According to Microsoft research, which included over 3000 SMBs, almost 35% of SMBs surveyed were spending over 10% of their revenue on technology. Today, SMBs in India are also exploring leveraging the capabilities of Generative AI.

“Almost every query we receive is focused on productivity enhancement, with customers specifically seeking insights into how our generative AI capabilities can elevate their efficiency and output,” said Samik Roy, executive director, corporate, medium and small business, Microsoft India, in an exclusive interaction with AIM. 

He believes SMBs need to think beyond the present and think about how they would stay resilient and adaptable towards the future. “And Indian SMBs are doing exactly that,” he asserted. 

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot, SMBs are getting access to the AI-optimised infrastructure of Microsoft Azure to leverage OpenAI capabilities, including GPT-4, for various applications such as chatbots, text summarisation, language translation, and more. 

“We introduced Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot earlier this year, which is the first copilot in an ERP or CRM. Our SMB customers are intrigued because now they can actually talk with a system and make the system do things, instead of learning new skill sets.”

Focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities

India is the biggest small and medium business (SMB) market in the world with over 75 million players spread across the country. Since the pandemic, many of these businesses have been migrating to the cloud, making India a special market for all hyperscalers, including Microsoft Azure.

Roy revealed that Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets are super important for Microsoft and form an integral part of the tech giant’s geo-expansion strategy. To tap into SMBs in these cities, Microsoft organises an expo of sorts called ‘Techmart’ to provide SMBs with tools and solutions for their digital transformation journey. “We get people to come together and we see a huge increase in pipeline and people’s understanding of Microsoft technology and then adoption.”

For SMBs, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, cost remains a significant challenge for cloud adoption. Roy said that with Azure, their clients can increase and decrease their capacity based on Spike. “For example, jewellers such as Joyalukkas, Senco Gold and Diamonds and Malabar Gold and Diamonds anticipate a significant surge of 50% in demand during festive occasions such as Dhanteras, prompting them to enhance their system’s capacity. This proactive approach reinforces customer affinity and strengthens their bond with customers.”

Another example is Cycle Agarbatti, the largest manufacturer of incense sticks in the world. What they needed was a modern HR solution to keep up with its evolving business and technological needs. “It adopted a cloud-based modern workplace solution by factoHR using Microsoft Azure to streamline and automate its weekly payroll process, track attendance and business expenses along with other recurring office tasks. 

“By choosing this solution on a scalable Azure cloud, Cycle has improved employee productivity by decentralising, automating, and streamlining recurring HR activities, thus reducing the burden on staff and boosting employee productivity by 40%,” Roy said.

Similarly, Kinara Capital, an NBFC in India, has disbursed over INR3,500 crore in loans to support small businesses, generating INR700 crore in incremental income and 250,000 jobs. Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance enabled streamlined operations, automated tasks, handled large transaction volumes, and reduced costs while ensuring seamless integration with the loan management system.

“The solution has ensured that a single system manages Kinara Capital’s internal financial transactions and its external transactions with customers and vendors, allowing it to do more with less,” said Roy. 

Fastest adopters of technology 

We’re seeing the focus of SMBs gradually shift from simply buying technology solutions from providers to seeking technology strategy advice and support. “What we also noticed is that many of these SMBs are moving far faster, are much more agile and optimistic about cloud adoption. Our technologies and solutions, combined with our 17,000+ partners across 250+ cities, are helping over 200,000 customers in India unlock growth opportunities and realise their full potential,” he said. 

The sectors leading this trend are manufacturing, retail, professional business services and BFSI, but within this, the technology needs and adoption rates vary depending on their years in business, stage in the business cycle and digital maturity.

“Depending on the maturity and organisational priorities, an SMB should adopt solutions that are scalable, in terms of features, functions and volumes, along with the business. This is why Microsoft offers different categories of solutions. For example, we offer Business Central as the ERP to SMBs. As these SMBs grow, they can unlock more functionality by moving to the next version — Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations or D365 ERP, in this case,” concluded Roy.