Technology no longer exists as a mere business process; in fact, it has become a vital part of the value chain. With India aiming to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024, automation is poised to transform the landscape of SMEs.
A world preceding internet is difficult to imagine. Nevertheless, it was only in 1991 that the World Wide Web was made available to the general public.Currently, there are very few companies that operate without a website, because change remains the only constant and companies must embrace change to evolve. The era of automation – dubbed as Industry 4.0 – is upon us.
Since time immemorial, human beings are motivated to mechanise every monotonous process with diverse tools of automation in order to improve the process, productivity, quality and delivery ad infinitum. From a simple sharp stone used for hunting in Stone Age, to the innovative robots and machines used in Industrial Age, the tools of automation have constantly evolved.
Technological advancement and innovations in Industrial automation have taken giant strides, especially in the last two decades. Most large manufacturing enterprises owe their success to rapid advancement of technology. Although SMEs are no match to large enterprises when it comes to automation, they are slowly but surely permeating the markets.
The business landscape of India has experienced a significant change since the turn of the new millennium with digitisation being one of the key drivers of the change. Day by day, we, as a nation are moving in the direction of becoming a paperless & cashless society – UPI, AADHAR & Di-Initiatives are successful examples of the same. In addition, greater digitisation has also empowered customers making them more demanding. To top it all off, economic reforms like demonetization and GST further expedited this transformation, making it abundantly clear – that businesses must incorporate technology – no longer as a choice, but as a necessity.
None the less, technology isn’t just about keeping pace with the times, but also about efficiency. A typical SME is involved in interactions with several stakeholders like government agencies, wholesaler, consumers, dealer, distribution channels, banks, large enterprise, etc. For a business adhering to manual processes, it is infeasible to successfully manage all these relations while preserving high level of competence and effectiveness. Such landscapes essentially demand high levels of agility, and the only way to flip the script is by adopting automation for your business.
Companies often delay their decision to automate owing to limitations of time and money. However, the idea of stubbornly holding onto burdensome manual processes can cut the competitive edge of a company. Bottlenecks like late deliveries, complex sales tax calculations, duplicate invoices, late submission of payroll documents and unauthorized purchases can have detrimental impact.
Automation is a game changer, and it can undeniably transform business practices across multiple platforms. For businesses – big or small – it is imperative to effectively manage resources; of which men, money and material are the fundamental resources. Adopting appropriate technology makes it much easier for the businesses to make sure that right resources are allocated to the right tasks. As accuracy becomes the norm, businesses avoid undesirable and unlikable situations caused by human errors. Adoption of right technology enables seamless integration of business processes. It ensures there is assimilation of your sales, purchases, payments, bank transactions, outstanding and taxes. Talking to one another helps in giving real-time analysis of your business and makes sure that the processes aren’t operating in silos. The process of decision making, which largely relies on consuming right information at the right time, becomes seamless as technology permits you to access data on the move. In digitised form, your data has greater chance of being safe and sound in the face of natural disasters and malpractices.
Before anything else, automation helps you to grow and mature. Storing information and knowledge about your business in your mind can only help in short-term gains. For a business to breed further, it is vital to free up the mind space as well as time, enabling one to focus on development, whilst letting technology preside over the task of managing and tracking business data points.
So, what could be the right technology for a typical Indian SME? A simple answer to this would be – technology, which understands the behavior of a typical Indian SME.
For example, it is not obligatory for an SME to automate the whole thing, right from day one. Its requirements keep sprouting and growing as the business makes inroads. Ideally, an SME should opt for a technology which is able to walk side by side in its journey towards growth. Semi-automation can be implemented to assist manpower, streamline resource management process and spur growth. SMEs thrive on rapid exchange of goods and services against cash or credit. Characteristically, it does not have to hang around for the transaction to get recorded. This necessitates a technology which is speedy in operation. In case of unfortunate scenarios like system breakdown, small businesses struggle to find the right solution from the right place. Hence there is a need for technology that requires minimal time, support and investment for recuperation, thereby helping the businesses to pull through and regain health. SMEs face a lot of business exceptions in their circadian cycles. Consequentially, only those technologies will end up being the winner, which would decipher this challenge and allow the businesses to operate without interruption.
It goes without saying that automation has become a pressing priority, and one that India’s huge SME sector needs to adopt in order to perk up their productivity and avoid inefficiency. Small business owners need to start looking at automation as a boon, which would manage and drive their processes, whilst allowing them to pay attention to their consumers, revenues and business trajectory.
By,
Prasad P. Patkar