How adoptive are Indian Firms towards web, analytics and other technology services

The Indian business world is as diverse as India. There are all kinds of players including corporates, family businesses, small and medium enterprises and different combinations of each. The internet has changed the way most businesses build and promote their brands allowing more and more consumers to engage with brands online before making a purchase. A rapidly evolving business world has responded actively to web services and data analytics. Even large industries that do not depend on websites and digital marketing to generate business know their website adds to their overall brand value. Big Data and analytics need to work together to deliver the promised results of Big Data. Traditionally, big data and analytics have resided in different parts of the organisation. Breaking down organisational boundaries and creating integration between IT and business departments is a crucial step to capturing value hidden within big data

SME's and Family Businesses Aren't Adopting New Technologies

While corporates responded rapidly to web services, family-owned businesses have been relatively slow to catch up. Indian SMEs are also somewhere in the middle of a digital evolution. A small and medium sized business owner is overloaded with many responsibilities - be it sales, marketing, customer management, or a number of other tasks. Keeping up with workflow single-handedly or even with a small team can be overwhelming. Therefore, considering his time crunch, it is crucial for them to prioritize tasks that can have massive impact including tasks in the digital space. According to a Google-KPMG report, the growth of online SMBs is twice as fast as their offline counterparts. The digital space has enabled SMBs to unlock new markets. However, there's a staggering 68 % of small and medium enterprises still offline.

Reasons Why SME's Are Reluctant

A reason why so many businesses remain offline is they don't grasp digital technology. Many family owned business and SME's have been managed as they are today for generations. They believe they have a model that creates a profit and adds value to society; however the management in such companies is uncomfortable using technologies it can't grasp. Many may create digital teams yet don't know how to use such team to drive traffic to their sites or create a presence online. When such businesses don't see immediate returns, they abandon digital technologies. Another reason digital technologies are not used by more businesses is such businesses believe these technologies will cost more than the revenue they generate. Many SMEs also don't understand the internet domain and can't fathom selling to people they've never met.

Digital Technologies are A Bold New Frontier

With widespread internet connectivity across the Indian subcontinent and nearly a billion smartphones in the market, businesses are compelled to opt for web services and analytics. Digital Marketing in India has spread to almost all business sectors. Some applications of E-Marketing are order tracking, online banking, shopping, payment systems and content management. The power of digital marketing allows geophysical barriers to disappear making all consumers and businesses on earth potential suppliers and customers. It is valued for its ability to permit businesses to speak and form a transaction anywhere and anytime.

Impact of Digital Technologies

Growth of digital marketing trends is making substantial impact on web, analytics and similar tech services. The Indian market is becoming more technology friendly and can exploit the web and technology in businesses. The organizations at the cutting edge of these trends are using their talent to manage business issues with a totally different attitude. At times, they have presented data-driven plans of action that surprised whole enterprises. Digital natives have an enormously favourable position, and to capitalize on them, officeholders need to apply data and analytics to the basics of their current business and eliminate internal rivalry between departments.

In an environment of increasing volatility, legacy organizations need to have one eye on high-risk, high-reward moves, whether that means entering new markets or changing their business models. In the meantime, they need to apply analytics to improve their core activities. This may include creating new doors on the income side, utilizing analytics insights to streamline internal procedures, and building systems for experimentation and empowering nonstop learning and feedback.

Future of Digital Technologies

The interdependent growth of the Indian market and web services will pave the path to a better future for India. As per statista the transactional value of digital commerce alone will cross USD 4.2 trillion by 2023 with a continuous CAGR of 7.1%. With more web services and analytics, the global market will register a growth of 7-10% in the next 5 years. At the same time, Indian companies will integrate digital marketing in their traditional marketing activities to achieve revenue targets. The digital industry has evolved dramatically in past 5 years– with its evolution attributed to the widespread digitisation of business processes globally.

Data has become the new currency and more and more data will be key to the transformation and growth of enterprises globally, and to the advancement of employees, 'the digital natives'. The road towards digital transformation is a business critical one. Organisations embarking on this journey have to contemplate that every side of their business can be optimised to fulfil new digital objectives and new growth potential. Big data and analytics play a crucial role in digital transformation, allowing organisations to optimise their existing processes and remain ahead of the competition.

A Caveat

Despite the obvious advantages of digital technologies, too many Indian companies that will certainly benefit from implementing these technologies don't implement them. Unless there is better awareness about how new digital technologies will benefit medium sized and small businesses such businesses will see little reason to use them. Right now Indian businesses are failing to reach their fullest potential because they haven't embraced new technologies. Unless they wholeheartedly understand and use such technologies, they won't remain competitive in the next decade. On the other hand Indian companies that are using digital technologies are poised for greater growth and are more likely to succeed in the future. 

(written by Mr. Ankit Gupta, CEO of WeblinkIndia.net)