pronged effort to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Google India said that it will launch a new show in partnership with Doordarshan called ‘Namaste Digital’ to navigate the challenging economic environment. The ‘Namaste Digital’ show aims to serve as a mass media programme for SMBs to learn about the Internet and help them grow their business. According to a report by IANS, the tech giant’s the new initiative will focus on accelerating the efforts to help businesses build digital presence in partnership with software development company Zoho and payment gateway Instamojo.

Building on its effort to help consumers discover small businesses on Google search and maps and keeping the needs of different businesses in mind, Google has also partnered with delivery services providers Dunzo and Swiggy to fast track the on-boarding process. Both partners have committed to provide additional support to small businesses to start accepting orders online and enable delivery logistics. Under the new initiative, small businesses will be able to create business websites using Zoho inventory and sell online through Zoho Commerce for free till March 31, 2021. Instamojo on the other hand is offering a six-month free subscription to its “Premium Online Store Solution.”

SMBs can also avail Dunzo’s 24×7 merchant support for free with zero sign-up fees and instant registration and can make use of Swiggy’s seven days “Fast track Onboarding”. All these will be available for SMBs on “Grow with Google Small Business” hub in India which was launched in July this year.

Shalini Girish, Customer Solutions Director at Google India, said in a statement that today, the need to go digital is a necessity and SMBs are hard-pressed to digitise fast. “We need to do everything we can to handhold millions of small businesses in their digital-transformation journey and support business recovery during the current crisis”, she added. Adding further, she said that the needs of small businesses differ across the country and we are partnering with the industry leaders to offer more support to help small businesses go digital.

The ‘Namaste Digital’ Initiative:

  1. The new initiative builds on the “Grow with Google Small Business hub” effort. It is in direct response to the feedback received from small medium businesses captured in the Google-Kantar small business tracker research conducted in July.
  2. According to the report, customer related challenges tops the list for small businesses, with 92 per cent businesses facing customer related challenges, revenue loss due to low demand and payment of fixed costs are the other most severe challenges among businesses.
  3. The report also highlights that businesses are seeing the benefits of going digital, and today 5 out of 10 businesses are using digital channels to engage their customers compared to just 4 in 10 in April.
  4. In addition to providing support to go digital, Google India is also investing in efforts to scale its outreach to help small businesses learn to use digital tools in local Indian languages.

As part of this effort, Google has worked closely with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to drive an industry wide skilling program which has already trained 1.2 million individuals.