With its end-to-end IT solutions, here’s why Lenovo India is ensuring no MSME is left behind in the shared digital future

Accounting for 30 percent of India’s GDP and 45 percent of exports, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) form the backbone of India’s economy.

On the back of two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and state-wide lockdowns, India’s six crore MSMEs have realised the importance of transforming themselves into digital-first businesses.

In their attempts to survive the impact of the pandemic as well as digitally transform and scale their businesses, MSMEs are rapidly adopting technologies such as cloud, digital payments, ecommerce, digital bookkeeping, CRM, automation, etc..

However, it is no easy task for MSMEs to themselves build the hardware and software capacities required to enable adoption of such technology.

A prominent enterprise player helping MSMEs address this challenge at scale is Lenovo India, with its end-to-end Lifecycle Solutions for SMBs, meant for solving their challenges and enhancing their productivity.

With expectations from work devices on the rise, the company’s ThinkBook portfolio comprises a range of modern business laptops that are intuitive for MSMEs to use, while delivering features which Lenovo India claims enable increased productivity and effective collaboration.

Further, Lenovo’s Services comprise a wide array of offerings available to help MSMEs plan, manage and support their PC fleets. From initial strategic planning to configuration, deployment, security and more, Lenovo has solutions that help companies embrace new workplace technologies.

Ashish Sikka, Director of SMB and Channel at Lenovo India, said, “In response to the growing need for affordable IT solutions for businesses of all sizes, Lenovo is committed to enabling organizations to optimize data opportunities, offering the widest portfolio of solutions available to the market. If you’ve ever worked for an SMB before, you know the challenges. Expectations are high, time is precious and financial resources are limited. Lenovo is taking the steps to make it more accessible, specifically for small and mid-sized businesses.”

“Lenovo is building solutions from the ground up as per the needs and aspirations of SMBs in India and globally. Lenovo recently expanded its portfolio of Device as a Service (DaaS) solutions to include three new offerings that make it easier for small and mid-sized businesses to benefit from this model,” he added.

Enabling MSMEs to focus on core areas of business

It is an open secret that larger businesses, unlike small enterprises, have an in-house IT team or employees with the technical expertise to manage and run the hardware and software infrastructure needed to deploy and use such technologies.

However, for every 100 companies in India, there are more than 95 micro-enterprises, four small-to-medium businesses, and less than one large company, according to research by Dun & Bradstreet India.

In terms of digital maturity, India ranks ninth in the small and medium businesses segment in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the CISCO India SMB Digital Maturity Study 2020.

Further, running end-to-end IT solutions for all stages of the IT lifecycle, right from hardware and software to services, are usually unrelated to the MSMEs’ core areas of business expertise.

These take up valuable time and resources from the MSME - time that could have been spent on maximising revenues and staying afloat amidst the second wave of COVID-19.

This only re-emphasises the need for solution providers such as Lenovo India to handle MSMEs’ end to end IT needs from hardware to software solutions and services, as well as manage their device lifecycles with DaaS, thereby helping them remain competitive and thrive amidst change.

The road towards a shared, digital future

In a June 2020 report on Improving Economic Dynamism and Accelerating MSME growth, simplifying business through digitisation was a key recommendation by the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME).

And as the Indian economy looks to rebound from the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and get back on track to becoming a $5 trillion economy, ensuring survival and digitisation of MSMEs as well as meeting their digital and IT infra needs is of paramount importance.

Lenovo maintains that in this shared digital future, no one should be left behind. It also believes that the digital transformation experience has to be seamless.

It is also actively meeting the requirements of remote management of PCs, which has emerged as a big need for MSMEs thinking ahead in terms of scale and growth.

Such an opportunity for the digitisation of MSMEs is large in India. A 2019 Zinnov report had estimated the total digital opportunity offered by Indian MSMEs will grow from around $30 billion in 2019 to $85 billion in 2024.

Further, a survey of small and medium business owners by Intermedia and Sapio Research suggests that over half of SMBs are likely to maintain increased remote working options in the long term, which only reiterates the importance of IT infrastructure solutions providers that enable hybrid workplace models that are increasingly becoming common.

To learn more about how the Indian business ecosystem can come together to enable digital transformation and build IT infrastructure to future-proof Indian MSMEs, YourStory is organising its third annual India MSME Summit 2021 from June 18 to June 27, 2021. Register here.

A special shout out to Lenovo and Intel, our title sponsors for India MSME Summit 2021.