TITLE OF THE STUDY: STUDY ON OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES AND COST-EFFECTIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRACTICES FOR SMALL & MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES. A RESEARCH SYNOPSIS SUBMITTED TO JAIN UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN MANAGEMENT. BY RM SUDHAKAR. Information Technology (IT) is even now termed as a costly affair especially in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), this is primarily because no clear definition of the expectation from the implementing companies. If IT is affordable for some companies, then the question is how to make best use of IT, and adoption strategy is a real challenge, and moreover, the success ratio or maximum utilization in most of the IT implementations is less than 50%. In today’s competitive world IT is no more an option, it is a necessity and the winners are those who make good use of these IT technologies in the current competitive and un-certain business. IT is no more an option for Business including SMEs! The aim of this research is to identify the key challenges of SMEs to gain excellence in their domain and how adoption of IT can help them to achieve the same. Also this study aims at simplifying the IT implementation practices in most affordable & a cost-effective way.