Cloud computing allows small and medium enterprises to access automation applications remotely, helping them streamline operations without heavy investments. This reduces costs and prevents attrition from impacting businesses. Custom software often fails for SMEs due to lack of understanding between users and developers, but cloud-based SAAS applications follow standard procedures and can be implemented quickly. SAAS is beneficial for both businesses and software companies. Social media marketing is also an important strategy for SMEs, but requires careful planning to build communities and share original content, rather than directly selling products.

1. 38
T
he advent and popularisation of
Cloud Computing is one of the de-
velopments that has taken place
in recent times with regard to the
small and medium enterprise (SME) sector
around the world. Cloud computing is basical-
ly a concept in which a particular automation
application is lying on a remote server some-
where; while users on the desktops are working
on those applications to automate work cul-
ture in their domain thus helping businesses
streamline operations.
Let me highlight the key benefits for all the
stakeholders involved, the first and foremost
being the end-user organisation.
Nobody will deny the fact that an automated
operation can give huge amount of visibility to
various aspects of a business. Besides it makes
any company a little less dependent on people.
The SMEs have the biggest challenge of attract-
ing and retaining talent. Therefore, a good man-
agement would like to lay down work-related
procedures and processes in such a way that
manpower attrition does not impact its opera-
tions. In order to achieve a better control over its
operations, any company will have to make best
useofIT,makingitstrategicallyaveryimportant
aspect of business.
In the case of small businesses, any cus-
tom-built software solution is more likely to fail
purely because in order to build a customised
software solution, the users should be able to de-
fineexactlywhattheyneed,thedevelopershould
be able to understand and interpret the explana-
tion and most importantly, be able to relate the
requirement to the actual business operation.
Most times, users do not have an understand-
ing on how to define a known requirement in a
way that covers all scenarios for the developer.
Solutioningisnotaneasytask.Itcomesoutright
only if you ask the right questions from the us-
ers of the system and software developers have
little understanding on how to interpret the stat-
ed and the unstated requirements of a business
(most of which is common sense) and at times
may not ask the right questions from the users.
Mind you, the developers/coders sometimes
don't understand very well how the businesses
operate. To cite an example, I was once part of
a failed customised development project for an
importer. The owner was extremely keen to au-
tomate his operations but had zero knowledge
Entrepreneur
talk
Automation helps
How cloud computing can change the functioning of small and
medium enterprises across the world and prevent them from
succumbing to manpower attrition? Rajesh Butta explains.

2. SME CONNECT | ISSUE 1
on how an application was built and importantly,
implemented without being threatening to the
people involved.
The two key people who were involved in han-
dling the documentation of this business (docu-
mentation is the key part of an export import busi-
ness)werenottookeentohaveasuccessoutofthis
initiative,probablybecausetheythoughtthattheir
dependency will go down in case this software gets
implemented successfully.
There was always a constant tussle on how the
application should be implemented. Our team
wanted to implement it in a phased manner so
that all the shortcomings are taken care of in the
initial stages itself, while the clients’ team wanted
the whole application in one go in order to do the
implementation.Wehadtoshelvetheprojectafter
about six months of hard struggle. In the process,
everybody was the loser.
On the other hand, if there is an application that
follows all the Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) of a business and can be implemented
straight-away, will it not be much easier for the
organisation? This is what SAAS (Software-As-As-
Service) based products achieve.
Firstly, it is of great benefit to businesses in SME
sector purely on the basis of cost advantage. Since
the cloud computing applications are available in a
SAAS mode, the user organisation has to pay only a
fraction of actual development cost on a pay-per-
use basis. Therefore, a placement consultancy, as
an example, having three users, could make use
of an application and pay for them only. The start
to automation does not require spending huge
amount of money in software licences and costly
servers in order to automate their operations not
tomentionthehugeamountoftimesavedinbuild-
ing the application from scratch.
This mode of software implementation is also
beneficial to the software companies working in
thisdomainsinceiftheproductisgoodandifthere
is merit in using the application, then more and
more companies would adopt the solution. This
would give returns many times more than their
actual cost of development. Note they are again
mostly SMEs. Hence, a small software compa-
ny can pick up a domain and built an application
addressing the pain points of that domain and
then give it away to an organisation for a small
fee which could gradually go up with advance us-
age. I am a great fan of cloud-based application
because of one more very interesting reason. It
enables “home-sourcing” of employees. Potential
employees and freelancers could work from any-
where solving a lot of problems for small enter-
prise in the process. These include physical office
space constraints and tapping into huge compe-
tent human resources who probably can’t get into
regular employment because of family and other
considerations. Cloud-based applications enable
talents like those from getting wasted and being a
part of any normal office team.
Another key development I want to touch upon,
which is a boon for the SMEs, is Social Media Mar-
keting (SMM), which is currently an important
part of overall marketing strategy. SMM has been
the buzzword for quite some time now. A busi-
ness can now create great brand equity for itself
by playing the social media strategy right, but it is a
double edged sword. A disappointed customer has
nine times more probability to talk about his expe-
rience than the satisfied customer creating a huge
amount of negative word of mouth publicity.
Many companies have mushroomed, offering
social media strategy but much deliberation is re-
quired in order to thresh out the overall game plan
for going digital. This ingenuity can do more harm
than good in the hands of amateurs. But if planned
properly, this is probably the single most import-
ant game leveller for even the smallest of small
enterprises. No wonder start-ups from young en-
trepreneurs have great emphasis on social media
presence.
My advice to SMEs would be to definitely re-
fresh some on the marketing concepts before mak-
ing any start at the social media strategy because
all the concepts of marketing are applicable to this
comparatively new domain of advertising and pro-
motion. One has to have a pulse of the target seg-
ment to which the marketing communication is
being aimed at. Being explicit in your social media
strategy about your product or service might put
off people, because today people in general hate to
be told about a product. Any information dissem-
ination is treated and clubbed as selling which is
not liked by many. Therefore, the key is in building
‘communities’ around your product or service and
serve them with interesting and original concepts,
which they feel good about sharing in their social
space.
These are exciting times where there is ample
scope for creativity and innovation. SME sec-
tor, I must say, is in right position to encash the
opportunities thrown at them.
The writer is a serial entrepreneur, start-up specialist and angel investor in
IT, Education, Business Consulting and Social Media Marketing and is based
out of Delhi, India.
More about the author
rajesh butta
Entrepreneur
“Another key
development I
want to touch
upon, which is
a boon for the
SMEs, is Social
Media Marketing
(SMM), which
is currently
an important
part of overall
marketing
strategy. SMM
has been the
buzzword for
quite some
time now.”