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L.N. Revathy

Coimbatore, May 30 Since the launch of its strategic business unit for SMBs (small and medium businesses) in March, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to Mr Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head (Small and Medium Business), has been striving to understand the intricate details of these units in its pursuit to provide a solution and enable them access global markets.

The process has started in this region with the signing of an MoU with the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia). The establishment of TCS IT-as-a-service centre at Codissia is expected to empower the SMEs here with IT.

“We will work with Codissia to create a collaborative technology. We have started interacting with Codissia members and detailed out their needs,” Mr Swamy told Business Line.

Stating that the MoU signing was just the start of a process, he said “the office-related and business-related (such as payroll, HR and CRM) software is ready. We are now working on industry-related solutions. Codissia members will be able to use the solution by October-November.”

Highlighting the challenges faced by the SMBs, he said the sector’s IT needs are not met in an integrated and holistic manner. “They are compelled to deal with multiple vendors – be it hardware, software or solutions, are in a fix over the Capex and Opex (capital expenditure and operational expense) spend, bogged down by technology obsolescence and business continuity issues due to IT talent crunch.”

A study conducted by TCS has shown that most of these units had a couple of PCs and the software loaded on to the systems was predominantly pirated. “The cost of managing these solutions could be phenomenal compared to the cost of paying for a service on a monthly or quarterly basis. TCS IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) is a subscription driven model that would allow SMBs scale as they grow and pay as they use. It is hosted centrally on a common platform to facilitate alignment of technology adoption,” Mr Swamy said.

ITaaS would make IT a strategic enabler of business growth, guard the business against any vulnerability due to lack of secured IT, keep the SMBs’ business lean and agile, address compliance-related challenges and above all redefine their service level capabilities, he said.

Has TCS approached the Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA)? “We are talking to a number of associations across the country. We are working with TEA too. TEA is now using Microsoft technology. But that does not solve the issue of managing and integration of multiple vendors. Microsoft is behind the screen. We are working to address these issues,” he said adding “we don’t want to be tied to a technology. We want to offer a solution.”

According to Mr Swamy, the challenge was not in adding customers but in making sure about the fit. “Else cost will kill us,” he added.

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