National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today presented the findings of a first-of-its-kind survey titled ‘NASSCOM AWSME India Survey 2012’ conducted in association with Nielsen India. The findings were presented at a session held on day one of the NASSCOM Product Conclave 2012 (7-8 November) at Vivanta by Taj, Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore. The survey was conducted as part of a NASSCOM initiative to increase IT adoption in the SME market and promote the use of software for business efficiency.
Time for software developers to tap the SME potential
Technology and software providers are considerably interested in the Indian SME market because of the growth potential of this segment. “The NASSCOM AWSME survey has given us some never-before-seen findings for the SMEs’ purchase behavior in India. The next logical step for us is to understand the findings, the issues these SMEs face and devise specific initiatives that will help address these issues and promote the use of business software in SMEs.” explains Narasimhan (Kishore) Mandyam, CEO, Impel CRM.
Other insights that the survey provides include:
• Most businesses have young owners who have been in business for at least 7 years
• There is an almost equal balance of businesses in B2B and B2C segments
• A large percentage of businesses use direct sales to reach their customers
• SMEs rely on newspaper editorials as their source of information over other media
• SMEs communicate in the local language plus English for purposes of business
• Decisions to adopt software are mostly taken by the owners’ family/friends
NASSCOM AWSME India Survey 2012: Bringing data to the table
The survey highlighted that SMEs have a highly favorable disposition to usage of software, but are currently working with a very limited level of automation. The data reveals that although 90% of SMEs surveyed were aware of the kind of software that can be installed on laptops or PCs, only 64% were actually using such technology. This presents a major opportunity for Indian technology and software providers as the survey identifies that the Indian SME market is open to the use of productivity enhancement software.
Says Som Mittal, President of NASSCOM, “We truly believe that small is the next big for the Indian IT industry and it is these SMEs that will be the growth drivers of the economy. Our intention of conducting the survey was to determine the software usage of Indian SMEs and then provide the relevant information to the stakeholders in the Indian software industry. We recognize the immense potential business software and technology can bring to these companies, and this makes them an attractive market to developers provided the right opportunities are leveraged. The survey validates this recognition.”
Information on participants and survey methodology
The survey was conducted between 1st October, 2012 and 21st October, 2012. NASSCOM partnered with Nielsen India to carry out the survey across ten Indian cities. Over 1000 individuals across Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur, Patna, Ludhiana, Delhi, Jaipur, Cochin, Kolkata and Pune participated in the survey, and these were all key decision makers within SMEs (either SME founders, CEOs, MDs, Partners or Owners). Data was collected through expert or exploratory interviews as well as through quantitative surveys. Three categorizations were used: ‘Users’, who are SMEs who currently use business software for their business; ‘Intenders’, who are SMEs who currently do not use any business software but are intending to buy business software in the next 12 months; and ‘Non Intenders’, who are SMEs who currently do not use any business software and are not intending to buy a business software in the next 12 months.
About NASSCOM
NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries in India. It is a global trade body with more than 1400 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM’s member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services offshoring and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 2.24 million professionals